ABC See, Hear, Do Series

The ABC See, Hear, Do series makes it simple to teach beginning reading skills in a way that addresses the needs of auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learners. There are seven levels in the series and each level has its own book plus a coloring book, a writing practice book, and flashcards. The first five levels also have a reader. Titles for the seven levels are:

Level 1, ABC See, Hear, Do: Uppercase Letters
Level 2, ABC See, Hear, Do: Lowercase Letters
Level 3, ABC See, Hear, Do: Blended Beginning Sounds
Level 4, ABC See, Hear, Do: Blended Ending Sounds
Level 5, ABC See, Hear, Do: Long Vowels
Level 6, ABC See, Hear, Do: Sight Words
Level 7, ABC See, Hear, Do: Irregular Sounds

Level 1, ABC See, Hear, Do Level: Uppercase Letters teaches the sounds of letters in groups of four letters at a time, then introduces three-letter words using only those letters. The words taught are all vowel-consonant-vowel words. For example, the first four letters taught are c, a, m, and t. The words taught are cat and mat. If a child is not yet ready to blend sounds into words, don’t worry. Just continue to teach the individual letters and return later to work on blending.

Each letter is taught with a colorful, cartoon character illustration and hand motions. The letter c is illustrated with a cat with outstretched claws. At the top of the page, it shows “C…c…C”—both uppercase and lowercase letters. The parent or teacher is to pronounce the sound of the letter rather than its name. At the bottom of the page, the lesson presents the hand motion: “Make your hands like claws and scratch.” Similarly, a flamingo illustrates the letter f, and its motion is “Flap your arms like a flamingo.” When words are presented, the small image of the animal for each letter is immediately below each letter as a visual reminder of the action and sound of the letter. This method of presentation is likely to be effective with children whether they learn best by hearing, seeing, or doing, since it involves all three. The same cartoon images are used throughout the series to remind children of the sounds.

The set of practice words for each new group of letters increases to four words per set, then five. On these pages, words are all presented in uppercase letters, which is unusual. But the goal is to familiarize children with both uppercase and lowercase forms. At the end of the book, two pages have lists of words for practice, with 48 words per page. One page features words printed with all uppercase letters, and the other presents a different set of words, all with lowercase letters. This book teaches 55 words.

A Curriculum & Activity Guide is available for only Level 1. While it isn’t required, it does enhance instruction with loads of activities, the kind usually provided in onsite preschool programs. It has three pages telling how to use the curriculum and what supplies you will need. The rest of the pages are weekly lesson plans that coordinate the use of the course components and then add many activities such as body-motion songs, games, crafts, food activities (e.g., making caterpillar kabobs with green grapes and raspberries), and picture books to read. You will have to choose from several arts and crafts activities and recommended picture books.

Level 2, ABC See, Hear, Do: Lowercase Letters is very much like the first book. While it includes uppercase letters in sentences, the focus is on lowercase letters as children learn sounds and blending.

Level 3, ABC See, Hear, Do: Blended Beginning Sounds teaches consonant digraphs (i.e., two-letter phonograms) such as bl, sc, and th, all used in short-vowel words like blot, scab, and that. As with the first book, cartoon characters and actions help children remember the phonogram. For example, the phonogram cl is illustrated with a clam, and the motion is, “Palms together, open and close your hands like a clam.” Three new words are presented for every phonogram, and a list of 40 practice words is at the back. This book sticks with only lowercase letters rather than mixing both cases.

Level 4, ABC See, Hear, Do: Blended Ending Sounds teaches another 51 words, focusing this time on consonant digraphs at the ends of words. Students will learn words such and duck, back, and rock.

Level 5, ABC See, Hear, Do: Long Vowels teaches another 81 words, this time teaching long vowel words such as bake, game, and grade.

Level 6, ABC See, Hear, Do: Sight Words teaches 24 high-frequency sight words such as you, is, and was.

Level 7, ABC See, Hear, Do: Irregular Sounds teaches sounds like soft C, soft G, the /z/ sound of S, and schwa sounds, as well as phonograms like dge, gh, and oy. The nearby image shows how the cartoon characters continue to be used through this level.

Optional Components

ABC See, Hear, Do: Writing Practice books help children learn to print. The books for each level mirror the content of the instructional books, starting with both lowercase and uppercase letters individually and gradually teaching how to write words and then sentences.

ABC See, Hear, Do: Coloring Books have blackline versions of the pages within the instructional books, including the same text. Animal puppet cutouts are included in each book.

The full-color, 31-page readers use only words students have been taught at each level so that children can practice reading independently. Consequently, the first reader uses only one or two words for each illustration, such as “Cat sits.” By level five, students read at least one or two sentences for each illustration, and the cartoon animal images under the words help them recall the sounds of individual letters as well as some phonograms with two or more letters.

There are two sets of flashcards for the first two levels; one set is for letters and the other is for CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words. All other levels have one set. These 3.5” x 4” cards are in printed in full color and include the cartoon animal images. The number of cards per set varies from 34 to 54.

Kindle versions are available for the seven reading instruction books and their companion readers. That version will work fine as long as you have a device with a color display rather than black and white.