letters alive...A TO Z

“Wow!” “Awesome!” “This is soooo cool!” When is the last time you heard your child say those words when it came to learning letters and sight words?  In reality, or better said, in “augmented reality,” you may be surprised to learn that those are actual quotes from Fairmont's preschool students who have been introduced to Fairmont’s new Letters Alive program.

We are all familiar with old-school flashcards, but imagine taking those tried-and-true two dimensional learning aids and bringing them into the age of augmented reality.  With Letter’s Alive, the bear that illustrates the letter “B” is a three-dimensional, lifelike, animated animal that moves, makes noises and responds to commands.  The shark for the letter “S” actually swims.  Kids can view video of the shark and all of his animal buddies in their natural habitat.  Children can put letters and sight words together to form basic sentences that tell the alphabet characters what to do—jump, swim, fly…

“I was so excited by Letters Alive when I saw the demo last year,” says Education Coordinator Chelsea Drake, who discovered the program at the Computer Using Teachers (CUE) Conference last March.  “It’s such a dynamic, fun way to teach phonics and I just knew our kids would love it.”

Teachers participated in a day-long training on Letters Alive in late August and are now implementing it in the classroom.  So, if your child comes home with a wild story about an elephant or a monkey coming to class, you will know it’s all part of how Fairmont is using the latest educational technology to inspire and instruct our little digital natives.

Want to see Letters Alive in action?  Check out this demo on YouTube.

Contributed by Danyelle, Fairmont Private Schools