At Prime Academic Preschool Gotanda phonics is a core part of our curriculum. The children have phonics classes every day in order to improve their speech, build their vocabulary, and provide an opportunity to practice their grammar.

English has numerous letter combinations that are very easy for children to mispronounce. The students at our school need to learn to form the sounds correctly. For example, the sound of the ‘th’ letter blend can often be mistakenly substituted for an ‘f’ sound.

During our phonics classes there are 4 distinct parts. During the beginning of the lesson the students sing our PAP special alphabet song. The song emphasises learning the letter sounds and provides examples of words that contain those sounds.

Next the students practice this week’s phonics words. Depending on the week the children can have 8-10 words that contain the letter sounds we are practicing. We use flash cards to introduce the students to the words and practice them later in the week.

After that, the students complete one to two pages in their textbook. These can be anything from completing sentences to reading a story and answering comprehension questions about a story.

Finally, the students review their weekly book. These simple books help the students practice their words at home and review their understanding of the letter sounds.

Prime Academic Preschool Gotanda,
Alex