Katherine Hust

Title: Playdough Letters

Day: September 21 - 25, 2015
Subject: Literacy Centers
Class: Mrs. R-H, Kindergarten
Explanation/Teacher Talk
Standard
Objective

Materials

Instructio
n

Differentiated Instruction

The student will be able to form

uppercase alphabet letters with
playdough using the letter mats
with 100% accuracy.
The student will be able to repeat
the name of the letter and sound it
makes with 100% accuracy.
Alphabet Mystery book
Uppercase Letter Mats
Playdough
Trays
Getting Ready
On the carpet, teacher will review the
letters of the alphabet by reading aloud
the book Alphabet Mystery.
The teacher will dismiss the students to a
table, prepped with trays and playdough
set out. The teacher will review with the
students some things that they have used
playdough for in Kindergarten, in
preparation for the coming task. The
teacher will then review making snakes
or sticks with the playdough and
introduce the letter mats.
Teacher Talk:
T: Lets review some things that you have
used playdough for in the past. What are
some things that you have done with
playdough in Kindergarten?
S: Make shapes, numbers, and letters
T: Today we are going to be making
letters. In order to make letters, we need
to make something first. What do we
need to make?
S: Snakes!
S: Sticks!
T: Lets all practice making snakes or
sticks with our playdough.

With regard to letter

names and sounds:
For students who struggle
with identifying the letter
and letter sounds, the
teacher can provide the
name and sound of each
letter, having the child
repeat after her for
practice.
If a child can identify
every letter and letter
sound in the alphabet, he
or she should still be
required to state the
name and sound of each
letter he/she builds
before building a new
one, but it can be a very
brief discourse.
With regard to
building the letters
with playdough:
If a child is struggling
with constructing the
more complex letters, the
teacher could start him or

Katherine Hust
T: Now, we are going to form letters using
these letter mats. I will give you each one
and you can put your playdough sticks on
it to form the letter shown.

Evaluatio
n

Task/Discourse
The students form letters with their
playdough using the letter mats as a
template. As individual students complete
their letters, the teacher will go around to
each student and prompt him or her to
identify the name and sound of the letter
he/she built. The teacher will give the
child a second mat and the process will
continue.
Students will be observed during the
letter building process for their ability to
break down the parts of the letter and
use playdough to construct each letter
part.
Students will also be evaluated during the
brief discourse for their ability to repeat
the names and sounds of the letters they
build.
More advanced students will be evaluated
for their ability to identify the letter
names and sounds without prompting,
although mastery of this lesson only
requires that each student can repeat the
letter names and sounds after the
teacher.

her off with a simpler

letter, such as L or V.

If a child is unchallenged
by building the letters,
he/she could be allowed
to pick which letters
he/she would like to build,
to add interest to the
activity.