April 6 wasn’t an ordinary day at school for Pemayetv Emahakv Charter School teacher Leslie Fulford’s pre-K students; they were going to have a wedding.

The groom, Arlo Jackson, was the letter “Q” and the bride, Oaklee Hipp, was the letter “U.” The bride wore white, the groom sported an oversized cowboy hat. Each wore a large sparkly letter around their neck as an oversized necklace.

The ring bearer, Na’Thnual Berry, held a pillow large enough for a ring to get lost in. The flower girl, Maelynn Tommie, held a bouquet of carnations. The guests included students Raiden Tommie and Roan Osceola, principal Tracy Downing, assistant principal Stephanie Tedders, reading coach Jenny Ward and teacher Katie Branch.

Despite the pomp and circumstance, there was an important academic reason for the ceremony.

“Early literary skills rely on a child’s memory,” Fulford said. “My goal is to create memorable moments to help it stick. We learned the letter ‘Q’ and ‘U’ can only stand alone in the alphabet, so in words where you see a ‘Q,’ you will always see a ‘U.”

The mock wedding required all hands on deck and the parents helped out; there was a fancy white cake and a DJ at the reception. The vows were solemnly recited, Q vowed to take U to be his bride and carry her in all words.

“Activities like this help build working memory, it helps them retain information,” Fulford said. “Now when they look at a book and find a ‘Q’ they know there will be a ‘U’ because they are married. We definitely accomplished our mission; to lay the foundation for literacy.”

By the end of pre-K, students are beginning to blend phonemes. The class has learned all the letters and their sounds and are now working on blends; three letter words like hat, cat, hop, fat.

“When you teach letters, if they don’t retain the sound they can’t move on to blending,” Fulford explained. “So it’s important that we build their working memory.”

Fulford got the idea for the wedding from other teachers, who post ideas on Pinterest. This is the first time she has done this activity and said she will definitely do it again next year.

“Teachers all over the country share a lot of good stuff on Pinterest, we get a lot of good ideas from there,” Fulford said. “I utilize it.”