Scribd
Upload
228 views

First Words Guide

The document introduces a series of 8 books called Follifoot First Words that teach early reading skills. Each book focuses on 2-3 new letters and uses high-frequency words that children already know. Book 1 introduces the letters a, c, e, h, n, o, r, s, t using words like cat, hat, on. Subsequent books introduce new letters and words in a controlled way to build literacy skills without confusing concepts. The full introduction of letters and vocabulary across the 8 books is outlined.

Uploaded by

aghaidau
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
228 views

First Words Guide

The document introduces a series of 8 books called Follifoot First Words that teach early reading skills. Each book focuses on 2-3 new letters and uses high-frequency words that children already know. Book 1 introduces the letters a, c, e, h, n, o, r, s, t using words like cat, hat, on. Subsequent books introduce new letters and words in a controlled way to build literacy skills without confusing concepts. The full introduction of letters and vocabulary across the 8 books is outlined.

Uploaded by

aghaidau
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Information for Teachers

Follifoot First Words Series

Introduction
When I was devising this series of eight books I assumed that schools
would be teaching children the phoneme/grapheme correspondences of
the letters a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u, probably
beginning with s, a, t, p, i, n. However, to be able to use the animals cat,
rat and hen, I needed to use the letters a, c, e, h, n, r, t. By including the
word cats, I also managed to include the letter s. Then I needed a
connecting word to join my nouns in phrases and I found that I could
illustrate the most number of situations using the word on. So the choice
of letters for the first book turned out to be a, c, e, h, n, o, r, s, t.

In keeping with the rationale of only using words that children


understand, I introduced a bag and a dog in book 2 as well as the
connecting word in.

The letters f, l, m, u, k, p were then introduced in books 3, 4, 5 at the


rate of two letters per book in that order. I also wanted book 3 to
introduce the word and, and book 4 to introduce the word the, so that the
books stayed parallel with those of the A and B Series of Jelly and Bean.

There are no verbs used in books 1-5, hence, no capital letters or full
stops are used either. Books 6-8 all contain sentences beginning with I,
but there are no character names, so I is the only capital letter in the
whole series. Furthermore, it is used in its role as a first person singular
pronoun, thus avoiding any confusion with its use in the word It at the
beginning of a sentence, where it is pronounced differently.

The introduction of letters and vocabulary is shown below.


M Greenwood
May 2010
Introduction of letters
Book no. Title Small letters
1 a hat acehnorst
2 a bag bigd
3 bats lf
4 mad hens mu
5 kitten kp
6 I am a rat
7 I am mad
8 I can dig

Vocabulary used
Book No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
a * * * * * * * *
on * * * * * *
cat(s) * * * *
hat *
hen(s) * *
rat * * * *
bag * *
in * * * *
big * *
dog * * *
hot * *
bat(s) * *
frog(s) * *
and * * * * *
off *
log * *
hut *
the * * *
mad * *
eggs *
not *
kitten *
cup *
pan *
pen *
red *
his *
bed *
I * * *
am * * *
rip *
can * * *
dig * *
run *
hop * *
sit *
mud *
sad *
pull *
up *
rag *
tub *
full *
wet *

You might also like