The Letter People facts for kids

The Letter People is a super cool program that helps kids learn to read. It includes special characters, songs, and even a television show! These characters, called the Letter People, each represent a letter of the alphabet.

Discovering the Letter People's Start

This card shows an early version of Mr. T, who had "tall teeth," used in a classroom.

The idea for the Letter People began with two teachers, Elayne Reiss-Weimann and Rita Friedman, in Nanuet, New York. In 1964, Elayne Reiss-Weimann, a first-grade teacher, was looking for a better way to keep her energetic students focused on learning. She teamed up with Rita Friedman, an early childhood expert.

Together, they created an amazing educational program. It featured 26 characters, one for each letter of the alphabet. These characters were like people, and they helped children learn how to "decode" words, which means figuring out the sounds of letters to read. They turned the basic rules of phonics (how sounds and letters work together) into fun stories about these make-believe Letter People.

How Each Letter Person Helps Kids Learn

Each Letter Person had a special feature that helped kids remember the letter and its sound. For example, Mr. M had a Munching Mouth, Mr. N had a Noisy Nose, and Mr. T had Tall Teeth. These characters were first painted on big cards. Each one had a fun personality and a song or poem to help children remember their unique feature and sound.

With the help of the Letter People, kids stayed focused, learned faster, and remembered what they learned. Children saw the Letter People as real friends, not just letters or toys. Once, when the Letter People had to be sent to another school, the kids even asked for holes to be put in the boxes so they could breathe during their trip!

From Classroom Idea to Published Program

Weimann and Friedman later sold their idea to a company called New Dimensions in Education, Inc. (NDE). In 1968, NDE copyrighted and published the Letter People educational products. Liz Callen was hired to design how the characters would look in the classroom programs. NDE then developed two main programs: Alpha One in 1968 and Alpha Time in 1974.

In the Alpha Time program, the flat, two-dimensional characters became big, inflatable, child-sized vinyl characters. These were known as "The Huggables" because they were large enough for small children to hug!

The Letter People on Television

Later, Dr. Alan J. Pratt from NDE approached KETC-TV, a PBS station in St. Louis, Missouri. He wanted to create a TV show based on the adventures of the Letter People. After making five test episodes, Dr. Pratt worked with the Council of Great City Schools (which included the 20 largest school districts in the US).

With help from the school superintendents, NDE, and KETC-TV, a joint project began. This led to a series of sixty 15-minute episodes that became super popular across the country. Kids who were learning to read loved the show! Ruth Lerner from NDE made sure the show was accurate with its sounds and language. Dr. Pratt was the expert on the curriculum, and Tom McDonough from KETC-TV wrote and directed the series.

The show's main idea was simple: every letter of the English alphabet had a special character with traits based on its sound. The consonants were male characters, called "the Letter Boys." The vowels were female characters, called "the Letter Girls," because you can't make a word without a vowel!

Reiss-Weimann, Friedman, and Callen also wrote two series of books about the characters: Fables from the Letter People and Read-to-Me. Each Letter Person also had a song (available on 8-track and vinyl records) and inflatable vinyl toys called "Huggables." Other items included filmstrips and flash cards. Teachers who used the program were trained, and The Letter People quickly became popular in hundreds of schools across the US.

In 1996, a company called Abrams and Co. Publishers, Inc. updated the Letter People program. However, many adults today still fondly remember learning to read with the original 1968 program.

The Letter People Television Series

While many children learned about the Letter People in school, even more discovered them through the television series. The show was made by PBS station KETC in St. Louis, Missouri, and it started production in 1972. It was very popular and quickly spread to other TV stations across the country, mainly PBS and educational channels. The first episode aired on March 13, 1974, and the series ended on February 25, 1976.

The Letter People had 60 episodes, each about 15 minutes long. In each episode, the Letter People, who were simple puppets, went on different adventures in Letter People Land. This was a dark, plain place with strange people and creatures. Episodes usually introduced new Letter People or new sounds made by combining two Letter People (like /CH/ or /OU/).

Sometimes, the Letter People would travel to other places, like outer space. Later, the show started to include more normal scenery, like cityscapes, meadows, or Miss O's opera house. Some episodes even showed characters having conflicts over sounds, like Mr. C arguing with Mr. K and Mr. S about his sound. A common part of the show was "the Catching Game," a game show hosted by Monty Swell. In this game, the Letter People had to form words by standing next to each other in the correct order.

Opening and Closing Song

The show's opening song was catchy and inviting:

Come and meet the Letter People

Come and visit the family

Words are made of Letter People

A, B, C, D — follow me!

Episode Guide Highlights

The Letter People Get a Makeover

In 1990, Abrams & Co. Publishers Inc. in Austin, Texas, bought the rights to The Letter People. At first, they made small changes, like adding lowercase letters to the back of each Letter Person. But in 1996, they gave the program a huge update!

They completely redesigned how the characters looked and changed many of the Letter People's genders. They made sure there was an equal number of male and female characters. Vowels were now special because they could light up with "LetterLights," which looked like yellow suns on their right shoulders. The male characters' names changed from "Mister" to "Mr.," and the female characters' names changed from "Miss" to "Ms."

Many of the characters' special features were also changed. For example, any mention of "junk food" was removed. Mr. D's "delicious donuts" became "dazzling dance." Also, any Letter Person that seemed to have a negative image was changed to be more positive. Mr. H's "horrible hair" became "happy hair," Mr. R's "Ripping Rubberbands" became "Rainbow Ribbons," and Mr. X was no longer "all wrong" but became "different." New Letter People storybooks were written to teach kids about conflict resolution and problem-solving skills. A character named Alphakid A became their mascot.

The updated program has three levels:

• Let's Begin with the Letter People for preschool
• Land of the Letter People for kindergarten
• Lives of the Letter People for first grade

This program is currently used to teach about 30 million children! While most educators like the program, some think it focuses too much on phonics and not enough on other ways to build reading skills.

In the early 2010s, four new Letter People characters were added to help children learn Spanish. These characters are Señorita Ch, Señor Ll, Señorita Ñ, and Señor rr. The Letter People program, along with other Abrams learning programs, eventually became part of the DIG Pre-K curriculum.

In May 2019, Abrams & Co. Publishers Inc. was bought by Excelligence Learning Corporation. The Letter People characters were planned to be included in their Frog Street Press programs. As of September 21, 2020, no new Letter People products are being made. However, the hand puppets and some educational materials (as part of the DIG Pre-K program) are still available online through Frog Street Enterprises. Worksheets and flashcards can also be found second-hand on other online stores like eBay.

Meet The Number People

Besides The Letter People, a math program called The Number People was also created around 1977. The Number People are like numerical "friends" or "cousins" of the Letter People. They were made to help children learn about numbers, their sounds, how many things each number represents, and also symbols, math, time, addition, and measurement.

They include numbers 1 through 9. Odd numbers are male characters, and even numbers are female characters. Each Number Person carries a certain number of objects to show how many they represent. For example, Mister 1 has "only one of everything: a one-legged table, a one-legged chair, one microscope, one test tube and one clock with one hand." Each also has a job: Mister 1 is a scientist, Miss 2 is a doctor, Mister 3 is a pilot, and so on.

Unlike The Letter People, The Number People was not as well-known and had fewer products. These included an Alpha Math workbook and a CD with songs for each Number Person.

When The Letter People program was updated in 1996, The Number People program was updated too. The new version had six male characters (Mr. 0, Mr. 2, Mr. 4, Mr. 5, Mr. 9, and Mr. 10) and five female characters (Ms. 1, Ms. 3, Ms. 6, Ms. 7, and Ms. 8). Two new numbers, 0 and 10, were introduced. Each Number Person had their numeral on their uniform and the number word on their back. A Spanish version was also available to teach the Spanish names of the numbers.

Where the Letter People Live

In the original 1968 program, the place where the Letter People lived was called "Letter People Land." When the program was updated in 1990, it was renamed the "Land of the Letter People" in 1991. Even with the newer characters in the 1996 revised program, their home, the "Land of the Letter People," stayed the same.

Meet the Letter People: A Comparison

Here's a look at how the Letter People changed from the original program to the revised one:

• Note: The characteristics of Miss I and Miss O changed after The Letter People television series started. So, they are known by the names in parentheses on that show.
• Note: The characteristic of Mr. Q changed from "Quiet Questions" to just "Questions" to teach children that keeping your questions "quiet" won't get them answered.