Literacy

PHONICS

Phonics is the understanding that there is a predictable relationship between phonemes (the sounds of spoken language) and graphemes (the letters that represent them in written language). In Kindergarten we have a systematic and explicit approach to teaching phonics. Each week the students learn 2 new phonemes. They learn how to write these phonemes, how to properly say their sounds, how to recognise them in words and how to blend them together with other phonemes to decode (read) words. Students in Kindergarten regularly read decodable texts to practise their phonic knowledge.

WHAT HAPPENS IN LITERACY GROUPS?

Most days the students will participate in group activities related to Literacy. Each activity will focus on the development of a skill relating to the outcomes in the English Syllabus.
The teacher will assign each student to a group according to their learning needs. Groups are flexible and can change weekly, in order to keep up with students’ evolving skills.
The teacher will work with the students in small groups of 3 to 6 to explicitly teach reading and writing. Students not working with a teacher participate in carefully planned independent tasks to strengthen their literacy skills.
Examples of other activities that students may do are:

- alphabet games focusing on sound identification

- building simple words using magnetic letters

- playing online educational games

- working on rhyming skills

- handwriting

- working on fluency and sight word identification

- activities designed to increase vocabulary

- practice with stretching words and blending sounds

- working on retelling stories and remembering key details

- reading with a peer or reading independently