INTRODUCING
Explicit phonemic awareness and phonics instruction come together in our new K-2 foundational skills curriculum!
Designed to supplement your existing literacy curriculum, the Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Kindergarten lessons easily integrate into half-day or full-day kindergarten programs. When lessons are taught consistently each day teachers see improvement in students’ reading, spelling, and writing, as the students learn to hear the sounds in words.
Bringing explicit phonemic awareness instruction to your kindergarten classroom is easier than ever.
- QR codes directly link the weekly lesson page to videos and other supportive resources, enabling easy access to professional development and helping teachers to implement the curriculum with fidelity.
- Explicit teacher language better enables teachers to support all students' development.
- The new Skill Focus can be shared as an explanation for each skill or task when teaching the lessons.
- Overview pages support teachers with changes and shifts that take place throughout the weekly lessons.
- New opportunities for Phoneme/Grapheme connections.
- A revised scope and sequence gets students working at the phoneme level sooner.
Take a look inside!
"The Blue Book," as it's often called, provides students with instruction in phonological awareness, progressing to the phoneme level through language play activities. It covers all consonants, short vowels, digraphs, blends, and rime patterns, with hearing words with long vowels being introduced in the later weeks of this curriculum. By comparison, the Primary Curriculum, also known as "the Yellow Book" goes further into long vowels and introduces R-controlled vowels, special vowel sounds, and multisyllabic words.
The revised 2022 Edition of the English Kindergarten Curriculum includes lessons that are quick and fast-paced, using a reduced number of words for each skill, in order to provide students with exposure to hearing sounds, and build an awareness of the sounds we hear in spoken words. Each lesson includes a Skill Focus, detailed teacher language, and modeling and support that can be used to provide differentiated instruction and intervention. QR codes provide easy access to hand motion videos and a weekly lesson demonstration video.
The lessons continue to include an Alphabet Knowledge activity, and now include opportunities to make phoneme-grapheme connections, matching the sounds we hear to letters in print.
Intended audience: Half-day or full-day Kindergarten classrooms
Lesson structure: Whole group
Duration: 10-12 minutes
Intervention: Lessons can be used in small groups to provide intervention and support for Kindergarten students who need additional support with targeted skills instruction
Alignment: The curriculum includes a table to show alignment with the Common Core State Standards for Phonological Awareness
The 10 components included in each Heggerty Kindergarten lesson:
- 8 phonemic awareness skills
- Alphabet Knowledge & Phoneme-Grapheme Connections
- Language Awareness activities to develop word awareness & teach nursery rhymes (Weeks 1-18 only)
Lessons provide daily opportunities to develop phonological and phonemic awareness through:
- Rhyme
- Phoneme Isolation (initial, final, and medial)
- Blend words, syllables, onset-rime, and phonemes
- Segment words, syllables, onset-rime, and phonemes
- Add syllables and phonemes
- Delete syllables and phonemes
- Substitute syllables and phonemes
🎥 Skill Tutorial Video: Deleting (Initial) Phonemes; “We can delete a syllable or sound from a word and say what is left.”
Students will hear and repeat a word. Students will then be asked to delete the initial sound, and say what is left.
Watch Mrs. VanHekken as she demonstrates how to teach this skill with the deleting hand motion.
🙌 Hand Motion: The teacher holds out both hands with open palms. The right hand represents the initial phoneme and the left hand represents the final phoneme. Remove the right hand to delete the initial phoneme and show the remaining phoneme with the left hand.
⭐ Skill Progression in the Primary Curriculum:
Week 1-2: Deleting syllables from spoken words
Weeks 3-15, 25-26: Deleting initial phoneme from spoken words
Weeks 16-19, 27-28: Deleting final phoneme from spoken words
Weeks 20-24, 29-30: Deleting phonemes within a word
✔️ Download sample lessons & watch more lesson videos on our website: www.heggerty.org
⭐ The best part of our day is seeing a glimpse inside your classrooms during #heggertytime! This week we are highlighting a 2nd-grade classroom from Fox Valley Elementary school in Michigan!
"2nd graders starting their morning with phonemic awareness using a program called Heggerty and then they get into some phonics with a cool activity called “Say It, Pop It, Write It, Read It”. These kids are doing great! We love the program and so do the kids!"
📸 We can`t wait to spot more #heggertytime, be sure to tag us & use our hashtag in your Heggerty time photos!
⬇️ Are you implementing Heggerty this school year? Comment below with the week just wrapped up!
✨ Isolating medial sounds in words is a basic phonemic awareness skill. The focus is on hearing the medial or vowel sound in a word. We ask students to isolate both short & long vowel sounds in the words they hear.
🎢 We use our roller coaster hand motion when we are isolating those medial sounds, watch Mrs. Bottari as she walks through how to use this hand motion with your students!
🔗For more skill tutorial videos, visit our YouTube channel using the link in our bio.
⭐ Can you name the skill this group of Heggerty all-stars are practicing?
📘 They are practicing Phoneme Isolation: Medial Sounds, students will listen to a word and isolate the short vowel sound they hear. Students will use the roller coaster hand motion, and come back to the top of the roller coaster to identify the middle/vowel sound.
🎢 Hand Motion- Roller coaster, the teacher & students move their arm like a roller coaster going over a hill. The bottom of the hill is the beginning of the word; top of the hill is the vowel sound; bottom of the hill is the end of the word.
✔️ Example: "We are listening for the vowel sound we hear in words." Teacher- hat, Students- haaaat, /ă/
💡 Tip: To reinforce the understanding of isolating the last or medial sound in a word, teachers can use Elkonin Boxes with colored chips to offer a visual for support for phoneme location.
🔗 Click the link in our bio for lesson plan samples & skill tutorial videos!
⭐ Skill Highlight: (Phoneme Isolation) Isolating Final Sounds is a basic phonemic awareness skill & can be more challenging than isolating the onset of a word.
💪 We use the punch-it-out hand motion to help students isolate that final sound.
✔️ As the teacher, you are going to use your left arm because students will see that as your right and we want students to see these sounds moving from left to right, the same way they are going to map print.
🎥 Watch our very own, Mrs. Bottari model how to use this punch-it-out motion to isolate the final sound in a word.
🔗 For the full skill tutorial video, head to the Heggerty YouTube channel, using the link in our bio.
⭐ It`s time for another #heggertytime share, this week we are excited to share Ms. Garcia`s 1st-grade class from Rancho Verde Elementary school in Texas.
📙 These 1st graders are working on the skill- Phoneme Isolation: Final Sounds, "We are listening for the last sound we hear in a word."
💪 Ms. Garcia`s 1st graders will listen to a word and isolate the last sound they hear, using the "punch it out" hand motion, sliding their right arm across the body when saying the first part of the word, and punching straight up in the air when saying the final sound
✔️ Teacher Tip: To reinforce the understanding of isolating the last sound in a word, use Elkonin boxes with colored chips to offer a visual for support for phoneme location
🔗 Find links for sample lessons, skill tutorial videos & a free Elkonin Box template in the link in our bio.
📒Heggerty in the classroom: Ms. Baum leads her class in our Primary curriculum, they are working on deleting initial phonemes. @oneccps @reamselementary
⭐ Skill: Deleting Initial Phonemes- “We can take away the first sound from a word and say what is left.”
🙌 Hand Motion: Ms. Baum is modeling our deleting hand motion, holding two open palms out in front of her, her right hand is the initial sound, left hand is the rest of the word. Watch as she pulls away her right hand as the class deletes the first sound, and shows what part remains with her left hand.
🤩 Her students are engaged, her pacing is fast & fun and they are on their way to becoming phonemic awareness all stars, keep up the great work!
Ready to try Heggerty in your classroom? Visit www.heggerty.org to download sample lesson plans!
📒Heggerty in the Classroom: (Pt. 2) Watch the amazing Mr. Williams and his students practice deleting initial phonemes during their #heggertytime.
⭐️Skill Focus: Deleting Initial Phonemes- “We can delete a sound from the beginning of a word and say what is left.”
🖐Heggerty Hand Motion: Notice Mr. Williams’s hand motions, he holds out both of his hands with open palms. The right hand represents the initial phoneme and the left hand represents the rime. He removes the right hand to delete the initial phoneme and shows what is left with his left hand.
😊 Student Engagement: A job well done to this class of Heggerty all-stars, they know the routines & procedures for #heggertytime & you can’t miss the smiles on their faces! Way to go Mr. Williams class 👏
🔗Click the link in our bio to download a free lesson sample!
It`s time for another #heggertytime share- this week`s share comes from Twitter, Ms. Amy Long @amybytheton shares: "It was a terrific 🐯 Tuesday at the Tell! ...🥇 Heggerty hand motions were on point ✅, modeling sounds & mouth formation, today was a good day!"
🔍 We spot Heggerty ABC cards & our letter name routine in action
🖐️ Can you tell which skill Mr. Williams`s class is working on during #Heggertytime? If you guessed "phoneme isolation: final sounds" you are correct! Look at that "punch it out" motion in action!
⭐ Use the link in our bio to grab your own set of ABC cards & download a free lesson sample!
📒Heggerty in the Classroom: Watch the amazing Mr. Williams and his students practice deleting final syllables during their #heggertytime.
⭐️Skill Focus: Deleting Final Syllables- "We can delete a syllable from the end of a word and say what is left."
🔗Click the link in our bio to download a free lesson sample!
Implementation Aids
Sample Lesson
Preview the scope & sequence and sample lessons
Assessments
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