A is everywhere once you start looking: in a pointy roof, a tent, a stepladder, the frame of a swing. This pack starts with the sound, a short “a” as in ant and apple, and then lets your child find the letter's shape in the world, trace it big with a whole finger, and build one from three sticks picked up on a walk.
The youngest children can line pebbles along the giant A and point at roofs from the pavement. Older ones trace big A and little a, write them on their own, and play a first-sound sort that asks whether each picture starts like A or like T. Every page has an easier way in and a stretch, so siblings can share it.
The Italian and Bosanski / Hrvatski / Srpski editions use their own words for the sound sort, so every picture really starts with that letter in that language.
What’s inside
- 1Cover: what's inside and a log for your A hunt
- 2Before you start: a one-page guide for grown-ups
- 3My giant A: trace it with a finger, then decorate it
- 4A is hiding outside: hunt for A shapes on a walk
- 5Trace A and a, then build an A with sticks
- 6A or T? Sort the pictures by their first sound
Why this matters
Children learn letters fastest when a sound, a shape and a real thing come together. Saying “a” while a finger slides down a giant A, spotting the same shape in a roof, and making it from sticks gives the letter three ways in. Hearing the first sound of a word comes before reading it, so the sound sort is real reading groundwork, even for children who don't know their letters yet.
Age bands
Every activity page has an easier and a stretchier way in, marked with these bands:
- Sprout 2–3
- Seedling 3–5
- Sapling 5–7
Letter is the standard paper size in North America; A4 is used almost everywhere else.