Posts by Vivian Jenkins
Alphabet letter cards are useful for building words!
Small alphabet letter cards for individual/ pair use are an essential tool in the early childhood classroom. They give young learners the opportunity to use a kinaesthetic approach to learning by handling the letters and physically placing them in order to make words. Please find a free downloadable printable set of alphabet letter cards for…
Read MoreUse alphabet flashcards and charts to teach letter names and sounds
Teaching the Alphabet using Alphabet Flashcards and Charts The very first thing children need to learn is that written letters represent sounds. As adults, we often forget how difficult this is. They need to learn that letters have names and that each letter represents a sound. The names of the letters may be learned in…
Read MoreSight words and using flash cards/ word cards in the teaching of reading.
What are flash cards/ word cards? Flash cards are cards containing cues – pictures or key words or facts to assist with learning and revision. When they are used for vocabulary, they may be called word cards: a card that displays a written word. In the Sunrise Readers Teacher’s Manual, we refer to word cards…
Read MoreWhy is colouring-in beneficial for pre-schoolers?
Some may think that colouring-in activities are only used to occupy young learners and keep them busy. Far from it! Amongst the many benefits of colouring in, the following are included: It makes little hands stronger! We don’t realise how many muscles we use in hand-writing. Colouring in exercises hand muscles, and helps young learners…
Read MoreA teacher talks about the Sunrise Readers
Dilys Green is a practical expert in the field of teaching reading. Over the past thirty years, she has successfully launched hundreds of young learners into the exciting universe of reading competency. In this video, she talks about the Sunrise Readers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcJhi1WJ6f0 Click on the link above to hear what Dilys has to say about…
Read MoreTeaching Phonics – how to sound the letters
This video clip demonstrates how to pronounce the letter sounds, with special reference to vowel sounds which differ from language to language. This can cause confusion and mispronunciation when reading in English. Simply explained, phonics is the teaching of letter sounds. Each of the 26 letters in the alphabet has a name and a sound.…
Read MoreWhat makes the Sunrise Readers special?
They are story books! Each book contains short stories –age-appropriate, and easy for teachers and parents to use. Unlike many solely phonics-based readers –our stories have meaning and are values based. They are inclusive of all backgrounds. They also include children with disabilities and some without nuclear families. The books encourage empathy, understanding, acceptance and…
Read MoreVivian Jenkins & Chrissie Lewis – Authors of the Sunrise Readers
Since the first writing of these successful reading books, Vivian Jenkins and Christine Lewis have accumulated over 25 years of educational research and teaching experience each. They have brought a great deal of experience and cutting-edge expertise to the careful revisions that have been made to these books. They have continued to work in Education…
Read MoreChrissie Lewis – Educator, Counsellor and Author
Life for Chrissie began in Harare, Zimbabwe, as the third child of four in her family. As her father was involved in agriculture, she lived in places as far flung as Mount Pleasant, Marondera and Lusaka. With the children at school age, her family settled in Greendale, Harare with the children attending Courteney Selous primary…
Read MoreWhat are the Sunrise Readers?
The Sunrise Readers are a reading scheme. They are a delightful series of carefully structured reading books to be used in the teaching of reading in the first years of a child’s education in English. The vocabulary accumulates gradually, and the children are soon reading lively, interesting stories that are written and selected for their…
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