Phonics Program

Children are given auditory training, to develop phonemic awareness through a variety of activities, to hear sounds at a very early age. In reading, this is simply the action of combining the letter sounds together to make a word, which is automatic for literate adults but difficult for young children. We assist children with blending and decoding.

We use Jolly Phonics which is a systematic, sequential, phonics program designed to teach children to read. Children learn 40+ sounds of the English language, rather than the alphabet. They are then taken through the stages of blending and segmenting words to develop reading and writing skills. The initial program has 6 phases through which students work through.

42 speech sounds are introduced. Each sound has a storyline, a picture to colour and a corresponding action. By performing an action for each sound, children are using kinesthetic, auditory, visual and speech to help them remember. This multi-sensory-approach is a very effective way to reach all children as well as being enjoyable as well.

The sounds are arranged in seven, six-letter groups which have been carefully selected for several reasons. The letters that are easily confused, like ”b” and ”d”, are presented in separate groups. The ”g” and ”d” are presented after the ”c”, to follow a developmental speech pattern and help link the letter formation in printing. In addition, the first sounds and letters taught can be combined to create a large number of simple words. The materials are arranged to support these sound groups.

Mathematics Program

Our math curriculum is taught using interactive activities, learning games, worksheets, assessments and reinforcement. The major strands for the math curriculum are number sense and operations, spatial sense, learning about geometrical figures and objects, measurement of length, weight, capacity, time, and temperature and use of money. It provides an opportunity for children to get a basic understanding of counting, shapes and other very simple math concepts.

Our children learn through stories, songs, rhymes, finger-plays, and other creative methods that make pre-school math fun for them. Our math includes recognition of numerals. Children are learning to differentiate numerals from other symbols and to identify and compare objects by size. They will measure and weigh and be introduced to the concepts of volume and length. Our children learn to use proper vocabulary to describe quantity, length and weight. They will learn to use the proper expressions such as ’more’, ’less’, ’one more’, ’bigger’, ’smaller’, ’shorter’, ’taller’, ’longer’, and ’heavier’.