You might be wondering why my curriculum starts with the letter S instead of A. Today I would like to explain the reasoning behind that.

When I did my student teaching in a Kindergarten class, I noticed that we weren’t teaching the alphabet in order. My advising teacher showed me a paper with the order that they would be teaching it and I learned that there is a more logical and systematic way that introduces letters based on the type of sounds that they make.

Reason and Benefits

This doesn’t mean that you should stop teaching your child the ABC song. It’s still very important for them to know the correct sequence of the alphabet. Most children learn the alphabet letter names in order and there are many resources like songs and books that are available for this purpose. I personally like to take more of a phonics approach, which is what you will find in my curriculum. Research shows that teaching the letter name and sound together make it easier for a child to learn how to read.

We start with the sounds of /m/, /f/, and /s/ because they are easy to stretch and pronounce by themselves. We also introduce vowels early on, because we need them to make words. There are two articles that stood out in my research that explained things really well. One by Reading Rockets that talks a lot about phonemes and the other by Planning with Kids that talks about the process and reasoning behind this particular letter sequence. If you are interested in knowing more, I highly suggest reading them!

It’s also important to teach other letters alongside the one you may be focusing on. My curriculum has a specific letter each month that all of the lessons are built around, but you will also notice activities that involve matching and learning other letters as well. We want your child to constantly and consistently see and get familiar with all the letters.

One more big reason why I like to teach the alphabet out of order, is to actually instill it into the child’s mind. When a child is asked to identify a letter, we want them to really KNOW what the letter is. Some children who have only learned the letters in order will start singing the ABC song to figure out a letter’s identity. Teaching the alphabet in a different order can help a child really learn each letter explicitly and that is our main goal here.

I hope that helped to clear up any confusion you might have had. Please read the linked articles for more information. I’m still so excited to be sharing my lesson plans with you all each month and I hope you continue to have the desire to teach, learn, and play with your children. YOU are your child’s first teacher, so make it memorable.

The picture above shows the order we will be following with this curriculum. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me through email or direct message me on Instagram or Facebook.