The 1/2P classes have started to read the story ‘the little red hen’. The children are learning to identify symbols, spaces between words, letters and sounds. They have workshops tailored to their level of experience in reading. Over the next few weeks, months and years they will move to reading words, phrases and much longer texts.
The children are looking at the book in French and English. We like to start reading the text in both languages, as this gives everyone an opportunity to begin to read in their ‘confident’ language. It also reinforces understanding and skills of translation between languages. We reinforce the reading of the story with workshops and games about letters and sounds.
Some children are more comfortable beginning their reading journey in English, others in French. While some children are in workshops to build their sound bank in French, other children are learning vocabulary from the book in French. Similarly there are those who are exploring sounds in English and others gaining understanding. Some children are already noticing similarities and differences between the sounds in the two languages.