Little Kitty Academy

• Help develop speaking and listening skills by having children ask & answer questions and sometimes summarize stories that have been read.
• Make written language meaninful by labeling objects and draw their attention to familiar uses of written language in everyday life, such as signs, recipes, cards, etc.
• Develop recognition of upper and lower case letters.  Also practice writing all the letters.
• Develop phonemic awareness by breaking words down into their seperate sounds.
• Use a variety of listening activities to help children pay attention to the sounds in words and distinguish the smaller units of sound that make up a word.  Clap out syllables, put syllables together to make words, compare words (rhyme, similar sounds, etc).
• Lay foundation of alphabetic principle letter sounds and combined letter-sound patterns.
• Phonics instruction is most effective when regular.
• As they master letter-sounds and begin to sound out basic words provide phonetically controlled material with simple stories they can read on their own.  Also work on sight words that do not conform to the usual letter-sound patterns; the, of, was, etc.
• Encourage writing and using phonetic spelling.  It engages them in actively thinking about the sounds of words and how they are represented. Spelling is not as important at this stage as developing an interest in writing and putting thoughts on paper.

Resources

• magnetic letters & letter flash cards
• letter picture cards(ie, A with an apple) and word-picture cards
• letter/word bingo
• handwriting workbooks
• alphabet and "first words" activity books
• computer software for alphabet, letter sounds & words
• Alphabet books
  • A Was Once an Apple Pie by Edward Lear
  • Alphabears: An ABC Book by Kathleen Hague
  • Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin and John Archambault
  • I Spy: An Alphabet in Art by Lucy Micklethwait
  • On Market Street by Arnold Lobel
• Other Resources
  • Bob Books by Bobby Lynn Maslen
  • The Cat in the Hat ; Green Eggs and Ham ; One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss
  • Dover Publications, 31 East 2nd dStreet, Mineola, NY 11501. Write and request a Children's Book Catalog.
  • Educators Publishing Service (EPS), 31 Smith Place Cambridge, MA 02138-1000 write or call 800-225-5750 for a catalog.
  • Ladybug Magazine; Cricket Magazine Group, 315 Fifth Street, Peru, IL 61354; 800-827-0227
  • Ready . . . Set . . . Read: The Beginning Reader's Treasury compiled by Joanna Cole and Stephanie Calmenson