Today, I’m sharing our Reading the Alphabet Letter X lesson from our free preschool reading curriculum, Reading the Alphabet.
*Keep scrolling until the end of this post to grab the free version of Reading the Alphabet Letter X.

You can purchase our updated Reading the Alphabet Bundle Pack, stream-lined for easy downloading! It also features TONS of bonus material that you can’t find in this free version!
Reading the Alphabet Letter X
Today, I am excited to bring you letter X {with the sight word: in}.
I tackled Letter x in a different way that all my other lessons. Instead of focusing on x at the beginning of words, I used it as a final sound in the words: ax, fox, box, T-Rex, ox, & six. I did this to keep the sound consistent, as x in the initial position of a word does not make a consistent sound.
Here is a peek at the emergent reader:
While we did so many more activities than these pictured, I have only included a few.
We used the poke page as an actual poke page this week…something we haven’t done in quite some time! He really enjoyed doing it.
Instead of doing a syllable count and clip {because all the words in the emergent reader are 1-syllable}, we focused on the final x sound. He stamped the x’s as we emphasized each one
then he glued them down on paper so we could display them.
I went through all the initial sound pictures from the entire curriculum and found there were TONS of pictures that ended in T. So, we did a FINAL sound sort with T and X. He had the hardest time getting the hang of it at first {mostly because he wasn’t listening to my instructions}.
It was quite comical. I was saying, “/h/-/a/-/t/-/t/-/t/, what sound do you hear at the end? /t/-/t/-/t/” Determined to do it himself {and not let me model it}, he’d take the card out of my hand, “/h/-/h/-/a/-/t/.
But mommy, there isn’t an H for hat.” After I finally got him to listen, he figured it out! The last picture we sorted was T-Rex and, of course, he wanted to put it under the T; but I quickly reminded him that we were listening for the LAST sound, not the first sound.
{If you feel that your child isn’t ready for this activity, feel free to omit it. I did it with NJoy because I knew he could do it with support.}
One of his favorite activities was “How Many Foxes in the Box?” Instead of tracing his numbers, he decided once again he would write number equations with our problems. So, it went something like this, “Okay, there were 9 foxes and then came 5 more. How many are there now?” He used the foxes to solve the problems then “wrote” his equation.
Now he didn’t want my help. I just love his attempts at writing the number sentence conventionally {+95 14 instead of 9+5=14}. We’re not there yet, but he is engaged and learning and at age 4; that’s what counts the most!!
All of the FREE activities original to This Reading Mama can be found by clicking below:
Enjoy teaching!
~Becky
Very timely, Becky, as we’re starting “x” next week. Thanks! I’m about to go answer you on Facebook.
I can’t wait to see what you come up with for X. 🙂
We’ve already done ‘x’ this time around the alphabet with God’s Little Explorers, but next time around I’ll be repeating some of what we’ve already done future my number 2, and using a lot more of you’re Reading the Alphabet with number 1. As a high school ELA teacher, I’ve really appreciated your resources for the mechanics of teaching HOW to read and look forward to using Phonics by the Book as well.
Sorry for the typos! How embarrassing! I’m on my phone and autotext is working its usual magic…