Floating Letters
Word of the Week
Alphabet (al-fuh-bet): A set of letters in a fixed order that are used to represent the basic sounds of a language. In English, it's A-Z. The word comes from the first two letter of the Greek alphabet. . .alpha and beta.
Yassou!
It's back to school time for many of you. It got me thinking a little about learning and reading. Naturally, the alphabet came to mind!
We may have 26 letters in our alphabet, but they make up more than 40 distinct sounds! For instance, the letter c can make more than one sound. Compare the c sound in cat, city, and chop. Here are some other interesting facts.
The dot we put over the lower-case letter i, is called a "title."
The most frequently used letter is e.
The least frequently used letter is z.
The most frequently used word in the English language is "the."
Every letter in the alphabet has only one syllable, except for the letter w, which has three.
A pangram is a sentence that contains all 26 letters of the alphabet. Here's the most well-known pangram. . . "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."
Here's a really simple and neat activity for you to try! All you need are some chisel tip dry erase markers, a white dish, and some water!
Grab a white dish. I used a baking dish to better hold my water.
Write the alphabet on the bottom. Less is more. I found that this experiment worked best for the letters that weren't made up of thick layers.
Slowly pour water over the letters and voila! Check it out below!
This got me thinking. Wow! But how?
The ink in dry erase markers is insoluble, meaning it can be dissolved in a liquid. By drawing on a smooth surface, the force of the water flowing in pulls the letters off the surface. This allows them to float! Pretty neat, right?
Until next time. . .
Gram