Are you looking for kindergarten RTI resources for letter recognition? Read on to learn how I use my Kindergarten Reading Intervention Letter Sounds unit.

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So, how scary is RTI to everyone?  Or, is that just me?!  I don’t know what it was about RTI, but it has always terrified me. What was I supposed to do? Was I doing it right? Was I serving the right kids? And, FOR THE LOVE OF PETE, is it Response to Instruction or Intervention?!?!?  

Seriously, it boggled my mind for at least the first two years I taught, and even crept into the first year I taught first grade. Well, now that I’m part of Team RTI at our school, it is pretty much mandatory that I hop on the RTI boat and ride those intervention waves like it is my dang job. Well, it is my dang job, so AHOY! 

Understanding RTI

Response to Intervention is a form of supplemental instruction that is administered in tiers or levels. There are three levels in which instruction intensifies as it moves from group instruction in Tier 1 to individual instruction, generally by a specialist, in Tier 3. 

The goal of RTI is to keep struggling students on grade level and out of special education services with a supplemental and focused instruction.

If you are new to RTI, check out my post on what Response to Intervention (RTI) is and how it benefits classrooms and students.

An Example of Tier 1 RTI Instruction

I started pulling a kindergarten group last week that was made up entirely of English Language Learners (ELLs). Let me just tell you a little bit about them: 

A)  They stole my heart within the first .5 seconds of meeting them.  So. Dang. SWEET. 

B) Three out of five speak very little English.  No bueno. 

C) Most of them thought an ‘A’ was a F…or G…or Q…or anything but an A.  This just made me want to love on them a little more!  No, really, it made me so EXCITED to teach them…if only for 30 minutes a day!  {Sidenote: I could *totally* see myself going back to K someday!  I didn’t realize how much I miss it!!!!} 

This group of kids was selected for RTI instruction on letter identification and recognition.

Kindergarten RTI for Letter Recognition

Here’s how our typical RTI block goes right now:

• Introduce our daily objective via an I can… statement.  (~1 minute)
• I start off singing and pointing to the alphabet 1-2 times. Only two kiddos semi-know it.  (~2 minutes)

• I display an alphabet mat for our focus letter(s). I’ve slid it into a plastic sleeve, and we do various activities with it as a whole group (i.e. trace it with a dry-erase marker, shape play-doh into As, find the As in the words, sort tactile letters onto it, etc.). (~5-7 min)

• Next, I pass out individual activity mats. Each mat is different, but focuses on letter identification and recognition. All of them are kept in plastic sleeves for durability purposes. You could laminate them, of course. But there’s a lot less fuss when you just slide them into a plastic sleeve. And a lot less static laminate tagging around on your clothes.  Depending on the kiddo, they usually get to work on 1-2 mats during this time (~10 minutes). This is a good time for me to observe and instruct individual students.

• We spend the last part of our time together working on other activities TBBAS (to be blogged about soon) or a very speedy assessment.  I give each pumpkin a notebook where they (or I) can record what we’re working on.  This helps me keep data on them, too.  At the end of our work on the focus letter, I give them a little half-sheet assessment that I paste into their notebooks.  The bottom half of the page is used for a variety of purposes.  Here, you see the student dabbed the letter B and gave me three words that began with B. 

Kindergarten Reading Intervention Letter Sounds Unit

All the activity sheets in the images in this post come from my Kindergarten RTI: Letter Recognition & Identification unit.

There are 7 activities for each letter that are described in detail (with pictures) in the pack. Each activity provides students an opportunity to reinforce these letter sounds reading readiness skills.

1. Focus Letter Mat (vowels in red, consonants in blue, each focus mat contains the upper- and lowercase letter and 3 labeled pictures that begin with the sound)
2. Sound Warm Up (letter-sound correspondence fluency)
3. Sound Off (student generated beginning sound word list)
4. Letter Sound Pictures (6 pictures for each letter with the first letter omitted; only 4 for X)
5. Check Yourself (student self-assessment; saying picture name and identifying whether or not it begins with the focus letter)
6. Listen Up (discriminating between words that begin with the focus letter and those that don’t)
7. Letter-Sound Assessment (cumulative assessment over learned skills)

Also included:

• Suggestion for organization
• Sample lesson plan
• Data tracking sheet

Supplies for This RTI Unit

Here is a list of the supplies that I used with these activity and assessment pages, in case they inspire you. 

• Page protectors
• Dry erase markers
• Dot markers
• Star stickers
• Witch fingers (I’ve also used large eye finger puppets)
• Play doh
• Post it notes

Download this unit from my TpT shop! Or click the image below.