Letter J
Teaching The Letter J
Teaching your child the J sound will take some practice. The tip of your child’s tongue should be pressed against the top of their mouth behind the front tooth. Then get them to press their cheeks inwards so they are pressing against their side teeth. Blow out the air to make the sound of letter J.
Here are some words that start with J that your child may know:
Jam
Jar
Jet
Jeep
Jacket
Jelly
Patience and consistency are the key to teaching the letter J to your toddler. Be prepared to spend time each day with this and tolerate any mistakes, There are a number of letter J books available in stores, online or possibly in your local library. Read these books to your child regularly, and soon your child will be able to point to the letter J and pronounce it properly.
If your child has the letter J in their name then you can spell this out for them. They will be keen to learn where the letter J appears in their name. If they do not have a J in their name, you can use a family member’s name or any names with the letter J that your child would recognize. This can include characters from the TV. Spell out the letters of the chosen name, and show your child where the letter J is situated.
There are a few names that start with the letter J and your child may know these:
Jack
Jill
Joe
John
Jim
Jess
Here are some more challenging names starting with letter J:
Jessica
Jonathon
James
Julie
Janice
Jordan
If You Make It Fun Your Child Will Want To Learn
If you have fun teaching letter J with your child you will experience a lot better results. Young children like to have fun, and creating a fun link to learning is very important. So make the process fun for both of you. Later in this article you will see a number of fun things that you can do when teaching J. Letter J worksheets are available online and these cam be great fun, especially if they have fun illustrations.
Did you know that there are a number of letter J songs out there? Well there are and some of these are really good. Learn these songs with your child and sing them together. There are also letter J videos available which your child will enjoy. An example of a good letter J song video can be found below.
Singing songs and watching videos of the letter J together will be a wonderful experience for your child that they will remember for years. They will probably badger you to sing the songs and watch the videos over and over, so you need to take the time out to do this.
Other Fun Letter J Activities To Do With Your Child
Letter J worksheets, songs and videos are not the only activities that are fun and will help your child to learn. You can start with:
Look Around Your Home For Things That Start With J
Looking for things that start with the letter J can be great fun for your child. You might think that this is difficult, but there will be a few items. Words like jam, jelly, jelly beans, jack in the box, jars, jeans, jug, juice, jewelry and jigsaw puzzle. Show these things that begin with J to your toddler, and spell out the words to them using plastic letters.
There are other J words that your child may have heard spoken around the home by their parents or other family members. They may have heard words on the TV as well. Think about jump, jelly fish, jet, jacks, juggle, junk, jester and jingle. With all of these words use pictures or real life examples, and spell the words out so that your child can see they begin with J.
A great J words for kids game is to come up with words with J in them but not at the beginning of the word. This can be quite a challenge so you might consider applejack, banjo, conjure, reject, object, project and subject. It is really important to spell these words for your child so they can see the position of letter J.
Don’t just confine these activities to the home. When you are outside with your toddler, look for words with the letter J on street signs and in the stores that you visit. When your child becomes more confident, get them to point out to you where the letter J occurs.
Animals That Start With J
All young children like animals, so a great game is to identify animals that start with J. This will not be easy as there are not too many of them, but there is always jackal, jaguar, Jack Russell and jellyfish. As always, spell out the names of these animals for your child.
Finding animals with a J in their name but not at the start can be really tough as there are very few. There is an animal called a kinkajou and it will probably be difficult to find any others. Spell the name of this animal with magnetic letters, or just write it out so that your child can see where the letter J appears.
Explain About Capital Letter J And Lowercase Letter J
It is very important for your child to learn that the letter J has two formats, which are big letter J (capital letter J) and small letter J (lowercase letter J). You can show them pictures of the letter J in both formats to help them to understand this.
They will need to know about capital letters, and you can explain to them that all names begin with a capital letter. With pics of the letter J they can learn to write the two formats. You can get them to trace the formats to help with this.
Explain The Phonics Of The Letter J
Phonics instruction is a critical part of reading development. Each letter has its own unique sounds known as phonemes and this includes letter J. Some combinations of letters produce different phonemes as well. The letter J sounds are explained below.
English Alphabet LETTER J SOUNDS:
J /j/:
The 10th letter in the alphabet is J. It is a voiced short sound consonant. It’s one of the sounds that is particularly difficult to describe in writing, so practice is the key when teaching your child this letter sound.
Examples:
JACK: /j/ /a/ /c/ /k/
JIM: /j/ /i/ /m/
JAM: /j/ /a/ /m/
Exercises for /j/
- Prepare for your lesson by printing a piece of paper for the Letter J/j/
- Also print a piece of paper with the following words for J:
JACKET
JEFF
JAIL
JET
JUMP
JAM
- Show your child the Letter on the index card or paper and repeat the letter sound several times: J
- Take time with your child to be sure the /j/ sound is pronounced correctly
- Listen carefully as your child repeats the sound after you
- Ask your child if different words have the /j/ 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 JAKE, JINGLE, JILL, JOKE
- Finalize the lesson by asking your child to tell you the sound of the letters
Get Some Help Teaching Your Child How To Read
You do not need to be a qualified teacher to help your child learn to read. This can be done at home as soon as your child can speak. There is help available through proven, high quality reading programs which will provide you with full instructions and all the materials that you will require.
One of the best reading programs available is Jim Yang’s Children Learning Reading. Jim was able to teach his 3 children how to read when they were just 2 years old using the methods in the program. It is an inexpensive program that many parents have used to successfully teach their kids how to read. Find out more here.
Please click through to the next section where you will discover some very efficient letter K teaching methods.
