Little Books for Little Hands

Notes from the author 

These books are designed for children the year before school and their first year at school. They have a distinctive Australian outlook on the world surrounding children of this age.

There are three main objectives of the book design:

• to have children see a familiar Australian picture and identify the sound it starts with.
• to see and identify that letter in the written form.
• to be able to write the letter using the correct formation of both capitals and lowercase letters.

How to use the books

For letter identification:

Children identify the picture and say aloud.

Children point to the first letter of the word and say either the sound or the letter name.

For correct formation:

Children must use their favoured hand and their pointer finger.

Children start at the first arrow and follow through.

Say aloud what is written on the page whilst performing the formation.

By doing this, children see, hear and actually feel the letter and it's formation.

Please note:

Children may be highly visual learners so would see and say the letter NAME.

Children who are auditory learners would hear say the letter SOUND.

Generally, children learn the letter names then the sounds.

Extension examples to use with these books

Ask the children to do the following

Point to the front of the book ... point to the back of the book ... point to the first page ... point to the next page ... point to the last page.

Point to a word (tell the children: letters are put together to make words)

Point to a letter ... point to a space between words.