From the classroom · August 2026
Word cards on the reading rug
How reading starts at SWREA: a child, a rug and a set of word cards. Phonics from the first day, built with the hands before it is written on paper.
On the reading rug a child works alone with a set of word cards, sounding out each letter, sliding the cards together and reading the word back. Nobody is correcting from across the room. If a word does not sound right, the child hears it, pulls the cards apart and tries again.
Phonics starts on the first day of kindergarten at SWREA, and it starts with the hands. Hearing and blending every sound in a word is easier when the sounds are things you can pick up and move. When a word is right it goes on the class word wall, which by the end of the year is a record of everything the youngest children can read.
A few feet away is the classroom library, where children choose their own books. Mondays and Thursdays are book-choice days, when books go home. The two corners belong together: one builds the skill, the other gives a reason to use it.
Published October 10, 2026. Photo taken august 2026.
What this shows
Learning
Hearing and blending every sound in a word, alphabetical order, word endings and weekly spelling, and a reading log. From the K-1 reading strand.
Language
Children write journals and simple poems in English and in Spanish, so the words built here come back in both languages.
See it for yourself.
Visits run Tuesday to Friday while classes are in session and last about an hour.
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