Phonics Bootcamp

A Unit on Phonological Awareness

Miss. Ashley Hoisington

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 Table of Contents

Class Description Page 2

Unit Rationale Page 3

Unit at a Glance Calendar Page 4

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 Class Description
This unit will be taught at Herons Crossing School, a K-8 school in NW Airdrie. This school is located within
Rocky View School Division (RVSD), which serves the cities/towns surrounding Calgary and area. Rocky
View is a diverse school division, with many complex and insightful initiatives happening within the district.
The current focus of RVSD is on creating innovators by design through their 4-year plan. Rocky View puts an
emphasis on purpose and diversity within the learning environment.

This unit will be taught to the AM Kindergarten class; this group of students has school Monday-Thursday, with
no class on Friday. Students will have a Literacy block 3-4 times per week (Monday-Wednesday/ Thursday) for
30 minutes each, and one 20-minute block on Thursdays. Students will engage in various activities within their
literacy block including some direct instruction, group activities, and individual activities to help them access
letter sounds.

This class has 19 students; 13 students are male, and 6 students are female. There are no documented
exceptionalities within this class. However, it is necessary to consider the potential needs that may occur within
this age group. It is natural for students at this age to still be learning self-regulation skills, as well as other
social and emotional skills necessary for learning tasks. It is also normal to see a wide range of ability levels, as
students all come from diverse backgrounds and may not have had the same early childhood experiences as
others. Be prepared to provide support and differentiation when necessary.

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 Unit Rationale
Unit Title: Phonics
Course: Literacy
Length of Unit: About 12 Weeks, for full Phonics (I will be doing Week 1-5 for PS3)

Overview: During this unit, Ss will interact with the letter sounds of the alphabet in a “bootcamp” routine which
will focus on the sound identification and application. This unit will follow the Jolly Phonics order but take a
similar structure to the ABC Bootcamp that Ss took part in at the beginning of the school year. Since Ss revisit
phonics in grade 1, we will focus mainly on the individual Alphabet letter sounds from A-Z, not including
diagraphs and blends. Each of the letters will move on a 2-day rotation, in which Students will practice the
sounds, practice writing the letters and also practice applying their knowledge of the letter sounds. Although
this Phonics Bootcamp would run for about 12 weeks, I will only be completing weeks 1-4/5 before the end of
practicum.
Essential Questions:
• What are the sounds of letters A-Z?
• How do I print the letters A-Z?

Focused Outcomes: From Rocky View Schools, RTR Document, Kindergarten Learner Outcomes
• 2C- I can play with the alphabet

Demonstrations of Learning:
• Each letter sound will be logged for completion, and the application portion of the bootcamp will be
assessed formatively for each letter.
• At the end of each letter set we will do a formative assessment and a summative assessment for
identifying and applying their phonics knowledge.
• My TM has done alphabet testing with Ss throughout the school year, so there is a good idea of where
Ss are at going into the phonics unit as far as letter identification and some Ss have already begun
connecting sounds. This acts as a sort of pre-assessment.

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 Unit at a Glance
This unit will follow the Jolly Phonics order but take a similar structure to the ABC Bootcamp that Ss took part in at the beginning of the school
year. Since Ss revisit phonics in grade 1, we will focus mainly on the individual Alphabet letter sounds from A-Z, not including diagraphs and
blends. Each of the letters will move on a 2-day rotation, in which Students will practice the sounds, practice writing the letters and also practice
applying their knowledge of the letter sounds. See a detailed breakdown below:
Day 1:
• Go over the letter and the sound, using the letter songs! Revisit the letter vocab word card
• Printing practice: upper- and lower-case letters
• Brainstorm words that have the target sound at the beginning, put them on an anchor chart
• Choose two missing initial sound cards to add to journal page
• Draw one picture of your own and label it

Day 2:
• Revisit the chart from the day before, have Ss come up with words to draw pictures of and practice labelling the beginning sound
• Initial Sound letter colouring- Students identify the pictures that have the target sound and colour them
• Optional- Beginning and end sound game w/ white boards
o Ss split the board into two, and listen for where they hear the letter sound
Alphabet Order:
• s, a, t, i, p, n
• c/k, e, h, r, m, d
• g, o, u, l, f, b
• j, z, w, v, y, x

Activity Materials to Collect

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Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

Title Page Ss- Day 1 Ss- Day 2-

Aa- Day 1 Aa- Day 2 Tt- Day 1 Tt- Day 2

Ii- Day 1 Ii- Day 2 Pp- Day 1 Pp- Day 2

Nn- Day 1 Nn- Day 2 Formative Summative

This sequence will continue for each subsequent letter grouping- Only listed calendar for my teaching time