Dear Parent,
Our class is engaged in developing language and literacy with the memorable language of favorite nursery rhymes, poems, songs and chants. This is part of our comprehensive and multisensory approach to literacy that is backed by scientific research and challenges and supports young children at all levels of reading development. We will encourage your child to learn over forty wonderful songs, poems, and rhymes this year. This is an ambitious goal, one that will provide the powerful foundation for our children to become confident and fluent readers, writers and speakers.

First, we joyfully sing, chant and recite the songs and rhymes repeatedly, encouraging children to dramatize the actions, clap to the rhythms, and chime in on the words. We “play with language,” using explicit instruction to develop phonemic awareness while keeping the love of language alive. It is — after all — the familiarity with the English language that allows the child’s decoding to be error free. Once children have a memorable sense of the language, we introduce the song or rhyme in a Big Book format. This book has large print so the words and pictures can be easily seen by all students as we conduct shared reading experiences, modeling strategies and teaching the skills that successful readers use. The supportive social context enhances learning and builds a cooperative and caring learning environment.

After several shared literacy experiences with the Big Book, each child is given a personal copy of the corresponding Little Book. We guide the children as they practice reading these books, helping them track the words and learn concepts about print. As they move their eyes from left to right across the page, they begin developing the neurological pathways and behaviors of successful readers.

We hope your young child will learn all of these songs and rhymes “by heart” and will enjoy role-playing him or herself as a successful reader of the Little Books. This “magical memory reading” is an important phase that children go through as they learn how written language works. Memorization actually helps children read independently. When children can “hear” the song or rhyme in their heads, they can automatically correct their mistakes using phonics skills and comprehension strategies. Do not, however, expect your child to initially know every word of these Read and Sing Little Books. Celebrate their beginning reading behavior, understanding that it may not all be sound-for-sound and word-for-word accurate yet. Fluency and accuracy will come with practice and repetition because the child is motivated to read. Your child is beginning to sound out some simple words using their phonics skills and is learning to instantly read many high frequency words — we call these our “by heart” words. They are also practicing sign language to communicate letters and words and using daily “kid writing” to reinforce their skills. This multisensory approach to teaching accelerates literacy in kindergarten and beyond.

Your child may enjoy “performing” the language and reading their new Little Book for the entire family and for friends. Encourage your child’s expressive, playful use of language. Children who learn to sing and recite many songs and rhymes with expression will naturally become expressive oral readers and speakers. The most helpful thing you can do while listening to your child, who is practicing reading behaviors and learning new skills, is to be positive and enjoy the experience.

• Use The Neurological Impress Method of guided oral read-aloud practice as you sit next to your child and track the words (singing and reading) together.
  
• The more your child reads, the better he or she will read. Children benefit from repetition, so think up reasons for your child to read, sing and recite the language of these Little Books over and over again.

Your child will be eager to share the Little Books with you and will want to save all of the Read and Sing Little Books in a special place so they can read the entire collection again and again. We are sending home a “Little Book treasure box” for their safekeeping. Let this collection of books be a reminder of your child’s growing confidence and delight in learning to read.

While this is a challenging kindergarten literacy curriculum, it is also active, joyful and emotionally satisfying. Our goal is that each child will do much more than just learn to use phonics skills; we want the children to become active, engaged readers, writers and thinkers. The most important thing is that they associate learning to read and write with personal pleasure and success so they become highly motivated. We think you’ll be amazed at how much they learn. Providing explicit skills instruction with quality literature in a playful, language-rich environment allows us to take advantage of how the brain learns best.

Thank you for being partners with us in your child’s reading development. Your nightly commitment to reading and singing together is a vital part of your child’s success in school. Enjoy creating wonderful family memories around the joys of language and delights of learning to read.

Your partner in literacy learning,

Teacher: Please add your special voice, adapting this letter to fit your needs. Note that it was adapted from a Nellie Edge Parents as Partners Letter, © Copyright 2005 and used with permission.