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Key Foundations

Learning to read and write is a complex process. Getting ready for literacy learning doesn't have to be.

If children start school with strong foundational skills, their learning journey will be easier and more successful. If they start school with gaps in their knowledge, it's our job to fill them fast.

Key Foundations makes it easy to engage young children and stimulate their curiosity and sense of achievement as they build the essential skills for learning to read and write.

Components include:

  • Lesson Book - updated edition
    188 10-minute lessons plus assessment tools, teacher support materials, and downloadable resources to support letter recognition and letter formation using a variety of activities in developmentally appropriate way 
    Teacher support models to form each letter along with a helpful chant
    Students practice using large movements before attempting to write on paper

  • Alphabet Bops
    Rhythmic, rhyming alphabet books that teach letter names and sounds
    Book 1: Hard and g and the short vowel sounds
    Book 2: Soft c and g and the long vowel sounds

  • Game Book
    16 oral language games to support vocabulary and background knowledge and the skills of describing, comparing, and categorizing
    29 phonological and phonemic games to develop skills with syllables, rhyming, blending, segmenting, intial sounds, final sounds, and vowel sounds
    The games use the Picture Cards, Cue Cards, and common classroom materials
    Simple instruction follow a consistent model of prepare, demonstrate, and play

  • Picture Cards
    156 colorful cards for building vocabulary, oral language skills, and phonological awareness
    Additional activites are built in to the back of each card

  • Cue Cards
    16 cards (8 for living things, 8 for non-living things) for bulding essential vocabulary and scoffolding language for asking and answering questions, as children develop the skills of describing, comparing, and categorizing
    Picture Cards and Cue Cards are now in a lidded storage box

To support school readiness at home, the Game Book, Cue Cards, and Picture Cards can be purchased together as the Key Foundations Words and Sounds Game Kit.

NEW:

  • At-Home Tote
    Sold Separately
    At-home totes to continue building the foundations for literacy success with 12 "take home" games (consumable)
    104 fun alphabet letter activities
    At Home Activity Book
    At Home Book

 
Key Foundations makes sure that learning is fun, that developing language and phonological awareness is natural and cumulative, and that alphabet knowledge is learned easily and contextually.

- Professor John Hattie

Resources

Key Foundations Updated Complete

$500.00

Lesson Book (spiral bound), 

Alphabet Bop 1 (hard c and g and the short vowel sounds),

Alphabet Bop 2 (soft c and g and the long vowel sounds), 

Game Book (60 pages), 

16 Cue Cards (A5 double-sided laminated cards),

156 Picture Cards (A6 double-sided laminated cards)

Year Level

Years 0-1

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Key Foundations Updated Words and Sounds Game Kit

$220.00

Includes Game Book, Cue Cards, Picture Cards

Year Level

Years 0-1

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Key Foundations At Home Tote

$39.95

$34.95 per kit when purchased in a carton of 15

At Home Activity Book (56 pages)

At Home Book (24 pages plus game components and stickers)

Age 4 years old -5 years old

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Key Foundations Updated Webinar Series: Foundations for Literacy Webinar Series

$80.00

Get $40.00 off if you also purchase the Key Foundations Complete Kit

The Foundations for Literacy Webinar Series—led by literacy experts Joy Allcock and Lauren Latimer—is designed for:

  • Early childhood teachers
  • New entrant teachers
  • Parents & caregivers (At Home Whānau Webinar)

Discover how to:

  • Turn everyday moments into powerful literacy learning opportunities
  • Use playful, 10-minute games that build essential literacy skills
  • Support phonological awareness, letter-sound knowledge, and oral language
  • Create joyful, connected experiences that help children thrive

Session 1
The foundations for learning
  • How children learn - development and learning
  • The foundations for literacy - skills that support literacy
Session 2
Teaching sounds and letters
  • How written English works
  • Teaching the sounds of English
  • Learning about letters and letter-sound relationships.
Session 3
Developing language and phonological awareness skills
  • The development of language
  • Building oral language skills
  • Building phonological awareness skills
Whānau Webinar
Supporting learning at home
  • How children learn
  • The foundations for literacy
  • Helping children build the skills they need to be ready for reading and writing using Key Foundations At Home
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