Fundations kindergarten lesson plans free#

Substitute: Substituting, the most difficult task, would sound like this: “Say bark.

Now say hitch but don’t say /h/.” The child would respond with “itch.”

Deleting: Deleting is removing a sound.

Now say at but put /p/ at the beginning,” they would be expected to say “pat.’

Adding: Adding asks a child to put an additional sound somewhere in the word.

I say /sh/-/o/-/p/, and the child has to blend, or put those sounds together to say the word. If I said, “shop” and a child responded with /sh/-/o/-/p/, that is segmenting.

Segmenting: When you segment sounds, you are taking them apart.

You can segment, blend, add, delete, and substitute. Phonemic awareness includes a variety of tasks. But if a child cannot take apart and put sounds together out loud, how can we possibly expect them to do it in print? As proficient readers, we cannot remember a time when this was necessary for us because these processes happen virtually instantly. Think of it like this-what skill is required when you are first learning to read a new word? You have to take all the sounds apart (segmenting), and then put those sounds back together (blending). While all students can benefit from explicit phonemic awareness instruction, some children have to have it in order to be successful. Many children will develop phonemic awareness naturally. Phonemic awareness is the ability to manipulate sounds. They are the essential building blocks and are well worth a small group. Kilpatrick states, “if you provide kindergartners with (a) direct and explicit phonological awareness training, (b) ample letter-sound instruction, and (c) if you teach the connections between those two, you will substantially reduce the number of students struggling in reading at the end of first, second, and even later grades”(Kilpatrick, 2015, p.12). This comes from the fact that the two best indicators of how well a child will learn to read in their first two years of school is letter-sound knowledge and phonemic awareness. That is my entire small-group lesson until they are stronger in those two components. But for kindergarten and first grade, that’s it. If a child beyond these grade-levels does not yet have letter-sounds, then they have developed some compensating strategies and poor habits that we will also fix. If I have a kindergarten or first grade student who does not yet have letter-sound knowledge, my focus is on getting them to know their letter sounds and building their phonemic awareness.

Fundations kindergarten lesson plans free#

Like most of my posts, I will have a list of resources at the bottom, including a free lesson plan template you can use. So what do we do? Today, I’m going to talk about what my kindergarten groups look like.

Teachers should be reading quality texts to students daily, but we are not using small group instruction to have them read leveled texts or strive for a “Level C” or DRA 6 by June. It’s also not about having them memorize a certain number of sight words, but that’s a post for another day. The goal of kindergarten is not to have children reading leveled texts at the end of the year. I do not have to rush kindergartners into reading books.

Say it again, and this time I want you to mean it. Repeat after me: I do not have to rush kindergarteners into reading books.

Are you ready? It might be hard to say, but I promise it is important. We need to start this post with a mantra, and I want you to hold on to this mantra as long as needed.