Designed to supplement your existing literacy curriculum, the Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Pre-Kindergarten lessons easily integrate into half-day or full-day preschool programs. When lessons are taught consistently each day with explicit teacher modeling and scaffolded support, 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 preschool classroom is now 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.
Take a look inside!
"The Purple Book," as it's often called, uses nursery rhymes to introduce preschool students to language play. The lessons include eight phonological and phonemic awareness skills, taught in a systematic progression. The advanced skill of initial phoneme substitution is taught beginning in Week 19, after students have learned to isolate, blend, and segment with phonemes.
Through two early literacy skills, students also develop alphabet knowledge through daily practice with an alphabet song and letter name and sound practice. Nursery rhymes are taught each week so that by the end of preschool your students will begin to build a repertoire of classic nursery rhymes as they learn to enjoy language play!
Intended audience: 4 & 5-year-old preschool classrooms (last year of preschool before Kindergarten) and Transitional Kindergarten classrooms.
Lesson structure: Whole group
Duration: 10-12 minutes
Alignment: This curriculum aligns to the Early Learning and Development standards for children who are 4 or 5 years old, participating in their last year of preschool or attending transitional kindergarten (TK). The skills taught provide practice and exposure to prepare students for Kindergarten.
The 10 components included in each Heggerty Pre-Kindergarten lesson:
- 8 phonemic awareness skills
- 1 letter name and letter sound recognition activity
- 1 language awareness activity using nursery rhymes
Daily lessons provide practice and exposure with 8 phonemic awareness skills:
- Rhyme
- Onset Fluency
- Phoneme Isolation (initial, final, and medial)
- Blend words, syllables, onset-rime, and phonemes
- Segment words, syllables, onset-rime, and phonemes
- Add words, syllables, and initial phonemes
- Delete words, syllables, and initial phonemes
- Substitute initial phonemes (Weeks 19-35 only)
🎥 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!
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