Students lay the groundwork in ELA by mastering letters and sounds. They’re guided through letter recognition and formation, sound identification and production, and application of letter-sound understanding to words. Developing these critical skills will help your primary students move toward greater literacy and strengthen their reading foundation.

Teaching letter-sound correspondence is the fastest way to acquire reading and comprehension. After completing the instruction on a letter, students transition to the corresponding sounds. Beginning readers benefit from the instruction that teaches them to hear the sounds within words. Phonemic awareness plays a crucial role in advancing phonological development. Each student’s individual learning pathway involves different types of exercises on phonemic awareness, such as isolating, blending, segmenting, adding, and substituting letters and sounds.

Happy Letters' learning path follows a spiral pattern with periodic reviews to reinforce knowledge. In revision units, students continue mastering the letters and sounds they've already learned, and they also learn to match upper- and lower-case letters. Review modules are more interactive, where we transition to more challenging mechanics, including sorting and matching. As the cognitive load increases, we incorporate game-like elements to sustain attention and enhance motivation. This iterative approach gradually builds and refines essential reading skills.

The sequence of letters was designed to help learners start reading as soon as possible. In teaching CVC, our approach begins with the onset (the initial sound), followed by the addition of the rime (the ending pattern). Eventually, we guide early readers in blending these parts to create CVC words. Our methods include developing interactive and captivating exercises (enhanced with visual aids) that encourage students to actively engage in forming and manipulating CVC words.

Happy Letters provides a purposeful yet independent technology station for early readers. The tasks are designed to promote students' independent learning by carefully guiding them through the curriculum. Immediate feedback and flexible scaffolding help them learn at their own pace: those who demonstrate mastery progress faster, and those who need more instruction receive it.

The student’s journey through Happy Letters is guided step-by-step using a friendly voiceover and engaging visual instructions. Alfy, the dog character, leads learners along the path and creates a positive learning environment just the way a teacher would: unpacking concepts step-by-step, bringing their attention back to the task when they are unfocused, praising them for excellent performance, and cheering the students up when it gets complicated. When errors occur, Happy Letters gently corrects the kid without discouraging them, so even mistakes become gentle learning opportunities. This creates a comfortable and joyful environment for maximum learning and increased confidence with minimal anxiety.

Happy Letters isn’t just about learning but also about having fun! Storytelling, friendly characters, and engaging activities create interest and vivid mental images, another cue for recall. They’re also a great way to provide structure and coherence to the course. Game-like elements bring the whole learning experience to another level, motivating students to study without feeling stressed.

Designed with these seven basic principles in mind, Happy Letters provides a perfect solution that systematically targets the foundational skills students need to become great readers.

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