Alphabet Formation Songs Animated Videos!
This blog is all about our Alphabet Formation Songs Animated videos! Each song shows kids the steps for writing both the capital and lowercase letter, and all of them have beginning sound pictures, too! This collection of videos is an AMAZING tool to use in the classroom, and many teachers have already been using them via internet video on our HeidiSongs Video Streaming Site. But since quite a few people still prefer to use DVDs, we have them available on DVD as well!
Throughout the videos, we refer to the lined paper lines as "Sky, fence, grass, dirt/mud," as you see in the image below. You may remember this method from my blog post Tips for Teaching Kids to Write on Lined Paper, and also on my post, From Pre-Writing Strokes to Letters on Sky, Grass, Dirt Paper! These posts have some free downloads to help with this, but to introduce it, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND the Living Letters program from Educlime.com, and especially their book, Living Letters: A Story About Where Letters Live on the Line. This is how I always introduce the concept of writing letters on the line with this book! But the combination of the book to lay the foundation, the music videos that incorporate full body motions with singing, and practicing on colored paper is WIN!!
Each video begins with a short (about 20 seconds) section that explains how to draw the letter, using the lyrics from the song while drawing the letter. This part can be easily skipped if your kids get restless. Basically, if you select the songs one at a time from the menu, each song will play with it's "how to draw the letter" intro. But, if you chose the "Play All" option, this intro section will be skipped to help your kids stay focused. Each song averages about one and a half minutes long, with the shortest song (Letter E) being 1:01 minutes and the longest 2:00 minutes (Letter X).
I love the way the lines are drawn in the air, just as if the actors were actually making those lines themselves! That was harder to make happen than it looks, so kudos to the my husband who made that magic. :)
The songs include lots of beginning sound references to keep pushing those all important sound associations at the kids. And the graphics are SOOO cute! Most of them were drawn by our wonderful illustrator, Korey Scott, who has done the illustrations for our 1-100 Picture Book, our Counting Creatures, and many of our other products! He's a favorite!
As usual, we have done our best to find an inclusive cast, in hopes that every child will see someone up there that resembles him or herself. My kids ALWAYS want to know the names of each actor. What about yours? LOL!
I used these songs with my TKs (Transitional Kindergartners). They are fun, active, short, and they get the job done: when I am teaching them how to write each letter, we sing them and they do help! BUT my little ones are young enough (not quite five years old!) to really NEED to draw along with those words with a marker or pencil to understand what the songs are for. (Transitional Kindergartners may begin school if their fifth birthday falls between Sept. 2 and Dec. 2., and then must attend regular Kindergarten the following year.)
Here are some videos to give you an idea!!! I LOVE them!
When we review our Letter of The Week on our Focus Wall each morning, we sing the Letter Formation song! You can see the lyrics on the cards with the sky, fence, grass, dirt pictures on them. As you can see in the video below, we sing them first without the letter video and go through the entire chart. (Sometimes we just say them as a poem and draw the letter in the air if I can’t recall the tune in a pinch, LOL!)
After we finish the entire chart, we sing all of our songs from the focus wall WITH the videos! I use them via our HeidiSongs Video Streaming Site, because it is so easy to jump around from subject to subject without having to change a DVD. So we will do our letter, number, and shape of the week songs with the videos, and then do some of the sight words songs videos. And then we are off for the day! :)
This little guy below had been SO frustrated as he tried to draw the letter M. So, I sang the song slowly to help him draw the letter step by step, and then he FINALLY got it! He was so happy! After that, he was able to take it from there.
I hope you will check out these new videos and let me know what you think! :)
Throughout the videos, we refer to the lined paper lines as "Sky, fence, grass, dirt/mud," as you see in the image below. You may remember this method from my blog post Tips for Teaching Kids to Write on Lined Paper, and also on my post, From Pre-Writing Strokes to Letters on Sky, Grass, Dirt Paper! These posts have some free downloads to help with this, but to introduce it, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND the Living Letters program from Educlime.com, and especially their book, Living Letters: A Story About Where Letters Live on the Line. This is how I always introduce the concept of writing letters on the line with this book! But the combination of the book to lay the foundation, the music videos that incorporate full body motions with singing, and practicing on colored paper is WIN!!
Each video begins with a short (about 20 seconds) section that explains how to draw the letter, using the lyrics from the song while drawing the letter. This part can be easily skipped if your kids get restless. Basically, if you select the songs one at a time from the menu, each song will play with it's "how to draw the letter" intro. But, if you chose the "Play All" option, this intro section will be skipped to help your kids stay focused. Each song averages about one and a half minutes long, with the shortest song (Letter E) being 1:01 minutes and the longest 2:00 minutes (Letter X).
I love the way the lines are drawn in the air, just as if the actors were actually making those lines themselves! That was harder to make happen than it looks, so kudos to the my husband who made that magic. :)
The songs include lots of beginning sound references to keep pushing those all important sound associations at the kids. And the graphics are SOOO cute! Most of them were drawn by our wonderful illustrator, Korey Scott, who has done the illustrations for our 1-100 Picture Book, our Counting Creatures, and many of our other products! He's a favorite!
As usual, we have done our best to find an inclusive cast, in hopes that every child will see someone up there that resembles him or herself. My kids ALWAYS want to know the names of each actor. What about yours? LOL!
I used these songs with my TKs (Transitional Kindergartners). They are fun, active, short, and they get the job done: when I am teaching them how to write each letter, we sing them and they do help! BUT my little ones are young enough (not quite five years old!) to really NEED to draw along with those words with a marker or pencil to understand what the songs are for. (Transitional Kindergartners may begin school if their fifth birthday falls between Sept. 2 and Dec. 2., and then must attend regular Kindergarten the following year.)
Here are some videos to give you an idea!!! I LOVE them!
When we review our Letter of The Week on our Focus Wall each morning, we sing the Letter Formation song! You can see the lyrics on the cards with the sky, fence, grass, dirt pictures on them. As you can see in the video below, we sing them first without the letter video and go through the entire chart. (Sometimes we just say them as a poem and draw the letter in the air if I can’t recall the tune in a pinch, LOL!)
After we finish the entire chart, we sing all of our songs from the focus wall WITH the videos! I use them via our HeidiSongs Video Streaming Site, because it is so easy to jump around from subject to subject without having to change a DVD. So we will do our letter, number, and shape of the week songs with the videos, and then do some of the sight words songs videos. And then we are off for the day! :)
This little guy below had been SO frustrated as he tried to draw the letter M. So, I sang the song slowly to help him draw the letter step by step, and then he FINALLY got it! He was so happy! After that, he was able to take it from there.
I hope you will check out these new videos and let me know what you think! :)
- Heidi :)
----------------------------------
Follow me! Did you enjoy this post? Do me a favor and share it with your friends! And follow this blog by signing up for my email updates here, or follow on Bloglovin', or follow me on TPT! I'm also on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and YouTube, too! Don't forget to sign up for our email newsletter for special deals and promo codes that you won't find out about anywhere else.
