The All About Reading Pre-Reading program covers letter recognition (capitals first, then lowercase) and letter sounds (consonants and short vowels). The author has identified the Big Five Skills which are foundational to the educational mission of this course. Print Awareness (text carries meaning and is related to spoken language specific tips in lessons), Phonological Awareness (the ability to hear and identify parts of words), Letter Knowledge (recognizing the letters and knowing the letter names and sounds), Listening Comprehension (precursor to reading comprehension), and Motivation to Read (no parenthetical clarification needed). We're obviously talking more than simple ABCs here, aren't we? And Ziggy is eager to illustrate the difference.
Ziggy is a personable, strokeable, fun-loving young zebra puppet with a tendency to say the wrong word, drop sounds from words, and distract your child away with game-playing (wink-wink). Lessons are written around Ziggy's participation. I suppose you could do "work arounds" and cover the same material, but Ziggy will win your child's heart and you'll be off and learning before you even know it. In addition to Ziggy's games and antics, lessons include an introduction to the letter or sound, poem-reading from either the Zigzag Zebra or the Lizard Lou book, completion of a craft sheet, additional activities (chosen from a list in the appendix), games, and the read aloud time. The two hardbound books Zigzag Zebra and Lizard Lou (each a collection of poems for letters or letter sounds; also available as optional audio-books) are used daily (one or the other) to introduce or reinforce sounds.
The Pre-reading Activity Book (My Book of Letters) contains the craft sheets for the lessons; each of which have supplies needed and instructions on the back. These perforated activity sheets include coloring, dot-to-dots, mini craft projects involving adding construction or tissue paper accents or various types of sparklies, games like "Circle the Letter t", sound match-ups, and hidden pictures. Common craft materials needed include crayons, markers, scissors, glue, tape, and a miscellaneous assortment of optional craft materials.
