{"id":15065,"date":"2026-04-27T11:20:01","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T15:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/?p=15065"},"modified":"2026-04-27T13:46:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T17:46:18","slug":"vbcps-kindergarten-readers-are-ready-for-first-grade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/vbcps-kindergarten-readers-are-ready-for-first-grade\/","title":{"rendered":"VBCPS kindergarten readers are ready for first grade"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
John B. Dey assistant kindergarten teacher Angie Jones recently led a small group of kindergarteners as they sounded out words in a picture puzzle reading activity.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Cindy Butler Focke<\/a><\/p>\n

Maya Schmitt is proud.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can read and I know all my letters,\u201d said the Kempsville Meadows Elementary kindergartener.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey make more than one sound,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Maya and other VBCPS kindergarteners\u2019 reading skills are improving, thanks to consistent instruction based on reading science implemented in the classroom.<\/p>\n

Teachers and assistants are both included in ongoing professional development, with this year\u2019s training having a specific focus on literacy instruction provided by the Department of Teaching and Learning.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A small group of John B. Dey kindergarteners sounded out letters with their teacher Casey Tinsley.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

John B. Dey principal Greg Furlich said the collaboration between teachers and assistants means kindergarteners of varying abilities learn to read.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can get more kids more individualized attention more often during the day, and we are really beginning to see results from it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Students are divided into small groups to meet their needs based on specific testing data. \u00a0They participate in hands-on literary activities depending on reading levels.<\/p>\n

Working in small groups allows more one-on-one help for auditory drills, building sentences and emphasizing phonetics, including blending words apart and working on sounds, said John B. Dey kindergarten teacher Casey Tinsley.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are reaching that reading phase more quickly,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

This year each of the school division\u2019s 54 elementary schools\u2019 kindergarten classrooms received new literary kits, including a dry erase board, letter tiles, puzzles, and phoneme phones.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Kempsville Meadows kindergarteners sounded out words with teacher Nicole Anthony as she reminded them that every word has a vowel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kempsville Meadows kindergarten teacher Nicole Anthony recently asked a small group to use the red vowel and blue consonant tiles to build words. They sounded them out letter by letter, such as \u201cm\u201d, \u201co,\u201d \u201cp.\u201d \u00a0She reminded them that \u201cevery word has to have a vowel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assistant teacher Amanda Lauersdorf worked with several others.\u00a0 She held up a picture of an igloo and asked students to sound out the beginning of the word.<\/p>\n

\u201c\/\u012d\/, \/\u012d\/, \/\u012d\/,\u201d they chanted.<\/p>\n

Next up was a picture of a goat. \u201c\/g\/, \/g\/, \/g\/!\u201d they exclaimed.<\/p>\n

They nodded \u201cyes\u201d after Lauersdorf asked if they felt the vibration in their throats when they sounded out the first letter of the word.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Assistant teacher Amanda Lauersdorf worked with a small group of Kempsville Meadows kindergarten students as they sounded out words while using plastic phoneme phones.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Literacy manipulatives are physical objects designed to help readers develop phonics skills. By providing a hands-on approach, these tools enable students to simultaneously see, hear, and feel the connection between sounds and letters.<\/p>\n

For example, students use plastic phoneme phones to reduce outside noise and better hear themselves sound out letters and words.<\/p>\n

Several John B. Dey kindergarten students sat at a table with assistant teacher Angie Jones. \u201cThe word is let,\u201d she told them. They used the \u201cl,\u201d \u201ce,\u201d and \u201ct\u201d letter tiles and then sounded out the word while using the phones.<\/p>\n

Casey Tinsley encouraged three of her students to sound out diagraphs, a pair of letters representing a single sound.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat diagraph says \u2018sh\u2019?\u201d she asked. \u201cS-h,\u201d they replied. Each took a turn reading a page from a book titled \u201cDash\u2019s Big Dash,\u201d which included words with the \u201cs-h\u201d sound, such as \u201crush\u201d and \u201cflash.\u201d\u00a0 They used plastic \u201cpointer fingers\u201d to glide over each letter as they pronounced the sound.<\/p>\n

Tinsley said some students begin the school year not knowing any letter sounds and by June are reading.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Kindergarteners at Kempsville Meadows built words using red vowel and blue consonant tiles and then sounded them out for their teacher Nicole Anthony.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThey feel so empowered,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The school division\u2019s vision<\/a>\u00a0<\/a>is for all\u00a0 students to learn, grow and experience joy as they learn to read.<\/p>\n

In alignment with Virginia\u2019s focus on evidence-based reading, VBCPS uses the\u00a0Virginia Language and Literacy Screening System (VALLSS)\u00a0screener for all students in kindergarten through third grade. Provided by the University of Virginia’s Virginia Literacy Partnerships (VLP), this tool helps teachers identify students who may need extra support to become successful readers.<\/p>\n

Kempsville Meadows principal Christa Markert said kindergarteners are learning at a different pace and are now better prepared for the next grade level.<\/p>\n

\u201cKids all of a sudden want to come read you a book,\u201d she said. \u201cThe pride of being able to read that entire book from cover to cover is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Visit the VBSchools YouTube page<\/a> to watch a video about kindergarten literacy.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
John B. Dey kindergarten students used plastic “pointer fingers” as they sounded out the diagraph “s-h” while reading a book titled “Dash’s Big Dash” with their teacher Casey Tinsley.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Assistant kindergarten teacher Angie Jones provided some individualized instruction to John B. Dey students working on reading skills.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Cindy Butler Focke Maya Schmitt is proud. \u201cI can read and I know all my letters,\u201d said the Kempsville Meadows Elementary kindergartener. \u201cThey make more than one sound,\u201d she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":15067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15065"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15089,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15065\/revisions\/15089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}