If you are familiar with our materials, and you have visited our shop recently, you may have noticed that Super Simple Phonics is not there!  Where’d it go?

We’re excited to announce we’re releasing a new and improved version called Super Simple ABCs. If you’ve been using Super Simple Phonics, let me explain some of the key differences.

In 2008, we released Super Simple Phonics, an upper case ABC practice book and audio CD.  Super Simple Phonics was based on lessons and materials we had created for and used successfully with our young students.  We were very happy to get a great response from teachers all over. We wanted to make it even better though, and to make some adjustments in response to some of the feedback we received.

So here are the exciting new developments you’ll find in Super Simple ABCs:

Upper and Lower Case books

While Super Simple Phonics focused only on capital letters, Super Simple ABCs has an upper case book and a lower case book (with a Starter level on the way soon).  We recommend the upper case book for students from 3-5, and the lower case book for students for 4-7. But most importantly, we wanted to give teachers the choice about whether to start with upper or lower case letters.

Super Simple ABCS Upper Case has the same structure and vocabulary as the original Super Simple Phonics, but now features beautiful colors, stickers, and new images.

Super Simple ABCS Lower Case is a brand new book which follows a similar super simple structure, but is designed for a slightly higher level with more writing practice and more vocabulary (2 review items from the Upper Case book plus 2 new items).

Updated Colorful Design
The Super Simple ABCs books are full of bright beautiful color, while still leaving plenty of opportunities for students to draw, trace, and color black-and-white images and letters.

Fun Illustrations

We wanted to keep the simplicity of the images in Super Simple Phonics while adding a little more warmth and liveliness (as well as color!)  We’re really excited about how our students have responded to the bright new images in Super Simple ABCs and think you’ll really love them.

Stickers

In Super Simple Phonics, there was a space to place a sticker or stamp upon completing each page.  Our students LOVE getting that sign of completion.  So for Super Simple ABCs, we decided to take it a step further and put two spaces for stickers, and include 52 full color stickers (2 for each letter) right in the back of the book.  The students eyes light up when they see the stickers and it adds an extra bit of vocabulary reinforcement.

Separate CD

With Super Simple Phonics, the book and the CD came together.  However, many teachers and parents wanted to buy the CD, but not the book (because they already had an ABC book).  Others wanted to buy the books for their students, but didn’t need a CD for each student.  Again, we realized we needed to give teachers more choice.  Now the CD and books are packaged separately, allowing you to buy one or the other, or both!  This leads to…

Lower price!
Even though we’ve upgraded the books making them full-color and adding stickers, offering the CD separately allows us to drop the price of the books by 25%, making it more affordable for classrooms.  And for those who only need the CD, it’s now cheaper as well!

More Songs
We received a lot of feedback from teachers who loved the songs on the Super Simple Phonics CD, but didn’t need the spoken mini-lessons that were included.  We listened, and thought about our own classes, and came to the realization that the CD would be even more useful if we focused on the songs. So, we’ve kept the songs from Super Simple Phonics, moved the songs from the Phonics Support Pack to the audio CD, and added several new songs.  The Super Simple ABCs – Phonics Fun CD can be used to support both Super Simple Songs ABCs Upper Case and Super Simple Songs ABCs Lower Case, or any ABC/phonics program you are using.  It’s full of what we do best…super simple songs.

Posters

When learning your ABCs, it definitely helps to encounter the letters as much as possible.  We wanted to make it easier to do so while giving teachers another tool to introduce and review vocabulary.  There are two big, bright posters available for each book (two upper case posters and two lower case posters).

Super Simple ABCs Support Pack CD-ROM

The main update with the support pack is MORE.  More flashcards, more worksheets, more games, more, more, more.  The new Support Pack is designed to support both the upper and lower case Super Simple ABC books.  It’s the same price as before with double the materials and brand new images and worksheets.  The songs that were previously on the Support Pack CD-Rom have been moved to the Super Simple ABCs – Phonics Fun CD so that all of the songs would be in one easy-to-access place.

We’ve spent the last year testing out the updates with our students and making small tweaks and adjustments to get everything just right.  We’re really excited about Super Simple ABCs, and hope you are too!

More details are coming soon on our website.  Please check back for more details.

Keep It Super Simple!

Troy and Devon will be in Korea for some workshops from Aug 28 – August 31. If you are in Korea, we hope you can make it! You can get the details here: http://www.milkenglish.com/news/ or at our Facebook page: http://bit.ly/10I0iJ.

We’ll be talking about how to increase student confidence, enjoyment, and performance in the EFL classroom through the use of songs, games, and creative drama.  Our co-presenter will be Ms. Sujeong Kim of Soongsil University and MILK English.  It will be super active and super fun.

Hope to see you there!

Troy has started a fun discussion over on the SSL community forum.  What are your top 10 story books for kindergarten ESL?

Here is Troy’s list:

10. Good Night Gorilla

9. Big Bugs! (a popup book with amazing…big bugs!)

8. Five Little Monkeys (the version where mommy jumps on the bed at the end)

7. The Farmer and the Beet

6. Go Away Big Green Monster

5. No David! (the first one, not the others)

4. Ten Little Ladybugs

3.

2.

1.

To see his top 3, you have stop by the forum! While you are at the forum, please take some time to read the posts from EFLJoelle.  She’s got a TON of very helpful ideas.  I love her idea for making a “Feely Box” in this discussion.

Hey Joelle, you’re cake!

Thanks, Lucky.  You’re cake.

Why?

Check out this great short piece from Paul McGhee on “what makes children laugh (pdf file), adapted from his book Understanding and Promoting the Development of Children’s Humor.

Also check out  this article from Washington Post Magazine, The Peekaboo Paradox.   It’s an interesting read about a performer for kids’ parties in D.C.  I’m sure it will be optioned and we’ll be seeing the Peekaboo Paradox at a megaplex near you sometime soon, starring Brad Pitt as the lovable children’s performer with a gambling addiction.  Anyway, it contains some interesting perspectives on children’s humor:

–Even before they respond to a tickle, most babies will laugh at peekaboo. It’s their first “joke.” They are reacting to a sequence of events that begins with the presence of a familiar, comforting face. Then, suddenly, the face disappears, and you can read in the baby’s expression momentary puzzlement and alarm. When the face suddenly reappears, everything is orderly in the baby’s world again. Anxiety is banished, and the baby reacts with her very first laugh.

At its heart, laughter is a tool to triumph over fear. As we grow older, our senses of humor become more demanding and refined, but that basic, hard-wired reflex remains. We need it, because life is scary. Nature is heartless, people can be cruel, and death and suffering are inevitable and arbitrary. We learn to tame our terror by laughing at the absurdity of it all.

This point has been made by experts ranging from Richard Pryor to doctoral candidates writing tedious theses on the ontol-ogical basis of humor. Any joke, any amusing observation, can be deconstructed to fit. The seemingly benign Henny Youngman one-liner, “Take my wife . . . please!” relies in its heart on an understanding that love can become a straitjacket. By laughing at that recognition, you are rising above it, and blunting its power to disturb.

After the peekaboo age, but before the age of such sophisticated understanding, dwells the preschooler. His sense of humor is more than infantile but less than truly perceptive. He comprehends irony but not sarcasm. He lacks knowledge but not feeling. The central fact of his world — and the central terror to be overcome — is his own powerlessness. –

www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2bxC_TovZ4

Now it’s probably one of the most popular songs in our classes.  The students really, really love this activity.  Give it a try!  And don’t forget to check out Val’s videos for tons of great ideas.

Hey Val…You’re cake!

That’s the focus of a discussion taking place at the Super Simple Learning Facebook Discussion Page.  Come on over and let us know what you think!

“…language is important and … language teaching is useful and valuable.  A foreign language can be a valuable personal asset, liberating financially, culturally and emotionally.  Helping people acquire such an asset is a worthwhile occupation.”

If you are a language teacher, take a moment every day to think about how valuable knowing a foreign language will be for your students.  Proficiency in a foreign language creates more friendship opportunities, more professional opportunities, more educational opportunities, more travel opportunities… more opportunities!

Always remember that what you do may end up having a bigger influence on your students’ lives than you can ever imagine.

- Devon

The Pinocchio is one of those songs.   You can use it with very young children or older kids, small groups or large groups, in a classroom or at a party, with beginning English speakers or native speakers, for learning specific language or just for having fun.  Birte, a teacher of young learners in Iceland, shares this video of kindergartners having fun with The Pinocchio.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=F87T1Y6vG5c

Birte has more videos on her website dedicated to music with young children. Even if you don’t speak Icelandic, you can still learn from the pictures and videos she has posted. Thanks, Birte!

Notice how uncluttered the room is.  Young children love to explore and will grab anything they can get their hands on.  Occasionally teachers or parents will scold a young child for not paying attention or for grabbing and touching things around the room.  The child, however, is just being a child!  Curiosity is a good thing!

If you are teaching a once- or twice-a-week class and you would like your students to focus as much as possible on the classroom activities, it’s important to reduce the amount of distractions in the classroom.  When there are fewer distractions, the child will be more likely to join in the class activities. Children love to sing and play, but it’s natural for a young child to wander off and explore something else if there are many things for them to touch in the classroom.  If you need to store a lot of things in the classroom, try to make sure they are stored out of reach and/or out of sight.

If you are in more of a kindergarten or preschool setting and the chlidren stay at school for longer periods of time, you’ll want to have more things for students to explore and discover and play creatively with.  You’ll have more time to teach the students about when it is okay for them to play on their own, and when it is time to play with the group.

A non-cluttered classroom does not mean a boring classroom!  Look how bright and warm Jamie’s classroom is, and he accomplished that with just one colorful carpet and some Super Simple Songs picture cards and Super Simple Phonics picture cards.  It certainly helps to have windows and sunshine and a beautiful new school like Brit’s English, but any classroom can be brightened up with some simple, colorful images and a fun carpet.

Last, notice the space they have left for the children to sing and dance and play in.  No desks.  One small table that can be pulled out for crafts or snacktime when needed.  You can imagine how fun and active the classes are there!  You don’t need a tremendous amount of space to make a classroom feel spacious.

Our classrooms here at Knock Knock English are quite small, but because there are no desks or tables, the room feels large and there is plenty of space for children to move around and interact with the songs.  When we do need a table for the older students, we roll it in to the classroom.

What do you think?  We’d love to hear your classroom ideas and pictures are always welcome!

Just remember…Keep It Super Simple!!!