Letter C – Teaching The Letter C
When your child is learning the letter C, it is important to point out to them that the letter has a hard and a soft sound. The hard letter C sound is pronounced the same as /k/ and is a lot more common. The soft letter C sound is pronounced the same as /s/.
Some of the words starting with C that your child should recognize are:
Cat
Car
Cup
Can
Call
Cop
Teaching the letter C, and C words to toddlers is not that easy at first, and you will have to show patience and be prepared to do this every day. This starts with reading with your toddler, and there are plenty of letter C books available to help you with this. When buying or borrowing these books, go for those that have nursery rhymes in them and lots of pictures that your child can enjoy to reinforce the learning.
Does your child’s name begin with C or have the letter C in it? If so then you can use plastic letters to spell out their name, and show them where C occurs and how it is pronounced. You can use names with the letter C in them of family members, or people that your toddler will know if they do not have C in their name. Even characters that they know from the TV can be used here.
Use other names that start with the letter C to make this more fun. Some easy ones for kids are:
Cara
Connor
Clara
Carly
Cleo
Carla
In time you can progress to more difficult names that begin with the letter C such as:
Christopher
Christina
Claudia
Charles
Crystal
Courtney
Learning Letter C Should Always Be Fun
Always strive to have fun teaching the letter C. If your toddler links fun to this activity they will want to learn more. There are a number of ways that you can do this, such as by using letter C worksheets, and some other fun activities are discussed below. Always remember that using pictures and illustrations is always preferable to just using text.
Using letter C songs is a great way to have fun and teach the letter to your child. There is a good example of this below in the video. A letter C video is also a good idea and if you can combine the two this will be even more effective.
Make a point of learning songs and singing them together with your toddler. They will think that this is great fun, and will probably want to repeat the experience many times. Watching videos together about the letter C will also help to create a bond and enhance the learning experience.
Some Other Fun Letter C Activities For Preschoolers
Animals That Start With The Letter C
Most young kids love animals, so you can help them learn more by showing them animals that start with letter C. There are quite a lot of letter C animals, and you should choose the easier ones to start with. Your child will probably be familiar with cat, cow, camel, chicken, crab and coyote. Once your child has mastered these, move on to more difficult animals starting with the letter C such as crocodile, chipmunk, chinchilla, cheetah, chimpanzee and chameleon.
Don’t just use animal names that start with C. Progress to animals that have the letter C in them. These can be quite a challenge to find and some examples are bobcat, anaconda, ocelot and peacock. Always use images of these animals with the letters of their name underneath, so that you can show your child where the letter C occurs, and whether it is a hard or soft sound.
Use Familiar Things That Start With The Letter C
There will many things in your home that begin with C. It is a good idea to show these things to your child so that they understand that they start with a C. Some examples of words that begin with C that kids should know are car, carpet, can, cup, chair and cooker.
Don’t forget the words that you speak a lot and those words that they are likely to hear on TV. When you play this game with your child get them to pronounce the letter C correctly. Some easy words for this are cop, cry, care, cook and color.
You can enhance these letter C activities for preschool children by discussing common words with the letter C in them. There are many words containing C and as usual it is preferable to start with the easy ones such as face, luck, race, back, truck and peck.
Use pictures of these words or the real thing (like your face) and explain the different C sounds here, such as the hard C sound in back and the soft C sound in face. Also explain that C is different to K even though they sound the same.
Pictures Of The Letter C Will Help Your Child Learn Faster
Use pics of the letter C to show the big letter C (capital letter C) and the small letter C. It is very important for your child to distinguish between the upper and lower case version of the letter. This will help them with writing the letter C as well.
Images of the letter C can be found online or in specialized books and materials. By using these pictures, you will help your child to remember the link with the letter C. It is all part of making the learning experience fun for them.
Help Them To Learn The Phonics Of Letter C
Learning to read using phonics will enable your child to understand all of the different sounds, or phonemes, that the letters make. Then they can put the sounds together and create whole words. So here are the letter C sounds:
English Alphabet C LETTER SOUNDS:
C /c/:
The 3rd letter in the alphabet is C, and it is a hard and soft sound letter and an unvoiced consonant that is produced by pushing a puff of air through the mouth. Many educators teach this letter as the “cuh” sound but it is not correct…it’s simply /c/. A few of the other short sound consonants are B, D, G and K.
Several words pronounce C as the /s/ sound such as choice where the second C sounds like an /s/ and this is the soft sound.
Examples of hard letter C:
CAP: /c/ /a/ /p/
CAR: /c/ /a/ /r/
COME: /c/ /o/ /m/ /e/
Examples of soft letter C:
Cinderella
Certain
Cymbal
Exercises for /c/
- Before you begin, print a piece of paper for the Letter C/c/
- Also make a printout with words for C:
COME
CAPE
CAP
CAN
COMIC
CAD - Show your child the Letter on the printout and repeat the letter sound several times: C
Note: Be sure to pronounce C as /c/ and NOT /cuh/ otherwise the child will pronounce C words as /cuh/ /o/ /m/ /e/ instead of /c/ /o/ /m/ /e/ - Listen to make sure child repeats the correct sound after you verbalize it
- Now ask your child if different words have the /c/ sound and wait to see the response
- Always repeat the word using the letter sound to be sure your child knows the sound
- Continue to repeat other /c/ words such as CAPE, CANDY, CAMP, CLAP
- Finalize the C /c/ lesson by asking your child to tell you the sound of the letters
A Proven Reading Program Will Make Teaching Your Child To Read Easy
It can seem a really daunting prospect teaching your child the alphabet and learning how to read. This does not have to be the case, as there are a number of good reading programs around that will help you. Choosing the right program can be difficult. Always go for a program that uses synthetic phonics and the development of your child’s phonemic awareness.
There is no need to pay hundreds of dollars for a proven reading program. Jim Yang’s Children Learning Reading program has been used by thousands of parents with great success. This inexpensive program will provide you with all the tools that you need to teach your child to read as soon as they can speak. Check it out here.
You will find great ideas on how you can teach your child the letter D by clicking through to the next section.
