Lockies’ Little Learners Parent Workshop 2017 Communication, Language, Literacy and Understanding

Aims To understand the journey children need to go on in Foundation Stage to become literate. How important Communication and Language skills are to achieve this.

Where should your child be at the end of EYFS? Reading keywords on sight. Digraphs

Where should your child be at the end of EYFS? Phonetically plausible words. Writing in sentences Word spaces Keywords Conjunctions e.g. and, but. Capital letters Full stops

Talk 4 Writing Communication and Language are the cornerstone of reading and writing. Children don’t just start to develop Literacy skills when they come to school; from the moment they are born, they are communicating, listening and learning language. To develop Literacy, children need to have a good grasp of Phonics. They need to be able to tell the difference between different sounds. E.g. sounds they can hear in the environment, such as a helicopter overhead, to imitating animal noises. To then playing I spy games and hearing the initial sound, to being able to hear and say the beginning, middle and ends of words. They also need to have an understanding of how language is used. Stories, rhymes and word games are essential to introduce sentence structure and new vocabulary to children.

How is Talk Used in School? We plan time for Talking. This gives children time to process new ideas and master new vocabulary. After reading a book, we encourage children to talk about what they have read. If it is an information text they should put it into their own words, to demonstrate their understanding of the text. If it is a story they should retell it or explain the main parts of the story. We orally rehearse what we are going to say before we write it. As we are writing we keep returning to the start of the sentence/caption, so that are writing makes sense.

Talk 4 Writing We have introduced ‘Talk4Writing’ with our Reception classes. The main focus of this is that the children retell the same story everyday, so that they know the story inside and out. When they come to write, the story is already second nature to them; they have a better understanding of the types of story language to use, sentence structure and vocabulary.

How can you help your child? Spend time talking together – about what they’ve done that day, what they’ve learned, how they feel… Model how to be a good listener and model back how to say sentences. Be fussy! Don’t accept one word answers; try to get them to speak in clear, meaningful sentences. Read to your child; bedtime stories are not just a treat, they are essential for learning new words, understanding concepts & themes, as well as story structure. Make up rhymes, play word games, sing songs, retell stories… Share story telling. We will start to send home our Story maps. Get your child to teach you the story and join in with them.

Story map

Oral retelling of a story

Letters and Sounds Phase 1 – general sounds, rhythm and rhyme, alliteration, voice sounds, oral blending and segmenting.

Letters and Sounds

Letters and Sounds Keywords Phase 2 – Phonemes – naming and sounding letters of the alphabet. Keywords

Letters and Sounds Phase 3 – digraphs sh, th, ch, ng, ai, ee, oa, oo, igh, ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, er, ure. Phase 4 – adjacent consonants e.g br, thr Phase 5 – ay, oy, wh, a-e, ou, ir, ph, e-e, ie, ue, ew, i-e, ea, aw, oe, o-e, au, u-e

Reading Enjoys listening to and talking about books – bedtime stories, visiting the library. Can find parts of a book – title, page, author, back cover, blurb. Retells favourite stories off by heart. Begins to read by sounding out simple words. Reads keywords on sight in sentences and sounds out new words e.g. s – t - o - p. Reads keywords on sight in sentences and sounds out new words that include digraphs e.g. g – oa – t c – oi – n.

Reading Phase 4 Phase 2 Phase 3

Remember when reading that … Understanding and talking about the book is just as important as being able to read it!! For every 10 words, your child should be able to read 9 words on sight.