2. HAPPY HEARTS HAPPY FAMILIES “15-STEP LEARNER PATH”

Click here to access the “15-Step Learner Path”

Overview

A. Focus on listening and speaking - from sounds to words, from words to sentences.

• In the English language there are just 44 ‘sounds’ that make up all the words we use. Being able to listen and say/sing these sounds should come before asking children to read or write them. Helping children to understand the meaning of the words they hear in the songs is important and will be a continuous objective.

• The ‘ABC Song’ (Song 1) teaches 23 of these 44 sounds in English! These sounds are the consonants and short vowel sounds of the alphabet. Songs 2-5 review these sounds and introduce 5 new ones. Songs 6-9 introduce the remaining 16 sounds. In Happy Hearts Happy Families the ‘sounds’ to be taught in each song are printed in ‘red’.

• An important activity to enhance children’s listening and speaking ability is to help children ‘blend’ and ‘segment’ sounds to form words, or visa versa. In Happy Hearts Happy Families this exercise starts after mastering the ABC Song. Teachers and parents should make games with the content of the two pages titled ‘3 and 4 letter words’. Simply ask children, ‘Which word is made up of the three sounds /k/ +/a/+/t/? The children can respond ‘cat’. Similarly, teachers and parents can ask “How many sounds are there in the word “cat, and what are they?”. The children can respond: Three!” /k/ +/a/+/t/. The more time spent practicing these simple listening and speaking games with the various words on the ‘3 and 4 letter words’ pages, will prepare the children to be successful when they come to read and write.

B. Focus on reading and writing - from sounds to words, from words to sentences.

• When teachers and parents feel their children have a good command of listening and speaking the first 28 sounds and understand the basic ideas and language of Songs 1-5, the 4-5 year-old children are then ready to begin to build on their knowledge of sounds by trying to read and write the letter/s that represent the sounds they hear.

• Reading and writing games and activities should be creatively prepared so that children find learning to read and write letters is fresh and interesting. For example, letters can be read from magnetic or wooden alphabet boards or flashcards and so on, with the children physically touching the letters. Teachers and parents can make letter/s from various materials like leaves and sticks on a nature walk, like chalk on a concrete school footpath, like sand in a sand-pit, like various food items, and so on.

• Naturally, it will also be important for the children to learn to read and write the letter/s they hear with pencil on paper.

• After gaining fluency and accuracy with single letters, the blending and segmenting of the 3-4 letter words after the ABC Song should be practiced until fluency is attained.

C. Focus on listening and speaking sounds 29-44 in Songs 6-9 — while continuing to read and write the key words and sentences of Songs 1-5.

• When the teacher parent feels the children are well-versed with the sounds in Songs 1-5 , they can proceed on to Songs 6-9 in the same way.

• At the same time the children can begin to extend their reading and writing to include the key words of Songs 2-5.

D. Focus on reading and writing sounds 29-44 in Songs 6-9

• With sounds 29-44 learning to read and write will take more time. The idea that a ‘sound’ may have various spellings, especially the long vowels is introduced. This differs from some approaches to spelling which ask children to memorize long lists of words. An important understanding children will need to learn to read and write (spell) in English is that one long vowel sound like /i:/ can be spelled differently in different words. For example the sound /i:/ could be spelled ‘e’ (me), ‘ee’ (see), ‘ea’ (sea) ‘y’ (quickly).

• Having regular a reading / writing time and a systematic learner path is essential for the children to make sustained progress, and feel the joy of success. Teachers and parents can use the Happy Hearts Happy Families chart to monitor the child’s progress in terms of listening and speaking as well as reading and writing.