Family Literacy Hub
"Simple conversations today help build strong learners for the future."
The VESD Way
In our district, we support every student’s journey toward becoming a lifelong reader through the 5 Pillars of Reading. These pillars work together to build strong literacy skills. We want to bridge the gap between school and home by giving you simple, "at-the-table" activities that support the science of reading.
The 5 Pillars of Reading
These areas work together to build strong literacy skills. While we focus on these in the classroom, you can support them at home with the guides below:
Phonemic Awareness: Building the ability to hear and work with sounds in words (using the Heggerty curriculum).
Phonics: Learning the relationship between letters and sounds (using Orton-Gillingham Comprehensive).
Vocabulary: Understanding word meanings and structures (using Orton-Gillingham Morphology).
Fluency: Developing the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and expression (through Guided Reading).
Comprehension: The ultimate goal of reading—understanding and responding to what is read (using Thinking Maps and Response to Text).
At-Home Activity Guides
Pillar: Phonemic Awareness
The Sound Lab
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The Sound Lab
This resource focuses on Phonemic Awareness. These activities focus on "ear training"—helping children hear, identify, and play with the individual sounds in spoken words. Because this is about sounds and not letters, these can be done anywhere—in the car, at the dinner table, or while walking to school.
1. Primary Skill: Initial Sound Isolation
Goal: Identifying the very first sound (the "onset") of a word.
The Activity: Ask your child, "What is the first sound you hear in the word Sun?" Encourage them to "punch" the sound out with their fist as they say it: "/s/-/s/-Sun!"
Word List for Practice:
- • Map (/m/)
- • Top (/t/)
- • Fish (/f/)
- • Lion (/l/)
- • Bear (/b/)
- • Snake (/s/)
2. Intermediate Skill: Blending Phonemes
Goal: Taking individual sounds and "zipping" them together to make a whole word.
The Activity: Speak like a slow-motion robot, saying each sound separately. Ask your child to "zip" the word together. Example: You say "/m/-/u/-/d/." They say "Mud!"
Word List for Practice:
- /k/-/a/-/t/ (Cat)
- /sh/-/i/-/p/ (Ship)
- /b/-/i/-/g/ (Big)
- /r/-/o/-/ck/ (Rock)
- /p/-/l/-/a/-/n/ (Plan)
- /f/-/r/-/o/-/g/ (Frog)
3. Advanced Skill: Phoneme Substitution
Goal: Swapping one sound for another to create a brand-new word.
The Activity: Tell your child, "Say the word Cat. Now change the /k/ to a /b/." Their response: "Bat!"
Word List for Practice:
- Say Light. Change /l/ to /n/. (Night)
- Say Hop. Change /h/ to /p/. (Pop)
- Say Man. Change the middle /a/ to /e/. (Men)
- Say Slip. Change the /s/ to /f/. (Flip)
Pillar: Vocabulary
Word Detectives
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Word Detectives
This guide helps families support vocabulary by learning word parts (morphology). Children become “word detectives” by breaking words into prefixes (beginning), base words, and suffixes (endings). Instead of memorizing definitions, they learn how to figure out meanings on their own.
1. Primary Skill: Base Word + Endings (Suffixes)
Goal: See how endings (suffixes) change a word’s meaning.
Try This: “Word Tree”. Start with a base word and add endings (-s, -ed, -ing): help → helps, helped, helping
Practice Words:
- • play (plays, played, playing)
- • jump (jumps, jumped, jumping)
- • cook (cooks, cooked, cooking)
2. Intermediate Skill: Prefix Power
Goal: Learn how beginnings (prefixes) change a word’s meaning.
Try This: “Opposite Power”. Add a prefix and talk about the new meaning: tie → untie (opposite of tie)
Common Prefixes:
- un- (not): unhappy, unkind
- re- (again): rewrite, refill
- pre- (before): preview, prepay
- dis- (not/away): disagree, dislike
3. Advanced Skill: Root Investigations
Goal: Find word parts that appear in many words (Latin and Greek roots).
Try This: “Family Reunion”. Pick a root and find related words together.
Root List for Practice:
- tract (pull): attract, subtract, tractor
- struct (build): construct, structure, instructor
- vis/vid (see): visual, video, invisible
- port (carry): transport, portable, export
Detective Tips
- • Look for clues everywhere: signs, books, labels
- • Break words apart: say each part out loud
- • Celebrate big words: ask, “What parts do you see?”
Pillar: Comprehension
Building Strong Storytellers
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Building Strong Storytellers
This resource focuses on Comprehension. By practicing retelling at home, you are helping your child build the mental "maps" necessary to understand complex stories.
Part 1: Getting Started
Every story has a Beginning, a Middle, and an End.
The “Big Three” Routine
- What happened first?
- What happened next?
- What happened last?
Photo Talk: Ask what happened before/after a phone picture.
Draw Boxes: Sketch First, Next, and Last.
Game: Add one sentence each to a family story.
Part 2: Growing Story Skills
- 1. The Setting: Where were you? Who was there?
- 2. What Happened: Tell events in clear order.
- 3. The Big Moment: Was there a surprise or a problem?
- 4. The Lesson: What did you learn or feel?
Vocabulary: “Bridge Words”
Practice one group a week to replace "and then."
Start:
Initially, OriginallyNext:
Meanwhile, FurthermoreChange:
Unexpectedly, HoweverEnd:
Ultimately, As a result