One way that I like to teach reading concepts is actually through movement. I found that if you teach a student to sign the alphabet and when learning phonics, they will be able to recall each letter sound with a simple hand signal.
While it may not seem difficult to us, as adults, the ability to memorize each letter and their sound can be particularly difficult, never-mind actually sticking them together to form words. Using ASL, song and large movements has been a powerful tool in teaching something that may seem quite daunting.
With my preschool students, we begin circle time by singing the ABCs. When singing, we point to each individual letter. This helps the child to connect what the letter looks like to the letter’s name. Recently, I’ve gotten tricky with my older group and I will intentionally point to the wrong letter. They find this to be hilarious and INSTANTLY will yell for me to stop and will correct my mistake. Once we move past identifying the letters, I will ask them to identify a specific letter. When it is identified correctly, I will give them the hand sign for the letter and then we will make that hand sign with the corresponding sound it makes. We then try to think of a word that begins with that letter. Once we do, we will do a large body movement that acts out that word. For example, if our letter was T, they may have come up with the word train. At this point, everyone would stand up, arms at their side, moving them up and down to mimic the movement of a train. They will walk around the room like this, but instead of saying the typical “ch” sound that tends to go with a train, they will make the sound of the letter T. They can move fast and slow, but their T sound will need to correspond with their movement. This tends to be one of their favorite circle time activities. After completing one letter, we will review previous letters in the same fashion, simply spending less time because they have already memorized the hand signal, sound and are able to recall the large movement association from the weeks prior.
We also have phonics songs that we will sign to! To do these at home, check out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WP1blVh1ZQM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2frjzrC5Jg
Have a blast with phonics! :)