Characters bring alphabet to life

Linda Smith brought an alphabet parade with her to C.H. Terrell Academy in Augusta on Monday to teach children by way of repetitive participation and phonetic learning.

"We'll pretend there's a parade in Augusta," she told a group of pre-kindergarten through seventh-grade students before reading Clappity Clap All Through Town , a book she recently co-wrote.

The book has a page for each letter of the alphabet -- represented as a puppet -- and illustrates how the letters journey through town. After learning about and shouting out a letter, Terrell pupils were asked to clap and say in unison "Clappity Clap, sound, sound, sound, all the letters are marching through town."

The book, released in the summer, was written by Ms. Smith and Beverly McGee, a retired Edgefield County educators. It was illustrated by Beth Robertson, an art teacher at Strom Thurmond High School.

The idea was based on a phonetics-based puppet program Ms. Smith and Ms. McGee started in Edgefield County in the 1990s and expanded with visits to surrounding school districts. Each puppet has a letter name, and children are taught stories about how that letter is used phonetically in words.

"We had teachers as well as students wanting to know if we had a book about the puppets," Ms. Smith said.

Soon after the book was completed, Ms. Smith started readings in area schools. Augusta State University professor Dr. Paulette Harris, who taught Ms. Smith in graduate school, has been helping promote the book.

Ms. Smith said the book helps students learn by getting them involved through clapping and teaching them to memorize the alphabet in order page by page.

At Terrell, she displayed a few of the puppets and got students to sound out words, telling them how the character A likes "a-a-apples."

"Really and truly, phonics is the way to go," she said after the reading.

Ms. Smith told Terrell pupils another book "about bossy R" is being considered, noting that "She (bossy R) just wants to tell those vowel sounds what to do. ... But sometimes she doesn't get her way with all the words."

Rebecca Dent, the owner of Terrell, a private Christian school, said the book teaches in the right direction by getting children involved so they pay better attention.

"We do that here," she said. "That is how we get them to interact. ... So we're on the same page."

Reach Preston Sparks at (706) 828-3851 or preston.sparks@augustachronicle.com.