Unit 5: Getting Ready A-J + Uppercase Letters
Part Two: Learning the Alphabet
Unit 5: Getting Ready A-J + Uppercase Letters (optional, in progress)
Based on UFLI's Getting Ready sequence, this optional bridge unit prepares children for formal phonics instruction. Learners solidify letter names, are introduced to letter sounds, and continue building phonological awareness skills as they explore speech sounds and uppercase letters.
Before You Start Unit 5: A Parent Guide to Sounds and Letters
What this unit is
Unit 5 is optional. It gets your child ready for formal phonics instruction by introducing how speech sounds are made and how the capital letters are built. You don't need to teach any of it like a school lesson. It helps most when you understand the basics yourself, so you can step in when a sound gets tricky.
Sounds and letters are different things
A letter is what we see. A sound is what we hear. Slashes mean the sound, not the letter name. The letter M gives us /m/, the sound at the start of "mouse."
Three quick checks for any sound
- Does your voice buzz? Put a hand on your throat and say /m/, then /s/. The /m/ buzzes, so it is voiced. The /s/ doesn't, so it is unvoiced. Many sounds come in pairs that differ only in the buzz, like /p/ and /b/, /t/ and /d/, /f/ and /v/.
- Can you hold it? Some sounds stretch out, like /mmm/ and /sss/. Others stop right away, like /t/ and /p/.
- Does air come out of your nose? Hold your nose and say /n/. The sound stops, because it needs the nose. Try /m/ too.
Where in your mouth a sound is made
Sit in front of a mirror together and notice what moves.
- Lips together: /p/, /b/, /m/
- Top teeth on bottom lip: /f/, /v/
- Tongue poking between the teeth: the two "th" sounds (one buzzes, as in "this," and one doesn't, as in "thumb")
- Tongue tip behind the top teeth: /t/, /d/, /n/, /s/, /z/, /l/
- Lips rounded with the tongue pulled back: /sh/, /zh/, /ch/, /j/
- Back of the tongue lifted to the roof of the mouth: /k/, /g/, and the "ng" at the end of "ring"
- Back of the throat: /h/
A few sounds, like /w/, /y/ and /r/, sit between places and get sorted differently from one source to another. Don't worry about where they go.
How the air moves
You don't need to teach these names. They help when your child mixes up two sounds. If they say /t/ for /d/, try, "Put your hand on your throat. Is it buzzing?"
Vowels
Vowel sounds are usually voiced and made with a relatively open mouth. Notice how your mouth shape and tongue position change as you say the vowels in familiar words. Whether the lips, tongue or teeth touch is not a reliable test for deciding if a sound is a vowel.
- Short vowels are the ones in "apple, egg, itch, octopus, up."
- People often call vowel sounds "long" and "short." These are conventional names for different vowel sounds, not instructions to hold a sound longer or tighten your mouth. Compare the vowel in “cap” with the vowel in “cape”.
- The schwa is a very relaxed, unstressed sound in the middle of the vowel chart, like the quiet "uh" at the start of "about." Any vowel letter can spell it.
- Some vowel sounds glide from one position into another, the ones in "coin" and "cow."
- Explore vowels affected by /r/, the ones in "car," "her" and "for."
Saying sounds cleanly
Say each sound by itself without adding "uh" to the end. A stop sound like /t/ should be a short puff of air, not "tuh." If you add the extra vowel, your child will hear "tuh-a-tuh" instead of "tat." Practice on your own first if you need to.
What each lesson covers
How the capital letters are built
Group the letters by shape. Say each letter’s name as you show and form it, then invite your child to say the name or find a matching letter. Sound exploration and handwriting can develop at different rates: do either strand on its own, and use air-writing, tracing or building letters when pencil work is not yet comfortable. Copying and noticing sounds is enough; children do not need to name sound categories or master every sound.
- Straight lines only: L, F, E, H, T, I
- Circles and curves: O, Q, C, G, U, J, S
- Lines with curves: D, P, B, R
- Slanted lines: A, K, M, N, V, W, X, Y, Z
Things to try:
- Draw each letter big in the air with your whole arm before picking up a pencil.
- Trace it with a finger on a table, a wall, the floor or your child's palm.
- Say the strokes out loud while you draw, like "start at the top, straight down."
- Finish with pencils, markers or a whiteboard.
- This unit focuses on uppercase letters. You can keep noticing lowercase letters in names and books without adding a separate lowercase-writing requirement.
Ways to practice any day
- Mirror time: make sounds and watch your mouths.
- Voice check: hand on throat, buzz or no buzz.
- Hold your nose and try /m/, /n/ and /p/.
- Big air-writing of a letter before the pencil.
- Trace letters on different surfaces.
A note about the videos
Each lesson has a video made for kids by Andrea Gardner, M.Ed., of Readers Garden. The Getting Ready videos give a good picture of how to teach these skills, and your child can watch them directly. Watching one yourself first helps you see how to model each sound and letter.
I want to be upfront that I'm not a fan of Andrea's later videos, because they rely heavily on AI-generated images and video. The Getting Ready videos are the exception. If you'd rather skip them, you can teach each lesson using the notes and activities on its page.