Literacy
Websites:
Reading A-Z (choose name; student password is the rabbit)
ABC Ya (no login required)
Education.com (first grade literacy and numeracy)
Reading Strategies:
Children will gain fluency, decoding skills and more confidence when they read regularly at home as well as at school. Please remember that your little tyke is still learning and can become frustrated easily. Be patient and guide them through this process. Encourage them to have a resilient attitude, reinforce that we all make mistakes and that if they work hard and are persistent they will become better readers.
Reading Strategies:
1. Use Peter Pointer
2. Use picture clues
3. Use decoding skills
4. Ask "Does it make sense?"
5. Talk about the book
The children are learning to build their reading stamina by using a quiet voice, rereading their books, using their reading strategies and keeping their eyes on their own book.
Word Attack Strategies:
Sight Words:
What are sight words?
Each word is meant to be automatically recognized within 2 seconds or less
Sight words are not meant to be “sounded out”
Sights words build reading fluency
Sight words build confidence towards reading
How does the program work?
This program will meet the needs of each individual child according to their current sight word knowledge. We have pre-assessed each child’s ability to recall words that cannot be sounded phonetically. We will send home a new list of five words when your child masters the previous list. Each week we will be checking in to see your child’s progress on their current list. They will check in on their show and share day. We recommend that you practise these words daily with your child or as often as your schedule allows. Our goal is to have your child build a large sight word vocabulary to assist in their reading development.
Sight Word Lists
Sight Word Check-In Days:
Group 1 (Mondays)-
Group 2 (Tuesdays)-
Group 3 (Wednesdays)-
Group 4 (Thursdays)-
Group 5 (Fridays)-
Phonics Instruction: We are using the Jolly Phonics program to help the children learn the sounds that the letters make. Jolly Phonics divides the 44 sounds of English into 7 groups.
Group 1:
Actions:
s Weave hand in an s shape, like a snake, and say ssssss
a Wiggle fingers above elbow as if ants crawling on you and say a, a, a
t Turn head from side to side as if watching tennis and say t, t, t
i Pretend to be a mouse by wriggling fingers at end of nose and squeak i, i, i
p Pretend to puff out candles and say p, p, p
n Make a noise, as if you are a plane – hold arms out and say nnnnnn
Group 2:
Actions:
c k Raise hands and snap fingers as if playing castanets and say ck, ck, ck
e Pretend to tap an egg on the side of a pan and crack it into the pan, saying eh, eh, eh
h Hold hand in front of mouth panting as if you are shaking out of breath and say h, h, h
r Pretend to be a puppy holding a piece of rag, shaking head from side to side, and say rrrrrr
m Rub tummy as if seeing tasty food and say mmmmmm
d Beat hands up and down as if playing a drum and say d, d, d
Group 3:
Actions:
g Spiral hand down, as if water going down the drain, and say g, g, g
o Pretend to turn light switch on and off and say o, o, o, o
u Pretend to be putting up an umbrella and say u, u, u
l Pretend to lick a lollipop and say l, l, l, l, l, l
f Let hands gently come together as if toy fish deflating, and say f, f, f, f, f, f
b Pretend to hit a ball with a bat and say b, b, b
Group 4:
Actions:
ai Cup hand over ear and say ai, ai, ai
j Pretend to wobble on a plate and say j, j, j
oa Bring hand over mouth as if you have done something wrong and say oh!
ie Stand to attention and salute, saying ie, ie, ie
ee or Put hands on head as if ears on a donkey and say eeyore, eeyore.
Group 5:
Actions:
z Put arms out at sides and pretend to be a bee, saying zzzzzz
w Blow on to open hand, as if you are the wind, and say wh, wh, wh
ng Imagine you are a weightlifter, and pretend to lift a heavy weight above your head, saying ng…
v Pretend to be holding the steering wheel of a van and say vvvvvv
oo OO Move head back and forth as if it is the cuckoo in a cuckoo clock, saying u, oo; u, oo
Group 6:
Actions:
y Pretend to be eating a yogurt and say y, y, y
x Pretend to take an x-ray of someone with an x-ray gun and say ks, ks, ks
ch Move arms at sides as if you are a train and say ch, ch, ch
sh Place index finger of lips and say sh sh sh
th th Pretend to be naughty clowns and stick out tongue a little for the th, and further for the th sounds (this and thumb)
Group 7:
Actions:
qu Make a duck's beak with your hands and say qu, qu, qu
ou Pretend your finger is a needle and prick thumb saying ou, ou, ou
oi Cup hand around mouth and shout to another boat saying oi! ship ahoy!
ue Point to people around you and say you, you, you
er Roll hands over each other like a mixer and say er, er, er
ar Open mouth wide and say ah
Video of all the songs:
Printing Instruction: The program I will be using to instruct proper letter formation is called Handwriting Without Tears. By clicking on the link below you can access the charts that list the verbal cues for how to print both lower case and upper case letters. Please do not use the chart for printing numerals from HWT on this link (they are way too long and confusing). The rhymes I will use for printing numerals are listed further below.
http://mrsvigna.weebly.com/handwriting-handwriting-wo-tears.html
Printing Numerals: here is the link to the rhymes I will use in the classroom:
Check out the documents below from Red Deer Public School District:
Oral Language in the Early Years:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4yZhNPb9VlXQnppSy00cDJ2a0U/view?usp=sharing
Phonological Awareness in the Early Years:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4yZhNPb9VlXa29Ta0J1UFppWmc/view?usp=sharing
Alphabet Knowledge in the Early Years:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4yZhNPb9VlXbjBLTDJtYmg3Nk0
Other Cool Videos:
The video below is a compilation of all the Jolly Phonics Songs. This is great for PRACTISE!
The song below is excellent for helping the kids see and hear the connection between the visual grapheme (printed letter) and the sound it stands for (phoneme).
"What Do the Letters Say?"