I began with a phonological awareness exercise; phonological awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate the sounds within words and is predictive of reading success. I conducted a visual drill of letters and digraphs (articulating the sounds) and an auditory exercise (given the sound, writing the letter or digraph). I noticed that Sasha is confused by the digraph qu /kw/. I re-taught the concept, as well as the correct orientation of the letter. Next, Sasha read a fluency list of nonsense words (these are words that are not real but follow the rules of the English language). Using alpha chips, Sasha sequenced the alphabet, identifying the initial, final, and medial letters. Using the alpha chips, Sasha identified the vowels. I explained the concept of a syllable (a word or a part of a word with one vowel sound.) Using the alphachips, we built CVC (or closed) syllables. I emphasized that in a closed syllable, the vowel makes its "short" sound. To conclude, we played a game of Phonics Dice with CVC words.