ABSTRACT
Coherence and continuity are the two vital ingredients of a sound reading scheme and anything which destroys these two had best be left in the cupboard. The relative merits of the ‘look and say’ and phonic methods of teaching reading have been debated for many years, usually as if they were mutually exclusive. The differing abilities of teachers to deal with the very early stages of the process of learning to read have probably been responsible for a good deal of unfavourable criticism of activity methods generally, and of pre-reading activities in particular. Activities associated with writing preparation included both specific training in essential movements and more indirect training through experiments with scrapbooks. Speech development is not included as a category of experience since it inevitably permeates all. The child has an envelope containing cards of the same colours, each colour represented by a differing number of pieces.
