Curriculum

  The Land of the Letter People is a thematically organized curriculum focusing on building phonological / phonemic awareness and letter identification while recognizing every child's need to explore and develop through play.

Classroom-based research reveals the most effective instruction for preparing lifelong readers and learners builds progressively on children’s understanding and use of both spoken and written language. The Letter People program uses  this research to provide carefully guided instruction in the following areas. 

Oral Language - The Letter People motivate discussion and provide many opportunities for children to share personal experiences, feelings, and opinions. They encourage children to play with words, to experiment with rhymes and alliteration, and to hear and repeat stories, songs, and poems. 

Print Awareness - The Letter People program provides authentic literature that help children learn how books and print work.  

Phonological and Phonemic Awareness - Research has shown that complementing instruction in sound-letter relationships with instruction in the individual sounds (phonemes) in words promotes growth in both skills (National Reading Panel 2000; Torgesen and Mathes 1999).

Alphabetic Knowledge - The Letter People make the alphabet come to life for children. For each letter of the alphabet, there is a letter person puppet the children can play with. As children learn the names of their new Letter People friends, they learn to identify the name, shape, and sound of each letter. 

The Alphabetic Principle/Word Recognition - Each Letter Person’s special characteristic and song help children remember the specific sound the letter makes. The Letter People are introduced in a sequence that reflects the best information about how to help children attach sounds to letters.

Writing and Spelling - The Letter People programs view writing as a developmental process.  Children work interactively with the teacher to create labels, lists, charts, graphs, and stories.   

Vocabulary Development - The Letter People introduce and reinforce new vocabulary, including many concept words, through their songs and repeated reading of books.

Reading Fluency and Reading Comprehension - The Letter People program helps develop fluency through books that familiarize children with high-frequency words (Everyday Words). Shared and repeated readings of trade books help children improve comprehension and fluency. 

All of the projects and in class work will revolve around the letter we are currently working on. The Letter People program lays a firm foundation in the skills necessary for successful reading and writing, always balancing skill instruction with good literature and the presence of the Letter People, who make learning to read a joyous adventure.