Letter M
Teaching The Letter M
To make the letter M sound correctly, you will need to teach your child how to use their mouth to do this. There is a lot of nasal involvement with the letter M. Ask your child to press their lips together and make the M sound by blowing air through their nose.
Your child will probably know some words starting with M and here are a few examples:
Mom
Milk
Man
Mouse
Mat
Monkey
If you want to teach your child about the letter M, you will need to be prepared to read to them every day. You can obtain letter M books online or buy them at the store. Check your local library as you may be able to borrow them there. If you can get nursery rhyme books then these are preferred. Always choose books with fun illustrations. Teaching your child the letter M will require you to be consistent and very patient.
If your child has the letter M in their name, then you can spell this out to them and show them where the M appears. Use plastic letters or cut-outs to do this. Or you can simply write the letters on a piece of paper. If their name does not contain an M, then use other names with the letter M from family members or TV characters. Always spell out the name and indicate the position of the letter M.
Your child may already know some names that start with the letter M and here are some they could possibly know:
Mack
Maggie
Max
Michael
Mary
Mark
After a while you can introduce some more difficult names such as:
Madison
Madeleine
Melissa
Matthew
Meredith
Macaulay
If You Make Teaching The Letter M Fun You Will Get Good Results
A young child likes to have fun, so it is very important that you have fun teaching M. If you make the process of learning fun this will help your child their whole life. There are plenty of fun letter M activities, and some of these are discussed later in this article. Using letter L worksheets that have funny illustrations is a good place to start, and your child will enjoy these. You can find these online.
Another fun way to teach the letter M is through the use of letter M songs. There are a number of these available, and your child will really like learning and singing these songs. It is important that you are involved here. Learn the songs and sing them with them. Letter M videos are also fun for your child. You can see a good example of a letter M video that is a letter M song below.
Doing things together with your child is very important. Your child will really look forward to singing the letter M song with you and watching the videos together. If they really enjoy this, then they will want to sing together again and again so you need to be prepared for this.
Fun Letter M Activities For Preschool Children
There are lots of fun letter M activities that you can do with your toddler. These include:
Letter M Animals
It is very likely that your child thinks that animals are fun, so finding animals with the letter M in them will be entertaining for them. Start by finding animals whose names begin with the letter M. Your child will probably already know mouse, monkey, moose, moth and mole and you can tell them about the manatee, marmoset, meerkat, mayfly, marmot and mink.
Then you can have fun trying to find animals that have an M in their name but not at the start. These will take a bit of finding, but there is armadillo, camel, chameleon, chimpanzee, emu, hippopotamus and lemur. When you discuss all of these animals, show pictures of them and spell their names out so that your child can see where M fits in.
Look For Things That Start With Letter M At Home
There will be a few things that start with letter M in your home, and you can have fun with your child finding these. In the kitchen there will be milk, mushrooms, melons, mittens, mugs and maybe muffins. Show your toddler these items and then spell out the words so that they can see the letter M.
Your child will have heard other letter M words being spoken by their parents and other members of their family. If they watch TV then they could have picked up words from there too. Examples of these words beginning with M could be moon, my, me, maybe, medicine, match, material, money, mind and message. For all of these words, and any others that you find, try to show real life examples or pictures that show the meaning of the words. Spell them out for your child as well.
Now think about words with M in them but not words that start with M. There are many of these words, so you can kick off with some easy ones such as comb, time, rhyme, same, cream, lime, broom, climb and smile. Use real life examples (like pointing to your smile) or images to show these words, and don’t forget to spell them all out so that your toddler can see where the letter M occurs in the words.
When you go outside with your child, you can look for words with the letter M in all kinds of places. If you are in the store you should be able to find a few words that start with the letter M. Don’t forget to look for street signs when you are travelling as well. Keep a pen and paper handy so you can jot down these words and discuss them when you get home.
Tell Your Toddler About Capital Letter M And Lowercase Letter M
Your child needs to learn about the two different formats of letter M. These are big letter M (capital letter M) and small letter M (lowercase letter M). You can use pictures of the letter M in these two formats, and explain the importance of capital letters and where they would be used.
You can find many pics of the letter M in both formats online. You can print these out for your child, and ask them to trace around the different formats so that they develop an understanding of them. This will help them when it comes to their writing development.
Your Child Needs To Know Letter M Phonics
The teaching of phonics is critical to your child’s reading development. Every letter of the alphabet, including letter M, have their own unique sounds known as phonemes. Combining certain letters create unique phonemes as well. You can get letter M phonics worksheets to help with the teaching of phonemes. Below there is more information about letter M sounds.
English Alphabet LETTER M SOUNDS:
M /m/:
The 13th letter in the alphabet is M and although it is voiced, the difference is that it produces a nasal sound from air moving through the NOSE and not the mouth, the same as N and NG. Sometimes children have difficulty knowing the differences between the M and the N sounds, so take your time with them while learning these two sounds.
Take a moment to say each word out loud while drawing out the MMMMMMMMM sound while you speak.
Examples:
MOM: /m/ /o/ /m/
MIST: /m/ /i/ /s/ /t/
MUST: /m/ /u/ /s/ /t/
Exercises for /m/
- Before you begin, print a piece of paper for the Letter M /m/
- Also print a piece of paper with the following words for M:
MOM
MAP
MAN
MASK
MOON
MOUSE
MASS
- Show your child the Letter on the index card or paper and repeat the letter sound several times: M and also drag out the mmmm hearing the nasal sound
- Do your best to teach your child how to make the nasal sound. Pinch your nose and demonstrate how you cannot make the m sound while you do that. Then watch your child do the same thing. In the beginning always be sure that your child drags out the mmmm sound.
- Take time with your child to be sure the /m/ sound is pronounced correctly
- Listen carefully as your child repeats the sound after you
- Ask your child if different words have the /m/ 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 short sound I words such as MADE, MAD, MILK, MOVE
- Finalize the lesson by asking your child to tell you the sound of the letters
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When you are ready please move on to teaching the letter N in the next section of this alphabet teaching series.
