s/o School in the 1970's--the Letter People!

[MercyA]

Who else learned phonics using the Letter People? My kindergarten classroom had the inflatable characters like the ones shown here. It was a big deal when a new one was introduced.

My kindergarten was fine as kindergartens went, I think, but I remember being homesick, feeling shy, and not being brave enough to muscle myself into position to use the in-room sandbox and play structure. The picture book corner was more my speed.

I have to say I find these...disturbing. 🙂 Maybe they contributed to my discomfort. (Evidently they were rebranded in the 90's--the newer ones look decidedly less creepy.)

Edited February 3, 2023 by MercyA

[MercyA]

(Sorry, fixed pic.)

[Guest]

They are pretty hideous. 😏

I don’t remember them. I learned to read at home before Kindergarten. My mom and sister taught me using materials that were phonics with diacritical marks. I think it was an ACE program. My sister always liked to play “teacher” and so she would use the blackboard we had at home to teach me all the things she was learning at school. 🙂

[Hen]

I remember them in K!  I loved them, didn't think they were creepy...but now, yeah, I can see they were! 

 

[TravelingChris]

No, that wasn't the program we had. But it was phonics- rhyming

[skimomma]

Yes!  Itchy I is the most memorable for me.  We had the inflatable ones and a new one was introduced each week.  I was recently asking people about these and all I got was blank stares.  I was beginning to think I made the whole thing up in my head.

[Dmmetler]

Come and meet the letter people, come and meet the family,

Words are made by letter people, ABCD, follow me!

[athena1277]

My K class had these in the early 80’s!

[Bootsie]

I started first grade in 1969; we did not have public kindergarten in my state at the time.  My younger sister started kindergarten 1974 (still a 1/2 day pilot program in my state)--she had these inflatible alphabet characters, beginning with Mr. M, his Munching Mouth.  Consonants were male and vowels were female.

[Hilltopmom]

Umm, these are still in use in a few schools near me.

[Lecka]

I think my mom taught that program and had the inflatables.  She taught Kindergarten for several years.  She definitely had inflatable letter people that she used to teach letter sounds, and they were brightly colored.  I don’t remember them well enough to remember them from pictures.  
 

Edit: I think she made up her own activities with them — I know she did use them for letter sounds though.  She liked to do a lot of participation games.  I used to sit in the back of her classroom if I was a little sick.  

Edited February 3, 2023 by Lecka

[Storygirl]

Yes, we had them in kindergarten in 1974-5! I remember liking the inflatable figures, even though I could already read before starting school.

[Garga]

I didn’t learn with them, but my aunt gave me a cassette tape of all the letter people songs. I played it for my 2 year old while I was pregnant and nauseated. 

Whenever I think of those songs now, I get phantom nausea. They were clever and catchy little songs, though. 

 

 

Edited February 3, 2023 by Garga

[Harriet Vane]

I loved the Letter People! Such a flash from the past. I remember that we started with Mr. M. That's one thing (quite possibly the only thing) my first grade teacher did well. We started each day with copy work, usually a 2-4 line rhyme of some sort, and then we had the Letter People. That teacher told the most marvelous stories about them. 

(Ironic because that teacher also spent a lot of time losing her temper and yelling at students. When she was going to really unleash on some poor kid she told the rest of us to put our heads down on our desks. !!! But she did do a good job with reading and the Letter People somehow. Or maybe I was just so motivated to read that I saw the whole process through rose-colored glasses.)

[KungFuPanda]

DS22 had them in developmental preschool. The kids seemed to love them. 

[QueenCat]

I went to public kindergarten. I do not recall those inflatables. 

[TechWife]

I went to a church kindergarten before there was public kindergarten. I don’t remember those at all, but no one in my family remembers when I learned to read, but we all think I was reading before K. So, if we used them that might be why they didn’t stick in my head. I certainly don’t remember any inflatable letters, though. Now that I think of it though, reading was a 1st grade skill then, not a K skill. Really, I’m just rambling.

Edited February 3, 2023 by TechWife

[sweet2ndchance]

I remember the letter people from kindergarten in the early 80s. We lived near Seattle then.

[MercyA]

1 hour ago, TechWife said:

Now that I think of it though, reading was a 1st grade skill then, not a K skill. Really, I’m just rambling.

Yes. I'm pretty sure we just learned beginning sounds. Actual reading did not come until 1st grade. We only had 1/2 a day and a good part of that was filled up with recess, a milk break, and story time. Different world. 🙂

[Terabith]

2 hours ago, Dmmetler said:

Come and meet the letter people, come and meet the family,

Words are made by letter people, ABCD, follow me!

So, was this a tv show or something?  My dh remembers it as a tv show.  His mother was his kindergarten teacher, so we know he didn’t do it there. 
 

I didn’t have Letter People. My kindergarten, which was fine but mostly introduced me to issues of race and class, did some bizarre thing where the mad cat said /f/.  And we acted like typewriters for the letter T.  
 

I taught myself to read somewhere around kindergarten, from a combination of Sesame Street and seeing the words in the books my parents read to me.  

[J-rap]

I didn't learn through the Letter People, but I'm earlier/older than you.  Interestingly, in California, we really worked on sounds of each letter.  In the Midwest at the same time, my dh learned words not by sounds but by sight.  Such a different method of learning to read!

When I was in elementary school we had the SRA reading program.  Each level of reading had a different color, and it was done mostly independently.  I remember loving it!

Your Letter People program reminds me a little of England's Jolly Phonics program, which is still used today as far as I know.

[MercyA]

1 minute ago, Terabith said:

So, was this a tv show or something?  My dh remembers it as a tv show.  His mother was his kindergarten teacher, so we know he didn’t do it there. 

It was a curriculum first and then became a PBS tv show. I never saw the show and actually just learned of its existence today.

[Farrar]

I didn't learn them with this program, but I love, love the aesthetics of it. If I'd seen these when my kids were little, I would have totally bought it.

[Paige]

We had the letter people in my 80s K class. I still remember Mr M's entire song. We didn't have inflatables or anything like that, though. We only had the songs and I think some stories. 

[lmrich]

Loved bringing home the letter  people cards. 

Did anyone's school have a Mr. Q and Miss U wedding? I know some preschools  still  do  this. 

[Dmmetler]

58 minutes ago, Terabith said:

So, was this a tv show or something?  My dh remembers it as a tv show.  His mother was his kindergarten teacher, so we know he didn’t do it there. 
 

I didn’t have Letter People. My kindergarten, which was fine but mostly introduced me to issues of race and class, did some bizarre thing where the mad cat said /f/.  And we acted like typewriters for the letter T.  
 

I taught myself to read somewhere around kindergarten, from a combination of Sesame Street and seeing the words in the books my parents read to me.  

Both, I think. I want to say that the kids did it as part of reading lessons, and then we watched the show one afternoon a week just before pick up. (Probably when the local PBS station showed it)-like the entire grade sitting on steps in the library, watching a regular size TV :). ) I remember the inflatable creepy letter people, but not the books-but since I was reading fluently, I don't think I was in a reading group until about 4th grade-I did all those SRA cards on my own (I want to say I did all the boxes each year because they kept resetting me back to grade level) real fast at the beginning of the year, and then read books on my own. And played Lemonade Stand on the one apple II the school had in the library when teachers wanted to get rid of me for a bit...I spent a lot of time in the library. 

[NorthernBeth]

No alphabet people sadly.  We had a huge phonics chart that included the digraphs, the r-controlled vowels and I believe the different vowel teams.  We drilled on it every day and did a little phonics worksheet afterwards on lovely purple mimeographed paper.

 

[alisoncooks]

Yes! Kindergarten in ‘85. I totally remember Miss Aaaachooo. 

[Indigo Blue]

No. I don’t remember that at all. 

[*****]

I used to babysit a kindergartener in those years and she came home excitedly telling me about Miss O, Obstinate. I used to think how bright she was because she could say such a big word and knew what it meant. She was actually pretty bright as it was, but I was amazed at what she was learning at that age.

[Momto6inIN]

I remember having the Letter People in K. When I was a teacher aide in 1997 the teacher I taught with was still using them. I love how they introduce the letters and sounds in a specific order so that you could make words with them right away!

[AnotherNewName]

We had them in our area (late 1970s).

DH's school them as well.  DMIL likes to the story about the time when he was 6 and she wasn't giving him something he wanted, and he told her she was being "obstinate" - thanks to the Miss O and the letter people!

[Acorn]

4 hours ago, Terabith said:

did some bizarre thing where the mad cat said /f/.

This made me remember that from somewhere. I googled it and it looks like a speech therapy technique, which one of my children attended for a couple of years.

[Terabith]

2 minutes ago, Acorn said:

This made me remember that from somewhere. I googled it and it looks like a speech therapy technique, which one of my children attended for a couple of years.

This was definitely not speech therapy.  I mean, I guess it's possible that Mrs. Barefoot (my teacher) got it from there, but I don't think so.  All the letters had weird stories, and the pictures didn't really make sense to me for what I'd expect.  

[Harriet Vane]

I'm remembering another random wonderful thing my awful first grade teacher did. 

One of the boys in my class came to school on Halloween without a costume. Apparently there was no way a parent could or would bring one. Who knows. But my first grade teacher spent the morning cutting out two big letter M and making him a Mr. M costume sandwich-board style. We all thought it was sooooooo cool that he could be Mr M. She saved the day. 

[ddcrook]

We used them at the school where I taught kindergarten in the mid 90s. I had forgotten all about them!

[fairfarmhand]

1 hour ago, Terabith said:

This was definitely not speech therapy.  I mean, I guess it's possible that Mrs. Barefoot (my teacher) got it from there, but I don't think so.  All the letters had weird stories, and the pictures didn't really make sense to me for what I'd expect.  

I bet it was Open Court phonics. My mom taught Kindy and she used it. She loved that the pictures actually made the sounds. Like they’d use rhymes. “Bubbling pot bubbling pot q q q.” Actually saying the letter sounds.  “Angry cat angry cat f f f.” 
“roaring lion roaring lion r r r.”

[maize]

My husband remembers The Letter People.

[Shoeless]

We had the letter people in 1977 Kindergarten! There was big drama one day because inflatable Miss A popped a seam and deflated overnight. The school custodian took her home and patched her with a tire repair kit. 

Some of the kids were like "Who could have done this to Miss A!?!?" and there were theories that Mr T or Mr M chomped her. I think Mr. X might have been implicated in the crime, as well.  

Our teacher took the whole thing very seriously and assured us that Mr T, M, or X would never do anything to harm darling Miss A. 

[Hilltopmom]

15 hours ago, lmrich said:

Loved bringing home the letter  people cards. 

Did anyone's school have a Mr. Q and Miss U wedding? I know some preschools  still  do  this. 

We still do the QU wedding in K here. It’s creepy, imo.

[Matryoshka]

9 hours ago, Shoeless said:

We had the letter people in 1977 Kindergarten!

These must have been after my time?  I skipped Kindergarten but 1st grade was in 1970, I think?  And they were doing... Dick and Jane.  Which I got to skip because I could already read.

[historically accurate]

I went to half day K in 1979, but I don't remember doing any letter sounds at all. I definitely don't remember these dolls. I probably would've loved them if I did do them. I loved to make up elaborate stories at the time.

I don't remember much about K honestly though - I remember the outlines of shoes hung above the chalkboard tied with bows (your shoe then went up on the wall once you learned to tie) and a chart on the door with the names of kids who could count to 100. I learned to read when I was about 5 by having my mom read Dick and Jane to me 4x in a row and then sitting on our stairs "reading" it to myself until I figured out the system. That's how I learned how to read.

Coincidentally, my oldest learned the same way except younger. She gave up naptime when she was 2 1/2, so I took to reading a couple of books to her and sent her to her room to have quiet time. She chose easy readers for a couple of weeks for books before quiet time, then took the stack in with her and figured out the system. I didn't know she could read until we brought home a book from the library and she read the whole thing except the word platypus - I just thought she had our books memorized.

[Terabith]

11 hours ago, fairfarmhand said:

I bet it was Open Court phonics. My mom taught Kindy and she used it. She loved that the pictures actually made the sounds. Like they’d use rhymes. “Bubbling pot bubbling pot q q q.” Actually saying the letter sounds.  “Angry cat angry cat f f f.” 
“roaring lion roaring lion r r r.”

Oh yeah!  I remember we used Open Court reading in second grade, so makes sense the whole system used it. It was actually pretty decent phonics and stories.  I could read on a post high school level by then, but I didn’t hate reading class. I remember thinking a lot of the phonics rules and diacritical markings were interesting.  

[Drama Llama]

1 hour ago, Hilltopmom said:

We still do the QU wedding in K here. It’s creepy, imo.

So, Mr. Q and Miss U are married, and Q is faithful, although he doesn't bring her when he's deployed Iraq or Qatar.  U on the other hand will go out with anyone?  Is this the story?  Because otherwise, I'm missing something!

 

[Terabith]

1 hour ago, BandH said:

So, Mr. Q and Miss U are married, and Q is faithful, although he doesn't bring her when he's deployed Iraq or Qatar.  U on the other hand will go out with anyone?  Is this the story?  Because otherwise, I'm missing something!

 

Right???  I really don't get that.  It seems like a pretty bad relationship.  

[lmrich]

5 hours ago, Hilltopmom said:

We still do the QU wedding in K here. It’s creepy, imo.

 Having children get married is beyond creepy! 

Having wedding cake is fun!

[Shoeless]

13 hours ago, Matryoshka said:

These must have been after my time?  I skipped Kindergarten but 1st grade was in 1970, I think?  And they were doing... Dick and Jane.  Which I got to skip because I could already read.

Must have been. Dick and Jane was more from my parent's generation than mine. But I think these differences were probably regional. I went to school in the suburbs of NYC. 

[Matryoshka]

32 minutes ago, Shoeless said:

Must have been. Dick and Jane was more from my parent's generation than mine. But I think these differences were probably regional. I went to school in the suburbs of NYC. 

Yeah, I think Dick and Jane was on its way out by then, but apparently still hanging on in places!  I was happy to be sent to sit in a corner and read by myself while they did it...

[Melissa in Australia]

 In the 70s here in my part of Australia It was whole language and no phonics at all.