heggerty kindergarten scope and sequence

3 min read 10-03-2025

heggerty kindergarten scope and sequence

The Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Program is a popular choice for kindergarten teachers looking to build a strong foundation in literacy. Its structured approach, focusing on explicit and systematic phonics instruction, helps young learners develop crucial phonemic awareness skills. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the Heggerty Kindergarten scope and sequence, detailing the skills covered throughout the year. Understanding this scope and sequence allows teachers to effectively implement the program and track student progress.

Heggerty Kindergarten: Foundational Phonemic Awareness Skills

The Heggerty program begins by establishing fundamental phonemic awareness skills. These form the building blocks for later reading and spelling success. The kindergarten year is dedicated to building this solid base.

Semester 1: Building Blocks of Sound

The first semester focuses on the essential skills that underpin phonemic awareness. Students will learn to:

Identify rhyming words: This lays the groundwork for understanding the sounds in words. Activities often involve recognizing rhyming pairs and patterns.
Isolate beginning sounds: Students learn to identify the first sound in a word, a crucial skill for decoding. Games and activities reinforce this concept.
Isolate ending sounds: Similar to beginning sounds, identifying the final sound helps build phonemic awareness. Many activities involve manipulating sounds within words.
Blend sounds: This involves combining individual sounds to form a word. For example, blending /c/-/a/-/t/ to make "cat". This is a critical step in decoding.
Segment sounds: This is the reverse of blending. Students break words into their individual sounds. For example, segmenting "cat" into /c/-/a/-/t/. This helps with spelling and writing.

Semester 2: Advanced Phonemic Awareness and Beyond

The second semester builds upon the skills introduced in the first. Students will progress to more complex tasks, including:

Manipulate sounds: This involves adding, deleting, and substituting sounds within words. For example, changing "cat" to "hat" by substituting /c/ with /h/. This is an advanced skill requiring significant phonemic awareness.
Identify medial sounds: Students learn to pinpoint sounds in the middle of words. This strengthens their ability to break down multisyllabic words.
Work with multisyllabic words: The program introduces breaking down words into syllables, preparing students for more complex vocabulary and reading.
Connecting phonemic awareness to phonics: The latter part of the semester often begins to bridge the gap between sounds and letters, laying the foundation for phonics instruction.

Heggerty Kindergarten: A Week-by-Week Breakdown (Example)

While a precise week-by-week schedule varies depending on the classroom's needs and pace, a general outline might look like this:

Week 1-4: Emphasis on rhyming, identifying beginning and ending sounds. Simple blending and segmentation activities introduced.

Week 5-8: Focus on isolating medial sounds. More complex blending and segmentation exercises. Introduction to manipulating sounds (adding/deleting one sound).

Week 9-12: Advanced sound manipulation (substitution). Introduction to multisyllabic words and syllable segmentation.

Week 13-16: Review and consolidation of all skills covered. Activities integrate prior learning, preparing students for the transition to phonics instruction. The specific activities and their sequencing may vary slightly depending on the teacher’s chosen implementation.

Integrating Heggerty into Your Kindergarten Curriculum

The Heggerty program is designed to be flexible and adaptable. Teachers can integrate it into their existing literacy curriculum in various ways. Consider incorporating:

Daily mini-lessons: Short, focused lessons can be easily incorporated into the daily schedule.
Small-group instruction: This allows for targeted support and differentiated instruction.
Center activities: Heggerty activities can be adapted for literacy centers, providing students with opportunities for independent practice.
Games and songs: Making learning fun enhances engagement and retention.

Assessing Student Progress in Heggerty Kindergarten

Regular assessment is crucial to monitor student progress and adjust instruction accordingly. Heggerty provides assessment tools, and teachers can also use informal assessments, such as:

Observing students during activities.
Analyzing student work samples.
Using formative assessments throughout the program.

By understanding the Heggerty Kindergarten scope and sequence and employing effective assessment strategies, kindergarten teachers can effectively build a strong foundation in phonemic awareness for their students. This lays the groundwork for future reading success and creates confident, capable young readers.