Alphabetizing

[EveryKneeWillBow]

Do any of you have suggestions on how to teach a child to alphabetize?

I found good tutorials on other things that I've needed help with on Youtube, but have not been able to find anything that will really help us.

Anything you have, even suggestions, is welcomed!

[BlessedinHim]

the way I taught my girls was I did some simple alphabetizing to begin with say a list like this:

cat
zebra
lion

then I wrote the alphabet on top of their page for a help

then I explained why each word went in the correct order:

cat
lion
zebra

c comes before l, and l comes before z

made longer word lists until I knew they had that part then I made a harder list say like this:

dog
cat
clan
drag
zoo
zip

then of course the next step is taking them to the second letter in each word.

so first we get the list to look like:

cat
clan
dog
drag
zoo
zip

this is not totally correct yet, so then I showed them that the second letter will determine the right order now once you have them in the first letter order so we take all the words with the first letter c in this case

cat
clan

show and tell them why or why not they are in the proper order, the first letters are the same so we must go by the second letters, a and l, a comes before l, so this is in the proper order

skip down to zoo and zip

both start with z, so go to the second letter, does o come before i? look at our alphabet, no i comes before o so the proper order is zip and then zoo.

sometimes the second letter is the same as in:

clan
clown
climb

so, I show them they have to go to the third letter to figure out the order.

the letters to look at are gonna be a, o and i. a comes first naturally, then we go through the alphabet by saying it or looking at it until we find the next letter, which of course will be i. Then the next of course is o. So we know the proper order is :

clan
climb
clown

start out easy and build on it is the best way.

[Reason&Hope]

Two keys:

1. First, does the child know his/her alphabet really well?

2. Second, write or print words in big clear letters on cards - index cards or cut-up paper if you used a computer to generate the words.

Start with words beginning with different letters first. Then once that is mastered, go to the second letter.
I've done it with my kids as a game and they've had fun. We would do races too. We had little cards with all the states' names on them, and would alphabetize those as well.

[lisaann]

I have the alphabet written out for them in permanent marker on a wipe off board. When I give them a list of words to alphabetize they go through and circle each beginning letter on the wipe off board with the wipe off marker. This way they can see what comes first, second ect.

[NORAD]

Thanks - this is helpful! :hug

[antsinmypants]

What ages are we talking?

One thing you could do is (if the child is say 2nd-4th grade) have them alphabetize their books, movies or CDs. You could choose by title or author, and then come back and see how they are doing and discuss. (I did this in the actual library as I was in school and on medication that did not allow outside play for a good 3 month period)

If we are talking much younger, I'd make flash cards and just use simple tools like alphabetizing animals, food items, etc... just using photos from old magazines and the like. :)