Jolly Phonics

Hello Everyone! I apologize for not blogging this past week. We have finally settled in after our vacation (truthfully Miss Kim had to recover from camping) and then we have been preparing for both of my boys to start school this week. Both my Kindergartner and second grader LOVE school this year. YAY!!! I can't not even begin to explain what a huge relief this is. Now let's share some exciting things that have been taking place at Achieve Preschool...

Above, you see our two most recent letters that we have learned. Next to each letter I have included a small puppet, similar to the one the children each made and took home. Let me explain the significance of these fun manipulatives.

As I mentioned before, I have recently started using a modified version of a program called Jolly Phonics. I used this program when I taught Kindergarten and loved it for a variety of reasons. First, Jolly Phonics uses a varies of modalities when approaching children's learning. They do this because there are different types of learners. Some children learn by hearing things (auditory learners). Some children need to see things in order to learn concepts (visual learner). Other learn by doing or touching (tactile learners). Due to the fact that children have different strengths as to how they learn, Jolly Phonics has created a program that addresses each modality (auditory, visual, and tactile ), so that no matter what learning style your child possess, their needs will be addressed.

I have modified the program to be used with our preschoolers in the following ways. I will be using the program in alphabetical order. The children are very familiar with the ABC song and I want them to feel comfortable knowing what is coming next. Jolly phonics goes out of order so that children can begin to blend and read words sooner. My goal is to expose the younger children (2yrs-3yrs) to the concept that each letter makes a sound. With the older children (3rs-4yrs), I want them to not only understand that each letter makes a sound, but I want them to internalize what sounds each letter makes. At this point, they will be extremely well prepared for the Kindergarten curriculum.

Jolly Phonics has a hand motion that is associated with each letter sound. For the letter Aa and the /a/ sound, Jolly Phonics has the children use two fingers crawling up their opposite arm. This simulates an ant crawling. As the children do the "ant motion" they make the sound /a/, /a/, /a/. We also attached the ant motion to our Aa song:

Aa says /a/,

Aa says /a/,

Every letter makes a sound,

Aa says /a/.

We also made an ant stick puppet to reinforce this concept. By singing (auditory), looking at the puppet and hand motions (visual), and creating the puppet and using the ant actions (tactile) all of the learning styles are addressed and hopefully the children will begin to internalize these concepts.

We have also worked on the letter Bb. The action for Bb involves pretending to hold a baseball bat and making the /b/ sound while swinging at a pretend ball. Again, we created a popsicle stick puppet and adding the hand motion to our Bb song.

The children have really enjoyed this new phonics program. Please feel free to provide your feedback! Next week we move on to the letter Cc. I can't wait!!!

If you would like to visit the Jolly Phonics Website, it is http://jollylearning.co.uk/