Some children are kinesthetic learners -- they learn best through motions. Pairing each letter and sound with a motion can help such students cement their learning. Patricia Cunningham, a professor of education at Wake Forest University, suggests creating an action for each letter sound, for example, jump for the letter "j." Students can take part in creating these actions, or you can select a curriculum that incorporates motions with each letter. Practice these actions briefly every day. You will see many students recalling these actions as they think of the sounds for each letter.
Connecting each letter sound with a word that begins with that sound is an effective strategy. Many curricula have a specific animal or character for each letter of the alphabet that children memorize as they are learning the letters. This provides an anchor word for them to link to the letter sound. Cunningham suggests using food that begins with each sound to give students a multisensory anchor. For example, apples can represent the letter "a," bananas the letter "b" and carrots the letter "c." Choose words that begin with the sound you want students to learn for that letter. For example, most children learn short vowel sounds before long vowel sounds, so the anchor word for the letter "i" should be igloo instead of ice.
An excellent strategy for teaching kindergarteners letter sounds is using the child’s own name as well as names of other students in the class. Children this age are naturally egocentric and are highly interested in topics that relate to themselves and their friends. They are motivated to learn to read and write the names of their friends and will pay close attention when these names are used as teaching tools. Cunningham gives a variety of suggestions for incorporating names into instruction in her book "Phonics They Use." When studying the sounds letters make, call attention to names that have that letter in them. For example, “Listen to the sound the 'n' makes in Noah’s name.” Display names prominently on a name chart or word wall in the classroom and refer to it often. Games and rhymes using names are also good ways to draw attention to the sounds that letters make.
Writing together provides an excellent opportunity to point out letter sounds in a meaningful way. Kindergarteners need to know the letter sounds, but they also need to know how to use these sounds in reading and writing. Writing together about classroom experiences or using charts that give each child a voice is an effective way to grab student interest and draw attention to sounds of letters. As you write words for them, model listening for sounds and matching those sounds with a letter. For example, “Let’s listen to the sounds in the word bug…/b/…/u/…/g/. What letter makes the /b/ sound?” Students will see the sounds paired with letters at the same time they are learning how sounds go together to make words.