Lessons by Molly: Letter Case Awareness

When I taught alphabet recognition, I introduced both the uppercase letter and the lowercase letter within the same week. I gave equal exposure to both the capital letter and the small letter. But when I assessed students' letter recognition, there was a discrepancy in terms of letter case. In most instances, the uppercase letters were recognized more frequently than the lowercase letters.

Researchers have suggested that children more readily learn uppercase letters because they are made of simpler lines and curves than lowercase letters. The fact that all capital letters are uniform in height and position on lined paper may cause them to be more Brain Pleasing than their lowercase counterparts. Visualize the positions of the lowercase "b", "c", "g", and "t" on lined paper. No uniformity!

Environmental print that surrounds children also seems to give preferential treatment to capital letters. Children are exposed to words (in all caps) on a store front as well as road signs (that have every letter capitalized) long before their first day of kindergarten. One example of this are the letters on a "STOP" sign.

I taught uppercase letters along with their lowercase partners at the same time. It wasn't just a matter of believing that the pairs should be taught together. It was also a matter of time. If you are teaching one letter a week, it's going to take 26 weeks to teach the whole alphabet. A teacher that begins letter recognition (one letter per week) on Monday, September 3, 2018 will not have introduced all the letters until Friday, March 15, 2019. That's allowing two weeks off for holidays and no weeks off for snow days or for a review week.

I've created a set of alphabet games with an emphasis on letter case awareness. There are 26 alphabet games included in the product.

Letter case awareness is a skill that kindergarten children develop as they learn the letters of the alphabet. These games will help students discriminate between the uppercase and lowercase letters. There are 26 black and white game boards and 26 color game boards. Five unique sets of game cards are included allowing you to differentiate. This product is ideal for kindergarten literacy centers when students are working in pairs.

Students are paired with a classmate. The two players put their game markers on the start arrow and take turns withdrawing game cards. The game cards direct players to spots on the game board. The final destination is the last spot on the game board. Whomever is the first one to reach the final spot becomes the winner of the game.

Each game focuses on just one letter of the alphabet. Both black and white and color versions of the game boards are included.

The black and white games can be printed on colored cardstock paper. The color games can be printed on white cardstock paper.

Uppercase and lowercase letters are printed on the spaces of the game boards.

Pictures of something beginning with the focused letter are also positioned on the spaces of the game boards.

There are five different game cards included in the file allowing you to differentiate according to your instructional needs. Two of the game cards are "Universal". The universal game cards can be used with any of the 26 letter games.

Universal game cards are a huge time saver! They can be used over and over again regardless of which letter game is used during the week.

Another group of game cards have words printed on the cards. The first letter of a word is underlined in red. (This is already done for you! You need a printer with color ink.) Students must attend to the first letter of the word and determine whether it is a capital or small letter. They then move to the appropriate space on the game board. There is a unique set of game cards for every letter of the alphabet.

A fourth group of game cards displays letter pairs with either the uppercase or lowercase letter highlighted. (Yes! It's already highlighted for you. You need a printer with color ink.) There is a set of game cards for the whole alphabet.