ABC Cowboy Duel

Explicit Instruction/Teacher modeling

• Hand out the small alphabet cards.
• Show your students the A balloon. Read A, and ask your students to repeat after you a few times.
• Read the word cards attached to the balloon strings, and have your students repeat after you.
• Ask your students to find and raise up the small card that has A on it.
• Do the same with the letters B and C.

Guided Practice

• Hold up the large alphabet cards.
• Show students the A card, and ask your students to say A and raise up the small A card in their hands.
• Do the same with B and C.
• Repeat this process many times until you feel that the students are familiar with the 3 letters.

Independent working time

• Have all the students take turns playing the "123 Cowboy Duel" game.
• Have 2 students come to the front, standing back to back.
• Ask the rest of the class to be quiet.
• Hand each of these 2 students a large alphabet card, and ask them to hold the card, letter side out, in front of their chests.
• Count 1, and direct the 2 students to take one step forward.
• Count 2, and have them take another step forward.
• Count 3, and direct the students to take one more step forward.
• Shout go, and have the 2 students turn around to face each other and immediately shout the other person's letter.