The Moving Little Minds System: Five Principles That Drive Preschool Literacy Growth
- Melissa McCall
- Jul 18
- 5 min read
When we began reviewing literacy data from more than 100 preschool children participating in classrooms using the Moving Little Minds approach, one question kept coming up:
What exactly are you doing?
It's a fair question.
Across participating classrooms, children entered the program knowing an average of approximately six letter sounds and finished knowing approximately twenty. Letter-sound knowledge more than tripled. Children also demonstrated strong growth in uppercase and lowercase letter recognition, with many reaching or exceeding commonly used kindergarten readiness benchmarks.
While there is no single activity responsible for those results, there is a clear instructional philosophy behind everything we do.
At Moving Little Minds, we believe young children learn best when literacy instruction is intentional, playful, and grounded in research. Over the years, that belief has evolved into a system that guides our curriculum, professional development, and classroom resources.
Rather than focusing on isolated activities, we focus on five key principles that work together to support literacy growth.
1. Stop Teaching a Letter a Week
Perhaps the biggest shift in our approach is moving away from traditional Letter of the Week instruction.
While Letter of the Week is familiar and easy to organize, it often does not provide children with enough opportunities to revisit and truly master letters and sounds. Children are introduced to a letter, spend a few days exploring it, and then move on to something new.
At Moving Little Minds, we use a Letter Cycle Framework instead.
Rather than teaching a letter and leaving it behind, children revisit previously taught letters through songs, games, review activities, and daily routines. This repeated exposure creates multiple opportunities for practice and retrieval, which strengthens learning over time.
Our pilot results reinforced the importance of this approach. One of the most interesting findings was that younger children demonstrated growth that was very similar to their older peers. Children did not need to wait until their final year before kindergarten to begin building strong literacy foundations.
When children have repeated opportunities to interact with letters and sounds, meaningful growth can occur regardless of where they begin.
2. Teach the Letter as a Whole
Another key principle of the Moving Little Minds system is teaching the letter as a complete concept.
Too often, literacy instruction separates letter learning into isolated pieces. Children may learn a letter name one week, practice writing it another week, and eventually learn the sound.
At Moving Little Minds, we teach the whole letter from the beginning.
When a new letter is introduced, children learn the uppercase and lowercase forms, the letter name, the sound, and how to form it. They search for it in books and environmental print and begin connecting it to meaningful words and experiences.
Instead of memorizing disconnected facts, children develop a deeper understanding of how letters work and why they matter.
The more connections children make, the stronger learning becomes.
3. Teach Through Movement and Song
Young children are not designed to sit still and memorize information.
They learn through movement. They learn through repetition. They learn through active engagement.
That is why movement and music are such an important part of the Moving Little Minds system.
Every letter sound in our program is paired with a meaningful body motion and reinforced through daily alphabet songs and routines. As children learn a sound, they also learn a movement that helps reinforce and retrieve that learning.
When a child sees the letter M, they don't just remember a sound. They remember a movement. When they perform the movement, it helps them recall the sound. When they hear the sound in a word, they begin connecting it back to print.
These repeated connections help strengthen memory while keeping children actively engaged in the learning process.
Our Alphabet Motion Flashcards were developed around this exact idea. They are not simply flashcards. They are part of a larger instructional system designed to connect letters, sounds, movement, and memory.
Most importantly, children love them.
4. Connect Alphabet Knowledge and Phonological Awareness
Another principle that sets the Moving Little Minds system apart is our belief that alphabet knowledge and phonological awareness should grow together.
Too often, these skills are taught separately.
Children may learn letter sounds without opportunities to hear those sounds in spoken language. Others may participate in phonological awareness activities without making clear connections to print.
We intentionally connect the two.
As children learn letter sounds, they also practice hearing those sounds in words. They identify beginning sounds, participate in listening activities, play sound games, and develop an awareness of how spoken language works.
For example, learning that the letter B says /b/ is important. Hearing the /b/ sound at the beginning of the word ball is equally important. Even more, segmenting the sounds in ball take that learning deeper.
These connections help children move beyond memorization and begin developing the foundational skills needed for future reading success.
5. Make Learning Playful Without Losing the Teaching
Perhaps the most important principle of all is this:
Children learn best when literacy instruction is both intentional and playful.
For years, early childhood educators have been presented with a false choice. Some believe strong literacy instruction requires more academics and less play. Others worry that academic instruction takes away from the joy of childhood.
We believe children deserve both.
Teachers should teach important literacy skills directly and intentionally. Children should also have opportunities to practice those skills through movement, games, songs, books, centers, conversations, and hands-on experiences.
That is what we mean when we talk about purposeful play. Purposeful play is not replacing instruction. It is extending instruction.
After children learn a new concept, they need opportunities to revisit it, practice it, and apply it in meaningful ways. Play provides those opportunities while keeping children engaged and motivated.
The result is a classroom where learning feels joyful while remaining highly intentional.
Why These Five Principles Matter
Looking back at the literacy growth we observed, we believe it was the combination of these five principles that made the difference.
Children experienced repeated review through letter cycles. They learned letters as complete concepts. They connected sounds to movement. They developed phonological awareness alongside alphabet knowledge. They practiced skills through purposeful play.
Those experiences created multiple opportunities to build, strengthen, and apply foundational literacy skills.
That is the heart of the Moving Little Minds system.
It is not about choosing between play and academics. It is not about finding the perfect activity. It is about understanding how young children learn and intentionally designing instruction around those realities.
The results from our pilot project suggest that when we do that well, children can make remarkable progress.
Is It Time for a Different Approach?
If you're a teacher or director who has been frustrated by Letter of the Week, overwhelmed by trying to piece together literacy instruction from dozens of different resources, or wondering how to translate the Science of Reading into developmentally appropriate practice, you're not alone.
Many educators know literacy matters. The challenge is knowing what to teach, when to teach it, and how to do it in a way that actually works for young children.
That is exactly why we created the Moving Little Minds Curriculum, Alphabet Motion Flashcards, professional development trainings, and Literacy Success Bundle.
Our goal is to provide educators with a complete literacy framework—one that combines research, child development, intentional teaching, and purposeful play into a system that can be implemented with confidence.
Because when teachers have a clear roadmap, children benefit. And based on what we observed across more than 100 preschoolers, those benefits can be significant!
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