" On one level, children will first perceive Letterland as simply fun, but beneath the surface, there is a structured and systematic course for developing the following skills:

o listening & speaking o phonics o word recognition o reading for meaning o early writing."

( Lyn Wendon 1997)

Letterland was initially devised by Lyn Wendon, a British teacher, who developed a means of teaching phonics for children who were struggling to get to grips with the process of reading. Her program was made available to teachers in schools all over England and is now used in many schools all over the world.

Our school approach to teaching Letterland makes learning phonics both fun and meaningful for the children. The combination of visual pictures and interesting story explanations contributes to our children's success in learning phonics and letters from an early age.

Picture coding enables children to see the letter sounds in addition to traditional auditory methods. Our kinesthetic learners are also given the opportunity to learn phonics by dressing up and acting out the Letterland stories, which all children love to do.

Our children are first introduced to the Letterland characters in the Pre-School and prekindergarten, and they continue to develop their understanding during Kindergarten, Year 1 and 2, and even into the higher year groups. As the programme develops into more complex stories, the children gain knowledge and understanding of more difficult combinations of letters such as ow, ph, tion, sion, ture and many more. As the children recount the various Letterland stories, they develop their imaginations and skills in story writing. The children enjoy picture and colour coding their spelling words, which also helps reinforce their learning.

The Letterland program is also an effective tool for the teaching of handwriting, which continues into a cursive style when the children are ready.

© Providenciales Primary School Turks and Caicos Islands 2007