The Letter C
The Letter C
“C is for cat.” How many children have learned that sentence when they began learning the letters? Long ago, smart parents and teachers put each letter together with something that fascinates young children, things like animals, toys, food, and heavy machinery. And new alphabet books are being published every year, books that connect to specific interests, or even specific curriculum, and help students learn the alphabet. For reading and word recognition, c appears on early reading word lists and beginning readers in words like cat, cap, come, or call. But the letter C is very often found in consonant blends that are tackled by somewhat older students. As students increase their reading fluency, they encounter words like “chicken”, “clap”, and “each”. Alphabet games will help students learn to identify the letter C. Choosing the right letter to spell a word helps to increase spelling fluency and automaticity. Students in preschool and Kindergarten can play alphabet and spelling games with the letter C and build letter recognition and word recognition while they have fun. As students grow older and work on reading fluency, they can use the spelling games to practice consonant blends. As they use phonics in their decoding, they’ll learn the sounds that C makes. Students will determine whether to use an ‘s’ sound or a ‘k’ sound for a C in a word. They’ll also learn the sounds C makes in consonant blends.
