1. November 2013: Alma’s literacy adventures

2. Alma spent a lot of time playing with letters Montessori style: From top left: arranging (spelling) her own name, spelling Hahgoot’s name, making up “magic words” (random sets of letters) and being surprised when she makes a real word that means something. Left: tracing letters Right: making the shape of letters using short strands of yarn

3. Besides making letters shapes with string, Alma did a lot of free scribbling and continued to help me make her Aleph- Bet poster (I managed to convince her to colour in, using colour changing\blending crayons!) She also likes playing Lotto and quickly matches the cards

4. Left: making letters shapes with magnets She makes them by herself, without my help Top right: working in one of the fantastic stickers workbooks grandma Jaike sent Bottom right: more letters tracing...

5. I used these “letters footprints” to test how many letters Alma knows (she reads them with the sound “Aa” only). She had to step on the sound I cried out and then we made a trail of all the ones she read correctly. She knew more than half of the Aleph-bet! Making and reading pairs of sounds

6. As she was so keen to learn the letters I started her on a multimedia computer program for kids 4 years old and up, called “Alphie – I have a secret, I can read!” She LOVES it! She listens to the stories and instructions carefully, quickly does all the tasks and games (she picked up the patterns really quickly) and enjoys the movies and songs.

7. The fantastic program, that covers all aspects of language (spoken\listened to, reading and writing) enables her to work independently in her own pace and practice a lot.

8. Left: I taught Alma how to turn the workbook around to make it easier for her to do dot-to-dot puzzles. Right: a free scribble and a letter to her cousin Amitai.

9. Playing with the light up piano before bedtime Alma enjoys the Year One preparation kit, just like her sister did around this age...

10. Matching, sorting, tracing... Very busy! In our next presentation: More fun and learning!