Letter B – Teaching The Letter B
The letter B is a simple letter, and the B sound is made by pressing your lips together and pushing the air out of your mouth by moving your lips apart. You do not need to use your nose at all as there is no requirement for a nasal sound.
Words beginning with B for kids include:
Bat
Ball
Big
Bed
But
Bus
When you are teaching the letter B to preschoolers you will need to be patient and consistent. You should be prepared to read continuously with your child, and use books and other materials that have several examples of the letter B in them. Letter B books are available with pictures, and some of them contain nursery rhymes. They need to be fun and designed especially for young children.
Using the letters in your child’s name is a very good place to start. If they have the letter B in their name then write down the letters of their name and help them to identify the letter B. If your child does not have the letter B in their name, then you could use the name of a member of the family or a TV character that they know.
Kids like names, so find other names that start with the letter B. Here are some easy names that start with the letter B to start with:
Ben
Beth
Brad
Bart
Becky
Bella
When your child becomes a more confident reader you can introduce some more challenging names that begin with the letter B:
Brandon
Brianna
Brooklyn
Beatrice
Bradley
Bethany
Learning Letters Must Be A Fun Experience
You need to have fun teaching the letter B to your child. Use various aides to help you with this such as letter B worksheets that have pictures in them. Fun drawings of objects will make it exciting for your child. They will help develop the skills in your child for writing the letter B.
Get your child involved by learning a letter B song together. There are a lot of letter B videos around that your child will love. There is a video below that has a great letter B song that you can show your child and sing together.
Singing songs is great fun for your child, and singing together will make it even more special. Watching a video at the same time will make it even more interesting, and you can make this a great thing for your toddler to look forward to each day.
Letter B Activities For Preschoolers That Can Be Great Fun
B Words That Are Used In Everyday Life
Kids pick up words that they hear spoken by their parents and other family members, and also what they hear on TV. Your toddler will relate to these words well, and you can start with words such as ball and bat. Other easy words that are commonly spoken are big, bag, bar, but, bed, best, bug and bell.
When you do this, show your child items beginning with B that are around the home. You can point to a bed and ask your child to tell you what it is. Get them to emphasize the B letter when they tell you. For other examples does your child have a bat and ball? Do you have a bell in your home?
You can further develop these preschool letter B activities by encouraging your child to learn other commonly spoken words with the letter B in them. Start off with some of the easier words such as rub, cab, web, tub, baby and sob.
Again try and use words with B in them where you can show examples. You can certainly demonstrate the word rub by rubbing something, and if it is possible to find a spider’s web then you can show them this and ask them to speak the word by placing emphasis on the B.
Animals Letter B
Using the names of animals is a great way to help your child identify and pronounce the letter B. There are a number of letter B animals, and as always it is a good idea to start with the easy ones. Examples of this are bear, bird, bat and bee (yes it is an insect but your toddler will not care about this). You can then move on to more challenging animal names such as beaver, boar, buffalo and butterfly.
Animals that have the letter B in their names is more of a challenge but shouldn’t be ignored. You can find some pictures of these animals, and ask your toddler to show you the letter B in their names for example cobra, hornbill, ibis, wallaby, ladybug and wombat.
Use Pictures Of The Letter B
Pictures speak a thousand words and this is very true when it comes to your child’s learning. It is important that they know what the letter B looks like and they can recognise a capital B and a lowercase letter B.
Your child will find learning the letter B a lot more fun if they can look at funny pictures. There is no shortage of letter B images, and these can be found in specialized children’s books as well as online.
Your Child Must Learn Phonics Of The Letter B
Teaching your child to read using phonics instruction is the best method, as it will enable your child to recognize the different sounds that the letters make and then combine them into words. These sounds are known as phonemes. The letter B sounds are explained below:
English Alphabet LETTER B SOUNDS:
B /b/:
The 2nd letter in the alphabet is B and is a short 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 “buh” sound but it is not correct…it’s simply /b/. A few of the other short sound consonants are C, D, G and K.
Examples:
BOY: /b/ /oy/
BAD: /b/ /a/ /d/
BANK: /b/ /a/ /n/ /k/
Exercises for /b/
- Before you begin, print a piece of paper or an index card for the Letter B/b/Note: Children often confuse the small b with the small d so make sure the two are not used during the same lesson
- Also print a piece of paper with words for B:
BIG BUY BET BEST BOTTOM BUG - Point at the Letter on the index card or paper and repeat the letter sound several times: B
Note: Be sure to pronounce B as /b/ and NOT /buh/ otherwise the child will incorrectly pronounce B words as /buh/ /oy/ instead of /b/ /o/ /y/ or /buh/ /e/ /d/ instead of /b/ /e/ /d/ - Listen carefully as your child repeats the correct letter sound after you
- Ask your child if different words have the /b/ 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 /b/ words such as BEE, BOY, BLUE, BUNNY
- Finalize the lesson by asking your child to tell you the sound of the letters
Use A Reading Program To Teach All Of The Letters And Their Sounds
When you are teaching your young child to read, it is best to use a proven reading program that can equip you with daily lessons, and the “know how” that you will need to teach effectively. When considering these programs, always go for those that are based in synthetic phonics instruction and enhance the development of your child’s phonemic awareness.
There are a number of reading programs out there and some are very expensive. If you want a proven reading program that is not expensive, then look no further than Jim Yang’s Children Learning Reading. With this program parents have been able to teach children as young as 2 years old how to read. There are thousands of happy customers and you can learn more about the program here.
If you want to know how to teach your child the letter C please go to the next section.
