4-5 Reading, Writing & Literacy
Our 4-5 pre-reading program uses a combination of phonics and whole language with a strong emphasis on phonemic awareness. Writing activities begin with tracing sandpaper letters and numbers and progress to paper and pencil work at each child’s individualized pace. During this year children practice writing their names as well as individual letters.
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Each week, students practice letter recognition and writing on paper and then place their work in a Portfolio, a systematic collection of their accumulated papers which can be used to observe progress over time. These activities are reinforced with weekly social studies themes to increase vocabulary. Listening and comprehension activities, rhyming, and language experience stories add to giving children the sense that words have meaning and literature is fun. During the first month of school, children are introduced to beginning readers, phonics, word families and sight words. Literacy songs, phonics games and hands-on learning centers increase each child’s attention-span and independent learning skills.