Reading meeting Tuesday 23rd September 2014

Remember you can also use the school library. Be a good role model and let them see you enjoying reading too! Let your child hold the book and turn the pages, talk about the story and the pictures and ask questions about what has happened and what they think might happen next. Our book sharing scheme plays an important role in this. The children enjoy choosing the books so please take the time to enjoy them with your child. Make it a special time. We believe that developing a love of books and stories is key to enjoying reading.

Your child will follow this phase which recognises the importance of developing good speaking and listening skills as a base for reading and writing. It consists of a 6 phase teaching programme which begins in nursery with Phase 1. We follow the programme called Letters and Sounds.

Phase 1 This Phase is broken down into 7 aspects. These are taught throughout the year in all areas of the setting not just at specific carpet time sessions.

Aspect 1 ENVIRONMENTAL SOUNDS We go on listening walks and play different games to encourage good listening. We explore different animal sounds and identify the sounds we hear around us. These cards are always on display to remind the children. We introduce the good listening rules and emphasise these at all carpet time sessions so that children are aware of what is expected.

Again following our listening rules during carpet sessions the children listen and identify the sounds of instruments and copy/tap out simple rhythms. The nature of the set up in the Foundation Stage means that children can access the different areas to revisit adult led activities and develop them further. E.g. the music area is always available for them to explore different sounds and sound patterns and the craft and modelling area provides scope for them to make their own instruments and make different sounds. Aspect 2 INSTRUMENTAL SOUNDS

Aspect 3 BODY PERCUSSION This includes children listening and differentiating between different rhythms, speeds and volumes of speech and using their bodies to show this. E.g. stamping, clapping and moving their bodies at different speed to follow instructions. Not beating other children with sticks!

Aspect 4 RHYTHM AND RHYME We read lots of rhyming stories and the children are quick to join in with the rhyming words. They become more familiar with rhyming words through playing lots of games together – bingo, pairs, making rhyming soup! We also encourage them to make up their own songs and rhymes. Children need to learn a stock of rhymes through repetition. We encourage them to sing and join in with actions during carpet sessions and also in other areas as they play.

Aspect 5 ALLITERATION Lots of our books contain alliterative sentences and we also encourage alliteration through adding adjectives to words as we talk with children in the different areas e.g. sizzling sausages in the home corner, beautiful butterflies, wonderful weather!

Aspect 6 VOICE SOUNDS Children develop listening skills trying to identify each others voices and use the microphone to change volume and record their own voices. Mirrors show the different shapes our mouths make as we speak. Exaggerated facial expressions and actions as we say different sounds help to support listening and attention span. In this phase we use our voices to make different sounds, e.g. zzz for a bee, tick, tock for a clock. ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’ is a super book to demonstrate this.

Aspect 7 ORAL BLENDING AND SEGMENTING We play lots of games using sound talk where the children have to blend the sounds they hear to make a word and where the children have to say the sounds they hear in words for others to blend together. We listen to sounds in words and use sound talk. E.g. this is a c-a-t. This is probably the area where it is more obvious that reading skills are being taught.

We do not formally introduce the graphemes (i.e. what the sounds look like when they are written) until reception but children are encouraged to write, especially their own names and so they often become familiar with the letters they have in their names. If your child is asking for help writing their name please use lower case letters for all but the first.

Phase 2 The purpose of this phase is to teach at least 19 letters and move children on from oral blending and segmentation to blending and segmenting with letters. By the end of the phase many children should be able to read vc (vowel/consonant- it) and cvc (consonant/vowel/consonant- sat) words and to spell them either by using magnetic letters or by writing the letters on paper or on whiteboards.

During the phase they will be introduced to reading two-syllable words and simple captions. They will also learn to read some high- frequency “tricky” words: e.g. the, to, go, no, I. There are no rules for these words and children are taught that they “just have to know them!”

We believe that children are all individuals who have different talents and learn different things at different speeds so we aim to personalise the learning as much as possible so that children become confident in not only recognising the graphemes but in using them to read and spell.

How do children learn? By seeing: visual clues : as each new sound is introduced we use our “Just Phonics” frieze & cards and add them to our displays.

By hearing: careful & correct pronunciation of the phonemes (sounds) & insistence on this. We teach the sounds not the letter names to begin with and it is important that they are said correctly e.g. mmmmm not muh as this makes it easier to hear when children are sound talking the words as they read.

By doing: kinaesthetic approach: actions, songs, making it fun – (NO MATTER HOW STUPID YOU THINK IT MAKES YOU LOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Phase 3 We aim to take about 12 weeks for this phase but often takes longer as the children develop more complex skills The purpose of this phase is to teach another 25 graphemes, most of them comprising two letters (e.g. oa), so at the end of phase 3 the children can represent each of about 42 phonemes (sounds) by a grapheme (letter or letters).

Children also continue to practise CVC blending and segmentation in this phase and will apply their knowledge of blending and segmenting to reading and spelling simple two- syllable words and captions. They will learn to read more tricky words and also begin to learn to spell some of these words. They will learn letter names during this phase.

Phase 4 Should take weeks. It is possible, that not all children will reach this phase in reception. The purpose of this phase is to consolidate children’s knowledge of graphemes in reading and spelling words containing adjacent consonants CVCC words e.g. went, and polysyllabic words e.g. chimpanzee.

We teach daily phonics sessions throughout reception usually lasting about mins. The daily teaching sequence in reception looks something like this: Introduction Revisit & review Teach Practise Apply Assess

Throughout the year children will be taught both as a whole class and also in small groups with an adult lead. As new sounds and words are introduced they are displayed around the room and children can use them to read, match, write etc. The nature of the EYFS curriculum means that there are also additional opportunities to develop phonic skills while the children play independently.

As the children develop confidence in decoding cvc words they will be given reading books to take home to read with you. We also introduce “Guided reading” later in the year where the children read and discuss books in a small group. Reception children will be bringing home a sound file. This will contain the new sounds covered during the week for you to reinforce at home.

At the beginning of Yr 1, phase 4 is revisited to consolidate what has been learnt before and then Phase 5 and 6 continue throughout Year 1 and 2. All children learn at a different pace and it is important that a child becomes confident in using his/her skills before moving on.

We realise there is a lot to digest here so if you have any questions please ask a member of the FSU team. Please feel free to have a look around the unit. We have set out a selection of some of games we use and we hope you will play! We hope this has been useful.