Measure the inside cover of the pizza box and cut a piece of yellow
felt to fit it. Glue the felt in place. Glue the Letter TV logo in the
upper right-hand corner of the yellow felt. Decorate the outside of
the box with construction paper. Glue the Letter TV felt box label on
the spine of the box. Use the box to store felt pieces and the yellow
felt covered lid as the set for playing with felt characters and props.
Print out the patterns for Letter TV characters and props onto good
quality paper. Glue the paper to pieces of felt using a glue stick.
Trim around the edges.
Use the remaining pieces of felt to cut out letters of the alphabet.
Be sure to make upper- and lowercase letters.
The board is an excellent tool for reinforcing the lessons presented
on the Letter TV programs. Teachers can ask students to sound out words
that are used in the program and use the props and the letters to spell
them on the felt board.
Select a Letter TV character or prop and ask students to find the letter
that starts the name of the character or item.
Play a game using a Letter TV character as the host. Place a character
in the lower right-hand corner of the box. Give instructions as if they
came from the character. Use the letters in the box as your game pieces.
Here are three simple games to try:
-Match upper and lower case letters.
-Start with a word group like "op." See how many words you can create
using one more letter.
-Put up a prop and part of its word, and invite students to finish spelling
out the word.
Get students to sort pieces by sound, to practice phonemic awareness
skills. Select a half-dozen or so props or characters, being careful
to choose some that have the same desired sound. Place these on the
board and invite students to say the words out loud and to keep the
items on the board that have the same sound. This is an especially good
activity to point out that c and k can represent the same sound, while
and c and s represent the same sound at other times.
Many of the Letter TV programs have story lines similar to those in
classical children's literature. For instance, "H" follows a story line
similar to "The Boy Who Cried Wolf." After reading "The Boy Who Cried
Wolf" and watching episode "H," invite students to think of ways that
the story might have turned out differently. Use the felt board to act
out the new story line.
Students may also use the felt board simply for play and to concoct
their own Letter TV stories. You can easily replace worn or lost pieces
by returning to this Web site.
