Letter Z

Teaching The Letter Z

The first step is to teach your child how to pronounce the letter Z. Get them to press the middle portion of their tongue slightly to the top of their mouth. There should be more pressure on the side of the tongue. Make the letter Z sound by blowing air through the small mouth opening.

Your child might know some of these words that start with Z:

Zoo

Zap

Zero

Zip

Zebra

Zilch

You will require a great deal of patience when you are teaching your child. They will make mistakes and you need to accept that. It will take a consistent effort, and you need to read to your toddler as much as possible. You can get letter Z books in stores and online. They may have some at your local library as well. When you are choosing these books, get those that have nursery rhymes and fun pictures in them as your child will enjoy this.

It is not very likely that your child will have the letter Z in their name, but if they do you can start by spelling out their name with toy letters, and then pointing out to them where Z appears. If they do not have a Z in their name, think about other names that start with Z. Perhaps a member of your family has such a name, or a TV character known to your child. Spell out any names so that your child can see letter Z at the start.

Here are some names starting with Z that could help:

Zoe

Zach

Zander

Zandra

Zara

Zed

Your Child Will Want To Learn If You Make It Fun

Kids like to be entertained, and if the teaching is boring they will switch off and you will lose them. You need to have fun teaching Z. There are various ways that you can do this, and there are some very good ideas for letter Z activities to be found later in this article. You could begin by using some fun letter Z worksheets, which you can find online. Use worksheets that have fun illustrations in them so that your child will enjoy using these.

Did you know that there are a number of letter Z songs available? This will be great fun for your child to learn and sing these songs. They will enjoy it even more if you do it with them. Letter Z videos are also available, and your toddler will enjoy watching these with you too. For a really good example of a Z song that is a video as well, see below.

It cannot be overstated how important it is that you take part in the singing of the letter Z song. This will be a wonderful experience for your toddler, which they will not forget in a hurry. It is very likely that they will want to sing these songs with you over and over, so be prepared to do this with them. Watch videos together as well, as this will create a very special bond with your child.

Try These Fun Letter Z Activities For Preschool Children

Having started with worksheets, songs and videos you will want more ideas of fun letter Z activities. A really good one is:

Searching For Animals That Start With Z

Animals are usually a lot of fun for children, so tell your child that you are going to look for animals that begin with Z. There are very few of these but they do exist. One that you and your child will probably know is zebra, and there are others such as zebra finch, zebra fish, zebu, zorilla and zorro. Spell out the names of these animals in full so that your toddler can see that they all begin with Z.

Another animal game you can play is to find animals that have a Z in their name but not at the start. This is quite a challenge too, but there are some. A couple of well known ones are chimpanzee and lizard. Whatever animals you find, be sure to spell out their names by either writing them or using magnetic letters. Show your child where the letter Z is situated in each name.

Does Your Home Have Things That Start With Z?

Prepare your child to look for things that start with the letter Z in your home. This will be quite difficult, so make it as fun as you can. There is sure to be a zipper and your home will have a Zip Code. If you like pasta you may have some zucchini in the kitchen. Your child may have a toy zoo. Whatever you find, show your child the items and spell out the words for them.

There are other words beginning with Z that your child may have heard on TV or being spoken by a member of your family. These could include zero, zigzag, zither, zinnia, zenith, zapper, zilch and zest. Do not forget to spell out these words completely so that your child can see the Z at the start.

How about words with Z in them, but not including words that begin with Z? These should be a little easier to find and examples are maze, crazy, lazy, hazy, razor, snooze, fez, topaz, lizard, wizard, pizza, pretzel, hazel, prize, buzz and puzzle. It is really important to spell out all of these words, so that your toddler can see exactly where the letter Z occurs.

This “Z words” game can be played outside as well. You can look for words with the letter Z at the start, and words that contain Z, when you are in the store or other places with your child. If you are travelling in the car together or on the bus, you may be lucky and see street signs that have the letter Z in them. Whatever you find when you are out you should write down, so that you can spell these out to your child when you get back home.

They Need To Learn About Capital Letter Z And Lower Case Z

Whenever your child starts to learn about the letter Z, you can tell them about capital letters. It is a good idea to use pictures of the letter Z that contain the big letter Z (capital letter Z) format and the small letter Z (lower case Z) format. Explain when a capital letter would be used. You can use a person’s name as an example.

Pictures of Z in both formats are easy to find online. Go for large pictures so that you can print them out. It is also possible to type the two letter Z formats using a word processor, and then print this out for your child. Suggest that your child trace around the two formats of the letter so that they become more familiar with the differences.

Explain The Phonics Of the Letter Z To Your Child

Tell your child that each letter of the alphabet, including the letter Z, produce unique sounds that are called phonemes. Certain combinations of letters will produce phonemes as well. Phonics instruction is the best method for your child to learn how to read. It produces better readers than any other learning to read method. Once your child has mastered all of the different phonemes they will find that reading is a lot easier. Look below for more information about letter Z sounds.

English Alphabet LETTER Z SOUNDS:

Z  /z/:

The 26th and final letter in the alphabet is Z and it is a voiced consonant with the “ZZZ” sound coming from the vocal cords in the throat. Compare the /z/ sound with the /s/ sound and you will discover that your mouth position is the same but the /zzzz/ sound comes from the throat and the hissing /ssss/ sound come from the mouth. When you say the sounds have your child place one hand on the throat and ask which sound vibrates and which sound does not.

Say /ssss/ using a hissing sound

Say /zzzz/ using a buzzing sound

Examples:

BUZZ: /b/ /u/ /z/ /z/

ZAP: /z/ /a/ /p/

Exercises for /z/

1. Before you begin, print a piece of paper for the Letter Z/zzz/
2. Also print a piece of paper with the following words for Z:
   PUZZLE
   BUZZ
   FIZZLE
   BUZZER

ZEBRA

1. Show your child the Letter on the index card or paper and repeat the letter sound several times: Z /z/
2. Take time with your child to be sure the /z/ sound is pronounced correctly as /zzz/
3. Listen carefully as your child repeats the sound after you
4. Ask your child if different words have the /z/ sound and wait to see the response.
5. Always repeat the word using the letter sound to be sure your child knows the sound
6. Continue to repeat other short sound I words such as ZANY, ZILCH, FUZZY, ZING
7. Ask your child to replace a letter in one of the words to make a different word:
   1. If you delete the /m/ from ZOOM what would the sound be? [ZOO]
   2. What if you replace the /a/ in ZAP with an /i/ instead? [ZIP]
   3. How will BUZZ sound if you replace the /b/ with a /f/? [FUZZ]
   4. What sound will you make if you take away the /er/ in BUZZER? [BUZZ]
8. Finalize the lesson by asking your child what sound the Z /z/ makes

Teach Your Child To Read While They Are Still At Home

Do you think that you could teach your child to read before they start school? You may have doubts about this, but with the right help you can certainly do this successfully. There is no need to study to be a teacher here. All you need to do is to use a high quality reading program that is proven to get results.

There are a few reading programs to choose from and some of them are expensive. This does not always mean that they are good. A very good reading program that has been proven to work for thousands of parents is Jim Yang’s Children Learning Reading. Jim’s program will provide you with all of the necessary instructions and learning materials that you will need to teach your child how to read. It is an inexpensive program, and you can find out more here.

Please click here to understand how you can teach your child all about the letter A