Meeting for Reception Parents 12th October 2016 Phonics

Introduction What is Systematic Synthetic Phonics? The phonics approach teaches children to decode words by sounds, rather than recognising whole words. The emphasis in early years teaching is on synthetic phonics, where words are broken up into the smallest units of sound, called phonemes. Children are taught the letters, or graphemes, that represent these phonemes and also learn to blend them into words. So, children read the letters in a word like c-a-t, and then merge them to make the word cat. A phoneme can be represented by one (e.g. b), two (e.g. ch), three (e.g. igh) or even four letters (e.g. ough in dough).

Woah, that sounds complex Woah, that sounds complex! How on earth will my child understand all that? We use a combination of Letters and Sounds and a popular scheme called Read Write Inc, which not only teaches the children how to say and use the sounds, but also how to write the letters. We take it very slowly at first, as always making meaningful connections with things that they can relate to e.g. children in the class whose name begins with a particular sound.

I’m worried I’m going to say the sounds wrong. Don’t worry! Your child will probably correct you, and this is a great way to make them feel confident. You could even make some deliberate mistakes and see if they can catch you out. Our website has a pronunciation guide: Articulation of Phonemes www.dussindaleprimary.co.uk > parent pages > learning resources for all ages > literacy resources Warning! We won’t be teaching the sounds in alphabetical order. Our first sounds are: s a t p i n

So, a daily phonics session will look something like this…

Blending Putting sounds together to make words e.g. “c-a-t, cat!” Helping at home: Play I spy blending. “I spy with my little eye a c-a-t.” Segment words in everyday conversation for your child to blend e.g. “Let’s find your c-oa-t.” “Come and brush your t-ee-th.” When you are reading to your child, ask them to help you read the CVC words (make sure that they only contain sounds that we have taught them!) Make words on the fridge with magnetic letters BEWARE… only do these activities with CVC words to start with.

HANG ON A MINUTE! What’s a CVC word? Just think of Countdown! C = consonant sound e.g. b, d, s, ch, th, ff, zz, se V = vowel sound e.g. a, e, i, o, u ai, ee, igh, oa, oo So, a CVC word could be cat, dog, fish, light, cheese, red, ship, moon, coat, leg, … Remember, it’s the sounds, not the letters that make a word a CVC word. Play 3 cups game.

Segmenting Breaking a word up into its sounds e.g. “cat, c-a-t.” It’s usually called sounding out. This is slightly harder and takes a bit of practice. We use our phoneme fingers to help sound out words, and sound buttons to identify the sounds. Helping at home: Play games with objects representing each sound e.g. Find 3 balls. Think of a simple CVC word. Roll a ball to your child as you say the first sound. Roll the second ball for the second sound etc. Get your child to roll them back to you saying the sounds for themselves. It’s helpful if the balls are all different. Cups. Write the individual sounds in a set of sounds on plastic cups. Say a CVC word a few times and see if they can find the cups that spell the word. You could also do this on Lego or Duplo bricks. Most segmenting games can also be turned into blending games. e.g. in Cups, put 3 cups together that make a word and get your child to say the sounds, and blend them into the word.

Word Time When we have completed a set of sounds, we will send home a Word Time sheet. Here’s how you can use it…

Tricky Red Words These are words that cannot be sounded out e.g. the, I, said, was, he. Helping at home: Write the words your child is learning on bits of card and make a matching pairs game Write the words on ‘post its’ and stick them around the house for your child to read as she or he goes past them. When you are reading to your child, draw his/her attention to the tricky words they are learning. Or pretend that you have forgotten what that word is and ask them to help you. Children LOVE this!

Useful Websites A word of warning. Please don’t be tempted to bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/cvc/index phonicsplay.co.uk letters-and-sounds.com MrThorne.com (handy app for iPhone and iPad too) At the moment we are working on Phase 1, Phase 2 after half term until we let you know otherwise. A word of warning. Please don’t be tempted to whizz ahead of where we are at school as it could potentially confuse your child. Thank you!

General reading advice Read, read and read some more! picture books non-fiction books magazines newspapers road signs packets shopping lists words in cartoons Go to the library visit the school book fair draw attention to yourself when you read something