keeping it simple in kindergarten worksheets syllables

Keeping it simple in kindergarten worksheets syllables how to#

So, at about the two week mark, we started following up the Better Alphabet™ Song with the Letter Runs as fun challenge, still making sure to use our “eye glue” and “muscle mouths!” The great thing about starting the Letter Runs BEFORE kids have 100% mastery of all the letters and sounds is that they love the challenge! They don’t fret about the letters they don’t know, they just love singing through the ones that they do as fast as they are able! Even the kids who know only a handful of letters still beg to sing it over and over again. On a side note, I always make sure to them the “secret” about the Superhero Vowels® with their “short & lazy” disguises AND about Sneaky Y® who’s basically the “Lex Luther” of the alphabet! This is necessary in order to prompt those sounds when we sing them. (Katie Garner explains more about this in the video below, as well as how she uses the neuroscience to “cheat” (get around) the traditional limitations of information retrieved through muscle memory. Instead, it uses earlier-developing muscle memory to forge the connections between the letter names and sounds for automatic and non-conscious sound retrieval, via the mouth muscles. The reason I say that the Better Alphabet™ Song “gives” the sounds rather than teaches them is because unlike traditional alphabet songs or practice, it doesn’t rely on what are often “underdeveloped” cognitive processing centers with learners having to “remember” the letters and sounds. And I don’t mean one sound per letter, but EVERY POSSIBLE SOUND a letter can make when it’s by itself, including the long AND short vowel sounds, the hard AND soft sounds for /c/ and /g/ and even the three sounds of /y/, not to mention in the “most likely” order for the most successful word attack! But it doesn’t “teach” them. I do this because it’s the fastest way to ensure that kids know all the letter names and sounds in about two weeks to two months. Sing the Better Alphabet™ Song EVERY day, TWICE a day…NO MATTER WHAT! This is that post, and I hope it’s helpful!

Keeping it simple in kindergarten worksheets syllables how to#

While I documented my journey using the Secrets in those last few weeks of kindergarten, I wanted to write a second post about how to start from the beginning of the year on Day 1. If you read my first blog post, you know that I didn’t discover Secret Stories and start using them until the final weeks of kindergarten after a tumultuous year of Covid. * Note: Sheryl uses Secret Stories to support science of reading-based instruction alongside the Wonders Reading Curriculum. A guest post by kindergarten teacher, Sheryl Nicholson.