Our Unique Teaching Program Learning Letters and Beginning Sounds

How do we have such success in teaching children their letters and sounds?

At ED Specially 4U we are very proud of the success we achieve in teaching our students their letters.  Why is our program so successful?

At ED Specially 4U we offer our student's instruction following current 'BEST PRACTICE' teaching methods.

We use a multi-sensory approach to teach important concepts that allows learning to be appropriate for all students and their individual needs.

PHONICS

As we have detailed in our blog on 19th October, 2014 - Reading and Phonics - the ED Specially 4U way

http://edspecially4u.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/reading-and-phonics-ed-specially-4u-way.html
we teach letters and their sounds explicitly.  This blog describes how we introduce the letters using the Letter Star resource, as well as individual readers, hands-on learning activities including fun ways of achieving letter formation and craft activities.  Learning through these explicit and hands-on activities achieves great success for our students.

Once we have taught the letters and their sounds explicitly, we then use the ED Specially 4U Initial Sound games to reinforce and challenge these skills for our students.
WE MAKE LEARNING FUN

THE MOST IMPORTANT REASON THAT WE ARE UNIQUE 

The importance of continuing the learning with our custom made resources, allows our students to reinforce the sounds with the same unique ED Specially 4U graphic and colour system.  The graphic and colour system means that children have additional ways to remember the letters and their sounds - which makes learning easier at this early stage.  These graphics and colours can later be removed and other 'standard' resources can be used to reinforce the letters and their sounds. 

ED BINGO 

 

 

 Letters are reinforced using the graphics taught in the LETTER STAR resource.  This resource contains 3 FUN games in 1.  Match lower case letters to the same letter on the bingo card, match graphics that start with the lower case letter on the bingo card, or match the upper case letter to the bingo card lower case letter

ED's OLD MAID

 Following the normal rules for Old Maid, you need to match pairs - letter to graphic card, look out for the ED cards to make it even more fun

Letter BINGO

 Match the starting sound with each graphic on the bingo card to be the winner

Letter MATCH IT

 A matching game with a twist.  Fill up the 3 squares beside each letter with graphic cards that start with that letter sound

MEMORY MATCH IN SMALL GROUPS OR WHOLE CLASS GROUPS

 Memory match is always so much fun.  These cards come with coloured backgrounds to reinforce the learning, or white backgrounds to ensure that the student has learnt the sound

Sorting Sounds

 Sort the graphics to match the sound mats

Letter Jump

 Letter jump is so versatile that it is used regularly in our program.  Students jump on the letter, and state it's name, sound and/or a word that starts with that sound.  Combining movement also ensures deeper understanding of the task

All resources are available at www.edspecially4u.com.au

Resources are also available in PDF

 

Letter Sounds are taught as are all activities at ED Specially 4U - 

For the Love of Learning

Donna

 

Starting School 2015

School starts in just a few weeks!!

The first day of BIG school is coming for our students.  We are so pleased with the progress of our students, we know that the school experience will be a fun extension of the skills that we have introduced in our FANTASTIC School Readiness Program.

As both a parent and a teacher, I offer you these suggestions:

Being Prepared for the First Day

STAY CALM
Our children are naturally greatly influenced by their parents.  You possibly have some nervous tension about your child's first day.  This is a very normal feeling for parents - we might be reflecting on our own school experiences, or worrying about new concerns: who your child will sit with, will they make friends? will they find the bathroom when they need to?  will they drink their water?.... the list can go on.
It is of upmost importance that this trepidation is NOT passed onto your child.
On the first day, help your child arrive at school calm and collected by keeping your own emotions calm.

WHO SHOULD TAKE YOUR CHILD SCHOOL ON THE FIRST DAY?
This is of course, a very personal decision.
Schools either collect the kindergarten children efficiently and invite parents in to classrooms quickly or ask parents to leave straight away.  Whatever the schools policy, it is best not to bring a cast of a thousand relatives to farewell your new BIG school student.  If lots of relatives attend the child's first morning at school, it can cause stress for your child as they have to leave the large comfort zone of family to go with their new teacher and classmates.
As a teacher, I have always appreciated just the main caregivers attending the first morning.  If you would like to celebrate this important occasion in your child's life, maybe a celebratory afternoon tea after school would be a sensible option.

LABEL YOUR BELONGINGS
This is a boring and time consuming task, however, you will appreciate your organisation within the first week of school.  Even the best labelled child will manage to lose drink bottles, hats and jackets.  Without labels, you will rarely find the misplaced item.  Spend these last few weeks making sure that everything that is not attached to your child, is labelled with their name!  You will thank me for it :)

GETTING TO SCHOOL SAFELY
Your little school goer is only just older than the preschooler they were at the end of last year.  Make sure that you have organised safe options for getting to and getting home from school. You have possibly heard the stories about the difficult process of parking at schools in the afternoon.  No school ever has enough parking for all of the parents that need to collect their children.  Think through a safe plan in advance.

SCHOOL LUNCHES
Use this time during the school holidays to practice school lunch preparation as well as training your child to use their lunch box independently.
Don't forget to cut difficult pieces of food such as fruit - an investment in an apple slinky may be invaluable!
A lot of school snack packaging is very difficult for little hands to open.  It is good practice to snip corners off packaging when you prepare the recess and lunch so that your child can easily access their food without having to wait in the queue for the teacher to open children's lunches.
As I have mentioned in a former blog, make sure that your child understands the difference in food items between recess and lunch items.  This is easily done with the use of  a paper bag for recess, or a lunch box with separate compartments.
While I am talking about it - send as few 'bad food choices' as possible!  A high sugar diet at recess and lunchtime can wreak havoc on the classroom following these play breaks.

A HEALTHY BREAKFAST
Make sure that you allow time each morning for your child to eat breakfast.  This is a really important meal for your child's day.  Essential learning takes place in classes during the morning, if your child is feeling hungry they may miss these important skills and not be able to concentrate effectively

MODEL FRIENDLY BEHAVIOUR
Your child is looking to you at all times for your attitude to their new environment.  They don't realise that you may never have been in this situation either - in their eyes, the parents know everything (hold onto that moment because they will soon start to question that!!)  Ensure that you model friendly behaviour to the teachers and to the other parents/children that you meet.  This will relax your child who will see you interacting in a happy manner and then be confident to do so themselves.

HAVE A SPECIAL MORNING PLANNED
The whole 'starting school' experience finishes very quickly on that first morning.  The children are deliberately lead away and settled quickly with minimum fuss to ensure a successful start for their school career.  Parents are left behind - and this is how it may feel.  Prepare now for that feeling of deflation that you may encounter (sometimes parents have a feeling of elation - there is no right or wrong feeling!! Your child starting school can be a great relief for both your child and yourself - especially after this long holiday period, that is ok too).  Whatever emotion you may feel organise a 'celebration' plan.  You have loved and nurtured your preschooler to now be ready to progress to Primary School.  Celebrate your successful parenting moment!! Plan a coffee with friends, or go to a movie to distract you.  This is an important day for the parents too - we tend to forget this with all of the lead up organisation for the children.

AFTER SCHOOL
Make sure that you arrive at school early so that you can see how the afternoon routine works.  Your child will appreciate seeing you as they walk out of their classroom. BE PREPARED your children may tell you NOTHING about their day.  This will continue to be the norm for your school aged children - you need to learn the art of careful questioning to find out the facts - that is for another day.  Find out who your child sat with, did they like their teacher, encourage any positive talk that is possible.  Also prepare yourself that primary school is the next progressive step in your child's life.  There will be systems for feedback from the teachers.  Unlike preschool you may not always be able to speak with your teacher everyday about your childs' progress.  Usually no news is good news at school - teachers will approach you if they have any concerns.

Be relaxed, and anticipate that your kindergarten student will be tired after their first whole day of structured learning.  Kindergarten can be a tiring year for your child - ensure they get an early night so they can do it all again tomorrow!

Remember this special moment.  There is only one first day of kindergarten - enjoy this next step in your child's development

For the Love of Learning

Donna

Santas Elves - Random Acts of Kindness

In this crazy and busy season it is so easy to get caught up in the dreaded TO DO list.
Everyone is rushing and worrying about gifts, if there is enough food and when to see everyone that needs to be remembered at this time of the year (Huge Sigh)

How do our children feel in all of this madness?  Yes, the crazy season affects all of us.

This year I wanted my children to think about something other than the gifts they were going to get and what Christmas can give them.  Luckily, they were exposed to this in a small way at their schools, when we had the opportunity of donating a present to a charity as well as completing 'Operation Christmas Child' (have a look at this if you have not seen it before - this was a very special activity to do: http://operationchristmaschild.org.au/)

It has been lovely for them to try their hand this year at Secret Santa.   This gave them a lovely opportunity to actually choose the gift they wanted to give to someone in the family.  They went in pairs and purchased the gifts themselves as well - which made it even more special.

I am always trying to think of ways to extend the sibling bond, and working within the family unit to really care about each other.  I loved watching everyone post 'elf on the shelf'' blogs and instagram pictures, and decided to create:

 Santa's Elves-Random acts of Kindness

This has been a fun activity.  Each day when they peeled back the layer on their advent calendars they also had to choose a Santa's elf lucky dip from their Santa hats.

Inside the Santa hats they found a square of paper with today's activity written on it.  They then had to achieve their 'Act of  Kindness' to receive the advent treat.  I was thrilled to see my children take this activity on with loads of enthusiasm.  They were so excited to see what Santa Elf activity they would be doing each day.

Unfortunately, 25 days of kindness was too much kindness for my busy children, but it was very successful for approx 15 days of kindness - which was better than if we had not done it at all.  Activities were centred mainly around the family, however there was the odd activity like - buy a friend something from the canteen at school, or offer to help your teacher that related to people outside the family.  I was even thrilled to see that the children would choose each other differently to perform the acts of kindness to, nobody missed out.  I loved receiving a note telling me 3 things they loved about me - but they also chose to do this for each other as well, which absolutely warmed my heart.

This is a busy and crazy time of the year, but it is the special traditions and the added 'Random Acts of Kindness' that you can fit into your day and the day of your children which help to make this holiday season so special.

For the Love of Learning

Donna

Feedback is FABULOUS

Like the parents at our learning programs, I too have the opportunity to sit at my own children's activities.  These activities offer a product, as does ED Specially4U.  As the parent, we are paying businesses to offer a great product and service. Most importantly we are entrusting them to do the best service we can for our children.

I often wait at classes and contemplate feedback that I would like to give the teacher/coach/facilltator, in the aim that it can be acknowledgement of their hard work and dedication and sometimes to offer some advice from a parent perspective.  Often consumers are hesitant to present feedback as we are unsure how it will be received.  I do try to regularly say positive thoughts about how I find the product or service that they are offering.
    
Of course I love hearing positive praise for our programs and our fantastic teachers.   However, I also appreciate when people take the time to offer constructive ideas and suggestions. I want to know that parents believe the programs that we offer are as FANTASTIC as we think they are.   I passionately believe in what we do.  I am so proud of the product and services that we offer, and am proud of the strength of our unique programs.  I also value the feedback of our parents and caregivers.  Our teaching team regularly discuss our program and any changes that we feel are necessary, this is all in the aim of producing the best learning experiences for our families.

In the last couple of weeks we have handed out feedback forms to our families - and we really would like to hear from you.  Any suggestions are taken as constructive, and I feel this assists us to develop the best learning programs.

I have included a copy of the feedback form here, if you missed out on a copy please feel free to download the form and return it to: edspecially4u@bigpond.com

We have already started to receive completed forms.  Thank you to those families who have taken the time to do this already.

To end on a super proud note, I would like to share some lovely comments that we have received so far:

'the teacher is friendly and willing to spend time with me to discuss about my son's development and give suggestions on helping him to get ready to school'

'I am very glad that I found this program for both my kids.  Both kids have been advanced compared to if we hadn't done the program'

'her ability to trace, listen and learn the different phonetic sounds associated with the alphabets'

'mix of singing, reading, learning and arts & crafts'

'I would highly recommend to friends and families'

Thank you for the appreciation and the prompt feedback

For the Love of Learning

Donna

Music and Song- ED Specially 4U

Throughout all of our fun classes we use music to assist the students with their learning.  Music and song is an highly motivating resource that definitely makes LEARNING FUN.  All children (and adults too) learn better when exposed to music in their learning environment.

When I first started teaching in schools, I worked in classes for children with moderate to severe intellectual ability.  This included but was not exclusive to children with autism, children who may have been deaf and blind, non verbal students and students with physical disabilities.  Whilst working in this situation I discovered the necessity of visual support to assist learning and enjoyment (this is in the days before clever computer programs - this was in it's infancy,  and tablets that now assist learning to be motivating!! ok I am feeling old)

In a  time-consuming fashion we created hand drawn and photocopied visual resources to use for our teaching.  My essential teaching kit consisted of motivating singing resources, designed in this fashion.  I fortunately took this with me when I travelled overseas and used this same kit with children in specialised language classes and mainstream infant school classes.

It was of course, then one of the highly important elements to add to the program when designing the ED Specially 4U school readiness program.


As time and technology have progressed, so did the quality of the resources - until they are the motivating, and fun, hands-on resources that we use today. 

The great advantage to visual singing resources is that they offer a motivating opportunity for children to understand the lyrics of the songs, as well as offering a visual cue to sequence the songs in correct order.

Each of the resources use different elements to assist the learner, whether it be velcroed images that peel off, or several pieces in each pack so students can have a hands-on learning experience with them.

ANIMAL SONGS TO REINFORCE COUNTING & LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

These cute and motivating resources teach counting in  forward and backward motion as well as numeral sequencing, as well as giving the students lots of opportunity to explore the rhythm and rhyme of the songs.

 

5 little Speckled Frogs

5 little ducks

6 little ducks

5 Cheeky monkeys jumping on the bed

 

5 Cheeky monkeys swinging from the Trees

5 Grey Elephants

10 in the Bed

3 Jellyfish

 COUNTING & LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT STRENGTHENED THROUGH THE USE OF ORDINARY OBJECTS, such as:

5 Sizzling Sausages

This old Man

 

5 in the bed

10 Green Bottles

LANGUAGE DEVELOPED WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF VISUAL RESOURCES

These singing resources assist our students with turn taking, concept development, choice making and colour identification

 

Wheels on the Bus

Gallump the Frog

Old MacDonald Had a Farm

Sing a Rainbow

I'm a Little Teapot

Hurry, Hurry Fire Truck

 As an addition to our Visual Singing Resources we also offer Singing Choice packs.  These packs offer a choice board with each song kit represented on a single card so that the students can choose a song they would like to sing

Our resources are all available through our website if you would like to purchase any for use at home.  We have 2 folders packed full of singing resources that have been widely purchased for use in preschools, early childhood centres,  special education classrooms, mainstream schools and playgroups/homeschool settings.  We are very proud of this resource and love being able to share this with our students to enhance both their learning and enjoyment.

Visit our website for further details at www.edspecially4u.com.au

For the Love of Learning

Donna

 

Reading and Phonics - the ED Specially 4U way

Introduction to Reading and Phonics: The ED Specially 4U way

Over the past 7 years the ED Specially 4U literacy programs have taught hundreds of children how to  read or started them on their road to literacy.  We are immensely proud of the unique program that has been developed based on over 20 years of classroom instruction.

What is phonics?  Quite simply it is letters and their sounds.

We developed our program using resources that are bright, colourful and motivating.  Our students love learning their letters with refreshing and 'hands on' learning resources.

LETTER STARS

This is our first step to phonics instruction.  Stars are the shape that we use within our program to signify that the sound is a 'beginning' sound of a word.  So from the first, we introduce sounds on these stars as we teach them in relation to real words that start with that sound. 
For example: /a/ is for apple.

Each different letter is given a colour, and this colour remains constant throughout all of our resources to assist in optimum learning.

Each letter has a group of words in which the targetted sound is the beginning of the word.  Coupled with the words is a graphic which can be represented in either line drawing or photograph dependent on the learning styles/ability of the student.  Each letter has 5 graphic cards to correspond with the letter star (with letter x as the only exception, with 3 graphic cards)

Letter Stars

Letters are introduced and letter name and sound is taught at the same time.  This activity becomes a lot of fun when it is presented with our Phonics 4U CD

PHONICS 4 U

This CD reinforces the letter name, sound and the names of each graphic which start with this sound, through repetition that the students quickly learn.

To further practice and reinforce the letter and it's sound we introduce each letter with an ED Specially 4U READER in both A4 and B4 sizes (which allows for classroom use).  Each student holds a B4 reader and completes tasks while looking at the letter which is printed in both Upper and Lower case as well as each of the graphics and their printed word.

B4 Beginning Letter Reader

A4 Beginning Letter Reader

As can be seen in this picture our students enjoy interacting with the reader.  This is a great opportunity to model and practice correct letter writing formation.  Our students also enjoy finding the targeted sound for the week at the beginning of the word - sometimes the words have the sound more than once and as an extension our students find the letter in different places in the word (ie. beginning and ending - 'w' for window).  This activity also allows discussion of what is a letter and what is a word - often something that our students are thinking about for the first time.

Our letters are reinforced with several different resources:

A4 wall display

Wall displays and charts are a fantastic tool to reinforce the letters, their sounds and the words that start with that sound.

a-z Letter Cards

Letter cards are extremely useful and we use these in both the coloured and non-coloured backgrounds.  The coloured backgrounds are used only in the beginning of instruction for those students who require extra support in identifying the letters.  Usually we practice with the non-coloured letter cards when we are starting to blend the sounds together to form words.

For students who have difficulty identifying the letters and recalling their sounds we use the
'3 & 6 Grid matching' activity.  This resource provides support to match the letters only for those who can, or to increase their skill to selecting the correct letter when requested by the teacher, until they are confident to name the letter and it's sound.  This resource is tailor made for our students who require extra learning support.

3 and 6 Grid Matching

Once we introduce the letters we then continue to reinforce them throughout our program as we learn new letters.  We try to do this consistently through games and hands-on learning opportunities to ensure that we are offering a multi-sensory learning approach.

Sometimes we reinforce the letter and sound learning by making playdough letters, writing in sand or shading sandpaper letters.  This can be achieved by using the laminated letter cards as a guide or the children can do this with just the letter as a model.

Each week we enjoy making a craft activity using the beginning sound we have targetted for the week.

/a/ is for ant

Students also practice their letter writing on our customised and personalised writing worksheets

Games are used weekly to reinforce the previous week's learning, and letters are constantly reviewed and reinforced this way. 

Look out for the ED Specially 4U beginning sound games blog to learn more about the games offered in our program.

Learning phonics at ED Specially 4U is a fun and motivating experience

For the Love of Learning

Donna