Does your student need an interactive way to practice the alphabet?  If your child has had a solid introduction to letters and sounds, allow them to join me for this animated Zoophonics adventure to keep their alphabet skills sharp and ensure kindergarten success. 

This phonics-focused class offers a multi-sensory approach for practicing the alphabet by using animal visuals, sounds, and movements.   Including visual, auditory, and tactile activities allows for diverse students to build their phonetic skills with ease. With an a-typical scope and sequence, students are taught sounds before letter names and lowercase letters before capitals. This is because we use sounds rather than letter names when reading, and 95% of our reading includes lowercase letters.  The goal is to efficiently allow children to read as soon as possible.  Zoophonics works so remarkably because each lowercase alphabet is formed by an animal that is shaped like the letter and begins with the same sound.  For example, our first friend is Allie Alligator, who winds into the shape of lowercase "a" and says "/a/" with alligator movements.  The visual and kinesthetic reinforcement gives the brain a hook to remember when decoding words in reading and encoding words in writing.  Students grow to love the animal visuals and easily relate to the phonetic sounds for lowercase, then capital letters.  This mastery of sounds later smoothly translates to letter names, which will be used in spelling and writing.  

During the course of this class, students will practice letter sounds and signals, letter names, letter formation, and  blending, while engaging in literacy activities that include games, songs, movement and writing.  Students will quickly review all letter sounds in every class but focus on a few for specific activities. Basic listening and writing skills are needed for success in this class.  The more participatory students are willing to be, the more likely they will experience success.  Repetition is vital for retention; therefore, some practice at home may be necessary for students to maintain skills learned in class. Students will be given activity sheets and optional animal flash cards weekly for practicing the sounds and signals.  Each week, students may choose to manipulate letters from the animal grid on the blending board if they find it helpful.  Follow up classes in letter blending or at-home practice with games is recommended.  Please refer to the outline below for details about individual classes.  Because most students would have learned many letter names prior to this class, it is possible that letter names are mentioned in the first four weeks, but the activities will focus on the sounds. Letter names will be focused on more heavily beginning in week 5.    

Week of Sept 9:     Identify sounds and blend words using letters a-g  
Week of Sept 16:   Identify sounds and blend words using letters h-n  
Week of Sept 23:   Identify sounds and blend words using letters o-t
Week of Sept 30:   Identify sounds and blend words using letters u-z  

Week of Oct 7:       Identify letters a-g and  blend vc words  (at, up, on, etc)        
Week of Oct 14:     Identify letters h-n and blend cvc -at words    
Week Oct 21:         Identify letters o-t and blend cvc -et words    
Week Oct 28:         Identify letters u-z and blend cvc -ig words   

Week of Nov 4:      Match capital/lowercase letters A-G  and blend cvc -ot words   
Week of Nov 11:    Match capital/lowercase  letters H-N and blend cvc -ug words  
Week of Nov 18:    Match capital/lowercase  letters  O-T and blend cvc -an words   
No class November 25
Week of Dec 2:      Match capital/lowercase  letters U-Z and blend cvc  mixed vowels   


So whether you student is in preschool or kindergarten, or needs remediation on letters and sounds for a higher grade level, this class is sure to deliver great fun and give your child a wonderful foundation for reading and phonics success!  Kindergarten common core objectives for print and phonics are addressed in this course.