First Phonics Curriculum Program
This First Phonics curriculum program ensures that a child's first experiences with reading are fun and successful. Each student is given a Learning Pocket which teaches skills each student needs to learn at their level. Reproducible flashcards of numbers, lowercase and uppercase letters, phonics sound sentences, and a few simple words address a variety of learning levels. In addition, reproducible Picture Charts that emphasize sounds can be enlarged to poster size or distributed individually.
An original poem, video story, song, and vocabulary list accompany each letter, as well as a variety of art, cooking, creative writing, language arts, crafts and math projects.
This is the way reading was meant to be learned!
An original poem, video story, song, and vocabulary list accompany each letter, as well as a variety of art, cooking, creative writing, language arts, crafts and math projects.
This is the way reading was meant to be learned!
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This is the complete First Phonics Curriculum Materials in three discs. There are two DVDs with all 31 video stories. Each story also has a phonics game. These can be played by pausing the DVD for students to give the correct answer, or the worksheets (in the Supplement Manual) can be duplicated for each student and then used with the game. All three Users Manuals are on a CD-Rom, so everything is included to teach the whole curriculum. This unique package is only available here from the author. Betty has tried to keep the cost to the consumer at an affordable rate. She used this program in her classroom and knows it works. Check out the 31 stories in picture book format below.
Retails for $20.00
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Users Manuals
Download All Three Manuals $6.99
First Phonics Story Books
These 31 books not only teach phonic sounds, but have some great stories that teach positive character-building traits like: sharing, kindness, helping, caring, being considerate, encouraging, being responsible, being accepting, friendship, tolerance and making right choices. Some of the stories deal with issues like: taking a dare, bullying, anger, making fun, consequences of actions, criticizing, laziness, stealing and lying. Some teach lessons on telling time, counting, shapes and numbers. Some teach crafts and some are just for fun.
Adam Alligator loves to share with his friends. He shows them he is a true friend by helping others as well. He helps those who have a need….like taking soup to a sick friend, or helping an old cat across a busy street. Adam loves to add and count, too, especially how many friends he has.
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April Ape will do anything someone dares her to do. Barney Bear tries her out, by daring her to eat a goldfish. But when she gets out of hand and eats everything she sees, Barney becomes fearful of what will happen to her. When she becomes ill and has to take yucky, mucky medicine, April learns her lesson about taking a dare—well almost.
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Billy Bear is a bully. While on his way home from school, Timothy Tiger sees Billy but doesn’t want Billy to find his hidden balloon friend because Billy will burst the balloon. Sure enough Billy grabs Timothy’s backpack, and puts it on a high limb at the top of a tree. Timothy becomes bold and says, “Billy, I sure would love to be your friend, but you make it hard for me to even like you.” Billy learns a lesson.. “to have friends you have to be a friend.”
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Casper has moved into the quiet country away from the noise of the city. He desperately wants to find a friend. Strolling and singing, Casper walks through the woods. He asks a cricket, a fly and a butterfly to be his friend, but they move away quickly. When the forest critters hear the singing and realize the friendliness of Casper, they begin to follow him. Imagine Casper’s surprise when he turns around and sees the forest filled with friends.
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Dolly Duck wants to be helpful, but her big feet keep getting in the way; or she leaves out a number when helping to count her brothers and sisters; or the leaves she is raking keep pulling her to jump in them. But Dolly’s short legs and big feet help her win a pedal truck from her neighbor. Now, Dolly begins a delivery service and helps her family and friends.
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Edgar Elephant’s jokes make fun of elves and he loves to poke them with his huge elbows. Finally, the elves decide to teach him a lesson. They climb on each other’s shoulders and cover themselves with a tent. Tiny Eli pokes his head through the top of the tent. The group is now taller than Edgar. He thinks they are a giant coming at him and is afraid. Eli tells him it hurts when he pokes them with his elbow. The elves zip open the tent and have a big laugh. Now the jokes Edgar tells no longer make fun of elves, but he makes fun of elephants.
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Eager Eagle loves school too much. He loves all the things at school so much, he begins to eat them—chalk, erasers, crayons, pencils, puzzle pieces, etc. When he cannot find the chalk to do a math problem on the board, he realizes what he has done. He apologizes to his classmates and promises never to eat the things in the classroom again……but why does he have a pencil in his mouth?
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Blooms falcon loves to collect all kinds of feathers. But when he can’t find some that have fallen out of the birds, he begins to pluck them from the other birds. When he plucks one of tiny chickadee’s feather, Maribelle thinks this is the last straw. She and the other birds conspire to teach Blooms a lesson. They make a colorful turkey and plant it in the forest. Each of the turkey’s feathers are attached with really sticky glue. Blooms plucks the colorful tail feathers and takes them one by one to his nest and his collection becomes one huge clump. The birds help Blooms collect his feathers and he has more than ever.
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A birthday gift that arrived from Uncle Hershel was a guitar. Nora, a new neighbor loved to sleep, so when the loud music began, she became angry and stomped over to Gail’s house. Gail apologized to her new friend. Gail was careful from then on to be sure Nora was awake before she began to play her music.
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Harry Hippo is frightened of getting his hair cut. The other animals try to tell him nothing bad would happen, but Harry is still afraid when he enters the barbershop. Casper had told Mr. Baxter about Harry’s fears, so he knew just what to do. Harry began to relax and was ready for his haircut when Mr. Baxter handed him a lollipop and told him he was finished. Harry could not believe how easy his haircut had been.
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Izzy was Jason’s pet Iguana. Her favorite place to sleep was inside Dad’s slippers. That is where she was when Dad began packing for his trip to Alaska. When Izzy went looking for Jason’s room while in Alaska, she fell out a window into the snow. What an adventure she had—she slept in an igloo, even flew in an airplane. After that, she was careful to keep her tail visible when she slept in Dad’s slippers.
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Iris Ibis adores ice cream. No matter what the weather, she will be out selling her ice cream—but most of all eating ice cream. She sings her special song about how much she loves ice cream—even in a hailstorm. When Dolly sees her out in a blizzard, she invites Iris inside. The two decide to open an ice cream and doughnut shop together. They even have contests in their shop—but of course Iris always wins the ice cream eating contest.
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Jack is a favorite clown at the circus. He is a wonderful juggler. When the crowd begins to chant, “Jack, Jack, Jack,” the other clowns become jealous. They want to make him look bad in front of the audience. They decide to replace his balls and pins with glass jars and rocks. Then he would be embarrassed when the jars break and the rocks fall to the floor with the thud. But they are in for a surprise. Jack has no problem juggling the jars over his head, and the rocks….he can juggle them behind his back. The crowd cheers even louder.
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Baby Kelly lives inside her mother’s pouch. When she is brave and wanders away from her mother, she meet Kevin, a baby koala. They become friends and play together every day. One day Kevin wonders how it would be to get inside Kelly’s mom’s pouch so he slips inside. Kelly’s mom thinks it is her and begins hopping away. She screams when she realizes it is Kevin inside. Kelly is so glad Kevin is safe, she gives him a great big kiss. Kevin wipes off the yucky kiss, but Kelly just kisses him again.
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Baby Lorrie loves to play tricks. One of her favorite is lie very still in a tree. When an animal is below the tree, she will pounce on them and knock them to the ground. One day the animals decide to hide from her. When it is getting dark, Lorrie begins to be afraid…especially when bright lights begin to flicker in the sky. Leaning from the tree to see the lights, Lorrie falls to the ground. Lester Lightning Bug lands on her nose and begins to tell her how all the animals feel about her tricks. All the animals and lightning bugs become friends.
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Marty puts on a magic show...the only problem…he doesn’t know how to do magic. His assistant, Squeaky Squirrel isn’t very happy about having to do the tricks when none of the tricks work. The big finale is making Squeaky disappear. When squeaky will not cooperate and sneak out the back of the box, Marty has to pull her out. The audience loves the show…..not for the magic, but because it is so funny to see the embarrassment on Marty’s face when things go wrong.
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Nora Nanny stays up really late at night, and then sleeps until late in the day. When Clarissa comes to tell her about the circus in town, Nora just keeps sleeping. Clarissa gives up and goes to the circus alone. When Nora is finally awake, the circus has left town. She asks Clarissa to tell her all about it. She feels bad about missing the tall clown, the lady riding horseback, the trapeze artists and especially the chimpanzees. Nora decides to sleep at night from now on, so she doesn’t miss everything.
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Olive loves to sing…the problem is, she can’t sing very well. It is really annoying when her friends phone her and she sings instead of listening to what they have to say. You can imagine the surprise when they read she is going to be in a new musical in town. They were not aware she had been taking singing lessons. They lined the front row to comfort her when she is booed off the staged. Olive gets a standing ovation for her performance. Her friends are amazed and willingly go home with her to listen to her sing.
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Obadiah likes some strange foods…whipped cream on broccoli or peanut butter and lettuce sandwiches. He even likes to drink soda with no fizz. But his favorite is oatmeal with mashed potatoes, chocolate sauce and ice cream. Obadiah likes to eat oatmeal right from the box even before it is cooked. He eats rat poison he thinks is oatmeal and his mother calls 911. Obadiah decides to be careful what he eats from now on but his mother wonders if he has truly learned his lesson.
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Patty Panda is great at sewing. She is the one to see if you get a rip in your pants. Patty designs the perfect patch for whatever shape the rip is in. No matter how big the rip is or which way it is turned, she comes up with the perfect patch. She makes a clown patch for a triangle rip, a wagon for a rectangle rip, but the cutest patch is the Humpty Dumpty one for an oval rip.
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Quincy is a whiz at making quilts. When he heads to the beach to take a rest, he cannot nap as long as there are so many interesting things he can make into a quilt. His sand and the sea quilt turns out to be beautiful. It has star fish, seashells and even sand dollars He gives you the directions so you can make your own patterns.
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Randy loves to ride the rapids in his kayak, but when there is no rain for several weeks, the river dries up. He is so sad, he cannot eat or sleep. Even his bubble baths are not fun because they remind him of riding the rapids. When he see a small rain cloud in the sky, Randy lies in the grass even after it begins raining. In a few days, the water begins to flow again and Randy is able to ride his kayak again.
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Clyde the snake was a happy, jolly snake and all the animals loved him. When Clyde finds Kelly’s saxophone in the tall grass, he hides it and lies to Kelly about it. But now he has a bad feeling inside his belly. His smile turns into a frown and he becomes sick. The animals try to comfort him, but when Kelly brings him a bouquet of flowers, he decides to tell the truth. When he does, the bad feeling goes away.
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Timothy has always been fascinated with clocks and watches. His dad buys him his very own watch. Now he feels important because he can tell his friends the time of day. His dad puts a notch at the number 12, so he knows to say “o’clock.” But Timothy rushes out before his dad finishes teaching him. His friends say his times do not sound right. Timothy finally settles down and allows his dad to explain how to tell time.
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Upton Rabbit is a football umpire, so he has to travel a lot. He has handmade underwear….one for each day he has to be away. He loves his underwear, but keeps it hidden so others won’t laugh at him. He has one with cows taking a bow, birds dressed up like nerds, sneezing bees, and many other funny designs. They are so unusual and funny, he should wear them outside his pants so everyone can see.
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Unica loves to visit her Uncle Brewster. He has many musical instruments and the whole family gathers on the porch to play. One summer, Unica is unable to visit because of a new baby sister. When a package arrives from Uncle Brewster, Unica is delighted with the ukulele he sent to her even though it has a dent. She knows the story behind the dent which makes it even more special to her. Now she can make music all year long.
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Victor loved to watch game shows on television. He is delighted when others win a prize. More than anything he wishes he could win something. He enters every contest he can. When he wins a video camera, he hides and make tapes of his friends. He has a hilarious tape of the mistakes his friends made while playing volleyball on the beach. He sends it to the funniest video show. The friends are furious with him, but when they cool off a bit, they realize how funny it really is.
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Willy notices all the other animals have fur or mane on their heads. He begins to feel different and wishes for hair. When he buys a fuzzy orange wig, some of his friends laugh at him. But Harry Hippo convinces him he looks best by being bald….he even makes Willy a special scrapbook to show him how good he looks.
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Xavier, the Yak, wants to know how everything works. He loves to take things apart. But when he takes apart the television to see how the cartoon characters got inside, his mother is furious with him. She sends him to his room for the rest of the day. He dreads what his father will say when he gets home. To Xavier’s surprise, Dad brings him a present. It is a toy x-ray machine. Now he can see how things work without taking them apart.
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Yvonne gets carried away when she is yodeling. She doesn’t notice anything going on around her. When she yodels too long and too high, her toys begin to yell at her to stop. But Yvonne doesn’t hear them. They brace themselves, but the noise she is making causes them to break apart and fall off the shelf. When Yvonne sees what she has done to her toys, she begins sucking her thumb and humming. The toys magically mend themselves and become as they were before. They ask her to hum from now on.
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Zelda uses a special marking pen to make numbers. It is amazing to watch her transform simple numbers into things. She makes an elephant out of the number one; a party whistle out of the number six and you will not believe what she makes out the number ten.
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Samples of the videos
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Sample Pages from the Users Manuals
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Samples from the picture books
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People are talking about the videos
First Phonics DVDs
First Phonics DVDs is a set subtitled "the fun way to learn to read." Two DVDs contain videos for all 31 stories. The stories emphasize the sound of each letter, such as "Bad Billy Bear Bursts Balloons" for the letter "B" or "Casper Cat Catches Caterpillars" for the letter "C." The stories themselves are not alliterated like the titles, but they teach character lessons using animals as the main characters. The author reads the story as the colorful characters interact throughout the story. There are phonics games that correspond to the letter sound. An original song accompanies each story and make learning the letter sounds fun and easier to grasp. There is a CD-rom which contains all three teacher's manuals to assist in lesson planning, crafts, and learning pockets (a pocket folder for flashcard homework intended to be sent home with a child from school).
This resource could be used for classrooms or homeschools, but it seems to lend itself more easily to homeschooling. The teacher's manual contains a plethora of ideas for teaching the letter sounds including:
· language arts worksheets
· craft that corresponds to the story, complete with templates and instructions
· vocabulary
· creative writing
· simple recipes
· math project
· science activities
I would put this resource in the kindergarten age range, but it may be more suited to preschoolers for some. The resource would probably have to be used by a parent and student together, in order to move back and forth between the menu items. My first grader liked the stories and the games but thought the songs were a bit long. (They are repeated several times between the video book and the game.)
This resource retails for $20. Having taught several children to read, I don't believe that this resource will actually teach your child to read. It would, however, make a good supplemental activity to your systematic teaching of phonics and reading skills. Children who love listening to a computer read a book will probably like it. For someone wanting some direction in teaching basic phonics skills to their 3 to 6-year-old, this would be an excellent resource.
Kim Kargbo
The Old Schoolhouse Magazine
This resource could be used for classrooms or homeschools, but it seems to lend itself more easily to homeschooling. The teacher's manual contains a plethora of ideas for teaching the letter sounds including:
· language arts worksheets
· craft that corresponds to the story, complete with templates and instructions
· vocabulary
· creative writing
· simple recipes
· math project
· science activities
I would put this resource in the kindergarten age range, but it may be more suited to preschoolers for some. The resource would probably have to be used by a parent and student together, in order to move back and forth between the menu items. My first grader liked the stories and the games but thought the songs were a bit long. (They are repeated several times between the video book and the game.)
This resource retails for $20. Having taught several children to read, I don't believe that this resource will actually teach your child to read. It would, however, make a good supplemental activity to your systematic teaching of phonics and reading skills. Children who love listening to a computer read a book will probably like it. For someone wanting some direction in teaching basic phonics skills to their 3 to 6-year-old, this would be an excellent resource.
Kim Kargbo
The Old Schoolhouse Magazine