ABC Order When Words Start the Same: Baby, Boat, Scooter, Swing

Two pairs on this 1st grade abc order page start with the same letter, and that is the whole difficulty. Six toys sit on cards under the alphabet strip - baby, scooter, boat, truck, swing, helicopter - each with a dashed circle in the corner, and six numbered lines run across the bottom. Baby and boat both begin with b. Scooter and swing both begin with s. The strip cannot separate either pair, so the child has to look at the second letter.

This is the step where alphabetical order becomes a method rather than a look-up. Up to now the first letter has always decided, and the alphabet strip has always answered; here the child has to hold the b fixed, move to the a of baby and the o of boat, and go back to the strip for those. It is the same reasoning a dictionary needs. Six cards with two ties is enough to make the rule necessary without turning the page into a puzzle.

Print the PDF free and let the child cover the first letter of a tied pair with a fingertip - what is left underneath is the comparison that matters. Number all six circles before writing any line. The four word version has no ties at all and is where to start if this one stalls, and the number then write version adds the lines at four cards rather than six. The write the word page supplies the spellings these lines ask the child to copy.