Since we began our school year, I have continually emphasized how the frequently used words (sight words) and phonemic awareness are the “secrets to reading AND writing”. Sometimes it is hard for students to see this as they are learning to read and write, but the more they practice and continue to learn, this will become evident. Phonological awareness is the integration of all the phonemes (sounds), vowels, digraphs, rules, syllables (closed, open, vowel team, r-controlled, diphthong) in how words are spelled. We will continue to learn these rules as the year progresses. In the meantime, please continue to have your child review the frequently used words (sight words). An updated list can be found on the “Our Learning (Literacy)” under the “Frequently Used Words” heading.

As in the message conveyed in the story, “The War Between the Vowels and the Consonants” by Priscilla Turner, stringing only consonants simply makes sounds and noises. However, when consonants and vowels are used together, they create words. Stringing several words together creates sentences, and when we have several sentences together, we can make paragraphs. The more familiar students become with these components, the stronger they will be as they progress through the grades. These are the foundational skills needed to become not only proficient readers, but proficient writers as well. For this reason, it is important that you child know all of the basic phonemes that were taught from the middle of September to the middle of November. Continue to have conversations with your child about the phonemic lessons they have been learning. Please see the “Our Learning (Literacy)” page under the “Phonemic Awareness” heading to refer to, to help you with these conversations. Also, encourage your child to look for these when your are out and about around the community (e.g., reading street signs, store windows and awnings, billboards).

The English we know and use is a tricky language as it is a combination of different languages (German, Greek, Latin). Each of these languages brings their own rules and therefore, we need to navigate through them to become proficient. There are many exceptions to the rules we know in addition to many homophones. The more we read, the more vocabulary we develop, which helps to strengthen our skills. There is spell check but if we are not sure which witch to use or which there, their, or they’re to use, the spell checker will be useless. I have noticed that “your” and “you’re” are often interchanged in text messages I receive (from adults). For this reason, it is crucial to not only continue encouraging our children to read many kinds of books but also be aware of how the words are composed (which phonemes, vowels, digraph, rules, and syllables (closed, open, vowel team, r-controlled, diphthong) are in the words). It is important to be aware of what is happening in words and to not take this skill for granted. And as noted in the book, The Magic of Letters by Tony Johnston, knowing the letters and how they work is the like unlocking the magic to a world of print.

At the age your child is at, it is hard to imaging that they will be an adult in the not too distant future. As parents, our responsibility is to ensure that our children will be ready to take on whatever adulthood brings for them. Whether your child is ready or not, that day will inevitably present itself. Therefore, we (parents) must ensure that our children are armed with the essential foundations that will help carry them throughout their adulthood.

To put things into perspective, childhood lasts from birth to eighteen years of age. During those eighteen years, there are a few stages of development (infancy, toddler, childhood, adolescence). Regardless of whether they are ready or not, they will be adults at age 18. As parents, our support for our children lasts our lifetime, but your child has to take responsibilities for their actions once they have reached the age of 18. If your child lives to be 100 years old, those first 18 years (18% of their life) must carry them for the remaining 82 years (82% of their life). If they live to be 90 years old, those first 18 years (20% of their life) must carry them for the remaining 72 years (80% of their life). If they live to be 80 years old, the first 18 years (22% of their life) must carry them for the remaining 62 years (78% of their life). Keeping these ratios in mind, this means that the basic foundational skills they learn in the first part of their life (childhood) needs to be solid so they can do well throughout their lifetime.

The essential foundations necessary to become productive and do well in life are skills such as demonstrating responsibility, maintaining an open mindset (growth mindset), perspective taking, being confident with the choices they make, showing respectful behaviour towards others, and being resilient. However, being able to do these skills does not happen magically. Instead, they are skills that have to be encouraged, nurtured, and practiced many, many times. By allowing our child the opportunities, no matter how small (holding their own backpack, doing chores around the house, picking up after themselves) begins the process of building these essential skills. Yes, it is easier (and faster) as adults to do these instead of waiting for your child to do it, but in essence you are taking away a learning opportunity from your child. It’s easier for us to do it because we have done them so many times, but what is this teaching your child? Even ensuring that we arrive to school on time everyday is helping to practice arriving on time for work, events, or engagements we have made with acquaintances.

Without experiencing the whole situation, there is an unclear understanding of what can happen and what natural consequences may occur, be it positive or negative. Safety is always paramount so if safety is not an issue, allow your child the opportunity to experience it rather than taking or robbing them of that experience. If we are always navigating and resolving an issues they encounter, how will they know how to handle it if it happens again? Further, natural consequences such as having to wait, disagreements with others, losing a game, or things not going the way we had wanted or expected are things that happen in life. If our children have not encountered these kinds of ‘hiccups’ as a child, what will  happen when something more serious occurs when they are older? Being able to navigate the small bumps helps us to gain experience and strengthen our problem solving skills. As parents, we can help our child navigate what to do by giving suggestions and encouragement, but we should not do it for them. Again, if safety is not an issue, allow your child to experience the opportunity. After all, “experience is your best teacher”.

Finally, we need to role model the behaviour we want to see in our child. Keeping this in mind, as part of our development children are born to watch and hear things. From there, we copy and mimic everything we see and hear. As we grow older, we use our learned knowledge to progress. Children’s hearing is really sharp when they are little and therefore hear many things, even the things we think they cannot hear. If we are whispering, they tend to listen more carefully as they know they shouldn’t be listening. Therefore, your child is listening and watching what you say and do, so role model the behaviour you want to see in your child.

The act of reading is a very complex task, especially for the young reader. As adults, we sometimes forget all the necessary components for reading to occur. For many of us, we have been reading for a long time, and since we have been doing it for a long time, we forget how we learned and feel that things just “happened naturally”.

However, reading is a very complex task. There are essentially two components to reading. The first component is decoding. This is where the emerging reader learns the mechanics of the reading process and happens to be where most grade 1 students are at. The second, and more essential component, is the comprehension. Comprehension is understanding what the words are trying to convey. As emerging readers, the decoding is a crucial step and the main focus so that when the reader becomes stronger, the focus can then turn to comprehension, which is actually the key component in reading and ultimately learning the material.

One component essential to the emerging reader is becoming acquainted with the “frequently used words” (sight words or common words). Unfortunately, many of the words in early readers and board books do not follow the phonemic rules. Examples of these kinds of words include: the, of, because, said, some, have. For this reason, consistent repetition of these words is an essential step in helping to build reading fluency. One way this repetition can be done is by reading the flashcards frequently and consistently. Another way is by reading and looking at books often so that when we recognize the printed words, we can better transfer that understanding contextually. Therefore, reading with parents, older siblings, and other adults helps this transformation take place.

Another component to decoding is phonemic awareness. This is our focus presently and needs to become a solid foundation before reading can take place. Phonemic awareness is knowing the individual sounds (phonemes) that a word makes to help in sounding out unfamiliar words. The phonemes can be the individual letter sounds, digraphs, vowel team syllables, or r-controlled syllables combined with an understanding of the heard vowels when saying the word (i.e.  closed syllable, open syllable, magic e). The more familiar a reader is with the phonemes the easier reading becomes.

Once a reader has an understanding of the sight words and phonemic awareness, fluency will begin to emerge. Fluency is the flow in which the words are read and this cannot occur if the reader has to stop and sound out each word. That is why recognition of the sight words are crucial to building fluency.

This phonemic awareness helps to build the vocabulary and an understanding that words follow certain rules. The sight words and an understanding of phonemic awareness is not only important in building stronger readers, but also becomes helpful during the writing process especially when it comes to homophones. The spell check function does not detect an incorrect use of there, their, or they’re even though the word is spelled correctly. Again, the more books and stories read, the greater the knowledge and spelling skills.

As readers become stronger, it is important that reading continues to be modelled so that other cues continue to be strengthened by reading aloud to them. Reading according to the punctuation is necessary so that correct meaning can be conveyed. Voice inflection and expression are also needed to gather the correct information. Further, dialogue and conversations about the materials helps to strengthen the overall understanding of what was read. Asking various questions about the story helps children to recall, reflect, and think about what was read. Although audio books and stories are good in listening to reading being modelled, the interactions with other people through the conversation that occurs about the story ultimately strengthens children’s learning.

Welcome to another school year. I hope that the transition back to routines have gone smoothly. As we begin a new school year, please remember that you (parents) and I (classroom teacher) are a team in the growth and development of your precious children. I feel privileged that I am your child’s teacher this year.

Our job as the community of adults surrounding the children we care for is to provide a safe and nurturing environment so children can grow into strong, successful, self-sufficient, resilient members of the community.  One of the ways we can help our children is to be supportive when adversity or challenges come their way and not doing it for them.  It is important to remember that although we don’t want to see our children hurt, if it is a challenge that they can overcome with no harm, we need to let them face it by letting them experience it.  Safety is paramount, and yes, it may be painful as caregivers to watch, but how will children learn if they are not allowed to experience it? Not being able to deal with each challenge will be much worse as the challenges become more difficult, especially as they grow older.  The best way to help your child is allowing your child to “do it themselves” and standby to encourage them. If they need consoling, standby with caring words and help them talk it out. Help your child to see what happened and how they can change things for the next time so not experience the same feeling again.  Making mistakes is a critical part of learning. If we continue to do what we already know over and over again, how is this developing further and stronger? Working out what happened, reflecting back on what went wrong and looking at what can be done differently the next time is where the learning takes place.  If children do not encounter challenges and hiccups along the way, how will they be able to handle something that is more challenging? How will they manage to handle challenges if they have not had an opportunity to work through adversity?  Being able to face the challenge, learn from it, and bounce back stronger is what we want our kids to be.  Building resilience does not happen magically by a wave of a wand. Resilience needs to be nurtured and strengthened through encouragement and guidance. After all, building resilient children who will become stronger adults ready to embrace any situation is our goal as caregivers.