Letter Fluency with Brain Breaks

I love Brain Breaks!  

We use several throughout the day and it keeps my students energized and focused.  I decided to combine our concepts with brain breaks in a PowerPoint.  This way students will drill and practice their concepts and have a short 10-20 second brain break in between.  My students love this and it really keeps them motivated to drill those letters and sight words.

Check out the video demonstration.

The PowerPoint is editable so you can move the slides around to keep your students guessing what is coming next.  You can also edit the timing of the slides if you would like to give your students more time or less.  There is a slide for each Uppercase and Lowercase letter.

There are 6 fun Brain Breaks that will get your students moving as they learn.  Each Brain Break is paired with a quick song that goes along with the activity.

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RTI Interactive Intervention: Lowercase Letters

Intervention are essential to helping your students become proficient in fundamental skills for reading and math.  As you assess your students and gather data you find some students who need extra support in gaining the skills you taught.  Taking these students in a small group to reteach the concept allows students to get individualized and intense support.

The Interactive Intervention packet (Lowercase Letters) includes activities and interventions that help students become confident and help keep them engaged. These are activities I use in my small group that have helped my students master their lowercase letters and sounds.

My favorite activity is the Cover Up Cards.  Students each get a card with letters on them.  You can choose a red or blue card.  The red card focuses on the first 13 letters (a-m) and the blue cards focus on the last 13 letters (n-z).  There are also blank cards that you can write the letters your students need to work on.

There are some different ways to play with the Cover Up Cards.  I like to use magnetic chips because the students love them, but you can use small erasers or even pennies.  You call out a letter and students cover up that letter on their card.

Lotto Cards are another quick and easy way to get your students to learn their letters.  Flip over an alphabet flashcard and have your students place a marker on the matching letter.  I print each sheet on a different color, which help me keep those cards together.  The entire sheet assess all 26 letters.  Students love trying to get their card filled up first!

                                    

Matching letters with manipulatives you have in the room is a great way to reinforce letter recognition.  I have included several examples in the picture below (magnetic letters, bottle caps, letter beads)  This can be an independent center as well.  See if your students can name all the blue letters.  Another fun way to asses your students.

                                            

The Staircase Game is a new favorite of mine.  Place your flashcards on the staircase and choose a token to play with.  See my little red bear.  He is climbing the staircase.  Start at the bottom and move up the staircase each time you say the letter correctly until you get to the top.

                                         

Fluency Strips is a fun way to help students say those letters name accurately and quickly.  Great to use if you assess LNF (letter name fluency).  Students spin or roll the dice to select a character.  Then they say the letters next to that character as fast as they can.  

                            

There are fun Flashcards with the Superhero and Princess theme.  Lots of fun ideas and games, including POW!.  A fun game where students identify the letters, but when they get a POW! card  all the letters they have are put back in the pile.

There are independent worksheets for that focus on the lowercase letter.  Sequencing and visual discrimination help students practice those skills you taught in their small group.

There are several letter assessments to use so you and your students can monitor their progress. Students can see visually how well they are learning their letters.  

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YouTube in the Classroom: Alphabet Songs

You may be able to use YouTube in your classroom.  If so, it can be a great resource.  It can be a hit or miss, but I have found several channels and videos that have really helped my students.  "Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start."  Here are my top ten videos for the ABCs!  Did I leave out your favorite?  Comment below and share.

1. Have Fun Teaching:  A video for each letter and this ABC video.

2. Learning My Letters

3. Classic: Who Let the Letters Out?

4. Another Throwback: Apple, Apple, a, a, a

5. What do the letters say?

5. Alphabet Signs

6.  Choo Choo Soul- Alphabet

7. Usher- Alphabet

8.  ABC Rocks

9. Peppa Pig Alphabet

10. Story Bots: One for each letter

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Boom Songs

Click on the picture for a copy of these songs!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Song
Sung to"The Ant's Go Marching"
written by Jeana Beasley

A told B then B told C (Chicka, Chicka)

C told D and E and F (Chicka, Chicka)

I'll meet you at the top of the tree

Tell the other letters for me

And they all went climbing 

Up the tree (Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom)

F told G then G told H (Chicka, Chicka)

H told I and J and K (Chicka, Chicka)

I'll meet you at the top of the tree

Tell the other letters for me

And they all went climbing 

Up the tree (Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom)

K told L then L told M (Chicka Chicka)

M told N then O then P  (Chicka Chicka)

I'll meet you at the top of the tree

Tell the other letters for me

And they all went climbing 

Up the tree (Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom)

P told Q then Q told R (Chicka Chicka)

R told S then T then U (Chicka Chicka)

I'll meet you at the top of the tree

Tell the other letters for me

And they all went climbing 

Up the tree (Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom)

U told V then V told W (Chicka Chicka)

W told X then Y then Z (Chicka Chicka)

Oh no, what can it be?

There's not enough room in the coconut tree

And they all fell down 

Out of the tree (Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom)

Out of the tree (Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom)


Dare Double Dare  Sung to "Skip to my Lou"
written by Jeana Beasley

Dare double dare you can't catch me
Dare double dare you can't catch me
Dare double dare you can't catch me
I'll beat you to the top of the coconut tree

A B C D E F G 

H I J K L M N O P

Q R S T U and V

W  X  Y and Z

Teaching Ideas:

1. Think of different ways to move: march to the beat, jump, skip, gallop

2. Play a version of Duck Duck Goose.  The child (IT) goes around the circle on the ABC part and on the letter Z whoever he touches on the head must try to tag him before the first child (IT) sits in the child's spot.  The group sings Dare double dare while they chase each other.

3. Have the children guess which letter you are chasing.  This letter says the "t" sound and starts words like "Tiger" and "Top".  Children could be holding different letters and whoever has the letter has been caught and must turn in their letter.  Another variation is to match the lowercase letter with the Uppercase letter.  Whoever has the letter that matches has been caught.  

Boom Chicka Boom

I said a boom chicka boom (I said a boom chicka boom)

I said a boom chicka boom (I said a boom chicka boom)

I said a boom chicka rocka, chicka rocka, chicak boom

(I said a boom chicka rocka, chicka rocka, chicak boom)

Oh Yeah (Oh Yeah) (Monster style)

Repeat using a monster voice

Other voices to try: Princess, Country, Opera, 

Mermaid style (hold nose), Baby style (whining), Librarian style (whisper)

Look who's coming!

written by Jeana Beasley

Chicka Chicka (shake hands) Boom Boom (pat lap)

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Will there be (hands up) enough room? (pat lap)

Will there be enough room?

Look who's coming it's __A__?

   A, A,   A, A,  A,  A   Rhythm below 

Substitute different letters saying letter name or sound.

Other Resources:
The Virtual Vine
DLTK'S Printables and Crafts
Old Mother  Hubbard

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