Building the Phonics Drill..

This simple daily routine will help your child learn and retain letter names and sounds in a consistent and meaningful way. Learning happens best when it is consistent.

Start Your Day with the ABCs

• Begin each day by singing the ABC song together

• Repeat again, but this time say the letters instead of singing

• Use a simple pointer—like a wooden spoon—and point to each letter as you say it

• As your child becomes more comfortable, try saying the letters backwards to break up the routine and help them learn the letters out of order

Introduce the Vowels

• Vowels are very important—every word and every syllable must have a vowel

• Point to the vowels and say them together:
  A, E, I, O, U… and sometimes Y

• “These are the vowels… these are the vowels—everything else is a consonant!”

Add the Sounds

• As you begin creating your puppets, you are also building your child’s phonics drill

• Each puppet represents a letter sound

• As you make them, begin adding that sound into your daily routine

• These simple sound patterns help children connect letters to sounds in a natural and meaningful way

  👉 You can introduce sounds like:

  ○ ah ah ah for Alligator Ann
  ○ A A A for Amy Ape
  ○ buh buh buh for Bobby Bear
  ○ cuh cuh cuh for Camel Cal
  ○ kuh kuh kuh for Katy Kangaroo

Incorporating Phonics Charts

• Begin with the color words—these can be introduced very early and help children start recognizing words in a meaningful way

• As you create your puppets, think about a helpful order:
  ○ A (vowel—two puppets)
  ○ B
  ○ C & K (together, because they share the same sound)
  ○ E (vowel—two puppets)
  ○ M & N (together)
  ○ O (vowel—two puppets)
  ○ H
  ○ S
  ○ W
  ○ T

• Once you have several of these puppets completed, you are ready to introduce some of the phonics charts for early reading

• Start with “baby words”—short words that end in a vowel

• These phonics charts will be available as free downloads