The Letter N
Alphabet Games
The letter N is smack dab in the middle of the ABCs. It’s one of those letters that gets mushed together when kids sing the alphabet song, we can call it the lmnop lump. Help N stand out for your students by linking the letter with words and things they know, like a nest, a net for basketball or soccer, or that expression that comes out when they make a good play or draw a spectacular picture, “Nice!” Writing uppercase N can be a little tricky. It can be harder than it seems to slant the middle line from left to right, but with practice, your students will learn. If they’re having trouble, let them practice with three-lined paper. A sample letter with directional arrows will help them keep their lines in line! As students begin to read, help them with phonemic awareness by studying words that have the letter N in different positions within the word. Look at “new”, “no”, and “not” and then at “win”, “den”, and “fun”. When they’ve mastered initial and final positions, you can move on to familiar combinations like “-ing” in “singing” and “flying” or “-nk” in “ink”, “drink”, or “think”. There’s lots to learn with the letter N!
