Our Learning (Literacy)

Noticing Print

It is important not to take the words we see for granted. To be a good reader, our brain must do many things at the same time to process all the print we see in front of us. It takes awareness and practice to really take notice of the letters and the different rules. In the word “practice”, the first c is a hard c (it is next to a consonant) and the second c is a soft c (a stick vowel follows the c). The word has two syllables so it will have two vowel sounds. Both vowel sounds are short vowels, but their is a silent e at the end of the second vowel. This word does not follow the “magic e” rule but rather has a “silent e”. However, when the word “ice” is by itself, it follows the “magic e” rule.

Syntactic Awareness

I have been saying that English is the most difficult language as there are many rules and many exceptions to the rules. Speaking, reading, and writing are very connected as they express thoughts in the various ways. Syntactic awareness is the rules in which words are written to relay information. Sentences have a who or what at the beginning (also known as the subject) and “did what” which is a piece of information that follows (also known as the predicate). 

During the week of Feb. 2, 2026, we continued our work on syntactic awareness. We know that words need a particular order (syntax) or it sounds funny and does not make sense. Then we brainstormed what makes a good sentence.

Story Workshop

During the week of Jan. 12, we began creating a scene with loose parts and had an opportunity to share it by orally telling the class what they had created. This activity gives the students an opportunity to create and then strengthen their articulation skills by sharing what they made and telling everyone about their scene.  

Story workshop from Jan. 30, 2026.

On Feb. 13, 2026, we focused on characters, which is one of the story elements.

Word Find

To strengthen our practice in looking at the various phonemic rules, word find helps us to hone in on looking for those rules. The photo below shows an example of finding CVC words. These are consonant vowel consonant words.

Components of Reading

Reading has two components, which are decoding and comprehension. In Grade 1, we focus on decoding which is deciphering what the words say. Once we figure out the words, we now have to figure out what the words mean, which is the comprehension. As we strengthen our reading ability, the comprehension becomes more important.

Looking Closely at Language

Looking closely at words is an important skill at trying to decipher or figure out what the word might mean before looking up the meaning. This is a skill that needs to be nurtured and developed by bringing attention to words rather than taking them for granted. While we were talking about recycling with respect to our environment, we looked closely at the word “recycle”. There are two parts to this word that warrant attention. “Re” is a prefix to denote “again” and the word “cycle” exists in words like bicycle, tricycle, or life cycle.

Phonemic Awareness

We began working on phonemic awareness on September 15. Please note that reading and writing go hand in hand. Most often, children will become fluent readers before becoming fluent writers. However, the two go hand in hand and the skills we learn for reading are necessary skills for writing. Please look at the list below to see what we have been working on.  We talked about how letters have names, like we do, but they also have a sound that they say (these are called phonemes).  The slant marks on either side of the letter are called “virgules” (/_/) and they indicate the sound that they make.  Letters are either vowels or consonants. The placement of their tongue, whether the mouth is open or closed, and whether we blow through our teeth change the sound of the letter. Formulation of the sounds (articulation) is important when speaking, but it is important in reading and writing as well. 

The literacy bag has a hearing phone, a mirror, and a reading finger (which will be used later in the year). The hearing phone helps to amplify the sound and the mirror helps student to ensure proper mouth formation, which include the tongue placement, lip formation, and how the air is traveling. Sometimes air comes just from our mouth making a softer sound (such as /s/ or /f/) or it comes from our lungs passing the vocal cords which make the sound louder as it vibrates through our vocal cords.

Letter Sounds/Phonemes

Reading individual sounds helps from left to right is the beginning stage of reading.

We also talked how some sound are continuous sounds (/a/short vowel, /s/, /m/, /l/, /f/, /n/, /o/short vowel) where the sound continues until we run out of breath. Some sounds are quick sounds (/p/, /t/, /u/short vowels). We also talked about how some sounds make a quieter sound, which are usually the sounds where we are just pushing the air out of our mouth such as /s/, /f/, /t/. Other sounds are louder as they pass the vocal cords and are voiced sounds like /m/, /l/, /d/. We would put our hand on our throat to determine whether the sound is voiced or unvoiced. 

• /a/ (short vowel sound as in apple) (mouth wide open, tongue is in the mouth but visible)  
• /s/ (as in snake) (teeth clenched and lips open) 
• /m/ (as in mitten) (lips are together like we are humming) 
• /l/ (as in leg) (tongue is out touching our upper front teeth)  
• /f/ (as in feather) (top upper teeth are over our bottom lip and blow) 
• /n/ (as in nest) (face is scrunched and make a nasally sound) 
• /o/ (short vowel sound as in octopus) (mouth is open make) 
• /t/ (as in teapot) 
• /p/ (as in pig) 
• /u/ (short vowel sound as in up or umbrella)  
• /d/ (as in dog) 
• /c/ (hard c as in cat; usually goes with the round vowels and many consonants) 
• /k/ (as in kite; has the same sound as “hard c” sound) 
• /g/ (as in goat; this is known as a “hard g” sound; usually goes with the round vowels and many consonants) 
• /i/ (short vowel sound as in itch insect) 
• /b/ (as in bat the ball) 
• /r/ (this sounds like ‘ruh’ as in red rabbit) 
• /e/ (short vowel sound as in Ed, elephant) 
• /j/ (as in jam) 
• /h/ (as in hat.  This sound is what is known as “voiced” as we can hear the h sound [/h/]) 
• /v/ (as in vase)  
• /qu/ (/kw/ {k and w sounds together} as in quiet queen.  q in the English language is always together with u.) 
• /w/ (as in wagon) 
• /z/ (as in zebra) 
• /x/ (/ks/ {k and s sounds together} as in fox in a box 
• /y/ (this sounds like ‘yuh’ as in yo-yo, and it only say ‘yuh’ at the beginning of the word) 

During the week of Nov. 10, we learned that there are five vowels (a, e, i, o, u). There are two kinds of vowels: round vowels (a, o, u) and stick vowels (i, e, y – when y travels in the word). When we write CVC words (consonant, vowel, consonant), there is a short vowel sound in the middle. We also learned that c usually goes with the round vowels and the k usually goes with the stick vowels. We say usually because there are always exceptions in English (get, kangaroo) 

With relation to the words that begin with the /k/ sound, words that have a “round vowel sound” after the /k/ usually use a ‘c’ like cat, camp, cot, or cantaloupe, and words that have a “stick vowel sound” after the /k/ sound usually use a ‘k’ like kick, kitten, or keep. ‘Kangaroo’ is the an Australian word so it does not follow the English rule. 

• /hard g/ sound also goes with the round vowels to make words like ‘goat’, ‘gust’, ‘gap’ and the other consonants, ‘great’, ‘greet’ 
• /soft g/ sounds like /j/ when e or i stands beside the g such as ‘George’, ‘giraffe’, ‘ginger’, ‘generation’ (example of some exceptions: get, gift) 
• /hard c/ sound goes with the round vowels to make words like ‘cup’, ‘cat’, ‘cot’ and with the consonants ‘crater’, clear’ 
• /soft c/ sounds like a /s/ when it is next to the stick vowels sounds (e, i, y) in words like ‘celery’, ‘Cecilia’

   

• s that makes the /z/ (sometimes, s will make a /z/ when it is a plural [more than one] in words such as chairs, tables, papers,…, and when it is with the magic e in such examples as nose, rise, these,…) 

Syllables

Syllable – “A word or part of word with one vowel sound or beat”: Evan has two syllables (/e/short vowel in the first syllable, and /v//a/ short vowel /n/ in the second syllable); Alessandra has four syllables (/a/short vowel in the first syllable, /l//e/short vowel /s/ in the second syllable, /s/ /a/short vowel /n/ in the third syllable, and /d/ /ra/ in the fourth syllable) 

• Closed Syllable – the symbol that we use with our hand is a closed fist with our thumb inside, like it is protected by the fingers.  (a closed syllable is a word or syllable where the short vowel is protected by one or more consonants such as ‘cvc’ or ‘cvcc’.  Examples would be cat, bend, fling, toss, or sprung.)  ‘cvc’ is consonant vowel consonant, and ‘cvcc’ is consonant vowel consonant consonant 

• v-e Syllable (“vowel e syllable) – v Syllable (“vowel syllable) – This is the same as Magic e, where the silent e makes the vowel says its own name.  The symbol that we use is an index finger to our mouth with the rest of our fingers closed, palm side facing our neck. 

Consonant Digraph

Consonant digraphs are “two or more letters that make one sound“. 

• ng word family (short vowel a with ng is ang as in bang, fang, gang, hang,…; short vowel i with ng as in sing, zing, ping,…; short vowel o with ng as in long, gong, song,…; short vowel u with ng as in hung, lung, sung,…)  
• nk word family (short vowel a with nk is ank as in tank, hank, bank,…; short vowel i with nk as in pink, link, mink,…; short vowel o with nk as in bonk, conk, zonk,…; short vowel u with nk as in sunk, bunk, hunk,…) 
• sh (s and h together make the /sh/ sound as in hush, fresh, shop, sunshine,…  The digraph ‘sh’ can come at the beginning, middle, or end of a word) 
• th (t and h together make the /th/ sound as in three, with, moth,…  The digraph ‘th’ can be voiced (that, these,…) or unvoiced (with, thought, mother…) (The digraph ‘th‘ can come at the beginning, middle, or end of a word) 
• ch (c and h together make the /ch/ sound as in chair, champ, lunch, or finch,…  The /ch/ occurs at the beginning or end of a word or syllable; when it is at the end of a syllable or word, it is only after a long vowel, vowel digraph, or consonant such as teach, peach, trench or clinch); however, sometimes, /ch/ makes a hard c sound when the following letter is an ‘r’ (Christmas, Christina, chrysanthemum) 

• wh (the w and the h together make the /hw/ sound, but is often accepted as /w/used in words such as when, wham, whelk,… ) 
• v ck (this is “vowel ck” which means that if you hear a /k/ at the end of a syllable and there is a short vowel prior to the /k/, then it has a ck at the end of the word or syllable such as black, tuck, clock, brick, cricket, rocket,…) 

• all (this digraph makes the /ol/ sound and occurs at the end of a syllable as in wallet, ball, squall,…) 
• v tch (this is “vowel tch” which means that if you hear a /ch/ at the end of a syllable or word, and there is a short vowel prior to the /ch/, then it has a “tch” at the end of the word or syllable such as batch, witch, sketch, clutch, hopscotch) 

• v dge (this is “vowel dge” which means that if you hear a /j/ at the end of a syllable or word, and there is a short vowel prior to the /j/, then it has a dge at the end of the word or syllable such as badge, dodge, fridge, hedgehog,…) 

Rules

There are certain spelling rules that we follow to know when to double, drop, or change when spelling. 

• zfsl rule Doubling Rule: “Buzz off Miss Pill” is and acronym that helps us remember which letter we double.   If a word has a short vowel, is one syllable, and ends in /z/, /f/, /s/, or /l/ (ends in a “z” sound, “f” sound, “s” sound, “l” sound), we double the last letter.  Examples are fuzz, cliff, cross, and smell. 

• Magic e: This rule is where the e at the end is silent. “Magic e makes the vowel say its own name.” (a_e, e_e, i_e, o_e, u_e); sometimes when u with the Magic e (u_e). 

Letter Formation

On September 15, we began learning proper letter formation. Printing letters is an important skill to have as it helps guide the students in becoming fluent readers (reading and writing left to right, up to down) and better writers.  Proper letter formation is important in printing to ensure that there are no mix ups (b and d, and e and g, are often written interchangeably which inevitably gives incorrect spelling errors).  At the moment, we are focusing on lower case letters but will move onto upper case letters later on in the year.  

To help the students remember the correct order, these are the sayings we have been using.  Please be reminded that we are not learning the letter formation in order of the alphabet, but in conjunction with our phonemic awareness.  In our class, we refer to the lower-case letters as being “short”, “tall”, or “hang down”.  The “tall” letters (capital letters and numbers included) touch the top and bottom lines, and cut through the middle-dotted line, “short” letters touch the middle and bottom lines, and the “hang down” letters start from the middle line, pass the bottom line and have part of the letter hanging down like our legs hang off of a chair.  My reason for teaching lowercase letters first is because most of the letters in print form are lowercase letters, whether we are reading or writing. Uppercase letters are at the beginning of the sentence, at the beginning of proper nouns, and in a title book, article, poem, chapter, etc. We have practiced printing in the air, printing on someone’s back, and then practicing them on a lined sheet. Please encourage your child to print from left to right, from up to down, so prepare and practice reading. 

• a – circle, line down (short) 
• s – down and around from side to side (short)  
• m – line down, up and over, up and over (short)  
• l – tall line down (tall) 
• f – up and over, tall line down and cross (tall)  
• n – line down, up and over (short) 
• o – down and around and stop (short) 
• t – tall line down and cross (tall) 
• p – line down and curve to the right (hang down) 
• u – curving down, up line down (short) 
• d – curve to the left and tall line down (tall)
• c – curve to the left and stop
• k – tall line down, slant down to the left, slant down to the right 
• g – circle and hook down (hang down) 
• i – middle line down and dot the i (short) 
• b – bat and then the ball (tall) 
• r – short line down and rainbow over (short)
• e – across to the right and drive around the curve (short)
• j – straight line down and curve to the left and dot
• h – tall line down, up and over
• v – slant down, slant up
• q – circle, lift up, down, slant right
• w – slant down, slant up, slant down, slant up
• z – across to the right, slant down, across to the right
• x – slant from the left, slant from the right
• y – slant from the left, slant down underneath

Uppercase or Capital Letters

• A – tall slant down to the left, tall slant down to the right, and cross 
• B – tall line down, down and around to the middle and down and around to the bottom
• C – up and over, down and around and stop 
• D – tall line down, down and around

Word Work

Starting the week of Oct. 20, we began to incorporate all the things we have learned so far (phonemic awareness, letter formation). We  began spelling words that are dictated and used in a sentence by sounding out the phonemes and printing the letters using proper formation. 

Word work from Oct. 21, 2025.

Word work from Oct. 23, 2025.

Word work from Oct. 30, 2025

Word work from Nov. 6, 2025

Word work from Nov. 12, 2025

Word work from Dec. 12, 2025

Word word from Jan. 7, 2026

Word work from the week of Jan. 19, 2026

Word work from the week of Feb. 2, 2026.

Words from the week of Feb. 9, 2026.

Words from Feb. 18, 2026. It is important that we double check our letters so that we are not mixing up the orientation of the letter such as b or d, or g or q. The sheet we use has the alphabet on the top to help remind us which way the letters go and it is important that the students start to double check their work. This is helping with their organization skills.

Frequently Used Words 

Also known as “high frequency words” or “sight words” are words that are common in many books we read.  Becoming familiar with these words will help in the decoding process of reading. These words are posted on the word wall in the classroom and are what I call the “secrets to reading”, This will help your child build reading fluency and writing. Please note that the words that are bolded and italicized are words that do not follow the phonemic rules and cannot be sounded out. They have to be recognized for easier decoding and fluency. The notation “pp” denotes “pre-primer” which are words that are found in board books and books we have read to our children since they were born. 

On the week of Oct. 14, we talked about word, me. We talked about how this word should never be at the front of word, but rather at the end of the sentence. Instead, the word I should be used. This is a common mistake when we are speaking.

On the week of Oct. 27, we learned that verbs (action or doing words) are either regular (the base word doesn’t change) or irregular (the base word changes). Words like jump and play are regular verbs as the base word, play does not change with the verb tens. There are many irregular verbs we use in English.

The word “there” is a homophone.

The word “was” is an irregular verb.

The photos below show all words we have learned (pre-primer and primer) up to and including Feb. 6, 2026.

Alphabetical Order 

On Nov. 10, we began our new set of words (primer). However, because we are starting at the beginning of the primer list, we need to put the words in alphabetical order. We learned that if all the words begin with the same letter, we need to look at subsequent letters to see which word will come first. 

As we add to our word wall, we are putting the words in alphabetical order.

• a
• and
• away
• big
• blue
• can
• come – this word does not follow the magic e rule and the o makes the sound of a /u/short vowel  
• down – has “ow” which makes a “pinch me sound ow” 
• find
• for– this word is used to indicate the place someone or something is going to or toward.  This word is a homophone (words that sound the same but are completely different words) 
• funny
• go
• help
• here
• I – This word is used when referring to oneself. It is either a letter or stands alone as a word (one of two words in our English language that is a letter or stands alone).  When it stands alone, it is always in upper case. 
• in
• is
• it
• jump
• little
• look
• make – magic e; irregular verb (it doesn’t follow the past tense rule (past tense becomes ‘made’)  
• me – used at the end of sentence (see the photo above) 
• my
• not
• one – this is for the numeral 1; we hear /w/ /u/short vowel /n/;  This word is a homophone (words that sound the same but are completely different words). 
• play – this word is a verb (action or doing word)
• red
• run – this word is an irregular verb as it doesn’t follow the past tense rule (past tense becomes ‘ran’) 
• said – this word does not follow the rule.  We actually hear a short vowel in the middle of this word. Also, this word is an irregular verb as it doesn’t follow the past tense rule (present tense is ‘say’)  
• see – This word is an irregular verb as it doesn’t follow the past tense rule (past tense becomes ‘saw’); this word is also a homophone (‘sea’) (see the photo above)  
• the – this word does not follow the rule. We hear a voiced /th/ but the e makes a /u/ or /a/ sound. 
• three
• to – this is used in directional content (I am going to the store.; This card is to Mary.)  This word is also a homophone (words that sound the same, have different spellings, and are completely different words).  
• two – this is the numeral 2.  This word is a homophone (words that sound the same, but are completely different words).  
• up
• we
• where – this is the asking the directional question.  We also talked about how we see the word ‘here’ inside the word, but we do not say the w sound and here together. This word is also a homophone (‘wear’)  
• yellow
• you
• all
• am – this word always goes with ‘I’ 
• at
• ate
• be
• black
• brown – /ow/ one of the sounds it makes is what I call the “pinch me” sound (what we say if someone pinches us) 
• but
• came – this word is an irregular word (See the photo above)
• did – this word is an irregular verb as it doesn’t follow the past tense rule (present tense is ‘do’)
• do – the /o/ is pronounced like /oo/; also this word is an irregular verb as it doesn’t follow the past tense rule (present tense is ‘did’) (See the photo above) 
• eat – this word is an irregular verb
• four – the /ou/ does not make a “pinch me sound”; this word is a homophone to for  
• get – this word is an irregular verb
• good
• have – this word does not follow the Magic e rule (the silent e at the end of the word makes the vowel say its own name) 
• he
• into
• like – this word has the ‘magic e’ 
• must – this word is a closed syllable 
• new
• no
• now – I have taught them that the ‘ow‘ is the the “pinch me sound” (what we say when someone pinches us). ‘ow’ also makes the /o/long vowel sound. 
• on
• our – I have taught them that the ‘ou‘ is the the “pinch me sound” (what we say when someone pinches us). ‘ou’ also makes the /o/long vowel sound.  
• out – I have taught them that the ‘ou‘ is the the “pinch me sound” (what we say when someone pinches us). ‘ou’ also makes the /o/long vowel sound. 
• please
• pretty – we hear a short vowel /i/ and not the short vowel /e/, and the t is usually pronounced as a /d/ 
• ran –  this word is an irregular verb; (past tense of run; run is a verb {action word}, but is an irregular verb which means that when the tense changes, so does the spelling.  Most words, we put an ‘ed’ at the end to signify having completed the verb, as in jumped or played, but with run, the word changes to ran) 
• ride – this word is an irregular verb
• saw – this word is an irregular verb
• say – this word is an irregular verb 
• she
• so
• soon
• that – this word has a voiced th 
• there– it has an “ere” which says /ear/ as in the word “here”, but says /air/; this word is also a homophone (see the photo above under the frequently used words heading)
• they – this has a long a sound at the end of word as in the word “away 
• this – this word has a voiced th 
• too – this word is a homophone 
• under
• want – the a in this word makes a /o/short vowel sound 
• was – the a in this word makes a /u/short vowel sound (please see the photo above)
• well – this word is a homonym (has two meanings: good and a structure that holds water) 
• went – this word is an irregular verb as it doesn’t follow the past tense rule (present tense is ‘go’)  
• what – this word has a short vowel /u/ sound 
• white – this is a ‘magic e’ word with a /wh/, not /w/ (see /wh/ digraph) 
• who – this word has the sound /h/ /oo/ 
• will – this word is connected to the verb “to be”; future tense; this word is also used when we talk about someone’s determination 
• with – this word has an unvoiced /th/ 
• yes – antonym of ‘no’ 
• after – has r controlled syllable 
• again– this word sounds /a/(short vowel a) /g/ /e/(short vowel e) /n/ 
• an – this word is used to mean one and is used when the succeeding word begins with vowel sound 
• any – this word has a short vowel /e/ sound at the beginning 
• as – this word has one s at the end which often makes a /z/ sound
• ask
• by – this word is an open syllable and follows the rule about y travelling in the word, it becomes a stick vowel sound 
• could – this word has a /oo/ sound in addition to not sounding the /l/ sound 
• every – this word does not make the /er/ sound; instead, we only hear the /r/ sound