My favorite thing about preschool is that Geetle is learning how to make friends with kids her age (even the girls) and Pookie is learning how to communicate and follow routines. That really seems to be the focus of each of their preschool classes. I’m not really concerned about them learning much more than that at this stage.
Geetle’s class spent last year learning something like 2 or 3 letters a week which was pretty cool because she started pointing out letters in random words she would see.
This year, her class switched to a more phonics based system called Zoo-Phonics. Each letter has an animal, sound, movement and picture (shaped like the letter). Geetle seems to like it and it seems to actually work very well. The combination of all the visual, audio, movements, and animals makes a ton of connections that all reinforce each other.
I’m having trouble committing to learning it myself, though. And not just because it looks goofy. I am almost 100% certain that they will not be using this system in Kindergarten. Knowing that she’ll be learning an entirely knew scheme next year makes it tough to commit to investing a lot of time in it this year.
Silly I know. And I do need to sit down and learn it some weekend so that I can work with her on it so that she can get reinforcement at home from both me and BAGM.
For the record, it really does make you look pretty silly Case in point:
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That’s the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time. And NOT because of the phonics! *lol* Brave BRAVE man…
I think it is impossible to look cool while doing something like zoo phonics as an adult…unless cool is defined as finding neat ways to teach kids how to read…but still, it’s a stretch. Fortunately, kids in preschool don’t spend a lot of time trying to look cool which is probably why they learn things so much faster than us adults do.
Now that IS very silly. BUT I bet the kids love it. And I can see where the silliness would be fun for them… and when learning is fun, they do learn easier.
Will you make a video for us when you learn it, BAGD?
Oh god. I just broke out in a cold sweat just reading your request for a video with me in it. We’ll see.
We’ll see! That means yes. At least that’s what my 6 year old thinks.
Find out what they do use in kindergarten …but when you ask you may find out that it is not the same in all kindergartens in your district…or perhaps it will be . In my district some of us used a phonics action program in first grade and some other first grade teachers in this big district did not. It happened that both of us in my building did use the program but we were not required to both do the same. Some things are district wide mandated and some things are not. Big things like the basal reading series or spelling text would usually be mandated but other things like a phonics action program, Accelerated Reader , CGI, or ADD were not. Some of us used it ….some did not….often it depended on if we were willing to purchase it ourselves, make the things we needed, or request funds from PTA etc. Love MOM
That’s pretty frustrating that there are that many options even within the same school but I guess different things work for different kids so maybe having different options is a good thing. I think our district is a little more regimented but maybe not. Maybe I’ll have to ask Geetle’s friend who started Kindergarten this year what they are doing since that is where Geetle will be going to school next year.