Co-Created Class Alphabet & Word Wall

In the past, teachers would put up commercially made alphabets and word walls in their classroom. Research has indicated that when students themselves create the classroom alphabet and word wall, not only do they build upon their phonemic awareness and extend their language development from the process of creating it, but it is also more meaningful to the students. As a result, the students are more likely to refer to the class alphabet and word wall when they are printing and writing.

For the word wall, each student painted one or two pages with watercolour paints. The students then attached a letter and corresponding Jolly Phonics picture cue to each page. Each student then placed his/her name and picture on the word wall based on the beginning letter. Students have a strong connection to their own names and the names of their friends and teachers. By referring to the word wall to find the name of a teacher or friend, the students are building upon their phonemic awareness.

For the class alphabet, each student created the lowercase and capital letter for one or two letters by choosing materials from nature and carefully forming the letter with the materials.