Curriculum

Children will know the final -e and common vowel team conventions for representing long vowel sounds. For example, they will understand that the final -e in words like "cake" and "bike" signals that the vowel sound is long (the "a" in "cake" sounds like /ā/ and the "i" in "bike" sounds like /ī/). They will also recognize vowel teams such as "ai" in "rain," "ea" in "team," and "oa" in "boat," which also represent long vowel sounds.

Children will, with prompting and support, describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text. For example, after reading a story, a teacher might ask, "How are the character and the setting related?" The child could respond, "The bunny lives in the forest," showing the relationship between the character (the bunny) and the setting (the forest).

Children will demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print. For example, they will be able to identify the front and back covers of a book, recognize the title and author, and understand that text is read from left to right and top to bottom.

Children will use the knowledge that every syllable must have a vowel sound to determine the number of syllables in a printed word. For example, they will examine words like "banana," "table," and "happy," recognizing that each syllable contains a vowel sound. They might clap for each syllable as they say the word aloud, helping them to identify that "banana" has three syllables (ba-na-na) and "table" has two syllables (ta-ble).

Children will, with prompting and support, ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text. For example, after reading a story, they might come across a word like "glimmer" that they don't recognize. The teacher could prompt them by asking, "What do you think 'glimmer' means in this sentence?" The child might respond with, "It might mean something that shines." With further support, the teacher could guide them to use context clues from the surrounding sentences to infer the meaning, such as "The stars glimmered in the night sky."

Children will recognize the distinguishing features of a sentence, such as the first word, capitalization, and ending punctuation. For example, they will learn that sentences begin with a capital letter, such as in "The cat is sleeping," and end with punctuation marks like a period, question mark, or exclamation point.

Children will decode two-syllable words by breaking the words into syllables and following basic patterns. For example, they will learn to recognize and pronounce words like "happy," "basket," and "sunset" by dividing them into syllables (hap-py, bas-ket, sun-set)

Children will identify the front cover, back cover, and title page of a book. For example, during a reading activity, the teacher might show a picture book and ask, "Can you point to the front cover?" The children would recognize this as the side that has the title and picture. Then the teacher could ask, "What about the back cover?" and the children would point to the opposite side. Finally, they might be prompted to find the title page, where they would see the title of the book and the author's name.

Children will demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes). For example, they will clap their hands for each syllable in their name, helping them identify that "Emily" has three syllables (Em-i-ly). Additionally, they will practice identifying the first sound in words, such as saying that the word "sun" starts with the /s/ sound.

Children will read words with inflectional endings. For example, they will be able to read words like "walking," "jumped," "cats," and "happier," recognizing how the endings change the meaning of the base word. During reading activities, they might enter sentences or short stories that include these words, and they will practice by sounding them out and understanding how the endings affect the verb tense or indicate plurals and comparisons.