A is for Anna and Age and And

The TES were kind enough to print a longer version of this ages ago. Anna [in the punchline] has long since grown up and looking for wrinkles of her own. Still makes me laugh 

That I am approaching the ‘plenary’ of my teaching career was made horribly clear today. My riveting rendering of ‘Ant on an Apple’ [sung to the tune of Shoo Fly Shoo and enhanced by kinaesthetic and visual stimuli in order to imprint both the symbol and the sound in the impressionable minds of my charges] was interrupted by Anna.

‘Mrs Johnson’, she said in an excited piping tone, ‘you’ve got my letter on you!’ 

I looked for paint splattered stains or felt tipped accidents on my clothes, but found none.

‘Not there!’ she said, peering into my face and gently tracing the outline of an ‘A’ on my wrinkled lip, ‘there!’

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what we mean by  Progression in Phonics.

Now, Anna could write a short novel from the bags under my eyes.