For ES 3年/4年 Let's Try Lesson 6 on Letters
For ES 1年/2年 in case your HRTs want to teach the Alphabet early (my HRT requested this so that it coincided with their Romaji lessons)
Phonics Song Youtube Links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChqnN3cKzXQ - to memorize the letter name, letter sound, example word per letter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAXyskFDYXw - to specifically go over each letter sound, focusing on the mouth shape
I used Tora the Teacher's version. This song lets students say the Letter Name, Letter Sound (dominant sound only), and Example Word.
While saying the sound, students stand up and use their hands to make the Letter Shape, make a gesture around their mouth about the Letter Sound, and make a gesture to represent the Example Word.
(I personally prefer this to the previous version used in my schools, the Pinkfong Phonics song, which, while very genki, introduces too many English words and confuses students with the different sounds used in 1 letter, and is over-all not effective in memorizing the letter sound.)
This Tora the Teacher version is still a bit long, but if regularly used in class, saying the sounds and acting out the words, it helps students remember the phonics later on when trying to read words.
You can use this as a warm-up song all-year round too, for your weekly English classes in ES.
Files:
Using the same example word per letter from the Tora the Teacher Phonics Song version,
- English Alphabet Poster - you can print and laminate 1 copy per student (or print a huge version for the classroom)
- English Alphabet Flashcards - you can print and laminate 1 letter per A4 paper.
For practicing writing of letters, with correct stroke order:
- Alphabet Tracing Poster - you can print and laminate 1 copy per student, which they can use as reference anytime they forget how to write the letter
- Alphabet Tracing Worksheets - can be given as homework for students, or print copies as a filler activity when advanced kids are done with a task, while waiting for other students to finish.
For practicing letter recognition:
- Find the Letters - my 2年 HRT asked for an easy activity, so we used this worksheet.
Teacher will call out 1 letter at a time, and aid the students by showing the letter flashcard. Ex. A - students have to find all the A's in the worksheet and encircle it.
Teacher can assign a color to use to encircle the correct letter. Ex. A - red, B - orange, etc. You can also ask them to count how many letter A's, to practice English counting.
(My HRT only wanted to allot 2 class periods for this, so I had to condense all 13 letters in 1 worksheet. Then a 2nd worksheet for the next half. This can still be broken down into fewer letters per worksheet, if you have more time in your classes.)