Hello, and welcome to Learn the Letters.
In this video, you'll learn the symbols for the 26 letters of the alphabet.
Did you know that words are made up of sounds?
You're listening to me speak and I'm speaking in words.
Words are made of sounds, which we represent with different symbols.
These symbols are called letters.
The collection of letters is called the alphabet.
It's important to know the letters of the alphabet to learn how to read.
Do you want to learn how to read?
I know you do.
You've probably heard of the alphabet from the song a, b, c, d, e, f, g...
The alphabet song sings about each of the letters of the alphabet.
There are 26 letters in all, wow!
So, let's learn the letters of the alphabet.
There are 26 letters to learn and each letter can be written two ways.
We call them lowercase letters and uppercase letters.
Sometimes we call the lowercase letters "small letters" and the uppercase letters "capital letters."
This is a lowercase c, or "small c."
See how small it is?
And this is an uppercase "C," or "capital C."
See how's it's similar to lowercase c, only bigger?
Not all lowercase letters are small though. You will see as we go along.
How will you learn all of the letters of the alphabet?
The best way to learn the letters is to see how similar they are.
There are two basic shapes we use to form letters.
We use straight lines and curves.
Can you draw a straight line in the air?
Good!
What about a curved line?
Mostly, we combine the straight lines and curves to make a letter.
Let's look at all the lowercase letters that are made up of straight lines only.
"i," "k," "l," "t," "v," "w," "x," "y," "z."
As you can see, even though lowercase letters are sometimes called small letters,
they are not all small.
And, these letters are made up of curved lines only:
"c," "g," "j," "o," "s."
And this group of letters is made up of both curved and straight lines:
"a," "b," "d," "e," "f," "h," "m," "n," "p," "q," "r," "u."
Now, let's look at the uppercase, or capital, letters, that are made up of straight lines only.
"A," "E," "F," "H," "I," "K," "L," "M," "N," "T," "V," "W," "X," "Y," "Z."
Wow.
These are upper case letters with curves only: "C," "J," "O," "S," "U."
And, finally, here are the upper-case letters made out of curves and lines:
"B," "D," "G," "P," "Q," "R."
Here are the upper and lowercase letters matched together.
There are many fun ways to learn the shapes of the letters of the alphabet.
You can make shapes with your body, write them on the palm of your hand,
write them in the air or on someone's back, or make alphabet cookies with an adult.
You can also practice on our learn letters games on Always Icecream and Clever Dragons.
No matter how you practice your letters, make sure you have fun.
Thanks for watching.