Letter People Curriculum

[Janet Sue]

Hi Kindergarten Teachers,

I am a 4 year old preschool teacher that will be using "The Letter People" curriculum in my classroom. Does anyone currently use it in their kindergarten classroom? I am looking for ideas and craft projects to go along with each letter. Any and all suggestions will be appreciated!

THANKS!!

[Tbug]

Hi Janet Sue! I use the letter people program in my K class. The kids love the letter people and some think that they are real! I try to incorporate an art's and crafts project with some of the letters but it's hard to fit it in with our busy day! Here are some ideas that I've used in the past:
Mr. M- write "I like to munch ______" on a paper plate and kids paste food pics from newspaper/mags that they like to eat
Ms. V- make a vest out of a brown paper bag and decorate
Ms. P- make pizza
Mr. Z- create a zoo on paper/with blocks
Ms. R- create rainbow on paper plate cut in half, cotton for clouds
Ms. U- kids color premade umbrella (and write u words on handle)
Ms. T- Decorate toothbrush
Mr. B- pattern with buttons
For the K curriculum, some of the books are not very good and don't have anything to do with the letter. So, I try to link a craft or writing activity with a word that begins with that letter.
At the end of the year, when we have all the letter people, we hold a Q and U wedding. The kids love this and remember it for a long time!
The more you can hype up the letter people and play into the idea that they are real, the more they will look forward to each one arriving at school.
I put the letter person in the office Monday morning, and when my helpers bring the attendance to the secretary, they get so excited about who it's going to be. They collect the LP from the office and bring him/her into the classroom. I really make a big deal about the new LP coming into our classroom and pretend to talk to him/her.
When we've all settled down into our circle, we discuss the sound, capital/lowercase formation, LP's name, words that start with that letter " Oh, Ms. G loves green gum. What else do you think she likes?" I also let the kids try to guess what kind of transportation the LP arrived on (Mr. M arrived on a motorcycle). It takes them a while to catch on and you may need to get your dictionary out!

Let me know if you have any other questions! I love the letter people but you really do need to add your own stuff to the curriculum.

[myKroom]

We wrote letters to our letter people (especially the "sick" ones)! If the letters deflated we explained that they were sick and they went away back to the letter people hospital (because only letter people doctors can help letter people)! We would write them letters while they were there introducing ourselves!! They loved it and totally believed it!!

S-we wore crazy socks
B-we counted the number of buttons the class was wearing
-we had a bear day where the kids brought in their bears
T-we charted how many teeth we had lost
D-we made a dinosaur museum (find some dinosaur pictures that the kids can color, cut out, and glue into their museum-then we labeled each dinosaur) Talk about GOOD handwriting practice!!! I used about 5 pictures.
Z-cut out animal pics from magazines (National Geograpic is really good) and have them make a zoo! We made a class book out of the pages. Each page said "_________went to the zoo and saw a ________!"

That's all I can think of right now!! I'll try to remember more...we are not using letter people this year!

[Kindtchr]

I found some old letter people in my classroom when I started teaching at my school 25 years ago! I used them to supplement my program. We did a craft for each consonant sound. I used to take the letter people out & play the record album. I would display the LP but they haven't been able to be inflated for a long time. I stopped using them a few years ago because I didn't have time to fit them in any more. I remember cutting green yarn to glue onto a picture of Mr. H for his horrible hair. All the consonants were male, the vowels female- have they changed?

[Tbug]

yes, they have changed. It is not as gender baised and not as negative (Mr. H is happy hair, no more horrible hair!) The songs are still very corny and the books are not great. The kids do love them! We also had some 'sick' letter people. I love the idea of writing to them when they are away! Thanks myKroom! And I love the dino museum!
Check this out www.buten.com/bobopolis/letter/
And of course www.abramsandcompany.com/letterpeople_index.cfm

[Tbug]

This is hilarious! It use to be a TV show on PBS! There's a video for each one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z63Y...elated&search=

[Kindtchr]

Thanks for sharing! They still look very similar. I'm glad they have been updated. The video was funny.

[starbucks]

Wow, I used the letter people the first two year I taught kindergarten. I had the older set too and they were very cute. When we changed curriculums I couldn't just throw them away. They have been in my cellar for abour 10 years now. The letter people really made an impression on kids. Our high school kids used to come visit the elementary just to see the letter people. This thread really brought back some memories of my early teaching days. Thanks!

[Spedsarah]

Does anyone have an old Letter People Set that they are not using and would like to sell/get rid of? I'm a first year teacher in need of stuff.

[vannapk]

Originally Posted by Spedsarah

Does anyone have an old Letter People Set that they are not using and would like to sell/get rid of? I'm a first year teacher in need of stuff.

They usually have a lot of Letter People stuff on ebay.