English Language Development

• The teacher reads aloud The Hungry Thing by Jan Slepian and Ann Seidler (1967) and children
  determine the actual food that rhymes with a nonsense word given by the Hungry Thing. For
  example, when the Hungry Thing requests fancakes, children exclaim pancakes! (See figure
  3.17 for several books that play with sounds.)


• Children play I Spy, in which an adult spies something in the room and gives a clue by
  segmenting the name of the object into its onset and rime: “I spy with my little eye a /r/-/ug/.”
  Children call out, “rug!”


• Children go on a word hunt. The teacher provides a clue to a word by sharing its segmented
  onset and rime. The children blend the units together to determine the word: /mmmmm/-/op/
  is mop.


• Children play guessing games with the teacher. The teacher has an image or object in a bag
  and provides a sound clue (such as the segmented word, /l/-/ē/-/f/ for a leaf). The children
  blend the sounds orally to guess the object.
  Teachers model the activities (thinking aloud and talking about the manipulations) and closely
  observe children’s cognitive, social, and emotional responses to activities. As with all instruction,
  they consider their reasons for selecting particular activities; the supports, accommodations, or
  modifications that might be necessary for individuals; the evidence of understanding they will look for;
  and, based on the progression of learning and their observations of the children, the next steps.

Figure 3.17. Read Aloud Books that Play with Language

English Books Spanish Books for Alternative Programs*

Bynum, Janie. 1999. Altoona Baboona. San

Diego: Harcourt.

Waber, Bernard. 1997. Bearsie Bear and the

Surprise Sleepover Party. New York:

Houghton Mifflin.

Martin, Bill Jr. 1970. The Happy Hippopotami.

San Diego: Voyager.

Dewdney, Anna. 2005. Llama Llama Red

Pajama. New York: Viking.

Pomerantz, Charlotte. 1974. The Piggy in the

Puddle. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Seuss. 1974. There’s a Wocket in My Pocket!

New York: Random House.

Ada, Alma F., and Isabel Campoy. 2003. ¡Pio

Peep! Rimas Tradicionales en Español,

Edición Especial. New York: Harpor

Collins.

Delgado, Henry G. 2002. Destrabalengüerías

para Trabalengüeros. Bogotá, Colbumia:

Intermedio.

Griego, Margot C., and others. 1981. Tortillitas

Para Mama and Other Nursery Rhymes:

Spanish and English. New York: Henry

Holt.

Robleda, Margarita. 2003. Números

Tragaldabas. Mexico: Ediciones Destino.

*Teachers who do not teach in alternative bilingual programs may provide guidance on high-quality read aloud texts

in Spanish to parents who primarily speak Spanish so that they can engage their children with these texts.

Phonics and Word Recognition

In terms of the phonics and word recognition standards of the kindergarten CA CCSS for
ELA/Literacy, children make progress toward learning letter-sound correspondences for consonants
and vowels (RF.K.3a–b). They also begin to learn some high-frequency words by sight (RF.K.3c) and
begin to distinguish between similarly spelled words (RF.K.3d). These skills build from the preschool
foundations. (See figure 3.16.) They are taught directly, but not without relevance in the children’s
worlds. In other words, teachers make connections between explicit instruction in a letter sound and

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