Rainbow Alphabet & Digraphs (Print)

Colorful. Multi-sensory. Systematic. Fun! What more can you ask from a playful approach to phonics - maybe a corresponding iPad app? Well, this program has that option at well. At the heart of the program is the set of Magnetic Letters

Soft-foam 1 1/8" magnetic letters [84 total: 19 consonants (no q or z), 5 vowels, 11 digraphs, 12 vowel digraphs, 5 changeable vowel sounds, 6 r-controlled vowels, and 5 split vowel digraphs (silent e)] are in a clever box that includes a built-in magnetic-board easel and an elastic band to keep it all together. Letters are lower-case modern handwriting style and color-coded so it is easy to tell a "b" from a "d" and to separate the digraphs from the vowel digraphs. An included chart shows which letters to introduce weekly through five progressions, taking the student from readiness through advanced vowel and consonant digraphs. This could be an easy-to-use, stand-alone letter set or coupled with the Landscapes and Readers Sets, provide lots of practice and reinforcement.

The Landscapes and the Readers work together with the Word Farm series providing an introduction to three and four letter CVC words (Progression 2) and the Word City series providing more advanced digraphs (Progression 3). The Landscape sets include six magnetic landscapes each with a suggested set of letters or letter groups from the Magnetic Letters set. Letters are used to build words within a "frame" (dotted line like in handwriting books); words to build are suggested by pictures that correspond to the readers. Each picture also includes a flap with the word printed below which allows for self-checking. The Reader sets include six colorful, eight-page, small-size (5.5" x 6.5") paperback books (heavy, smooth finish paper). By introducing the words using the Landscapes and reinforcing the words by reading the stories, students build vocabulary and word decoding skills.

While the Magnetic Letter set could be used through 2nd/3rd grade phonics skills, Word Farm provides typical K skills and Word City is K/1 skills. Video demonstrations are available on the publisher's website. The free iPad app (available at the Apple® App Store) provides additional practice with accompanying audio presentation of sounds and words. ~ Janice

Junior Learning Literacy provides a systematic pattern of phonics/reading instruction. Rainbow Phonics, Beanstalk Decodable Readers, and various workbooks and games support the following phases of literacy instruction.

• Phase 1 - Phonemic Awareness (ages 3+) covers sound talk, voice sound, and rhyming.
• Phase 2 - Letter Sounds (ages 4+) practices initial sounds, real and non-word word building, sound matching, and final sounds.
• Phase 3 – Phonics (ages 5+) covers long vowels, real & non-word matching, consonant digraphs word building, and r-controlled vowels.
• Phase 4 – Blends (ages 5+) covers sentence matching, reading for meaning, blends, and word building.
• Phase 5 - Vowel Sounds (ages 5+) practices r-controlled sounds, split digraphs, yes/no questions and long vowel sounds.
• Phase 6 – Spelling (ages 6+) – introduces tenses, plurals, prefixes/suffixes, and multi-syllables.

The Letter and Sounds Teaching Kit will get you started. Packed with activity cards and workbooks it’s ready to be used with the Rainbow Phonics Magnetic Letters. The Downloadable Teacher Manual (use QR code) can either be used with the Teaching Kit/Letters and or with only the Letters for a comprehensive approach in teaching phonics/reading. The manual, which roughly covers skills typically taught in PK through 2nd grade, is well-organized and easy to follow although it is oriented toward a classroom situation.

Programs in this section focus primarily on teaching children to read, and may not provide comprehensive instruction in reading comprehension, spelling, writing, or other language skills. Arranged roughly by grade.