Teaching Aleph-Beis

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Forum -> Chinuch, Education & Schooling

Teaching Aleph-Beis

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amother

Sun, Oct 28 2007, 5:13 pm

Has anyone a good idea how to make the Aleph Beis more intresting for my 5 year old son to read.Because in school he is just not intrested.

gryp

Sun, Oct 28 2007, 6:51 pm

What types of things is he interested in?

rachel19977

Mon, Oct 29 2007, 4:01 pm

Good question. Did you try sweets?

I have a 3 year old that stared Cheder and they are teaching him Aleph Biet there. The Melamed (Male Rabbi Teacher) that takes each kid to the side during meal time, keeps on sending notes home that we need to practice with him, he isn't seeming to catch on to the letters after Beit (s).

Sorry for invading on your topic, but I was wondering if all three year olds catch on this quick? The 4 & 5 year old in my son's cheder are already almost reading!

MrsS

Mon, Oct 29 2007, 5:07 pm

He is intrested every day in something else(once in car once in picture books...).And sweets I dont think would work in his age.

gryp

Mon, Oct 29 2007, 7:49 pm

With kids that age, it's all in the presentation. If it's presented as fun, exciting, and special, it will be fun, exciting, and special. If it's presented as boring work, it will be boring work.

Make it fun. You don't need to bribe or convince kids to do something fun. Wink

shayna82

Mon, Oct 29 2007, 8:01 pm

with my boys (age 4 and almost 2 1/2) I recently started to teach them all the letters. some they knew anyway, but we started from the beginning.

first thing I did was print out two letters at a time, nice large size and taped them to different objects around the living room dining room. then we play a game, go touch a beis, who can find me two alephs... so they really like tht, and ive been adding more, we are now up to hey/vav.

then, at the same time everyday= more or less, they both sit down and work on aleph beis work sheets, its cute, they actually ask to do worksheets. its a simple, "color only the alephs" type thing, a seperate one for each letter.

so my 4 year old sits and does it on his own, and I sit across from him with my other son. they enjoy it, cuz tehy get to use pens, and I make a big deal when I "check" the page. then, some times I say, whoever finds all the "heys" gets three chocolate chips.

in the morning, when my oldest is at school, I sit with my younger one and when we are done davening, we sing the aleph beis while he is pointing at each letter in his siddur, then we do aleph beis flashcards, simple= whats this one, whats this one. he gets excited that he knows them, and he feels like a big boy.

sorry for rambling, I hope you can get some ideas

greenfire

Mon, Oct 29 2007, 8:09 pm

buy an aleph bais puzzle and have FUN playing ... buy a cute tape ... stuff like that ...

gryp

Mon, Oct 29 2007, 8:11 pm

Those are great ideas, shayna!

gryp

Mon, Oct 29 2007, 8:15 pm

Btw, you can also hang up an Alef on one side of the room and a Beis on the other and simply say: Run to the Alef.... Run to the Beis... etc.

I cut out a letter for my 2 year old and just letting him color it with a (only yellow, LOL) marker is exciting enough for him.

MahPitom

Mon, Oct 29 2007, 8:19 pm

Aleph bais magnets worked for us. We kept in the fridge and the kids always arranged words, messages for me – in a nonchalant way. So they kinda didn’t realize they were spelling and learning while playing around.

Now that they’re older, I have a magnetic magna doodle on the fridge and they practice script writing, etc.

shayna82

Mon, Oct 29 2007, 8:21 pm

gr thats a good idea. I think im gonna do that for kaf and chuf, pey and phey...

for beis and ves, we sing "beis has a dot, veis does not"

Mommy3.5

Mon, Oct 29 2007, 8:41 pm

repetition. Buy a book like goodnight my friend Alef. And read it everyday and point to the letters as you read it.

pink car

Tue, Oct 30 2007, 7:18 pm

Good night my friend aleph is a good book and exposure to the letters all the time,

how about teaching him the first letter of his name and then do the rest of the family, like this he associates the letters with something...

I did that with my son and it worked great (mem is for mommy...)

another trick, sing the aleph beis song during the day, I sing it for example every night, while he brushes his teeth...and then I go thru all the families names and what letters they start with...

amother

Tue, Oct 30 2007, 10:46 pm

My boys learned in nursery, one at a time, with a middah for each letter. they learned, but didn't love it. This year in P1-A the Rebbe is going through the letters for review - about 4-5 a week, but he makes them into games. For Kaf and Chaf, he did "candy" (like one winkie) in the middle for the dot and then eat it and it's a chaf. They walked around the room making that gutteral chaf sound -- they'll never forget which one doesn't have the "candy" inside.

for Pay they made a popcorn party and put the popcorn inside the letter, then when it "fell" out it was a "fay"

Those are the ones I remember from what they've told me. they also do the kinisthetic learning of the nekudos so they are making the shape of the nekuda with their fingers on their mouth when they make the sound. Sorry, I can't seem to describe it very well.

Basically, I'm in complete awe of their Rebbe and how enjoyable he makes learning for them.

Imaonwheels

Thu, Nov 01 2007, 3:48 am

What makes learning alef beis fun is when the cheder lives alef beis. This is what all of the best melamdim do. After davening we sing the letters while the melamed points at them on the wall. Then the one on one learning. Sing them again, w/different tune after bentching. During the gulf war the melamed made a page with missiles with letters on it. He told them your alef beis is throwing missiles back at Saddam. (This also helped them be at ease with the daily drills we had to do so they wouldn't close the cheder). Games many times had the letters as a theme.

Practically speaking 5 is somewhat late and that's why it is boring. Children actually learn letters (not reading) better between 3-4. There are 3 parts to letters and 3 skills being learned. They will be absorbed better if learned separately. There is learning the shape of a letter, its sound and (later) its meaning.

As to the series of reading skills it should be broken into recognition, reading and writing. They should not all be done together. Pattern recognition (matching name to shape of the letter) is developed before the physical coordination necessary for writing. A 5 yr old can learn to write and mere letter recognition will be boring for most children if not taught quickly. After a child knows how to print he learns to recognize cursive writing very quickly and mostly by using it. Thisd is because he is slightly older and already knows what constitutes an alef or a beis.

Imaonwheels

Thu, Nov 01 2007, 3:53 am

BTW, most 2 year olds can recognize a shape but to them its like a square or circle. They cannot usually grasp that this symbol represents something. If my kids wanted to copy the letters from the siddur I certainly didn't stop them or denigrate it, but I never actively taught a child reading related skills before their 3rd birthday. Even when one of my kids started gan at 2 1/2 I ordered the melamed not to take him for alef beis until 3.

rachel19977

Thu, Nov 15 2007, 5:32 am

Where can I get worksheets online or in Israel that are fun?

Maybe someone can email me some to print out?

Very good ideas on here. THanks!

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