PHONICS

Brief Overview of Kindergarten Phonics Units:

Unit 1: Making Friends with Letters: The first unit immerses children in letters and sounds, rhyme and word play. On each day throughout the unit, we study the names of the students in our class by looking closely at the letters in their name. We have a name celebration for each student and build a name wall! This helps students to get to know one another while also studying phonics.

Unit 2: Word Scientists: In this unit, we focus on letter knowledge, letter-sound correspondence, phonological awareness, and high-frequency words referred to as "snap words". We use songs, games, poems, and nursery rhymes to support phonemic awareness and early reading concepts.

Unit 3: Word Part-Power: Unit 3 really begins to dig deep into phonics study. We begin to use our "word-part power" to grasp the power of phonograms. Students learn that the words at, in, it, and an have word power and can be made into many other words. We introduce digraphs (sh, th, wh, ch) and use them with word parts to make even more words!

Unit 4- Vowel Power: At the start of this unit, we add a new super power: vowel power! We begin to study vowels and distinguishing the short-vowel sounds from one another.

Unit 5- Playing with Phonics: This final unit is designed to be experimental, joyful and fun! Students are introduced to blends and are challenged to think about not only what sounds letters make, but the instances in which those sounds are changed, muted, or manipulated by neighboring letters.

Below are the 54 "snap" words your child will be taught and assessed on throughout the year. These words will be sent home at the beginning of the school year.

me see the I like my look at got

here a and can to do we be

it was went she he how this you  am

in did on up fun get day play say

an for come are love too all ball had

a will go so no by has as him her