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How many of each letter should be in a set of magnetic letters?

I am a first and second grade teacher. For my phonics program each student gets a plastic baggy of magnetic letters to create words as I teach. I don't know how many of each letter should go in and I can't find the answer. I assume 1 of each plus more of vowels and the more common letters. If anyone has a resource that says what a good number of each letter would be I would greatly appreciate it.

Public Comments

1. "Etaoin Shrdlu is a somewhat infamous phrase among language enthusiasts. It is pronounced "eh-tay-oh-in shird-loo" and is believed to be the twelve most common letters in English, in order of most frequently used to least frequently used. The expression came about from linotype typesetting machines. Were one to run a finger down the first and then second left-hand vertical banks of six keys on a linotype machine, it would produce the words "etaoin shrdlu." Linotype machines were sometimes tested in this manner. Once in a while, a careless linotype machine operator would fail to throw his test lines away, and that phrase would mysteriously show up in published material. The full sequence is "etaoin shrdlu cmfgyp wbvkxj qz." " There's the most frequently used letters. If I were doing it I would start with 3 of each letter from the first two 'words' and then 2 of each letter from the last 3. You could also look through your lessons and see if you use a certain letter a lot in any sentence "Look at the orange boat on the ocean" would certainly require more Os than another sentence, it would just depend on what you expected them to be able to form.
2. I would look at the letter distribution in a scrabble set and base it on that. Give each student half of the number of letters found in scrabble. That should be enough. I'd also keep some spare sets that the super-brainy kids can combine with their own to make longer or harder words.