Foundation Class 

What are Heart Words in the Prep Classroom?

This term, your child has been learning so much about reading and how sounds and letters work.  I cannot wait to share the love of reading with your child and help them unlock all the code!

One of the ways we see students learn to read is by learning “sight words.” In our classroom, I am teaching high-frequency words (words that come up often in our reading) a little differently.  Instead of memorising sight words, we are using the heart word method! 

What does that mean?  With the heart word method, we focus on what parts of a word do work, before moving on to the parts of a word that don’t “play by the rules.”

What about words that do play fair and follow rules?  In that case, simply let students use their knowledge of letters and sounds to decode.  (Words like at, stop, and cat are all words that “play fair.”) 

When I teach students this method, they are no longer expected to just memorise words.  By paying attention to the parts of the word that do make sense, we let our students know that English is a language with rules that help us learn to read.

For Example:  said

Said has 3 sounds.  Two of those sounds play fair, the s and the d!  The only sound that doesn’t is ai making a /eh/ sound.  So, we say the sounds that do play fair, and then put a heart above the part that doesn’t (to let them know we must learn it by heart!)

Our Heart Wall has begun in our classroom and will continue to grow throughout the year. It will help support the students with their reading and writing. It has been fantastic to see the growth the Prep students have gained already by using the heart words.