What is the difference between the Pine Hollow Programs?

PRE-K/K – Letters to Little Words
FROM LEARNING LETTERS TO READING SHORT WORDS!

Letters to Little Words begins as if the student does not know anything about the alphabet or any of the sounds, yet does not move so slowly that a student would be bored if he knew some of the sounds. Basic Phonics covers all the sounds of the alphabet, all the vowel sounds (short, long and additional) and, at the end of the year, covers some of the two-letter sounds such as ai, and sh, etc. By the end of the year, the student will be reading three to five letter words, or even reading easy sentences, depending on the motivation of the student.

The Letters to Little Words program starts with studying one letter a week for 27 weeks. Each week, each letter is introduced with all its letter sounds, i.e. that “a” says three sounds, “g” says two sounds, etc. Most parents are surprised by how quickly students catch on to this methodology. When a parent introduces decoding of the words, they can say, “This word uses the second sound of ‘a.’ ” Each of the basic letter sounds also has a coordinating character” that helps them learn their sound and its physical letter shape.

For the remaining weeks of this program, students go on to add to their knowledge of the alphabet other 2-letter phonogram sounds. Examples include: er, or, ir, ai, oi, sh and so on. Throughout the year, students have a weekly list of words that they need to decode, starting in Week 10. An additional feature of this program is that letters are introduced in the same week they are used and practiced in the “Animals and Their Worlds” program, fitting hand in glove with this program.

This program offers a lot of flexibility to parents. The Phonogram Cards and Character Cards, together with the Hands-On Phonics Activity Pack, offer a variety of activities that reinforce the learning process in an active way. These resources can help you fill gaps in learning, reinforce skills, and even extend the learning if you want to move more slowly through the program.

Here are some examples of students who will use this program effectively, and how:

Parents of students who need to start learning to read and want a solid reading program will love this program.

• Parents of students who know some of the letter sounds, but not all, usually have great success using the program as it is.

• Parents of younger learners, such as a four-year-old who can’t wait to read, could use this program without using the last 9 weeks of more advanced phonograms, but instead, used other learning activities included with the program to  continue building reading skills.

Advanced K Students – Syllables to Sentences & Paragraphs to Pages
FROM READING SHORT WORDS TO READING SHORT PARAGRAPHS!

Syllables to Sentences starts just as the student has learned most of his phonics sounds and is ready to start putting together and reading three-letter words such as mat, set, and kit. The readers support this goal, and the phonics cards and instruction continue to introduce and reinforce more advanced letter combinations such as ea, ch, tch, and so on. By the end of the year, the student will be reading short paragraphs from easy readers.

Syllables to Sentences begins with a three-week review of the phonograms learned in the Letters to Little Words” program. After that, students begin to decode readers with short three-letter words or less. These readers usually have one short sentence per page. Students also work on word families, building their decoding skills.

The Paragraphs to Pages program picks up right where Syllables to Sentences left off. The goal of the Paragraphs to Pages program is to build reading confidence and vocabulary to the point where the student can read a full page or more comfortably.

Here are some examples of students who will use this program effectively, and how:

Parents of average kindergartners who have fully mastered the alphabet sounds and are ready to decode (or are just now reading) three-letter words will find this program will work perfectly using the program as it is.

• Both these programs above are scheduled as 18-week programs, which means at full speed you would use BOTH in one year. This is designed to serve the students that are slightly ahead or slightly behind where they should be. If you need to slow down you can do half the work and make each program a full-year program.
• Parents of younger learners, such as a five-year-old who has learned his alphabet and is a motivated student may be able to use these program if the parent is willing to spend more than three weeks on the initial review (using the phonics cards) to really ground the student before moving on.

• Parents of older students who not “motivated” readers may find that this is a safe, handleable program for students who haven’t effectively made the leap from decoding simple words to reading. Usually such students reach a certain point where all of a sudden the “key turns” in their heads, and they suddenly make reading progress at an incredibly rapid rate, catching quickly up to their more “motivated” peers. This may mean parents will not be able to use this program for an entire year as their student suddenly “outgrows” the program, and parents may find they need to supplement the program, or move on to the next level. This may seem like an additional expense, however, the step from decoding to rapid reading is a vital part of reading instruction, and cannot be missed.

1ST GRADE – Stories to Short Chapters
READING ON MY OWN! FROM READING SHORT PARAGRAPHS TO SHORT CHAPTER BOOKS!

Stories to Short Chapters begins with the student reading 1-2 paragraphs each day and progresses to the student reading easy chapter books by the end of the year. They will be prepared to progress to short chapter books in the second grade when they complete this program.

2nd Grade – Readers to Real Books
READING ON MY OWN! FROM READING SHORTER CHAPTER BOOKS TO FULL STORIES!

Readers to Real Books is a great program for struggling 3rd graders or advanced 2nd graders. It will take the student from reading shorter stories that are only a few pages long to reading longer stores designed to prepare them for “real books”.  As with ALL of our early reading programs the WinterPromise authors have truly controlled vocabulary which enable real confidence as a reader.