LEARN · PRACTISE · DISCOVER
Meet the Alphabet: 26 Letters
Hello, explorer! Today we start a big adventure. We are going to meet the alphabet. The alphabet is a group of special shapes called letters. We use letters to write words, like your name, cat and sun. Every book you see is made of letters!
The English alphabet has 26 letters
The English alphabet has 26 letters. Here they are, in order:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
That is a lot of letters! Do not worry. You do not have to learn them all today. We will meet them a few at a time.
Each letter has a name
Each letter has a name. The name of the first letter is “A”. The name of the second letter is “B”. When you sing the ABC song, you are saying the letter names.
Letters are everywhere
Look around you. Can you see any letters? You can find letters on:
- cereal boxes and food packets
- books and magazines
- shop signs and street signs
- your clothes and toys
Example
Mia saw a big red sign that said STOP. She found four letters: S, T, O and P. Then she found the letter O on her cereal box too!
Letters build words
Letters are like building blocks. When we put letters together, we make words.
| Letters | Word |
|---|---|
| c + a + t | cat |
| d + o + g | dog |
| s + u + n | sun |
Your name is a word too. The first letter of your name is very special. It is a capital letter, a big letter. You will learn more about big letters in the next lesson.
Key takeaways
- The English alphabet has 26 letters.
- Each letter has a name, like A, B and C.
- We can find letters all around us.
- Letters join together to make words.
Practice
Go on a letter hunt! Look around your home or classroom. Find three things with letters on them. Point to one letter on each thing and say its name. Then ask a grown-up to help you write the first letter of your name.
Answer: there are many right answers. For example, a cereal box might show the letter C, a book might show the letter T, and a sign might show the letter S.