The "Letter People" Museum Page

"Who Are The "Letter People?"" from "The Letter People Programs: Background and Research Foundations"


"The Birth of the Letter People
"In 1964, in a temporary classroom set up
at the end of a school hallway in Nanuet,
New York, a first-grade teacher struggled
daily to focus the attention of her 24
students. The school was over-crowded;
the children were typical first graders,
eager and rambunctious; and the hallway
classroom was full of distractions for
them--not ideal conditions for teaching
children to master reading, writing, and
social development. But the teacher,
Elayne Reiss, was determined, and working
in collaboration with an early childhood
coordinator, Rita Friedman, created a
program that more than focused the
children's attention; it made them eager,
involved learners--in spite of the
classroom circumstances.
"The program developed by the two reading
specialists revolved around 26 anthropomorphic
characters who represented the
letters of the alphabet. Each character
had a distinguishing feature that served
as a mnemonic device to help children
remember the most typical sound represented
by that letter. The characters were
painted on large, two-dimensional portrait
cards. Each character was given an engaging
personality to help the teacher bring her
or him alive in the classroom, and each
character had a song to help children recall
the distinguishing feature and sound. And
so the Letter People were born.
"The children responded immediately to the
Letter People. The improvised classroom
came to life. Learning became fun, and
with more focused time on task, children
learned more quickly and retained what
they learned. As the children shared stories
about the Letter People at home, parents
became more involved in their children's
learning. Parents, children, and teachers
worked together to suggest the special
characteristic of each Letter Person to be
communicated on the portrait cards.
Although the original Letter People were
a non-ethnic-specific community, they
were not balanced in terms of gender. In
those early days, 21 Letter People "boys"
represented consonants and five Letter
People "girls" represented vowels--
however, the children soon learned that
there could be no word without a Letter
Person "girl."
"From the beginning, the children viewed
the Letter People not merely as letters of
the alphabet, a phonics device, or toys, but
as real people. On one occasion, when the
Letter People had to be shipped to another
school, the children insisted that holes be
placed in the boxes so that the Letter
People could "breathe" as they traveled.

"In 1969, the Letter People found homes in
classrooms throughout the United States
when a publisher, New Dimensions in
Education, Inc., introduced a first-grade
Letter People program called ALPHA
ONE.
® In 1974, New Dimensions followed
the first-grade program with a Letter
People kindergarten program, ALPHA
TIME.
® In this program, the Letter
People were transformed from twodimensional
figures on portrait cards
to three-dimensional, age-appropriate,
inflatable, vinyl figures called
Huggables.®

"
The New Generation of Letter People
ABRAMS & COMPANY acquired the educational
publishing rights to the Letter People
in 1990. Recognizing the uniqueness of
the Letter People as motivational and
educational tools, the Company set about
immediately to build around them a
completely new series of Letter People programs
--programs that incorporate findings
from the most respected and replicable
research on the ways in which children
develop socially and intellectually and on
how they learn and acquire literacy skills.
Although the Letter People have always
lived in the imagination of children,
they acquired a
real place to live in the
kindergarten program,
Land of the Letter
People,
® which was published in 1996. The
kindergarten program was followed by a
new first-grade program,
Lives of the Letter
People,
® in 1999. The original Letter People
portrait cards were replaced in first grade
by engaging
Word Workers®, free-standing,
plastic figures. Also in 1999, the program
Let's Begin with the Letter People® brought
the Letter People into the prekindergarten
classroom for the first time.
"The Letter People continue to be a nonethnic-
specific community of characters
belonging to all children, but in the new
generation, they have attained gender
equality--with 13 females and 13 males.
The concept of distinguishing vowels and
consonants is no longer gender-related.
Instead, vowels are identified as
LetterLights®
who light the way to making words..."

The "Letter People" Huggables

An important part of the Letter People program were the inflatable "huggables", which came in two different sizes, the small ones being about 12 to 14 inches high, and the larger set, some of which are as tall as 30 inches. The huggables helped to bring each character to life for the child being taught.

note that the Mr. R huggable in this group shot is the later version that is smiling, unlike the "mean looking" Mr. R in the pic 2 on row five.

The "Letter People" Meet and Greet Cards

When each Letter Person was introduced, the child would receive one of these colorful cards, and a red peel-off sticker of the character's corresponding letter to place on the portrait on the card. The picture on the card is a smaller reproduction of the black-background portraits shown further down. These cards came in pads of thirty which were glued together at the top...

The "Letter People" Portrait Poster Cards

These large (17" X 13") colorful portraits were printed on heavy stock. The picture card was prominantly displayed when each new Letter Person was introduced. This is how I met the Letter People in 1971, which was, I think, before the "huggables" were available. Many teachers placed these large cards around the top of their classroom walls as a border, on display year-round.

A lot of people who remember the letter people don't remember what these where for: Clockwise from upper-right - badge of "cooperation", when two Letter People work together to form a new sound, The next is the symbol used when vowels use their short sound, like "a" in "Cake",  the next one is the symbol used when vowels use their long sound, like "i" in "big", and finally, the slanted dash is the symbol used for a silent vowel, like "e" in "bike".

The "Letter People" Chatter Book

This was the standard workbook for the "Alpha One" program. My copy in 1971 had a white cover. My cousin, who attended the 1st grade in 1973, had one with a yellow cover. The copy I own know has a orange cover, like the one pictured below. This workbook was apparently revised several times up until the mid-1980's. All copies I have seen have large purple and yellow circles on a black background on the back cover.

The "Letter People" Story Books

Each letter Person got to star in his own little hardback stroy book.

The "Letter People" Worldbook-Childcraft  Reading Readiness Kit

The "Letter People" TV show

Starting in 1974, the "Letter People" came to life as puppets in sixty fifteen-minute episodes broadcast on PBS stations across the country. Below are a sampling of screen captures from the program...

"Letter People" Oddities

Below are two envelopes one featuring the Letter People, the other featuring the "Number People", part of "Alpha Math" also produced by New Dimensions In Education. If anyone out there is familiar with the Number People and has any information they can pass on about these "lost" childhood friends, please email me with details at sfzapgun@yahoo.com.

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