Zoo-Kudos

“Zoophonics has helped the Naga children in Rainbow Acad- emy, Nagaland India to read with joy and not with tears. Good- bye to stress and tears. Ever since our training at your Safari Academy in 2014, the Zoo-phonics Program has been carried out with more care and understanding at our Rainbow Acade- my. It has definitely moved our children to a higher realm. The reading, identification, reasoning, and physical coordination has definitely improved with proper guidance, and clarity of phonetic instructions. The various instructions given have also acted a powerful tool to enhance children’s listening skills. Your materials are well-researched. Zoo-phonics is helping children at Rainbow Academy, Dimapur, Nagaland from ages 2 ½ to 7 years. This year 228 children enrolled.” - Dr’s. Adela and Coppe Mero. Directors, Rainbow Academy, Nagaland, India. “Zoo-phonics is awesome for children because it is RELEVANT to their lives. The darling animals come to life for them in the motions, sounds, songs, stories, and activities and it guides them gently into the literacy club. Students are not stressed out but smiling and laughing. It takes all that glorious energy in their bodies and uses it to create a meaningful connection to the world of print. SO MUCH FUN!” - Pam Evenson, K Teacher, Quail Valley, Menifee, CA. “After having used many language arts programs throughout the years I want to encourage anyone interested in implementing Zoo-phonics.  I was trained in the program and the final remark about “give it a try for just two weeks” was met with a lifelong commitment to using and recommending this revolutionary program. After one year of use the documented skill development was astounding.  The dramatic results my students achieved in early reading skills resulted in other teachers and school dis- tricts electing to incorporate Zoo-phonics into their Kindergar- ten curriculum.  They have continued to use the Program after 15 years. Far too many students had left my classroom without any letter knowledge besides naming a few letters after a year instructed with traditional methodology. The multi-sensory approach  led to my students gaining essential letter knowl- edge skills. Zoo-phonics is an amazing program that meets all students’ needs.  If you want to revolutionize your students’ success in early reading development with joy and delight, this is the one.” - Cheryl Moe, K teacher, MI. “For the last 27 years I have been using Zoo-phonics in my Resource Specialist Program classroom and in my RTI Tier III in- tervention program.   During that time I have NEVER had a student who did not learn their letter shapes, sounds and body signals in 3 days.  I have served all levels of disabilities and learning styles in my programs.  All

“Several years ago, my Head Start and Virginia Preschool Initia- tive program started using Zoo-phonics.  Our scores on the assessment used in our state for letters and sounds jumped 10 points and has stayed there, year-after-year.  With 100% poverty and over 12% special needs students and 30% English Language Learners in our program, every year at least 93% of our “at-risk” students pass the Kindergarten fall PALS assess- ment (Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening), compared with the school district average of 86-89%.  We are now using Zoo-phonics with our infants and toddlers. Zoo-phonics is based on an essential belief that what children learn first is what they learn best and what they learn should not have to be unlearned later.   This Program is so easy to teach, you don’t need to change your whole curriculum.  Just add the song and movements daily to your class and refer back often when you spell or model writing for the students.  Soon students will be reading and writing! Zoo-phonics is also easy for parents to use at home with their children.  And the results are rapid and sustained.  For chil- dren struggling to learn to read who are receiving Response to Intervention services (RTI), Zoo-phonics is the perfect remedial program.  It is fun, engaging, and rapid in results.  Who doesn’t want to move like peewee penguin or jerry jellyfish and make their noises /p/ and /j/?  Students start out moving all over the room and end up making small hand gestures until reading, spelling and writing become reflexive.  Zoo-phonics is the way all early learning should be-FUN!” - Kathryn Massie, Director, Stafford Schools Head Start, Early Head Start, Virginia Preschool Initiative “Students and Parents LOVE Zoo-phonics! My Kindergarteners adored their zoo animal friends, and they especially enjoyed singing “Come Meet Us At The Zoo” each morning shortly after arriving at school. But most rewarding to me as their teacher was meeting around the table with my smaller reading groups and noticing a child using the animal alphabet signals to decode a new word. How exciting to have equipped my students with such a useful tool! Another memorable encounter involved a parent. Our private elementary school located in Silicon Valley was about a 20 minute drive from a large country club community that boasted an excel- lent, well-funded neighborhood public school. Over a period of a few years, we noticed a trend: many families from the country club area utilized our pre-school and kindergarten, and then would transfer to their neighborhood school for 1st grade. One day I shared our observation with a parent with whom I felt comfort- able, gently inquiring why this might be so. She immediately responded, “Oh, we talk about you out there! You see, our local school runs a developmental kindergarten program, but when kids arrive in 1st grade they seem to be expected to know how to read. Parents feel like no one there really teaches them how to do it. The word spread between parents and we’ve learned

that we can come to you, because you know how to teach children how to read!” I am so thank- ful to have had a principal who equipped the pre-school through 1st grade teachers with the Zoo-phonics Multisensory Program! Ever since, I have considered Zoo-phonics to be the greatest tool in my teacher’s tool box!” - Kelly Witmer, retired

of my students have responded to this whole brain/whole body approach.  Difficult abstract concepts became concrete when introduced with the Zoo-phonics stories and motions.  Students who struggled in the past found that by us- ing their whole body they could learn to read and have fun at the same time.” - Gail Lancaster, M.A. Special

elementary school teacher, Achiever Christian School

Education Teacher; Associate Faculty/Fresno Department of Special Education, Sanford College of Education National University