Kit 1 Lesson Brick assembled by a Reading Buddy

FAQs We welcome your questions and the opportunity to offer clarifications. A Brief History: Toronto primary teacher Lisa Cestnik and her husband, Jay, spent many years promoting children's nutrition through cookbooks and curricula. In January 1998, they began designing worksheets for Grades 1-2 to teach high-frequency Dolch words using illustrations. Most of this vocabulary has been considered abstract and unpicturable. Within a year, a formula emerged whose main features are the basis for the Fall 2000 edition (key word lessons in verses, word wall, booklets). Over the past two years, the resource has been tested, refined, and expanded. Hand-lettering has been replaced with original fonts. Suitability for Kindergarten instruction remains a high priority. There is no intention at this time to add a fifth kit. A format more suitable for Grades 2-3 is being developed. How were the key words and phonograms for the lessons selected? Over a dozen lists of high-frequency words both historic and modern were collected and compared. Though subjective, the ranking of key words was blended with high-priority word families chosen after examining lists by Edward Fry and other phonics-based systems. Kit 1 had to be composed of the most frequent and familiar words, however challenging the spelling. Provisions were given to make Kit 2 alphabetic, allowing that some selections (letters q, ex, z) are not true high-frequency words, useful as they are. Kits 3 and 4 distribute key words and phonograms in a progressive, levelled development of learning. Why don't the verses rhyme with the key words? The simple answer is that many of the key words do not belong to sizeable word families. Several key words belong to the same word family (e.g. we, he, she, be). Keeping them dissimilar allows students to focus and distinguish between the two principle elements of study. That said, it is still a good optional activity for the class to make a list of words that rhyme with some of the key words. Who did your Web site? It was designed by Jay and created by Michael Kupka, carrot.com and co-developer of the Borealis program for York DSB (Gr. 4-6, Math and Language Arts).