How Your Child Learns to Read and Write with Wilson Fundations

We are excited to introduce the renowned Wilson Fundations Reading and Handwriting curriculum in our Tobin Pre-Kindergarten and Junior-Kindergarten programs. Wilson Fundations has an excellent reputation as a strong, multi-sensory, sequential phonics system with a proven track record of success in teaching pre-reading and handwriting skills, and our sister school, The Tobin School, has been using it in their curriculum since 2015.

How Students Are Introduced to the Alphabet and Handwriting

In the first half of the year, students are introduced to the whole alphabet in sequence with two ‘new’ letter-sound-keywords each week using a fun owl puppet named “Echo”. Repeating back the “A-apple-a, “B-bat-b” sounds as they are learned and added to their repertoire, this process is repeated using small Fundations letter cards, a wall alphabet strip, and large keyword cards each morning. With each letter students also learn correct handwriting forms for both the uppercase and lowercase letter, skywriting it in the air before they try their hand at it on paper using the line language of Wilson Fundations (the sky line, the plane line, the grass line, and the worm line). The repetition, the hard-to-resist owl puppet, and the multiple-sensory approach have made Fundations time a class favorite!

Thoughts from The Tobin Schools’ Teachers

Teachers at The Tobin School shared their thoughts on the program here – we are looking forward to hearing what our teachers have to say!

“The kids pick up on the letter sound and keywords so quickly!”

“The program strongly reinforces letter/sound connections.”

“My class loves Echo the Owl! We have adopted him as a class mascot and even made him a little house to live in. They can’t wait to see what Echo will teach us next!”

Wilson Language Learning featured The Tobin School’s rollout of the program on their website,

We’d be happy to share more about this exciting new addition to our curriculum – all you have to do is ask.