🔤 Phonics and read-along

Beginning readers start the reading block with a short phonics session at their stage: new sounds taught through keyword pictures (the first sound in snake), tapping which letters make a sound, sound boxes (hear a word, put the letters for each sound in a box), reading five words aloud, and a few heart words learned by heart. Two sessions at 90% or better move them to the next stage. Their story is then checked by code word by word: every word uses only sounds they've been taught, so they never meet a word they can't sound out. After they read and answer, Luna can read it aloud with each word lighting up, then they read it again while a ghost moves at their first read's pace. The first read is the one that counts for moving up; re-reads never do.

Systematic phonics and readable text are the strongest evidence-based ways to teach reading; repeated reading with a model builds fluency.

In the Reading block every school day (reading levels up to vowel teams). The library's Read it to me uses the same read-along.

1. Sit with your kid for sound boxes the first few days.
2. Say the keyword with them: sss, snake.
3. Cheer the ghost race, not the speed number.
4. To have a kid learn to read in Spanish instead: Kids → the kid → Reading language → Español → Save. Spanish has its own sound ladder (syllables: ma, me, mi…), stories and levels.

Sound cards with pictures, letter tiles for sound boxes, words with colored sound dots, and a ghost 👻 when they re-read.