The history of the alphabet is briefly reviewed to provide background on the controversy about beginning handwriting instruction and the relative difficulty of major instructional methods (Roman capitals, ball-stick manuscript, and chancery cursive). The author suggests that a simplified version of chancery cursive can be used for beginners. (CL)

A four-step instructional procedure to assist the learning disabled child to distinguish the distinctive features of letters is described. The procedure involves distinguishing the lower case "b" via a fading out technique from its upper case counterpart "B." The letter directionality can be cued so that the "b-d" distinction is readily apparent.…

This teaching resource presents a historical perspective of the alphabet which encompasses a study of major contributions by: (1) "Prehistoric People"; (2) "The Sumerians"; (3) "The Egyptians"; (4) "The Chinese"; (5) "The Greeks"; and (6) "The Romans." Background information, vocabulary study, student activities, a letter history, and a…

In this art activity elementary students are asked to design their own alphabet, not just by streamlining the letters they regularly use, but by inventing new letters. (RM)

"Alpha-Pets" are the focal point of an integrated, multidisciplinary curriculum. Each pet is featured for a week in a vocabulary-rich story and introduces related activities beginning with the featured letter, such as the four food groups during Freddie Fish's week or universe during Ulysses Unicorn's week. (MT)

This paper examines the importance of handwriting instruction, through discussion of four issues: (1) whether handwriting should be taught directly outside other writing contexts; (2) slanted versus traditional manuscript alphabets; (3) use of a beginner's pencil and wide lined paper; and (4) the use of self-regulation procedures within the…

Letterforms provide a natural and useful medium for teaching visual awareness, creativity, and many basic art education ideas to young children. (HOD)

Describes a five-week project in which elementary students chose a favorite letter as the main character of a 25- to 30-page book for practice in language skills. The book each child made was composed of more than 20 learning activities that stimulated students to review and practice skills, parts of speech, synonyms, antonyms and alliteration as…

Maintains that alphabet books are an overlooked valuable resource for children's literature to enhance social studies instruction. Possible uses include introducing students to new concepts and ideas as well as initiating group discussions and creative activities. Presents an annotated bibliography of 38 alphabet books. (CFR)

In this book a character named Archie and his friends teach science and reinforce alphabet skills. This approach combines reading and rhyming with simple science activities that begin with a list of everyday household materials and come with colorfully illustrated step-by-step instructions. Also provided are explanations of the science principles…

This guide is designed to replace the ignorance, misinformation, and negative stereotypes that many students hold about the Soviet Union and its peoples with a reasoned and rational outlook based on critical thinking and class activities. The introduction to these activities provides background and a rationale for teaching about the Soviet Union.…

Materials presented here include a variety of resources for teachers of Esperanto: a brief guide to Esperanto teaching, including suggested teacher qualifications, a listing of instructional materials and resources, including serials, with details of publication, activities in preparation for teaching, grade-level class activities, notes on…

Assembled from perceptual data gathered from questionnaires, this report outlines teachers' and administrators' opinions based on their first year's experience teaching handwriting (the Beginner's Alphabet) to first grade children using a new syllabus. Nine supporting tables are included and response statistics are detailed (Appendix 1 contains…