The Pottsgrove School District uses a researched based program to teach phonics, handwriting and spelling in Kindergarten through Second grade. By using the same program in these early grades, our children are taught these skills with consistency from year to year. Use the information on this page to help your child with their phonics, handwriting and spelling at home.
The Reading Habit: Children who are read to daily become students who love to read and are good at it! When reading nightly, you show your child that
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you say a word for every word written on the page
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words are written left to right
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we begin at the front cover with the title that often tells us what the book is about
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we read to the end to hear a whole story or learn about something
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the pictures go with the words and we use them together to help us understand what we are reading.
When reading with your child...
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Read with enthusiasm so reading is interesting and fun!
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Have a discussion about the pictures in the book. Encourage your child to read along and discuss the story.
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Try to relate what your are reading to your child’s life. If you are reading about the zoo, help your child make a connection between this story and a time he has gone to the zoo.
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Ask “What, where and how” questions to help your child understand the story.
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Help your child to see that the words you are reading are the words printed on the page.
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Point to the words and have your child point and “read” any words that are repeated often in the story.
Have books available for your child to “play” with. Young children often make-up stories as they look at pictures and this is an important step on the way to reading.
Book Recommendations:
Seasonal Books
Alphabet Books
Math Books
Rhyming Books
Reading All Around: Reading starts with recognizing the difference between letters and numbers and learning that words are groups of letters. Help your child develop this understanding by pointing out letters, numbers and words in your daily routine. As you drive, point out the word “stop” on the stop sign and the numbers on the speed limit signs. Your child will begin recognizing familiar store signs, like Wawa or McDonalds. This helps your child understand that print tells people the names of places and other information.
Daily Doses: Read everywhere you go! Point out road signs, billboards and store signs as you drive. In the market, read the aisles signs, produce labels and the print on products. Explain why we need these words. For example, the signs on the highway tell us where to get off to get where we want to go. The billboards tell us to visit a store to buy certain things. We use the signs in the aisles at the supermarket to find the food we want to buy.
Word Play: Do you hear what I hear? Playing with the sounds in words lays the foundation for sounding out words to read. Help your child hear the sounds in words by pointing out words that sound the same at the beginning or end. Songs and nursery rhymes provide exposure to rhyming words. Challenge your child by saying a word and asking your child to name a word that rhymes or begins with the same sound.
Daily Doses: Play with words everyday! As you watch the rain fall, repeat the phrase “drip, drop; drip, drop.” Sing songs and read and chant nursery rhymes regularly. As your child gets to know a song or rhyme, challenge your child by leaving out the rhyming word for him to fill in. Play a game to see how many words with the same beginning or ending sound you and your child can say-toss or bounce a ball and say a word for each catch or bounce. Continue going back and forth until you have run out of words, then pick a new word to play with.
Developing Phonemic Awareness: Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate the sounds in words. This is a foundational skill for reading. Children need to be able to break apart the sounds in words and blend them together orally before they can do this with print in order to read.
Daily Doses: Click here for a phonemic awareness booklet that will tell you about each skill that needs to be developed so you can make sure to expose your child to this word play