Most of these have been posted before, but I thought it might be helpful to have them all together in one place!
As long as your kids are at least 4 years old, I highly recommend teaching letter recognition and phonics together... it leads to a lot less confusion down the road. (a good way to differentiate between the two: name? "A" sound? (tap your ear) "aaaa"
When I teach new vocab, I usually include the written version of the word, and point out to children the beginning letter sounds.... with regular reinforcment like this and practice throughout the year, even kids as young as four should be able to sound out basic simple words after 9 or 10 months
For letter recognition:
www.starfall.com #1: ABC's
http://youtu.be/7XYQd_sJVzkhttp://www.sesamestreet.org/video_player/-/pgpv/videoplayer/0/c898cd8b-155a-11dd-a62f-919b98326687/circus_alphabethttp://www.sesamestreet.org/video_player/-/pgpv/videoplayer/0/ddfd43ed-155c-11dd-a62f-919b98326687/a_at_the_beach ..great playlist of a silly guy dancing in a letter costume... i pause it so they can identify the letter first at more advanced levels.
For other great videos for specific "letter days" check out
http://www.sesamestreet.org/browseallvideos?p_p_id=browsegpv_WAR_browsegpvportlet&p_p_lifecycle=1&p_p_state=normal&p_p_mode=view&p_p_col_id=column-2&p_p_col_count=1&_browsegpv_WAR_browsegpvportlet_elementType=subject&_browsegpv_WAR_browsegpvportlet_subject=Alphabet+%2F+Letters ...just be careful you don't pick anything with too much talking or the kids will get really confused/bored. "C is for cookie" and "B is for Bubble" are some kids pleasers.
For lowercase letter recognition:
http://youtu.be/vW4yEFa8TCg ( during the parts with lots of word, I ask questions about the elephant like "how many eyes do you see?")
A GREAT game that will have the kids rolling on the floor laughing:
http://pbskids.org/lions/games/ (scroll down and click on the watermelon)
video:
http://youtu.be/CTqCVJW2qOw FOR PHONICS:
www.starfall.com both #1 and #2, and don't miss the word machine under "more starfall!"
http://youtu.be/QW7N64zsrs0 *have the children help youmake up motions to go with each letter
www.supersimpleabcs.com has both videos and games
http://youtu.be/s2iUQH7WrRI similar to the last, but includes letter names and sign language
FILLER GAMES:
*teacher pulls up ms paint and fills in the background with a random, bright color. children try to name the color. teacher then draws a letter and kids try to guess what it is. Children guess letter sounds, then teacher prompts the children to think of as many words as they can that start with that sound while teacher keeps score (kids of age 6 or 7, split into teams... with younger kids make it a group effort.). you may have to give them a word to start... (look puzzled and repeat the sound, "buh buh," then look excited and say "book!" then.. "buh" " buh" and wait for kids to fill in next word.) As long as you stay enthusiastic, the kids will get really into this!
*teacher shows a picture of something with a simple spelling (like "cat") and kids try to guess how its spelled as teacher sounds out the word. for younger children, give them two or three letters to choose from, and they have to pick the one that matches the sound.
ths!
