PRINCIPAL MESSAGE

There are generally two types of levelled books given to beginner readers – decodable (books which require children to read words by sounding out, using the letters and sounds that they have been taught) and predictable (repetitive text which encourages children to look at the picture, use their knowledge of high frequency words and other strategies to guess the text). Our books are decodable books. They are carefully written to match the Little Learners Love Literacy® sequence. Children experience success from the start by sounding out and blending the words in the books using the sounds and letters they’ve learnt so far.

The Little Learners program is carefully sequenced in seven stages to teach children the 44 sounds of the English language and the principles of the alphabetic code (that each speech sound can be represented by different groups of letters, such as the sound /ī/ as in I, sky, pie, ice, cycle, and that a letter (or group of letters) can represent different sounds, such as the letter ‘y’ in yes, gym, funny, sky). There are five Pip and Tim books for every stage in the Little Learners Love Literacy® program, to provide opportunities for your child to apply the letter–sound correspondences taught at each stage in the classroom.

The Little Learners decodable books (Pip and Tim series and The Wiz Kids series) contain funny stories and quirky illustrations to grab children’s attention.  Children love to follow the familiar characters on new adventures through the stages of the Little Learners program.  The Little Learners decodable books are delightful stories that children can read using their phonics knowledge: the letters and sounds that they have been explicitly taught using the Little Learners Love Literacy® sequence, plus a few Heart words.

Heart words are introduced at each stage of our sequence. Heart words are words that children need to ‘learn by heart’, as they cannot decode them yet.  Heart words such as ‘the’ and ‘said’ are needed to create a sentence and a story.  Many heart words will become decodable later in the program when children have learnt more of the alphabetic code.  Each book includes a ‘How to enjoy this book’ section, where you can find Heart words, speed sounds, a vocabulary check, as well as some comprehension questions and ideas for discussion.

• Before your child starts reading each book, go to the back two pages. Encourage your child to point at the graphemes (letters) and say the sounds, then ask them to read the Heart words.
• Encourage your child to sound out to read unknown words when they get stuck.
• Make sure you child tracks their finger underneath the words as they read them
• Remember that this is the beginning of your child’s learning to read journey and, just as when they were learning to walk, your child will need support to build confidence.

If you would like to find out more about the program, you can visit the website littlelearnersloveliteracy.com.au or visit our YouTube channel. You can also ask your child’s teacher for more information.

LITTLE LEARNERS LOVE LITERACY 

We are excited to be helping your little one with our fun, engaging and evidence-based literacy program this year.

We teach with Little Learners Love Literacy® – a structured and explicit program with engaging multisensory activities. It is carefully sequenced in seven stages to teach children the 44 sounds of the English language and the principles of the alphabetic code (that each speech sound can be represented by different groups of letters, such as the sound /ī/ as in I, sky, pie, ice, cycle, and that a letter (or group of letters) can represent different sounds, such as the letter ‘y’ in yes, gym, funny, sky.

Did you know that learning the alphabetic code gives children the knowledge to read and spell 84% of ALL words? (Hanna, Hanna, Hodges, and Rudorf, 1966)

We start with teaching the simple code in Stages 1–4. We will focus on phonics and phonemic awareness to build the strongest foundations for reading and spelling success. We will also focus on building vocabulary and oral language skills to develop equally strong foundations for comprehension and writing.

In the first few weeks of term, we will be learning our Stage 1 letters and sounds. We will be enjoying the Milo’s Birthday Surprise storybook, meeting a new character and sound regularly. We will also learn to blend sounds to say words with the Ally alligator puppet and segment them for spelling, as well as learning handwriting.

Once we finish teaching Stage 1 at the end of Term 1, we will start to send home Pip and Tim decodable books.  These are our secret to success – our ‘no tricks’ books. Each story practises the sounds and letters that we have taught, so children will be able to read the books themselves by sounding out and blending (and no guessing!).

Reading to your child Read many books to your child and talk about what you just read. This is crucial for vocabulary and linguistic comprehension.  Choosing a quiet time, such as bedtime, can help build an easy and fun reading routine.

Read the Little Learners letter that we will send home each week. Ask your child the questions that are included with the letter. This will support the development of phonemic awareness (helping in the ability to identify, blend, segment and manipulate speech sounds within words).

Say the ‘pure’ sounds without an ‘uh’ sound on the end; for example, ‘lllll’ rather than ‘luh’. You can listen to the sounds on the Little Learners Love Literacy® YouTube channel.

When our decodable storybooks start to come home later in the term, encourage your child to sound out to read unknown words. Remember that this is the beginning of your child’s learning to read journey and, just as when they were learning to walk, your child will need support to build confidence reading.