E is for elephant: Building Phonemic Awareness and Letter Identification

How to Use This Book

• Show the cover and point to the title.
  
  • Have students locate all the E letters in the title and trace over them with a finger while saying the letter name and sound.
  • Reinforce the idea that each letter has two forms—uppercase and lowercase.

Exploring the Story

• Tell students that in the story, they will see different elephants.
  • Ask students: What do you know about elephants?
  • Share some interesting facts about elephants:
    • "Elephants are the largest land animals!"
    • "They have big ears and long trunks!"
    • "Elephants live in herds and are very smart!"

Interactive Reading 

• Point out how the first letter of the word "elephant" on each page is red. Explain that this helps readers focus on the letter E and its sound.

Interactive Games

• Show students the different games in the book.
  • Model how to use their pointer finger to interact with the games, such as tracing the letter E or identifying other /e/ words.