Bring the Four-Blocks^® Literacy Model into the kindergarten classroom with Building Blocks, a framework that combines what children need to learn with what is known about how children learn. All teachers can begin or continue their students' literacy journeys by providing detailed instructions for developmentally appropriate activities, such as predictable charts, teacher read-alouds, reading to and with children, and writing to, for, and by children. With Building Blocks, students experience a variety of reading and writing activities which instill the desire to learn to read and write, develop phonemic awareness, foster important language concepts, encourage letter and sound recognition, teach essential print ideas, and extend vocabulary. These six critical understandings are stressed in the Building Blocks balanced literacy program.