Preschool
Unit 1: All About Me
Focus: The All About Me domain introduces students to the human body and senses. Instruction and activities also support the development of emergent literacy skills such as phonological awareness, gross and fine motor movement, and print knowledge.
Number of Lessons: 20
Lesson Time: 45 minutes each. Each lesson may be divided into shorter segments.
Additional Search Terms: human body • senses • nursery rhymes • motor skills • phonological awareness • oral language
This comprehensive Teacher Guide specifies learning objectives and provides background information, daily lesson plans, read-alouds, assessments, and other resources for teaching the domain.
Each Flip Book contains a sequenced collection of images that accompany the Listening & Learning read-alouds. The engaging visuals reinforce students’ understanding of concepts and promote engagement with the text.
Image Cards are used to reinforce and deepen students’ understanding of the information covered in the domain. They are primarily used during Extension Activities. Common exercises include sorting, retelling, and sequencing.
The Activities Pages reinforce the content and skills taught in each domain. Practice opportunities are provided both in and out of the classroom.
Transition Cards reinforce content and skills as students move between activities. Some of these cards may be used across multiple domains.
Learning Center Cards provide teachers with suggested questions and prompts in order to facilitate language and promote student-to-student interaction.
Unit 2: Families & Communities
Focus: The Families and Communities domain builds students’ knowledge of families, homes, and community roles. Instruction and activities also support the development of emergent literacy skills such as phonological awareness, concepts of print, and handwriting strokes.
Number of Lessons: 20
Lesson Time: 45 minutes each. Each lesson may be divided into shorter segments.
Additional Search Terms: family • community • nursery rhymes • handwriting strokes •phonological awareness • rhyming
Unit 3: Animals
Focus: The Animals domain builds students’ knowledge of various animals and their needs. Instruction and activities also support the development of emergent literacy skills such as syllable segmenting, identifying initial sounds, and handwriting strokes.
Number of Lessons: 21
Lesson Time: 45 minutes each. Each lesson may be divided into shorter segments.
Additional Search Terms: animals • mammals • insects • life science • syllables • handwriting
Unit 4: Plants
Focus: The Plants domain builds students’ knowledge of various plants and plant types. Instruction and activities also support the development of emergent literacy skills such as identifying initial and final sounds, writing letters in one’s name, and retelling a story.
Number of Lessons: 21
Lesson Time: 45 minutes each. Each lesson may be divided into shorter segments.
Additional Search Terms: plants • life science • writing name • story retelling
Unit 5: Habitats
Focus: The Habitats domain builds students’ knowledge of plants and animals in various habitats. Instruction and activities also support the development of emergent literacy skills such as blending sounds, identifying sounds in words, sequencing events, and writing letters of the alphabet.
Number of Lessons: 21
Lesson Time: 45 minutes each. Each lesson may be divided into shorter segments.
Additional Search Terms: habitats • life science • ecology • blending • sequence events • handwriting
Classic Tales (Interspersed Domain)
Focus: The Classic Tales domain builds students’ knowledge of narrative language and the conventions of fictional storytelling.
Number of Lessons: 20 (interspersed across the school year)
Lesson Time: Approximately 50 minutes per tale, divided across two instructional days.
Additional Search Terms: Three Little Pigs • Why Flies Buzz • Thumbelina • Little Red Hen • Gingerbread Man
Important People in American History
(Interspersed Domain)
Focus: The Important People in American History domain builds students’ knowledge of national holidays, figures, and events while introducing a variety of emerging literacy skills through child-friendly activities. The materials also contain four bonus lessons that are intended to be taught as a supplement to the core Important People in American History domain.
Number of Lessons: 14 (interspersed across the school year, generally coinciding with holidays) + 4 optional, bonus lessons
Lesson Time: 45 minutes each. Each lesson may be divided into shorter segments.
Additional Search Terms: Native Americans • Pilgrims • Martin Luther King, Jr. • Barack Obama • Abraham Lincoln • Sally Ride • Sonia Sotomayor
Bonus Lessons: George Washington • Betsy Ross
Bonus Materials
Kindergarten
Unit 1
Focus: Unit 1 lays the groundwork for reading and writing. Students build awareness of environmental noises, of words within sentences, and of sounds within words. They also learn several writing strokes used to create letters.
Number of Lessons: 10
Lesson Time: 60 minutes each. Each lesson may be divided into shorter segments.
Additional Search Terms: phonological awareness • writing strokes • tripod grip • pretests
Unit 2
Focus: In Unit 2, students learn how to blend syllables together to form multisyllabic words. They also learn how to orally produce two- and three-sound words by blending sounds.
Number of Lessons: 10
Lesson Time: 60 minutes each. Each lesson may be divided into shorter segments.
Additional Search Terms: phonemic awareness • blending • syllables • writing strokes • pretests
Unit 3
Focus: In Unit 3, students are introduced to eight sounds and they practice blending these sounds into words. They also learn how to form the letters that make these sounds.
Number of Lessons: 14
Lesson Time: 60 minutes each. Each lesson may be divided into shorter segments.
Additional Search Terms: phonemic awareness • blending • Consonant Vowel Consonant (CVC) • handwriting
Unit 4
Focus: Unit 4 introduces students to eight new sounds. Through oral language games, chaining exercises, and story demonstrations with the decodable Big Book (Pet Fun), students practice blending these sounds into words. Students also practice previously learned letter-sound correspondences.
Number of Lessons: 15
Lesson Time: 60 minutes each. Each lesson may be divided into shorter segments.
Additional Search Terms: phonemic awareness • blending • segmenting • story demonstration • handwriting
Unit 5
Focus: Unit 5 introduces students to eight new sounds, including a spelling alternative for /k/. Through oral language games, chaining exercises, and story demonstrations with the decodable Big Book (Ox and Man), students practice blending these sounds into words. Students also practice previously learned letter-sound correspondences.
Number of Lessons: 16
Lesson Time: 60 minutes each. Each lesson may be divided into shorter segments.
Additional Search Terms: phonemic awareness • blending • segmenting • story demonstration • handwriting
Unit 6
Focus: In Unit 6 students are encouraged to automatize the letter-sound correspondences and blending procedures they have learned so far. They are introduced to consonant clusters, letter names, rhyming words, and reading text independently. The decodable Student Reader (with Big Book) for Unit 6 is Kit.
Number of Lessons: 15
Lesson Time: 60 minutes each. Each lesson may be divided into shorter segments.
Additional Search Terms: blending • segmenting • lowercase letters • alphabet • handwriting
Unit 7
Focus: Unit 7 introduces students to digraphs. Students develop automaticity in blending and segmenting these sounds through phonemic awareness activities, chaining exercises, practice worksheets, and reading of their decodable Student Reader, Seth.
Number of Lessons: 17
Lesson Time: 60 minutes each. Each lesson may be divided into shorter segments.
Additional Search Terms: blending • segmenting • digraphs • handwriting
Unit 8
Focus: Unit 8 introduces students to double-letter spellings for consonant sounds, as well as seven high-frequency Tricky Words. Results from this unit’s student performance task assessment inform which students are ready for the next unit and those who need targeted support with previously taught skills. The decodable Student Reader (with Big Book) for Unit 8 is Sam.
Number of Lessons: 20
Lesson Time: 60 minutes each. Each lesson may be divided into shorter segments.
Additional Search Terms: double-letter spellings • student performance task assessment
Unit 9
Focus: In Unit 9 students practice writing uppercase letters and learn 17 new Tricky Words. This unit also introduces worksheets with story questions, comprehension questions related to the decodable Student Reader, Zach and Ann.
Number of Lessons: 23
Lesson Time: 60 minutes each. Each lesson may be divided into shorter segments.
Additional Search Terms: uppercase letters • letter names • alphabet • handwriting
Unit 10
Focus: Unit 10 introduces students to five new vowel sounds and eleven additional Tricky Words. The decodable Student Reader for Unit 10 is Scott. Students are administered a cumulative End-of-Year assessment, the results of which can be shared with first grade teachers via the End-of-Year Summary sheet included in the Student Workbook.
Number of Lessons: 29
Lesson Time: 60 minutes each. Each lesson may be divided into shorter segments.
Additional Search Terms: End-of-the-Year Student Performance Task Assessment • EOY • Kindergarten CKLA End-of-Year Summary
Domain 1: Nursery Rhymes & Fables
Focus: An introduction to nursery rhymes and fables, including Mother Goose poems and Aesop’s fables. By listening to nursery rhymes and repeating or reciting them, students learn vocabulary and build phonemic awareness. Well-known fables introduce students to new vocabulary and prompt discussion of character, virtues, and behavior.
Number of Lessons: 12
Lesson Time: 50 minutes each. Each lesson may be divided into shorter segments.
Additional Search Terms: nursery rhymes • Mother Goose • fables • Aesop • phonemic awareness • virtues
Domain 2: The Human Body
Five Senses
Focus: Students explore how they learn about the world using their five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Students also hear inspirational stories about individuals who overcame significant challenges posed by disabilities related to sight and hearing.
Number of Lessons: 8
Lesson Time: 50 minutes each. Each lesson may be divided into shorter segments.
Additional Search Terms: senses • human body • sight • hearing • touch • taste • smell
Domain 3: Stories
Focus: Students are introduced to classic stories as well as trickster tales and fiction from other cultures. Students develop an awareness of language and recurring themes in children’s literature.
Number of Lessons: 10
Lesson Time: 50 minutes each. Each lesson may be divided into shorter segments.
Additional Search Terms: Chicken Little • Three Little Pigs • Three Billy Goats Gruff • Bremen Town Musicians • Story of Jumping Mouse • Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Domain 4: Plants
Focus: Read-aloud texts introduce students to the parts of plants and how they grow. Students gain basic knowledge of ecology and the interdependence of all living things.
Number of Lessons: 11
Lesson Time: 50 minutes each. Each lesson may be divided into shorter segments.
Additional Search Terms: plants • life cycle • life science • pollination • photosynthesis
Domain 5: Farms
Focus: Students learn about the importance of farms as a source of food and other products. They identify several farm animals and crops, and contrast how plants make their own food with how animals get their food by eating plants and other living things.
Number of Lessons: 9
Lesson Time: 50 minutes each. Each lesson may be divided into shorter segments.
Additional Search Terms: plants • crops • farms • life science
Domain 6: Native Americans
Focus: Students are introduced to the broad concept that indigenous peoples lived on the continents of North and South America long before European explorers arrived. Students explore the distinctive cultures of three Native American groups, as well as how conditions in different geographical regions influenced their ways of life.
Number of Lessons: 8
Lesson Time: 50 minutes each. Each lesson may be divided into shorter segments.
Additional Search Terms: Native Americans • Lakota Sioux • Great Plains • Wampanoag • Lenape • Eastern Woodlands
Domain 7: Kings & Queens
Focus: Students listen to read-aloud texts, both fiction and nonfiction, about kings, queens, and royal families. The selections build students’ understanding of responsibilities and customs associated with royalty throughout history.
Number of Lessons: 8
Lesson Time: 50 minutes each. Each lesson may be divided into shorter segments.
Additional Search Terms: kings • queens • royalty
Domain 8: Seasons & Weather
Focus: An introduction to weather and the seasons. Students learn that regions of Earth experience different characteristic weather patterns throughout the year.
Number of Lessons: 8
Lesson Time: 50 minutes each. Each lesson may be divided into shorter segments.
Additional Search Terms: seasons • spring • summer • autumn • winter • weather patterns
Domain 9: Columbus & The Pilgrims
Focus: Students are introduced to key figures, events, and ideas associated with two episodes in the founding of the United States of America—the first voyage of Columbus in 1492 and the arrival of the Pilgrims in 1620.
Number of Lessons: 9
Lesson Time: 50 minutes each. Each lesson may be divided into shorter segments.
Additional Search Terms: Columbus • Pilgrims • Europeans • Western Hemisphere • colonies • Great Britain
Domain 10: Colonial Towns & Townspeople
Focus: Students are introduced to the early history of the United States as they explore what daily life was like for people in colonial times.
Number of Lessons: 10
Lesson Time: 50 minutes each. Each lesson may be divided into shorter segments.
Additional Search Terms: colonies • bakers • weavers • tailors • blacksmith • cobblers
Domain 11: Taking Care of the Earth
Focus: Students are introduced to the importance of environmental awareness and conservation as they become familiar with the earth’s natural resources and how people’s actions affect the environment.
Number of Lessons: 10
Lesson Time: 50 minutes each. Each lesson may be divided into shorter segments.
Additional Search Terms: conservation • reduce • reuse • recycle • environment • natural resources
Domain 12: Presidents & American Symbols
Focus: As students are introduced to the lives and legacies of five famous presidents, they learn about several national symbols, the branches of government, the role of the president, and elections.
Number of Lessons: 9
Lesson Time: 50 minutes each. Each lesson may be divided into shorter segments.
Additional Search Terms: George Washington • Thomas Jefferson • Abraham Lincoln • Teddy Roosevelt • Mount Rushmore • Barack Obama
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