When our team of educators sat down to decide which curriculum we needed to incorporate into our Kindergarten Readiness Collaborative (KRC) program, they had to consider these three requirements:
1. The curriculum had to support the foundational skills required for reading; Phonemic Awareness and Oral Language.
2. The ease of use for the early childcare providers and families who would be administering it.
3. It needed to be research-backed and widely trusted by educators and early childhood professionals.
Our goal through the KRC is to provide a holistic approach to early literacy and ensure each child is ready for kindergarten, which is why the curriculum we chose directly aligns with the Ohio Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (the state assessment that every child in Ohio is given when entering kindergarten to measure their knowledge and skills). After careful consideration, our team elected to use Heggerty® Phonemic Awareness curriculum, Read It Again! Social-Emotional curriculum, and Khan Academy Kids®.
What is the Heggerty® Phonemic Awareness curriculum and why do we use it for the KRC?
The Heggerty® Phonemic Awareness Pre-K curriculum is a widely used and trusted daily program focused on developing essential phonemic awareness skills through short, engaging lessons that help children learn to hear and manipulate sounds in words.
WHY WE USE IT:
Our team didn’t just choose this curriculum because it’s one of the most widely known and trusted early literacy resources available, but because in their collective 150+ years of combined experience in the classroom, this was the curriculum they had used and witnessed its success firsthand. The lessons are short and engaging, easy for teachers to use in the classroom setting, and require minimum prep time. And because it teaches children to hear the sounds in words, it drastically improves their reading, spelling, and writing skills.
The curriculum teaches eight phonemic awareness skills: rhyme, onset fluency, phoneme isolation, blending, segmenting, adding, deleting, and substituting. Letter names, sound recognition, and language awareness via nursery rhymes are also taught. And while this information might sound complicated, it really is easy to add into your classroom’s daily routine, (like at the end of story time, when you already have your children’s attention).
What is the Read It Again!® Social Emotional curriculum and why do we use it for the KRC?
The Read It Again!® Social-Emotional curriculum was created locally by The Ohio State University Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy, and designed to develop and strengthen young children’s early foundations in language and literacy and social-emotional skills.
WHY WE USE IT:
After our first year working with over 30 local early childcare providers and schools, we heard time and time again that the literacy curriculum they were using was great, but they also really needed more tools to support their children’s social-emotional development.
Read It Again! Social-Emotional provides a systematic, intentional, and flexible approach to building children’s skills in four key learning domains of social and emotional learning: self-awareness, emotional functioning, self-regulation, and social skills. The easy-to-follow manual is tailored to each age group, and is used to enhance the work already taking place in early learning environments.
What is the Khan Academy Kids® educational app and why do we use it for the KRC?
Every child enrolled in our KRC cohort receives a FREE Amazon Fire Kids Tablet with unlimited access to the Khan Academy Kids® educational app designed to engage kids in core subjects like early literacy, reading, writing, language, and math. We are able to monitor each child’s progress in real time and tailor their learning journey to fit their own unique needs.
Two children in the KRC program completing their Khan Academy Kids® lessons at their preschool, OLEC.
WHY WE USE IT:
In order to provide holistic support to the children in our cohort, we knew that finding a way to support their learning journey at home was going to be just as important as the support they’re receiving from their early learning center.
That’s when we discovered the Khan Academy Kids® educational platform. Developed in collaboration with learning experts at Stanford and aligned with the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework and Common Core Standards, the platform boasts a plethora of engaging activities, books, animated videos, games, and creative lessons designed to captivate children’s attention. Plus, in our upcoming cohort we’ll be providing cash incentives to families whose children complete 75% or more of their assigned lessons each month.
Ready to enroll your center in the Kindergarten Readiness Collaborative, Year 2?
The enrollment window doesn’t open until May 5th, 2025, but you can sign up now to be notified as soon as it goes live.