Alphabet Knowledge in the Automobile!

I would certainly win American Idol...... if I could carry a tune. The only things that get to hear my singing voice are my children and the steering wheel. However, songs and poems can play a huge role in developing alphabet knowledge- the primary building block on which a foundation for literacy is based!

In the car, we are always singing. Caroline (3 1/2) will sing along to every word, while Camden (1) tries to match our "noise" with his own random vocalizations. While the traditional Alphabet Song is a good start (try singing is backwards with your kids to mix things up a bit), I wanted to share some other 'tried and true' songs to help your children learn their letter sounds.


"The A says /a/." This a personal favorite that I learned from a colleague in my reading clinic experience
for my master's degree two summers ago. It is sung to the tune of  "The Farmer in the Dell." The leader recites each letter of the alphabet and the corresponding sound using the following format: "The ___ says ____. The ___ says ____. Every letter has a sound, the ____ says ____." (Example: "The A says /a/. The A says /a/. Every letter has a sound, the A says /a/." You continue substituting letters all the way to Z, thus working on letter names, letter sounds, and alphabetical order all in one song! It usually takes us about 5-7 minutes to get through, so make sure you aren't just running down the street when you start this song.

Another great song is "Apples and Bananas." It has been recorded by various artists, but the Raffi version is my personal favorite. If you want to be technical, this song works on medial vowel phoneme isolation and substitution, which is just  fancy way of saying that it helps children learn to identify that there are different sounds within a word and how to change the middle sound to make a new word.

I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas
I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas

I like to ate, ate, ate ay-ples and ba-nay-nays
I like to ate, ate, ate ay-ples and ba-nay-nays

I like to eat, eat, eat ee-ples and bee-nee-nees
I like to eat, eat, eat ee-ples and bee-nee-nees

I like to ite, ite, ite i-ples and by-ny-nys
I like to ite, ite, ite i-ples and by-ny-nys

I like to ote, ote, ote oh-ples and bo-no-nos
I like to ote, ote, ote oh-ples and bo-no-nos

I like to oot, oot, oot oo-ples and boo-noo-noos
I like to oot, oot, oot oo-ples and boo-noo-noos
Next post- the use of those good-old-fashioned nursery rhymes to develop literacy!