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Dr Alice Tang is a phonics instructors who offers a complete 3 day phonics course for preschools in refining teaching methods of literacy in class. Her programme encompasses explicit and systematic phonics approach and this is beneficial not only for teachers but also parents who are looking to help their child in developing early literacy. She provides a short video of a child introducing the letter sounds.

This is linked to reading and viewing in the Learning Continuum Model of which the children learn literacy through phonological awareness which leads to understanding of the text.

In the collaborative paradigm, families are collaborators or participants in the attempt to educate their children (Amatea, 2013). With the participation of both teachers in school and families at home in helping children developed in literacy, the child will be able to benefit from this two prong approach. The learning will be concrete and children can seek help from both parties.

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Doctor of Education
The University of Western Australia

Master of Science
Early Childhood Education
Wheelock College

Master of Education
Educational Leadership & Management
RMIT University

Alice's involvement in Singapore's preschool arena spans more than a decade. She is a Phonics Instructor and an active teacher trainer specialising in the implementation, modes of assessment and management of preschool literacy programmes. Her recent work involves developing customised literacy programmes and providing professional development services to preschools.

She has special interest in:

early literacy development,

literacy instruction,

teacher training and

educational publishing.

She is also the founder of EdVenture Books, the exclusive distributor of major renown educational materials to parents and preschools in Singapore.

Pre-register now to avoid disappointment!

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Doctor of Education The University of Western Australia Master of Science Early Childhood Education Wheelock College Master of Education Educational Leadership & Management RMIT University Alice's involvement in Singapore's preschool arena spans more than a decade. She is a Phonics Instructor and an active teacher trainer specialising in the implementation, modes of assessment and management of preschool literacy programmes.

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In this video, it teaches how to make a sentence using the 'naming part' and the 'telling part' and the things to lookout for when forming a sentence. Naming part is the who and the what of the sentence while the telling part is what's the action of the who and what in the sentence. An example of a naming part would be 'My parents' and for the telling part would be 'brought me to the toy store'.

When we combined the sentence, it says 'My parents brought me to the toy store'. Prepare a bunch of naming part cards and telling part cards and children can do a mix and match to form a sentence and see if the sentence fits. Children can identify naming part card by looking at the first letter of the word if it's in uppercase and the telling part card has a punctuation at the end of the word. When children identified both cards, they can copy the sentence into a book. When children have completed matching all the cards, they can come up with their own topic to write.

This relates to the writing in the Learning Continuum Model whereby children learn to create text through matching the cards and forming a sentence before writing it to help children get started in writing.

Each phase of the writing process should be taught to children, and they should be given the opportunity to practice it (Fellowes & Oakley, 2014, p. 363). With this activity, the children are introduced to vocabulary and gain confidence with practice to think and form their own sentences and eventually expand their ideas.

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How to Write a Sentence | SENTENCE WRITING in Kindergarten, First, and Second Grade

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This easy activity in the learning continuum model connects with the speaking and listening part of which the child is required to listen and interacts by answering questions.

Need ideas to keep the children occupied while traveling by car, bus or train rides? Reading aloud is the simplest way to keep your child entertained throughout your journey. The texts chosen should be appropriate for children's listening comprehension and interest (Fellowes & Oakley, 2014, p. 272). Allow the child to choose the book of their choice so that they can look forward to the reading aloud during travel and read it with your voice by creating intonation and use facial expressions to show how the characters are feeling which captures their attention. They are exposed to new terminology, topics, sentence patterns, and different types of texts (Fellowes & Oakley, 2014, p. 273).

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Teaching Strategies for Early Childhood Education

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Strategies for Reading Aloud to Young Children

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Meal Time Resource - Describe the food! (Favourite)

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Meal Time Resource - Describe the food! (Favourite)

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Children are encouraged to describe the food on the table instead of saying the name of the food. Instead of saying blueberries, children will think of ways to describe the colour, shade or shape of it such as the dark blue tiny balls.

When the child mentions the words 'dark blue', we can evolve the question to allow children to express themselves and let the conversations flow in an open-ended manner by asking "How does the colour dark blue makes you feel?". Through such conversations, we can  build upon their vocabulary by introducing new words during meal time.

This relates to speaking and listening from the Literacy Continuum Model which allows the child to listen to  communicate with their family.

Children will have more opportunities to communicate about their own interests, and the teacher will be able to participate in a more balanced dialogue with the kid, taking turns (Whorrall & Cabell, 2015). By manipulating further our question through the description of food, children have the freedom to be engaged in conversation using a wide range of vocabulary and express their enjoyment of the topic.

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I set a small "rule" at the breakfast table today that made for a super fun start to our day. The only rule was: You can't say the name of the foods you want, you have to describe them!

Sleepy Eyes + Bed Head + Glass Table = Awesome Photo! :)

We were having steel cut oatmeal (yum!) with toppings for breakfast. So, I set out bowls of fruit, the cinnamon shaker, a jar of jam, and even a little bowl of chocolate chips.

When Cameron asked, "May I please have some small, purple, frozen balls of juiciness?" we couldn't help but laugh.

And when Brooklyn said, "Please pass the jar of blood stuff with little seeds that Grandpa made." Cameron had tears in his eyes, he was laughing so hard.

He wanted blueberries and she wanted raspberry jam, but just asking for those wouldn't have been nearly as fun.

Try this simple rule at your table today. You may not be eating "hot, creamy goodness in a bowl" or shaking "tiny flecks of spiciness" on top, but as long as your meal includes a few options to ask for and describe, I promise it will be a lot of fun!

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I set a small "rule" at the breakfast table today that made for a super fun start to our day. The only rule was: You can't say the name of the foods you want, you have to describe them! Sleepy Eyes + Bed Head + Glass Table = Awesome Photo!

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Game Resource -Snap sight words game with families

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Game Resource -Snap sight words game with families

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Sight words game when played allows the child to eventually keep the word in sight and helps them recognised the word. When a child has seen and worked with a word multiple times, it becomes a sight word (Fellowes & Oakley, 2014, p. 242). This is in line with reading and viewing literacy continuum model which creates phonological awareness. Children who remembers an unusual word will be able to know that similar words to it will sound the same such as 'would' and 'should'.

This game comprises of colourful ice cream sticks. To play this game, write the sight words at the ice cream sticks. Each time a player picks a stick and reads the sight word gets to keep it. If someone picks 'oh snap' ice cream sticks, all the ice cream sticks the player is holding on to goes back to the cup and start all over again. Play it until your child is able to say the sight words confidently. Players are to take turns. If the child is unsure of how to say the words, he can ask an adult to repeat the sight word. This action of asking gives voice to the thoughts that surround learning events, leading to the development of concepts and the creation of new information (Fellowes & Oakley, 2014, p. 17). When the child has memorised the word, encourage a child to ask questions during this game such as 'what is the letter sound of the first letter?', 'What does this word means?' or challenged the child create a sentence with the word.

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Push the flashcards aside and play our favorite high frequency word game: OH SNAP!! This super fun sight word game is a great way to improve reading skills and build reading fluency. Oh Snap! can be tailored to your child's reading ability & is perfect for Kindergarten, 1st Grade, and/or 2nd Grade.

post contains affiliate links.

A few thoughts on teaching reading...

Teaching your little one to read is bittersweet. Your child is learning a new and very important skill!! Yay!

But on the other hand listening to him/her read e-v-er-y s-o-u-n-d painfully slow can make one's ears burn and eyes glaze over...

Or is that just me?!! Is that a little too honest?!

Having taught big brother and now working on reading with my 5 and 7 year old, sometimes it is finding the balance between teaching new sounds and word combinations while being cautious to not overwhelm your new little reader. It's working on words he/she may already know through repetition, so your little one will soon be able to "sight read," while slowly introducing new sounds to make new words.

And that's one of the reasons I love homeschooling... being able to go at the pace of my child. Sometimes that pace is one new sound every couple of days, other times it is three sounds in one day!

A good way to build reading success is to introduce sight words.

What are Sight Words?

Sight words are typically words that are taught through memorization. They are the most common words found in books; words such as: the, and, first, to, then, was, etc. etc!

There are some differing opinions on whether or not to teach sight words. I think teaching both sight words and phonics have value. Now, using Logic of English curriculum has put a different spin on the term "sight word" as some may know it. Through Logic of English, I have learned that instead of simply having the child memorize the word, many "sight words" can be taught through phonics and/or knowing spelling rules first.

I think learning to read and spell by understanding phonics rules will help my beginning reader improve her reading skills. Now once she understands those rules, ironically, those words do become "sight words" as she no longer will have to sound them out, but will intuitively know them!

So How Do You Improve Reading Skills So That You No Longer Sound Every Sound Out?

Give your beginning readers plenty of practice to work on improving their reading fluency by playing games! To keep learning how to read "light" and playful in the midst of constantly adding words my child can read and working on repetition so she knows them by sight, we set up this fun high frequency word game to improve her reading skills.

Oh Snap! High Frequency Word Game

We have been playing this game to work on sight word fluency the past few days, and my daughter LOVES it!! It's a super fun way to improve reading skills. It can be adapted to any word list, so it's great for Kindergarten, 1st Grade or 2nd Grade!

I don't remember where I came across the "Oh Snap!" popsicle stick games or what the theme was, but I did take the idea and create an Oh Snap! USA State Study Game for Big Brother not too long ago. He thrives on games and it was a fun way to work on memorizing the location of the 50 states in a fast paced game setting.

To work on reading skills, I took the basic idea of that popsicle stick game and used it to focus on high frequency words.

Go stock up on popsicle sticks!!

Improve Reading Skills by Playing Oh Snap!

On a set of popsicle sticks, write a word on the bottom of each stick. Choose words that may be on your child's reading list, high-frequency words your child comes across in books, simple CVC words, etc!

On at least two sticks, write the words "OH Snap!". Note to self, you do not want to pick one of these popsicle sticks!!

How-to Play Oh Snap! High Frequency Word Game

Place the popsicle sticks "word-down" into the small container.

When Big Sis and I play, we set a timer for 10 minutes. However, you may choose to simply play "first to five popsicle sticks,wins" or whatever number you decide.

The first player picks a popsicle stick and reads the word. If read correctly, the player gets to keep the popsicle stick. If incorrect, place the stick back into the container. Now because it was essentially a race between Big Sis and I, I would let her continue to try to read the word correctly.

Then, the other player picks up a stick and reads the word.

BUT WAIT! If a player picks up a "OH Snap!" popsicle stick, the player must then put all the popsicle sticks back into the container!!

Thus, continue playing until the timer runs out or you reach X number of sticks.... whatever you choose!

For some fun variations, you can add these popsicle sticks to your container:

Pick 2 (pick two popsicle sticks to read and keep)

Take a Stick (from your opponent)

Read and Keep (set timer for 10 seconds and player gets to keep that many additional popsicle sticks)

etc!

The goal is to make this a fun way to practice reading word s so that your beginning reader will know them automatically-- without thinking and sounding out the letters.

Enjoy this fun game!! We aim to play it at least once a week!

More Ways to Improve Reading Skills

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OH SNAP! Our Favorite High Frequency Word Game

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Push the flashcards aside and play our favorite high frequency word game: OH SNAP!! This super fun sight word game is a great way to improve reading skills and build reading fluency.