Chukwuma Ajakah 
With her new book, A-Z Initial Sounds Colouring Workbook, phonics trainer and early childhood educator, Damilola Olatundun makes a strong statement about her commitment towards developing the reading skills of young learners. A-Z Initial Sounds Colouring Workbook is designed to meet the reading and writing needs of preschoolers and kindergarten pupils.
The book features learning tasks that progressively enhance the learners’ latent potentials. Published in 2024, the workbook covers a wide range of activities targeted at enhancing the reading skills of young learners. It also provides room for hours of fun and class activities such as filling in the initial letters of some words, reproducing the sounds, tracing and colouring of given images, using the clues provided. Moreover, the book has some pages for free drawing exercises that learners will find exciting. The major activity in Damilola Olatundun’s A-Z Initial Sounds Colouring Workbook is the filling in of the initial letters of listed words, beginning from letter A and ending with letter Z. Some common words featured in the book include: apple, ambulance (A), balloon, bee, butterfly (B), carrot, cat, cupcake (C), dolphin, dog (D), eggplant, elephant (E), fish, flower, frog (F), girl, grapes (G), hat, helicopter, hammer (H), ink, insects (I), jacket, jug (J), key, kite, kettle (K), leaf, ladder (L), mango, mop, milk (M), necklace, nest, nurse (N), onion, ostrich, orange (O), penguin, pear (P), rainbow, rabbit (R), snake, strawberry (S), tractor, tortoise (T), underwear, umbrella (U), vase, van, violin (V), watermelon, window, watering can (W), box, fox (X), yam, yacht (Y), and zebra, zip (Z).
Olatundun, a seasoned early childhood educator has taught learners at preschool, nursery, and kindergarten levels. The author has a track record in developing effective learning programmes, creating educational content, and equipping both teachers and pupils for optimal performance in and outside classroom. In this new book, the author demonstrates how spoken sounds relate to letters of the written language, linking them to the accompanying images or pictorial illustrations with a step-by-step guide that stimulates the teaching learning process. Explaining her interest in children books, the prolific author writes, “As an Early Years teacher and phonics author, I’m passionate about empowering young learners to become confident readers and lifelong learners. I create engaging educational resources that make learning fun and accessible.” In addition to a Jolly Institute teaching certification in Phonics, the author holds a Bachelor of Education and Masters degree in Early Childhood Education from the University of Lagos.
Damilola has also written copiously on early childhood education. Her published works include: The Basics of Reading Skills, Pictorial Vowel Digraphs Activity Book, Pictorial Consonant Digraphs Activity Book, Tracing and Reading of CVC Words, Digraphs Sounds Colouring Workbook, and the most recent, A-Z Initial Sounds Colouring Workbook, all available on Amazon.
I recommend A-Z Initial Sounds Colouring Workbook to schools, teachers, parents and caregivers. They will find it very useful in teaching, monitoring and mentoring young learners.
