Teacher ToolkitElementary Activity Toolkit - Letter Recap

This learning module will support student learning of recognizing and naming the letter from A to Z (uppercase and lowercase) and locating the letters in familiar words and texts. 

Recognize and name the letters of the alphabet (uppercase and lowercase) and identify them in print, in and out of order. 

Press the following tabs to explore curriculum expectations connected to the content of this learning module.

Source: 

Ontario Ministry of Education. (2026). Language foundations continuum for reading and writing, Kindergarten–Grade 4. https://assets-us-01.kc-usercontent.com/fbd574c4-da36-0066-a0c5-849ffb2de96e/d46dfab6-b0bd-494a-b636-c0583fe83986/AODA%20compliant%20-%20Language_Foundations%20Continuum_2026%20%282%29.pdf

Please note all prompts and information included in this Teacher Toolkit are suggestions only. Educators are always encouraged to evaluate the specific needs of their learners and use their professional judgement.

Before you begin teaching, consider the following prompts to prepare yourself. Some suggested answers have been included as samples.

• What materials will you need for this learning module? 

• What pre-conversations will you need to have with your students? 

• What vocabulary do your students need to know?

• What pre-teaching needs to happen to prepare your students for this content? 

• Is there any pre-reading that you need to do to facilitate this content?

• Will students work independently, in partners, in small groups, or is this a full class activity? 

Before you begin teaching, consider the following prompts to prepare your learners. Some suggested answers have been included as samples.

• What are the learning goals and success criteria for this learning module?

• How will you activate and/or assess your students’ prior knowledge ahead of this learning module? 

• How will you draw your students’ attention to the learning outcome for this learning module?

• Students will learn about the uppercase and lowercase version of letters through guided and independent practice of the TVO Learn “Letter Recognition” series of learning activities, in addition to quick letter hunts and matching/sorting tasks. 
  • Students will have an opportunity to check their understanding by completing the Compare the Letters! extension activity at the end of each recap learning activity. 

• Students will demonstrate their learning about series of letters from the alphabet, by completing one of the following assessment opportunities: 
  • Letter hunt: Circle/highlight examples of letters on a short page of text or a teacher-made letter-search sheet. 
  • Sort and match: Sort mixed letter cards into categories, then match uppercase to lowercase versions of letters. 
  • Create: Write, trace, or build uppercase and lowercase letters using  pencil/marker/playdough/magnetic letters OR label a drawing using letters.

While students are working through this module, you can make yourself available to: 

• answer any questions  
• observe students’ engagement with the content 
• conference with individual students using the self-check activity  
• lead a guided group through the content on a tablet 

Growing Success – The Kindergarten Addendum describes the Ontario Ministry of Education’s policy for assessment, evaluation, and reporting for Kindergarten.  

Assessment is an important part of students’ learning in Kindergarten. It takes place alongside instruction and is an important part of highlighting student thinking and making learning explicit.

Documenting students’ learning is an essential part of assessment in Kindergarten. Pedagogical documentation is the process of gathering and analyzing a wide range of documentation of student’s thinking and learning over time, often in collaboration with the students’ caregivers and community. This documentation provides insights to guide students’ next steps.

Source:

Ontario Ministry of Education. (2026). Kindergarten curriculum: Assessment and evaluation. Curriculum and Resources.  https://www.dcp.edu.gov.on.ca/en/curriculum/kindergarten/grades/jk-sk/context/assessment-learning.

As educators in Kindergarten interact with children in play and inquiry, provide descriptive feedback, and review documentation of the children’s learning with them, they use “noticing and naming the learning” to articulate what the children are doing (e.g., “I see you’ve put down two blue blocks and one green block, then two blue ones and one green one again. We call that a pattern.”). They introduce language that enables the children to describe their own learning. They make the children’s thinking and learning “visible” to them. In Kindergarten, the strategy of “noticing and naming the learning” serves as a vehicle for sharing “learning goals” and “success criteria” with the children.

Educators draw on their knowledge of the expectations and conceptual understandings set out in the Kindergarten program document to articulate the broad learning goals – representing subsets or clusters of knowledge and skills – that they share with the children. In Kindergarten, learning goals are expressed in terms and language that children understand – for example, “I am learning about patterns”. Learning goals articulated in this way enable children to think about and to begin to direct their own learning. Success criteria are expressed as the accomplishments that occur along the way – for example, “I can identify a pattern”; “I can describe a pattern”. Together, learning goals and success criteria help to make what the children are learning “visible” to them, so they can focus their learning efforts, understand what comes next, and begin to make decisions about their learning. “Noticing and naming the learning” in terms of learning goals and success criteria is a way in which educators can create a picture for children of what and how they are learning, and support. 

Source:

Ontario Ministry of Education. (2018). Growing success: The Kindergarten addendum. Assessment, evaluation, and reporting in Ontario schools. Government of Ontario.  https://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/policyfunding/GSKindergartenAddendum2018.pdf

Triangulation of assessments

• The following is a sample chart/checklist for use in documenting your triangulation of assessments across the 4 Frames during observations, conversations, and conferences: