Phonics for Parents September 2016

Read Write Inc The Village Saints Partnership use Read Write Inc to teach phonics Phonics is taught every day from Reception to the end of Year Two http://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/read-write-inc-programmes/phonics/

Pure sounds During Phonics lessons the children are taught ‘pure sounds’ These are taught in three sets, when the children are ready to access them http://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/resources/sound-pronunciation-guide/

Blending When the children know the first five sounds we start to teach children to blend This is then a part of each Phonics lesson http://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/resources/parent-tutorial-teaching-sound-blending/

Segmenting We use ‘Fred Fingers’ to segment words Initially, we would tell the children how many fingers they need until they are ready to do this independently For example, to segment cat we would hold up three fingers and pinch each finger in turn for c-a-t

An example of a Set 1 lesson… Introduce new sound Say the sound (my turn, your turn) Read the sound Review the sounds Write the letter (each letter has a phrase) Speed write Fred talk

An example of a Set 2/3 lesson… Introduce the sound (say the sound, read the sound) Review the sounds Word time –green words, red words and alien words (these are often in a RWI book) Story introduction and first read RWI activity based on the book Handwriting

Some information… Every half term, the children are assessed by Miss Stewart (St Martin) and an LSA from All Saints will do this too I then group the children for phonics lessons including the spelling programme towards the end of Year Two Children will bring home Phonics homework (this begins with a sound sheet for you to use with your child) and will progress to spellings to learn based on the book your child is reading that week Towards the end of Year 1, all children take the Phonics Screening Check

What can you do to help? Hear your children read regularly at home Use different resources to make reading fun Play snap using spellings Play matching games Make up mnemonics- because, big, elephants can always understand small elephants

And finally… Ask us if you are unsure of anything, we’re here to help  The RWI website has a great section for parents with ideas, videos and downloads http://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/parents/ Have fun!