I understand the advantage of a balanced-language approach to teaching young children language.  However, I personally lean strongly toward a whole-language approach.  That being said, in the past two International schools I’ve taught at, it has been an administrative expectation that I adopt a phonics program into my teaching.  I’ve taught both “Zoophonics” and “Jolly Phonics”.  I was challenged as to how to make the letter-a-week expectations more constructive and authentic.  I developed a letter craft which integrates Euclidian solids, phonetic principles, and fine-motor refinement.  

Over the course of this Summer, I’ll post each letter in the series and include some resources I’ve found for building schema.  Feel free to adopt, edit, and adapt the project to your students’ needs and school’s requirements.