EYFS Reading & Phonics Meeting 4.10.18
Purpose of meeting To provide you with an understanding of how we teach reading and phonics at school. To provide you with ways that you can help support your child with their reading and phonics.
All children should be given opportunities to Hear books read aloud on a regular basis. Choose what to read themselves. Read independently as an individual or in pairs and small groups. Enjoy books with parents through home/school reading partnership.
How do children learn to read? Pictures Foundation Stage Reading Words Letter Sounds (phonics) Familiar Language
What is phonics? Phonics is one method of teaching children how to read and write. It's all about sounds. There are 44 sounds in the English language, which we put together to form words. Some are represented by one letter, like 't', and some by two or more, like sh' in ship and 'air' in chair. Children are taught the sounds first, then how to match them to letters, and finally how to use the letter sounds for reading and spelling.
How will my child be taught phonics? We use a systematic programme for teaching phonic skills to children through 6 phases - Letters and Sounds. We also use an action for each sound taught At the same time whole words that cannot be broken down easily, tricky words are taught to the children. These are in your child s planner.
Phase One This phase concentrates on developing children s speaking and listening skills as preparation for learning to read with phonics. Parents can play a vital role in helping their children develop these skills, by encouraging their children to listen carefully and talk extensively about what they hear, see and do.
Phase Two Learning 19 letters of the alphabet and one sound for each. Blending sounds together to make words. Segmenting words into their separate sounds. Beginning to read simple captions. s a t p i n m d g o c k ck e u r h b f ff l ll ss Tricky words the to I no go
Phase 3 The remaining 7 letters of the alphabet, one sound for each. Graphemes such as ch, oo, th representing the remaining phonemes not covered by single letters. j v w x y z zz qu ch sh th ng ai ee igh oa oo ar or ur ow oi ear air ure er Tricky Words he she we me be was my you her they all are
Phase 4 In Phase 4, children learn how to blend and segment lots of different words Tricky words Some come one said do so were when have there out like little what
Phase 5 (Year 1) 13 more new sounds are taught ay oy wh ou ir ph Ie ue ew ea aw oe au The children also learn 5 new sounds all with split digraphs. When the digraph is split, the vowel sound is changed e.g came, Pete, rice a_e e_e i_e o_e u_e
Phase 6 (Year 2) In Phase 6, the focus is on learning spelling rules for word endings or suffixes. They learn how words change when you add certain letters. There are 12 different suffixes taught -s -es -ing -ed -er -est -y -en -ful -ly -ment -ness
What are Tricky words? Tricky words are whole words that cannot be broken down easily, are taught to the children in different phases. See planner for lists We send these home in the Zippy bags. everyone the said Tricky words are developed through games like pairs, matching games, snap and word hunts.
What are High Frequency words? High frequency (common) are words that recur frequently in much of the written material young children read and that they need when they write. See planner
What do the Phonics terms mean? Phoneme: The smallest unit of sound in a word, e.g. c/a/t, sh/o/p, t/ea/ch/er. Grapheme: A letter or group of letters representing one sound, e.g. sh, igh, t. Digraph: Two letters which together make one sound, e.g. sh, ch, ee, ph, oa. Split digraph: Two letters, which work as a pair, split, to represent one sound, e.g. a-e as in cake, or i-e as in kite. Trigraph: three letters which together make one sound but cannot be separated into smaller phonemes, e.g. igh as in light, ear as in heard, tch as in watch. Segmentation: means hearing the individual phonemes within a word for instance the word cat consists of four phonemes: c a-t Blending: means merging the individual phonemes together to pronounce a word. C-a-t / cat, ch-i-p/chip
What can you do at home? Use the letter sounds, not the letter names. Try to avoid the uh factor. Ask your child to teach you the actions Encourage your child to recognise letters in their environment. Play games e.g. Who can spot the most m s on a walk to the shops? Play phonics games on websites such as cbeebies. http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/phase-2-games.html https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/childrensmenu.htm www.topmarks.co.uk
Starting reading The process of reading begins with activities such as book browsing and sharing stories. As the children become more confident they will want to extend these activities by telling their own stories and making their own books. Once they are ready the children will use their sounds knowledge to build and read simple words. This will develop as the children begin to recall familiar and common words. We have a range of books that the children will bring home these are colour coded - pink, red, yellow, blue and green
What can you do at home? Make sure that your child sees you reading. Children like to copy what their parents do, if they see you reading then they are more likely to want to read too. Read with your child every day and sign in their planner. Make up your own stories together. Remember bed time stories are an important time together. Visit the library so that your child regularly gets to see new books. Remember not all reading is done from a book.
But I don t want to read! Make sure the text isn t too hard or too easy. Are they interested in the book? Are they scared of getting it wrong? What is the point? Children like to know the purpose of something as soon as they learn it; so give them a reason to read e.g Turn it into a treasure hunt, help read shopping lists, create a set of instructions, look at construction manuals and non-fiction texts.
Any Questions?