Fun with Phonics!!

Good evening/afternoon,


After a busy week at school and various activities planned during the last few evenings, I'm actually getting a chance to sit down, take a breath, and write my weekly up-date (I know it's a day late but better late than never, right!?).


Picture of the week AND This is why I teach:
At Springboard for Children, we have 2 phonics programs we use with the children. The first program most of the children start on when they begin coming to Springboard is called Soundworks. The Soundworks program has already been mass produced and Springboard bought the program when the charity started. Soundworks comes with a kit and a manual (which explains in explicit detail on how to use the kit). The kit has various bits and pieces we use for teaching, including all the letters of the alphabet to build words (such as c-a-t), beginning and end blends (cards such as "cl" like at at the beginning of the word clown and "amp" like at the end of camp), and reading cards (which have 10-12 words for the children to read). Usually, each part of the kits are in a specific order (such as the photo on the left) but not on Tuesday. Felix's (one of the boys I mentioned in an earlier up-date) mom has had her baby over spring break and she brought baby Madison in to show me. While mom and I were cooing over Madison, Felix and his three-year old little brother had gone over to where I was setting up to teach and taken every bit and piece of the Soundworks kit, which is at least 200 pieces!! Mom and I realized all too late that the two boys were much to quiet to not get into mischief, but I could do nothing but laugh (and get a picture) at the situation.


THANK YA JESUS!!:
Every Wednesday, I help with the administration of events fundraising in the office. Last Wednesday, Springboard got a call from Egmont Publishing (the publishing company that publishes the Mr. Men books: http://www.egmont.co.uk/) and they chose Springboard for Children as their charity to support for their sponsored bike ride at the end of July!!! They're hoping to raise lots of ££ for Springboard to help continue teaching children to read. This was amazing news as the recession is starting to feed down to charities and Springboard is starting to feel the pinch, but God provides!!!


Send 'em Up (to Jesus):
Every year Springboard brings 15 select Year 5 and 6's that are enrolled in the Springboard program camping. Milton Abbey (http://www.miltonabbey.co.uk/school/) is a boarding/day school in the county of Dorset (if you google the post code: DT11 0BZ, you can see where it is in comparison to London) which hosts the Sprongboard children for a weekend in the countryside; exploring the sea, farm animals and masses of green playing space. This is exciting for children as most of them have never been outside of London before and incredibly exhausting for the adults as it's a full weekend of camping in sleeping bags in tents and going from sun up till sun down. If you could start to pray for (1) the logistics of the weekend, such as wisdom for the adults planning activities - keeping safety in mind, (2) the children who are signed up to attend - for them to start preparing for the weekend, and (3) the volunteers helping on the weekend - for us to get enough rest before the weekend to be energized during the weekend.



Hope you have a wonderful weekend :)

Dana