The COAH Letter of the week curriculum question

Curriculum
1

Im looking for help from others who’ve used the K4 AND the original letter of the week curriculum. A year ago we started an outreach ministry to elementary kids here as a part of our church plant in Japan. We’ve just finished the first full year and even though it was for elementary kids, the mom’s of students hang out during class with many of their preschoolers in tow, and their preschoolers have learned so much just by hanging out in the back we’ve decided to expand the ministry to include preschoolers/kindergarteners ages 3 to 6.

I was looking at my Letter of the Week curriculum files and I also noticed on the website that COAH has a k4 letter of the week. I was wondering, which one would you recommend if you have used it? We are looking at 4 or 5 preschool kids to start with this spring, all of whom are not from English speaking homes and know very little of the alphabet or English vocabulary. Our outreach is called After School Klub (ASK) and we have the kids for two hours. We have free time/snack time, Bible story time and praise time which all the children will do together (pre k, k through 6th). Activity time is cut into two parts.

  1. A craft or game which emphasizes the Bible story of that day but also getting the kids interacting and using simple English (such as counting, colors, etc) This time will also usually be done together with all levels, including the preschoolers.
  2. Phonics, handwriting and word building time. This time is when we will split the preschool and K kids off from the elementary to do a separate activity. So during that time, I want the volunteer teacher to have simple worksheets and activities she can do with the pre k and k kids to fill about 20-30 minutes of time.

Which curriculum would you recommend for this, the K4 Letter of the Week, or the Letter of the Week curriculum I already have? If you’ve seen both, are they very different?

If you can help with advice, thank you!

2

I’m actually getting ready to use these this fall! LOTW seems like it’s perfect for preschool age kids just learning letters and basic things. The K4 looks like it’s more for 4-5 year old kids where LOTW is too easy. It is more of a kindergarten curriculum. It has more beginning math, letter blends, sight words, and beginning spelling. It looks awesome! Im pretty sure Erica has a description on her website in her store for LOTW and K4. Hope this helps!

3

I have used all of LOTW and bits and pieces of K4. I would say that K4 builds on the foundation of LOTW, it is more of a complement. LOTW emphasizes numbers 1-10; K4 builds up into numbers up to 20. LOTW allows activities that focus on 1 letter at a time, K4 starts introducing letter blends. K4 has activities that reinforce LOTW concepts, but for children with a longer attention span and better fine motor skills.
LOTW starts with seasons, K4 builds up into months and days.
Not sure how clear that is, but hope it helps.

4

Hi! I would probably recommend the Letter of the Week especially if English isn’t their first language. The K4 curriculum goes into reading quite quickly assuming that your student is familiar with the English alphabet and all of the sounds.

I would also suggest just making one of each game, then sharing/rotating them through the students. You could set up “centers” and then each one might have a few games in it for the kids to go through. Centers like math, phonics, fine-motor skills, art, etc.

I hope that helps! Feel free to message me if you have more questions :smile:
Erica

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