English and Phonics in Reception and Year 1

Read Write Inc. Phonics is an integral part of the curriculum in Reception and Year 1. In school, we follow the Read Write Inc. phonics programme.

Read Write Inc. Phonics = the sounds in our language. In English, there are 44 sounds. ay igh play eight cake straight right spy kite

Reception Children’s individual abilities are assessed at the beginning of the year and children are then placed into phonics groups carefully matched to their level of phonic knowledge. Most children start by learning Speed Sounds Set 1 and then progress to Speed Sounds Set 2.

Reception Children learn to hear, say and write the speed sounds. Mnemonics are used to support children in forming letters correctly.

Fred the frog Meet the famous Fred! Fred helps the children to read words (blending) and write write words (segmenting).

Reading The children are taught that Fred can Only talk in sounds. He says “c_a_t” not cat. Children learn to orally blend sounds first.

Reading Once children have mastered this skill they then begin to apply this to read words using the point and sweep technique. ca t ship

Reading high shed spoon snow port map start shout Over time, children will progress to automatically blending sounds and will be able to read many phonetically plausible words without sounding out. high shed spoon snow port map start shout

Year 1 Children in Year 1 then extend their knowledge by learning alternate graphemes. These are known as Set 3 Speed Sounds.

Spelling Children use their Fred Fingers to help them spell words by pinching the sounds they hear in words onto their fingers.

Ditties & Storybooks Children in Reception and Year 1 will use ditties and storybooks to embed their phonic skills. Children: Practise reading taught speed sounds Read the red and green words Read the ditty/storybook several times to develop fluency, comprehension and expression. Build and write a sentence/sentences based on the ditty.

Action Words As children learn to read they are exposed to lots of words that they cannot use their phonic skills to read. E.g. the, have, are, we. To teach children how to read and write these words we use a program called Action Words. This approach attaches a meaningful action to each word to help children recognise these words.

Action Words mum dad my said you

Action Words Children’s recognition of Action Words will be tested weekly and the next set given when children recognise the previous set/s. Please practise reading and writing the Action Words at home. Remember to cover the action when checking children’s recognition. Please remember and remind your child- it is not a race to get through the action word sets. Children will progress through these at their own pace.

Bug Club

How you can help your child? Read favourite stories over and over again Read some stories at a higher level than they can read themselves. Listen to them reading their take home Phonics storybooks.

How you can help your child? Model saying sounds without adding ‘ugh’ and correct children when they do this. Have fun with Fred talk: “What a tidy r-oo-m!” “Where’s your c-oa-t?” “Time for b-e-d!”

Thank You! Any questions?