Introduction
We are an Australian educational resources company with a highly
effective phonics and phonemic awareness based Reading and Spelling
Teaching Program. The focus of the program is Kindergarten/Prep to
Grade 6, however it can be used as a remedial tool in both primary
and high schools.
Our Program is easy to integrate with existing programs, takes
a short time each day to deliver and most importantly produces excellent
results. Wherever possible, we’ve done the donkey work for
you, developing spelling lists and comprehension questions, providing
easy teaching strategies and effective resource material. We’ve
worked hard to make our illustrations interesting, amusing and Australian.
Our First Books stories have a sense of fun and are relevant to children
in the 21st century.
The Program is modular and can be purchased as a total package or
bit by bit. We hope you and your students get as much fun out
of using our program as we did in writing and developing it.
Our Literacy Program Strands
The Ants in the Apple Literacy Program includes nine separate strands:
- Assessment
- Phonemic Awareness
- Reading
- Spelling
- Handwriting
- Grammar
- Comprehension
- Written Expression
- Remediation
Although each of these strands is able to ‘stand alone’ they are designed to be combined into an integrated literacy program. The weekly spelling list provides the central core on which the other literacy strands are based. For example, the spelling list words are targeted for their:
- syllables and sounds (phonemic awareness)
- (multiple) meanings in various contexts (semantics/comprehension)
- parts of speech (grammar)
- use in the construction of simple, compound and complex sentences (syntax/written expression)
- synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, eponyms, etc. (vocabulary/comprehension)
- use in idiomatic language; sayings and expressions (semantics/comprehension)
- spelling structure (including spelling rules and dictation sentences)
- reading (single words, sentences, whole texts)
- handwriting
- general knowledge (including research questions)
The scope of the spelling program covers regular and irregular words and spelling rules. The sequence of the program is hierarchical, i.e. the difficulty of the words increases with each grade.
Five Fingers: Fun with Mathematics Texts and Resources
The numeracy program grew out of a reaction to primary mathematics
text books. Frequently insufficient practice samples were provided
for students to reach mastery.
Each Five Fingers mathematics book includes an assessment package
to place students at the correct step in the teaching sequence, extensive
practice samples for each step in the sequence and discrimination
exercises to maintain previous learning. The ‘operations’ books
also include teaching scripts and diagrams to facilitate the teaching
process, and a cueing system on the worksheets to support students
through the acquisition of each concept.
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