Term 1, Week 3
By now your children will have settled down and your baseline assessments should be completed. I hope you feel as excited as I do at the prospect of young children learning to read! You have new Talking Stories resources to help you, and if you use them well you WILL significantly raise the levels of reading in your class. This is going to be your best year ever in teaching!
Let’s get cracking with this week’s work:
Level 1
In the classroom this week you will begin teaching the alphabet, doing one letter each day. Start on Monday with the letter ‘a’. By Friday you will have got up to the letter ‘e’. Click HERE or on the “Alphabet” tab at the top of the page, to find pictures that will help you teach each letter sound. You will also find a link to the amazing animated pencil, which is brilliant for teaching letter formation.
Send worksheets home to encourage parents to help with teaching each alphabet sound! Click on the days of the week to find a selection of pages for each alphabet sound:
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
In the computer lab this week you need to teach your children how to log on and double-click on the Talking Stories icon in order to open the programme. Take your time to teach this well. Encourage the children to help each other. This will save you a lot of time in every lesson in future.
Level 2
In the classroom this week you need to assess each child to see whether they recognise all of the alphabet sounds. It is impossible to make progress in reading without this crucial building block. Don’t make the assumption that children will know their alphabet by the time they get to Grade 2. If you need to reteach the alphabet, then use the resources for Level 1 above.
Alphabet Assessment Sheet - This should be done one-to-one with each child. Ask a loving parent or volunteer to help with this in class. Tick each letter that the child knows. Children should be able to recognise the letter sound (‘a’ as in pan), and not necessarily the letter name (‘a’ as in pane).
Homework: Send home Key Words Level 1, List 1 . If your children were using Talking Stories last year, then this will be revision. You could also send home a simple wordsearch each day. Click on the days of the week below for wordsearches that focus on words beginning with the first five letters of the alphabet.
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
In the computer lab this week you should revise logging on with your new class. Run through the computer lab rules that you established last week, and show the children how to open the Talking Stories. Let them explore one or two of the Level 1 stories, just for fun. Let the children choose – you want them to learn how to find their way around the programme, using the menu.
Level 3
In the classroom this week you will be revising key words that your children should be able to read by now.
Level 1, List 1
Level 1, List 2
If there are any children in your class who are still struggling to recognise alphabet sounds, then take time to work with them as a group. Put in place some support so you don’t lose these children! We want everyone to love reading and to make progress in literacy. Use the resources for Levels 1 and 2 above to assist these learners.
Homework this week is to learn to read all the key words that you have revised in class. You could even use these key words for a spelling test on Friday! Send the key word sheets home so that learners can cut out the individual words and learn to read them. HINT: If they don’t cut out the words and muddle them up, then often they simply learn to recite what’s on the sheet, without actually reading each word. So make sure your kids cut the sheets into individual words!
In the computer lab this week
Children will open and read the Level 3 core story called, “The Pink Umbrella.” Let them enjoy following the Talking Story at their own pace and completing one or two of the activities. We will continue with this story next week.
We understood the program and Audrey was sweet.
Hi there, Kathy
Thank you for the lovely website that we as teachers can browse through and make life much easier for us.
All the activities, worksheets and other comments placed on the web are very useful tools.
The presentation done by Audrey was fun& exciting & full of energy.
Well done! !
Nina1
This is a super cool blog.I have found it really interesting and informative.Great activities for children and parents especially the alphabet activity.The letter to the parents is well constructed and very easy to read. Audrey and Anthony makes a mean team.Keep up the excellent work, guys. Thanks alot.
Talking stories is a fantastic series. I am positive that it will help our learners a great deal. I have enjoyed the stories tremendously. I have also access the BBC links and has learnt a lot. The letter to the parents is also very useful and parents will be well informed on what their children are busy with.
I am very impressed with Talking stories. Thank you. Keep up the good work. Je taime
Cathy , once again a fantastic programme. Our presenter was lovable and huggable. I understood Audrey very well. Thank you once again. We learnt about talking stories , Alphabet link, BBC link and letter to the parents. Anthony was extremely helpful with the computers. Regards to your husband and hope he is well and the same with you.
Remember me from Oude Molen, you were the best teacher.
Mervyn Govender
http://www.radicallearning.co.za/talkingstories/?p=145
I wish to express my sincere gratitude to Radical Learning for the industrious manner they have conducted theTalking Stories workshop at our school. I found it fruitful, educational and informative. The stories are all easy to read and understand and it allows for differentiation of learners. Couple with this, the stories and blog are learner friendly as it introduce the learners to the art of listening, writing, drawing and sysdtematic reading.http://www.radicallearning.co.za/talkingstories/?p=145#respond
It was a good lesson well prepared and great stuff to share with the under previliged children of Manenberg Primary Thank you
http://www.radicallearning.co.za/talkingstories/?p=145#respond
An excellent and exciting presentation delivered by Audrey Lecarpentier filled with passion and energy that made Talking Stories come alive.
i understood what WAS TAUGHT
a
being back in the foundation phase after quite a while in the intermediate phase, talking stories software is a super guide to me. i’m eager to take my learners to the lab because there is material in the lab which the learners can start using immediately when they enter the lab. the material is learner friendly, they are able to select activities according to their ability.
the bbc link delighted me and i’m sure my learners will thoroughly enjoy.
audrey has a refreshing personality, so energetic! ! i am able to blog now !
Audrey an Anthony were fantastic presenters. They were full of energy an very helpfull.
I have learned a lot.
Thanks for everyone who has played a roll in making talking stories available to us.
Lerners will really enjoy this. Keep up the good work.
The alphabet is fantastic- very useful.thanks to all who was involve in this!Its exciting, something different and so colourful. well done!
Its a pity that time and tide not wait for anybody because the workshop was so interesting and educational .The presenter was very enthusiastic and energetic.
Talking stories is a very useful, and fun website. It will encourage me to take my learners to the lab and let them see all the exciting activities available. The activities are all learner friendly. If I enjoyed it I am sure the learners will to.
no comment what do you say
Thanks Audrey and Anthony!
Talkingstories are fantastic. pupils will learn alot from these stories.
As a teacher I am very grateful for Talking Stories. It is something I am sure every teacher was looking forward to. We need to build a nation that can read because reading is the core of all learning areas.
It’s no use the child can defend him/herself out there with their mouths or even by being aggressive and he/she can’t read.I strongly believe that poor reading skills lead to more drop-outs ; gangsters and teenage pregnancies.
thank you, Talking Stories ! We salute you !
I am very impressed with the concept of the talking stories especially the links to the BBC link and the Alphabet. Talking Stories can really be a wonderful tool for educators to enhance the Literacy levels of our learners and to rally more interest amongst our learners.We are really blessed to be part of the Khanya Project to be able to enjoy this concept.
Very interesting and enjoyable.Cannot wait to start the programme with the learners.
LOOKING AT THE THE LETTERS,WHILE YOU HEAR THE SOUNDS, IS VERY USEFULL AS LEARNERS TEND TO WRITE LETTERS INCORRECTLY AND IN THIS WAY THEY GET TO HEAR THE SOUNDS AS WELL. WHEN LEARNERS INITIAL KNOWLEDGE IS CORRECT, THEY WILL LEARN MUCH QUICKER.
THANX FOR THE GREAT WORKSHOP!
KADER
Talking Stories is very great. The ativities listed will most definately be of help to learners, educators and parents alike. The presentation was done very well. The links are all fantastic.
Interesting and informative.Stories allow for differentiation.I enjoyed the stories
i am excited about teaching the alphabet and reading the talking stories way. Thank you
Need more practice
The Radical Learning website is an excellent tool. It is well set up and very user friendly. The activities are fun and well rounded. Well done! Keep up the good work.
Would like to see more activities in Afrikaans, if possible.
Thanks to Audrey and Antonio for the way in which they presented the class. I enjoyed it even thouh I teach in the senior phase. My learners can surely benefit from talking stories.
Cheers
Thanks to all involved. The learners can but only benefit from the programme.
Thank you for the lovely activities.We found it very useful.
Finally a method of breaking through the language barrier. Thanks to all involved… great stuff guys!!!
Ps. loved the accent made the workshop even more interesting
The blog is very interesting. Very easy to access and lots of info for the educators to use.
Thank you.
Found Talking stories to be very interesting,informative and user friendly. Am sure the learners are going to enjoy doing the activities.
once again i would like to thank radical learning 4 fantastic problem solving ideas brouhgt to us using modern technology. now both learners and educators have something to look up to every day.
Workshop was very learnfull , thank you so much please come again.
The talking stories programme is very interesting and enjoyable! Our learners will really enjoy this.
Thank you!
Stunning…went to Scotland to visit my favourite people of Balamory in a matter of seconds, no visa required, just a cute link through the Radical Learning site…luvvv the blog…only small glitch is… Foundation Eds… just be wary of some activities around letter formation, like an activity for handwriting – the British Curriculum, very similar to our South African OBE, uses Nelson script…Rylands Primary eds would find that up their alley as they use that script… Cool for them…Awww for us. These are not necessarily from Radical Learning, but more form connecting links.
Still luvvv the blog…
Will check it out for more exciting stuff…
Thanxx Audrey and Anthony
PS… would like know what that tattoo is about…just saw bits of it peeping out from the shirt sleeve…
Thank you for a very informative session it was very fruitful enlightening and helpful.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/misc/stories/jacksbigday/
Talking stories is a wonderful programme both for teachers and learners sa the learners struggling with reading.
Thank u. Very informative.
Dear Kathy
Thanks for the alphabet activities. I will be looking forward to the double blend activities such as pictures and words with the “oo” (as in tooth), “ee” (as in feet) sounds etc.
Any actvities or ideas to assist learners with letter problems as they confuse “p b d” and “m w”?
Thanks to all for talking stories.
Dear Kathy
Thanks for the alphabet activities. I will be looking forward to the double blend activities such as pictures and words with the “oo” (as in tooth), “ee” (as in feet) sounds etc.
Any activities or ideas to assist learners with letter problems as they confuse “p b d” and “m w”?
Thanks to all for talking stories.
i find this website to be very interesting and helpful