Hello, So far, I've just been getting acclimated into the classroom. We've been in session for a week and a half so far. I've been looking through the phonics books that we were given (as well as math). I do not really like the way the phonics book is set up. It doesn't start with the letters I think it should start with, it throws random stuff in there... Does anyone have a calendar or schedule/program that they can recommend to me? I've taken all of the worksheets out, and am starting to re-organize them according to what I think may be best. BUT I think that this series will be missing a lot for my kids and it skips over word recognition which I know that more kids need help with. Does anyone have any helpful sites or resources that I can use to supplement this phonics book?? Thanks for any info or tips/advice!
You could incorporate a daily morning message - sometimes have it pre-written and have the kids track the print with you and pick out words/letters/punctuation that they know (circle with a marker to make it interactive) or you could write a sentence or two with the kids watching & they help you to supply letters based on the sounds as you stretch the words. The great thing about MM is that they are exposed to all of the tips and tricks of the eng. language that they otherwise wouldn't really see this early on with a phonics series (for example, the magic E at the end of words like "like" - I call it the magic E because it makes the I say its name. Little things like that make the MM a great tool for instructing the huge span of abilities that you have in your classroom.
I will ahve to check with our kindergarten teacher to see hwat curriculum she uses. I think it is set up excellent and does not go in alphabetical order but goes in the order that is easiet to learn to write and sound out etc. it is kindergarten though, I don't know what your "preschool" is-- at our center preschool is 3 - 4 and pre-K is 41/2 to 5 and then kindergarten is 5s. But I can get the order that they do the letters at least-- I know the work books teach not only phonics but sight words as well and each letterbook has a story that is completed as they go through it--they do one letter book per week.
Sarzacsmom- That would be great! My kids are all 4 turning 5 in the next few months. My overall goal is to just make a yearly plan of what letters/sounds I will teach when and what other reading aspects I will work on. The order in which they teach the letters would be REALLy helpful! I have been doing morning message and we've been doing read alouds, d.e.a.r, etc. I'm just trying to figure out how I want to go about teaching different aspects. Thanks!
school starts tomorrow and I will try to remember to check with the Kindergarten teacher-- I have worked very closely with her and was her assistant for 6 years after working as a one on one witha child in her rooms for 3 until I took over my own room last year. So I know she will help me out ----
I know that there was some research done on introducing the letters whose sounds are similar to their names (T, B, P, D, etc) and how it is more beneficial to the kids, and I used that when I taught K in the past, but now they are saying more and more that kids should be getting the letters through real-world scenarios (more like a morning message) so any formal introduction you do of the letters should be minimal. Not saying I agree with that completely though...but I think a balance of the two is nice. That said, I taught K in one district who got a completely new reading series the year I started and the stupid series started with the letter M - yes M - IMO, that's one of the worst letters to start with other than a vowel, if you're trying to get them to assimilate that MOST letters' sounds are similar to their names...ok, so M is similar to /m/ but way to confuse a little guy, you know?
I havent' had a chance to get theinfo but will defintily try to get it tomorrow-- I knwo the system we use works very well as the kids are reading before the school year ends
okay i didn't get to talk to the kindergarten teacher yet to get the order of the letters bt I ws able to talk to our director and got the name of the publisher and the workbook series--it's published by McMillan/McGraw Hill and it called Beginning to Read WRite and Listen. She also told me that theyhave information about it online--so maybe if you look it up under those titles it willg ive you the order--- I will keep trying to get the info.
I found the order of the letters----This is the order we study the letters: C, O, G, A, D, S, L, I, T, F, E, H, U, B, R, N, M, P, V, W, K, Q, J, X, Y, and Z hope this helps
