GOLD Assessment
"When we say that Teaching Strategies GOLD® is an authentic, ongoing, and observation-based assessment system, it means we observe your child during regular, everyday activities; document what we see and hear by taking notes, collecting samples of your child’s drawings and writing attempts, or taking photos, audio recordings, or video clips; exchange information with you to gain a more complete picture of what your child knows and can do; compare the information collected to research-based, widely held expectations for children of similar ages or grades; and use the information to plan experiences that support your child’s learning and meet individual needs, both at home and at school."
For a more detailed explanation, click here.
Jolly Phonics
"Jolly Phonics is a thorough foundation for reading and writing. It uses the synthetic phonics method of teaching the letter sounds in a way that is fun and multi-sensory. Children learn how to use the letter sounds to read and write words."
Instead of learning the letter names, the students solely lear the letter sounds. This allows them to take the sounds and start putting them together to form words.
For a more detailed explanation, click here.
Handwriting Without Tears
"The Handwriting Without Tears® curriculum draws from years of innovation and research to provide developmentally appropriate, multisensory tools and strategies for your classroom. The program follows research that demonstrates children learn more effectively by actively doing, with materials that address all styles of learning."
Before we begin writing in preschool, we use a multisensory approach to prepare. We write letters in flour, salt, shaving cream, build them with Handwriting Without Tears pieces, etc. We also prepare our fingers and hands by building our muscles using tongs, eye droppers, clothespins, tweezers, squirt bottles, etc. When the students are developmentally ready, we begin writing in uppercase.
To learn more about Handwriting Without Tears, click here.