The Hooked on Phonics App + Practice Packs program is made up of two main sections, Pre-Reader and Learn to Read, plus Hooked on Spelling.
Pre-Reader
In the Pre-reader section of the App, your child will learn the names of all 26 letters in the alphabet and what sound each letter represents, including short and long vowel sounds. They'll also interact with audio storybooks to get more familiar with the letter sounds, in context. The e-books will also aid your child with the basic concepts of print, such as following words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page as a book is read.
Pre-Reader consists of 12 Steps, and within each Step are 3-4 lessons that include videos, interactive activities, and dynamic review that responds to your child's progress.
Our Pre-Reader Practice Packs include important practice in recognizing and producing rhyming words, recognizing lowercase (and then uppercase) letters, identifying all 26 letters and producing their sounds, and isolating the beginning sounds of words. Your child will also get hands-on practice coloring, tracing, and writing each letter. In addition, there are out-of-the-book activity ideas, suggestions for using the letter cards included with the first pack, and review sections that help you ensure your child has mastered the learning.
Learn to Read
In the Learn to Read section, children start to put letters together to make word families that will allow them to recognize simple spelling patterns; for example: at in bat and mat. Once a child recognizes the at word family, they'll move on to the other short a word families, such as -ag, -ad, and -ap. From there each step and lesson will introduce new short vowel word families until your child is able to read words such as kit, pop, mud, and net.
From word families, we introduce beginning blends and digraphs like st and th, then ending blends and digraphs, inflective ending such as ing or ly, as well as two-syllable words. From there we move into the long-vowel patterns like 'long i/final e’ (bike), 'ee' (keep), and 'oa' (boat). Children become familiar with these letter patterns and the sounds they represent, enabling them to decode more and more words they encounter in reading.
Within each Step, we're also introducing helper words (AKA sight words), which don't follow traditional phonics rules, so these appear throughout the App and Practice Packs to reinforce a child's recognition of these special helper words. We start with words like "and", "he", and "the" and progress to words like "were", "would" and "friend". Within the Practice Packs, Sight Words are highlighted in co-reading poems so that your child can practice reading the words in context with you.
In the corresponding Learn to Read Practice Packs, we reinforce the skills listed above, as well as including more in-depth practice with handwriting, reading comprehension and general writing skills. This additional hands-on practice is essential to solidify the learning children are gaining by using the Hooked on Phonics App and to make the connection to writing on paper.
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