Preschool Letter J

Last week we focused on Preschool Letter J. Over three days, we explored the letter through beginning sound activities, letter formation, play dough, dot painting, early reading and a simple alphabet craft. We also continued working on numbers, with the number 2 as our focus for the week.

I tried to include a mixture of familiar activities and new challenges throughout the week. Filip usually feels more confident when we begin with something he recognizes, so we returned to several of the hands on resources we had used for our previous preschool letters. From there, we gradually moved into sound identification, letter formation and simple CVC word work.

Day 1: Introducing Letter J and Number 2

We began our Preschool Letter J activities with our (TpT) Beginning Sounds Scoops (K-R link here). I like beginning with an activity that encourages Filip to listen carefully to words before we start writing the new letter.

I turned the scoops and cone face down, and Filip turned over each of the three scoops one at a time. He named the picture, identified its beginning sound and then checked his answer by turning over the cone. Yep, he was right. They all began with the J sound! It was a simple and playful way to introduce our focus letter and help him connect its shape with its sound.

As with our previous preschool letters, we then used our (TpT) Alphabet Play Dough Mats (K-R link here). Before asking Filip to write the letter, I encouraged him to finger trace it several times. This gave him an opportunity to become familiar with the path of motion for uppercase and lowercase J without needing to control a pencil or marker at the same time.

Once he could follow the path confidently with his finger, Filip used a whiteboard marker to trace uppercase and lowercase J. Working in this order helped him concentrate on forming the letter correctly rather than rushing through the tracing.

Next, we worked on recognizing the letter J among other letters. Filip completed an uppercase and lowercase letter recognition sheet from my (TpT) Letter Find unit (K-R link here). He loves using dot paints for these worksheets, so this never feels like ordinary letter practice to him.

Once he had found all the letters, we counted the uppercase letters and recorded the number in the circle provided. We then did the same with the lowercase letters. He always gets a kick out of seeing which letter wins. This time it was a tie, much to my little man’s dismay! The counting made the activity even more interesting for him and allowed us to include a little math practice at the same time. Click on the picture to get Letter J.

After recognizing the shape of the letter, we returned to its sound. Filip used this page from my (TpT) Beginning Sounds Color It unit (K-R link here). He looked at each picture, said its name and listened for the beginning sound before deciding whether it belonged on the letter J page. Click on the picture to get Letter J.

We then moved on to our focus number for the week, which was 2. Once again, we used our Number Play Dough Mats to help Filip learn the path of motion for writing the number.

He actually makes car sounds as he forms the numbers. He never does this for the letters, but he always does it for the numbers! I found it interesting to watch him turn number formation into his own little driving activity. Whatever helps him remember the path!

Once he was confident forming the number with his finger, Filip used a whiteboard marker to write it. He also colored the dots on the ten frame. This helped connect the written numeral 2 with a quantity of two, rather than practicing the numeral as an isolated shape.

Filip also completed a number matching cut and paste worksheet. He matched the different representations of each number before gluing them into place. Cutting and pasting gave him some extra fine motor practice, and of course, I helped him color it in! Click on the picture to get the free unit from my TpT store.

We finished our first day with a number puzzle. We had just moved into aour new house and did not have our number posters displayed yet. You can get the number posters from my TpT store.

Not having the posters nearby posed a bit of a problem for Filip because he could not simply look up and copy the number sequence. Instead, he had to rely on what he already knew about number order to place the puzzle strips correctly. It made the activity more challenging than I had planned, but it also gave me a useful opportunity to see which parts of the number sequence he could recall independently. Click on the picture to download the free resource from my K-R store.

Day 2: Play Dough, Letter J Mini Book and Number Work

We started Day 2 of our Preschool Letter J activities by returning to the (TpT) Letter J Play Dough Mats (K-R link here). Repeating the letter formation activity gave Filip another opportunity to remember the correct path, but this time we changed the material and used play dough.

He rolled the play dough into long ropes and placed them along the uppercase and lowercase letters. Forming the curves with play dough slowed the process down and encouraged him to look carefully at the shape of each letter. It was also a lovely hands on activity for strengthening his fingers.

Filip then worked on this (TpT) Letter J foldable activity mini book (K-R link here). He always enjoyed having a little book of his own to complete, and the different pages allowed us to revisit the same letter in several ways. Click on the pictures to get Letter J.

First, he traced uppercase and lowercase J. This gave him another short opportunity to practice the letter formation we had introduced on Day 1. Next, he colored the pictures that began with J. As he worked, we named the pictures together and emphasized the beginning sound. This kept the focus on listening as well as coloring. He also dot painted uppercase and lowercase J. By this point, the letter shape was becoming quite familiar, but using the dot paints kept the repeated practice enjoyable.

After working with the letter on its own, we began using it in simple words. Filip used our (TpT) CVC Word Sliders (K-R link here) to practice reading words that began with J. He moved the slider slowly and blended the sounds together to read each word. Click on the picture to get the Letter J word sliders.

We then moved on to our number of the week and used play dough to form 2 on the (TpT) Number Play Dough Mat (K-R link here). Returning to the number on a second day helped reinforce its formation, while the play dough made the activity feel different from the marker work we had completed the day before.

Filip also completed a (TpT) Number 2 maze (K-R link here) using dot paints. He followed the path of number 2s through the page, which required him to recognize the focus number among the other numerals. The dot paints were a fun way to mark the path without needing to color each space. Click on the picture to get the Number 2 maze.

We followed the maze with (TpT) a Number 2 worksheet for preschoolers (K-R link here). This gave Filip practice recognizing the numeral, working with a quantity of two and completing several simple number tasks on one page.

We finished Day 2 with our Number 2 flip book from my (TpT) Numbers Flip Book unit. I cut out the booklet pieces first so they were ready for us to assemble. Filip and I then assembled the flip book together. Once it was finished, we had lots of fun turning the pages, reading and counting the different groups. It was a nice way to end the day because he had something small and complete that we could read together.

Day 3: Sand Writing, CVC Words and a Letter J Craft

We started Day 3 with some sand tray letter formation practice. By now, Filip had already formed J with his finger, a marker and play dough. Writing it in sand gave him one more way to experience the movement of the letter.

He used his finger to make uppercase and lowercase J in the tray, then smoothed the sand and tried again. The sand provided a little resistance as he moved his finger, and any mistakes could be quickly erased without fuss. This made it a relaxed way to practice before moving into our word work.

We also did some (TpT) CVC word building (K-R link here). This activity moved beyond recognizing the J sound at the beginning of a word and encouraged Filip to listen for every sound in the word. Click on the pictures to get the Letter J cards.

Before placing the letter tiles on the cards, I asked Filip to point to each empty box and tell me the sound that belonged there. We said the word slowly and listened for the beginning, middle and ending sounds. Here he is sounding out the word “jet.”

Once he had identified the sounds, he placed the letter tiles in the correct boxes. He then pointed to the letters, blended the sounds and read the completed word. Breaking the task into these small steps helped him understand that the spoken word could be separated into sounds and then built again with letters.

Here are the four Letter J words we practiced during the week. Keeping the number of words small gave us time to sound out each one carefully rather than rushing through a large set.

Filip then completed a (TpT) CVC words cut and paste activity page. After the hands on word building, the worksheet gave him an opportunity to use the same skills in a different format. He looked at each picture, sounded out the word and selected the letters he needed.

We finished our (TpT) Preschool Letter J week with our alphabet craft, which was always a favorite. This week, Filip made an uppercase J jellyfish and a lowercase j jack in the box. The craft was a cheerful way to bring our letter work to an end, while giving him one final visual reminder of the letter and its sound. Click on the picture to get the Letter J templates.

And there you have it, Preschool Letter J all done! Looking back over the three days, we fitted in quite a variety of activities without spending too long on any one task. Filip practiced recognizing uppercase and lowercase J, listening for its sound, forming the letter in several ways and using it to build and read simple words. He also practiced recognizing, forming and counting the number 2.

I enjoyed watching the familiar routines help him approach the new letter with confidence. The play dough, dot paints, sand tray and craft kept the week hands on, while the mini book, word sliders and CVC cards allowed us to gradually introduce more focused reading skills. Most of all, the little moments along the way, including the number car sounds and the great letter counting competition, made the week feel like ours.

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I’ve included links throughout this post so you can easily get the complete resource from my Kinder-Resources store. You can also find it on my Teachers Pay Teachers store if you prefer.

Happy Teaching!

View Other Preschool Letters