This section of the curriculum focuses on learning the order of the letters in the alphabet and uses a variety of activities. Here are some of the activities used in throughout the lessons for section three:
The Spanish alphabet strip is used in Esperanza to teach the alphabet sequence. There are several activities in the platform that solely rely on the alphabet strip for:
emphasis and rhythm
dictionary usage
verbal questions
Note: The letters that the Real Academia EspaƱola (RAE) removed from the Spanish alphabet are highlighted yellow as visual cues to separate them from the other letters. The Esperanza curriculum keeps these letters as they are important for Spanish speakers to learn how to read.
The rainbow is one of the more colorful and fun activities on the platform. Itās an activity that students really enjoy as they place the letters in the correct order of the alphabet. For extra engagement, make this activity part of a game such as bingo, racing with classmates, or trying to beat their best times with the use of timers. The students will master the understanding of the sequential order of the alphabet and increase the automaticity of letter name and sound correlations.
In the white area above the rainbow is a white cover over the Spanish alphabet strip. Drag the cover out of the way and reveal the alphabet strip to the students.
āWe have two types of missing letter activities to address alphabet sequence. In one, you will write the alphabet on the whiteboard and the students have to guess which letter is missing. The other activity uses the missing deck cards, where you will present the different levels of missing letters using the a customizable deck.
The customizable deck gives you the ability to plan the activity by creating groups, choosing the cards, shuffling, and resetting the deck. Learn more about customizable decks here.
The levels of the missing deck cards are the following:
Level 1: missing letter at the end
Level 2: missing letter in the middle
Level 3: missing letter at the beginning
Level 4: missing letters at the beginning and at the end
There are also memory games where students match the letters.
Once the students have learned to put the letters of the alphabet in order, they are prompted to sort words alphabetically.
In the final alphabet lessons, ordering letters and words in alphabetical order and ordering letters to create words are combined in one section.
This last activity type combines two important aspects of the Esperanza program, handwriting skills and vertically placing words in alphabetical order. In this activity, words are presented on the left with a whiteboard on the right for students to write the word list vertically. It is important that students practice handwriting skills in their own notebooks as well. The Spanish alphabet strip is included as reference for the student if needed.
