1st Grade Phonics/Spelling: Learning to Read/Write Letter Combinations with Phonics Dance

This is an ongoing class that incorporates songs/movement; anchor charts; teacher modeling/directing; strong student engagement/participation; and visual, auditory, and kinesthetic modalities – including Phonics Dance* - to strengthen the learning process.  “Chunking” is a decoding strategy that teaches and trains the eye to recognize letter combinations in words, rather than letter-by-letter.  When learners become confident in these word chunks, you will see improvement in phonemic awareness, which will directly affect reading fluency, accuracy, and writing development.
*used with permission by Ginny Dowd (creator of Phonics Dance)

Here is what you can expect during each meeting:
Review (quick review of previous patterns)
Pattern Introduction (learners will be exposed to 10-12 words containing the weekly patterns)
Phonics Dance (we will put movement and rhyme to each phonics pattern)
Tap it Out (we will tap out parts and decode the word together)
Word Detective (we will identify words within a sentence with the patterns of the week)
Catch-and-Spell (we will encode several words with the weekly pattern) 
Word Sort (we will create a word sort with each pattern, and use pictures to determine the correct word)
*Fix the Sentence, if time (we will read a sentence together and correct the mistakes)

Here is a schedule of what will be covered each week during this 18-week course:
Week of November 25th: /sh/ and /th/
Week of December 2nd: /qu/, /ch/, and /wh/
Week of December 9th: /wr/, /kn/, and /ph/
Week of December 16th: /all/, /ink/, and /ank/
Week of December 23rd: **QUARTERLY BREAK**
Week of December 30th: /ing/ and /ed/
Week of January 6th: /ace/ and /ice/
Week of January 13th: /tion/ and /ion/
Week of January 20th: /dge/ and /ture/
Week of January 27th: /ai/ and /ay/
Week of February 3rd: /ee/ and /ea/
Week of February 10th: /igh/, /oa/, and /ow/
Week of February 17th: /ue/, /ui/, and /ew/
Week of February 24th: /aw/ and /au/
Week of March 3rd: /oo/
Week of March 10th: /ow/ and /ou/
Week of March 17th: /oi/ and /oy/
Week of March 24th: /ar/ and /or/
Week of March 31st: **QUARTERLY BREAK**
Week of April 7th: /ir/ and /er/
Week of April 14th: /sh/ and /th/
Week of April 21st: /qu/, /ch/, and /wh/
Week of April 28th: /wr/, /kn/, and /ph/
Week of May 5th: /all/, /ink/, and /ank/
Week of May 12th: /ing/ and /ed/
Week of May 19th: /ace/ and /ice/
Week of May 26th: /tion/ and /ion/
Week of June 2nd: /dge/ and /ture/
Week of June 9th: /ai/ and /ay/
Week of June 16th: /ee/ and /ea/