This class will meet two times per week for five weeks. These ten lessons are designed to build your child's phonological awareness. Students with strong phonological awareness can understand and manipulate the sounds that make up words. Being able to do this is critical for literacy development. 

These lessons are highly structured, but there are plenty of opportunities to have fun too. For these lessons, expect your child to engage through lots of verbal responses.  

What we'll do:

We learn about words that rhyme, and we become keen observers of the sounds at the beginnings and endings of words. Students won't just listen passively. They'll say these sounds aloud and notice patterns along the way. We practice essential reading skills such as blending, which they can use whenever they meet a new word in the wild. 

In each lesson, we play a game and read a story to reinforce and apply what we've learned.  The books we use are all selected from the Reading A-Z library.  I project the books onto the screen so that your child can follow along as I read. I model fluent, expressive reading for them. We wrap up with a brief discussion of each book. 

My teaching philosophy:

I believe that students learn best when they are not afraid to try. I operate off of and encourage a growth mindset in my lessons. I also provide an encouraging and safe environment for students. My purpose is to empower students to grow their reading skills while also having fun with their learning. 

Common Core State Standards addressed in these lessons include:

For Kindergarteners:

Phonological Awareness:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.2
Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.2.A
Recognize and produce rhyming words.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.2.B
Count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.2.C
Blend and segment onsets and rimes of single-syllable spoken words.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.2.D
Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words.1 (This does not include CVCs ending with /l/, /r/, or /x/.)

For 1st graders:
Phonological Awareness:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.2
Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.2.A
Distinguish long from short vowel sounds in spoken single-syllable words.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.2.B
Orally produce single-syllable words by blending sounds (phonemes), including consonant blends.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.2.C
Isolate and pronounce initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in spoken single-syllable words.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.2.D
Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds (phonemes).

Scheduling note: I do not run classes during federal US holidays. If there is a holiday, I have scheduled the class for the next weekday at the usual meeting time.