Core Skills Analysis
English Language Arts: Phonics and Handwriting
Cillian completed six pages in *Get Set for the Code, Book B*, practicing phonics and handwriting. Through the phonics work, Cillian practiced attending to letter patterns and connecting written forms with the sounds they represented. The handwriting practice gave Cillian opportunities to form letters with care and build control in pencil movements. Completing several pages also helped Cillian sustain attention across a structured literacy activity.
Tips
Tips Extend Cillian’s phonics practice with a letter-and-sound scavenger hunt: find familiar letter patterns on food labels, signs, or book covers, then say the sounds together. Invite Cillian to write a few words containing a practiced pattern and illustrate one. Use magnetic letters or letter cards to build and change simple words, noticing how changing a letter can change a word’s sound. Finish with a short shared-reading session in which Cillian points out familiar patterns in a story.
Book Recommendations
- Bob Books Set 1: Beginning Readers by Bobby Lynn Maslen: A beginner-reader set that offers practice connecting letter patterns with sounds in short, decodable stories.
- Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault: A lively alphabet story that supports letter recognition and makes repeated reading engaging.
Learning Standards
- CCSS RF.1.3.B — Decode regularly spelled one-syllable words: Phonics practice supports learning how written letter patterns connect to spoken sounds and how those connections help with decoding.
- CCSS L.1.1.A — Print all upper- and lowercase letters: Handwriting practice supports accurate formation of printed letters.
- CCSS RF.1.2.C — Isolate and pronounce initial, medial vowel, and final sounds: Phonics activities can support attention to sounds within spoken words; this match is an instructional connection rather than a claim about particular pages or skills practiced.
Try This Next
- Sound hunt: Find three written examples of a familiar letter pattern around the home.
- Letter formation practice: Copy a few familiar letters, then draw an object whose name begins with one.
- Word-building game: Use letter cards to make a simple word and change one letter to create a new word.