When I returned to the classroom after spending a decade home with my own kids, I was incredibly blessed to be paired with a truly amazing human… Robyn. She quickly became not just a colleague, but a favorite friend. Robyn is a creative force in the classroom and an inspiration to work alongside. Her patience and compassion allow her to love children toward their fullest potential in the most intentional, grace-filled ways.
Together, we have taught every age of preschool, but one of our favorite experiences is the combined 3’s and 4’s classes. We teach both curriculums simultaneously (which will be available as downloads on the Resources page soon!), meeting each child exactly where they are developmentally and watching them flourish in their own unique growth.
Even our youngest learners begin recognizing letters and mastering their sounds by learning one letter each week and connecting it to fun, silly, and memorable cues.
One of our go-to whole-group strategies for teaching letters is the Alphabet Chant. Each week, we introduce a new letter by saying its name, its sound, and linking it to something tangible. The following week, we add the next letter while continuing to review the previous ones. By the end of the school year, our students confidently recite all 26 letters with their corresponding sounds.
For example:
A – apple – /æ/
B – ball – /b/
C – cat – /k/
D – dog – /d/
E – elephant – /ɛ/
We also like pairing the Alphabet Chant with Alphabet Soup, a resource that always becomes a classroom favorite. Robyn, in particular, is so gifted at bringing it to life and turning each week’s letter into a hands-on, sensory-rich experience that helps students make lasting connections with sounds, words, and meaning. Her creativity makes it more than a lesson, it’s a memory in the making.
Everything I share here has been tested, refined, and proven effective in our own classroom. So let’s begin right where we start with our littles: with letters, and how to bring them to life.
Rainbow Writing Pages and How to Use Them
Teaching the alphabet can feel like a big job, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Our Rainbow Writing pages, available at my Teachers Pay Teachers store, are thoughtfully designed with both educators and little learners in mind. They’re simple to use and combine phonics, fine motor practice, and playful repetition to help preschoolers build confidence and develop foundational literacy skills, one colorful line at a time.
At the preschool level, learning thrives on exposure, frequency, repetition, and most of all… joy!
Rainbow Writing is exactly what it sounds like: tracing letters in rainbow colors. Each page focuses on a single letter and guides children through six repetitions of both uppercase and lowercase forms. They start with the uppercase bubble letter, tracing it six times in different colors before moving on to the lowercase version for another six. By the end, they’ve created a colorful, confidence-boosting letter page.
Each page includes:
- Pictures of tangible items that begin with that letter’s sound (vowel pages include both short and long vowel examples)
- Directional lines and starting dots for proper letter formation
- Guided writing strips for scaled-down practice
- Independent writing space with visual prompts
We want kids to do more than copy letters. We want them to understand how letters look, sound, and feel. These pages work best in small groups or one-on-one settings, where support is personal and every child can learn at their own pace.
Repetition Matters (Especially for Vowels)
Writing each letter six times might sound like a lot, but preschoolers thrive on repetition. Seeing, saying, and tracing letters again and again helps lock them into long-term memory. Frequent, playful practice builds strong letter-sound connections, neural pathways for early reading, and the fine motor control needed for writing.
This is especially important for vowels, which can be tricky since each one makes two distinct sounds. But teaching this doesn’t have to be intimidating.
In our classroom, we love singing “The Vowel Bat” by Shari Sloane. We only use the first 40 seconds or so, but that’s enough for even our youngest learners to remember that vowels can have more than one sound. When we present vowels as friends with two voices, instead of confusing exceptions, kids gain clarity and confidence.
Bonus Benefit: Color Review and Pencil Control
Rainbow Writing pages also give us a weekly opportunity to revisit color recognition and pencil grip. Every page includes pictures that begin with the featured letter, and in our classroom, there’s one important rule: you must use at least three colors on each page.
This simple expectation encourages attention to detail, reinforces color vocabulary, and strengthens the pincer grasp, a foundational skill for strong handwriting. One activity, multiple layers of learning.
Tips for Teaching Letter Formation
Correct letter formation isn’t just about neatness: it builds efficiency, confidence, and is especially important as children begin learning to write their own names. One reminder we repeat often is this: letters start at the top! They never start at the bottom.
Our Rainbow Writing pages include starting dots and directional arrows to help reinforce these skills, but we also use playful phrases to help the motions stick. Here are a few of our classroom favorites:
- B: “Straight line down. Stop and hop back to the top. Give it a head and a belly.”
- E: “Straight line down. Stop and hop back to the top. Give it a hat, a belt, and shoes.”
- Lowercase e: “Start at the dot, go over, up, and around.”
- G: “Around like a C, then give it a hook.”
- K: “Straight line down. Then kick in and kick out.”
- R: “Straight line down. Stop and hop back to the top. Give it a head and a kicking leg.”
- W: “It’s two V’s stuck together.”
We use the phrase “stop and hop” for letters A, B, D, E, F, M, N, P, and R—where two strokes begin at the same top starting point. Get creative with these cues. The sillier they are, the easier they are to remember. Say them out loud, act them out with big arm movements, and watch your students’ confidence grow.
Read-Alouds to Reinforce Letter Learning
Books bring the alphabet to life and help children build meaningful connections. We love pairing each letter with several read-alouds to make learning stick.
A full list of our favorite alphabet books will be available for download on the Resources page once it’s complete. That section is currently a work in progress, but I’m excited to share it with you soon. In the meantime, here are a few of our go-to read-alouds for introducing the alphabet as a whole at the start of each school year:
- Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault
- There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed the Alphabet (Even better if you sing it—and any of the other Old Lady books you read!)
- The Alphabet’s Alphabet by Chris Harris
These stories are engaging, rhythmic, and rich with opportunities for connection and review.
Final Thoughts
Rainbow Writing might sound fancy, but at its heart, it’s structured, joyful practice. It bridges the gap between letter sounds and letter shapes, encourages creativity, and supports essential early learning skills.
So keep it fun. Keep it colorful. Keep it consistent. Because every drawn line, every silly vowel song, and every read-aloud moment is a building block. Whether you’re teaching letters or planting seeds of faith, you’re shaping a foundation that lasts. You’re not just building writers; you’re building hearts. Every little learner deserves to grow through wonder and be held with grace. And that’s what matters most here at Grace in the Disarray.
Childhood should spark joy—and every small step is worth celebrating.
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. —Proverbs 22:6
Grace in the Disarray 