Phonics Meeting for Parents Wednesday 20th September

Why teach phonics? The ability to read and write well is a vital skill for all children, paving the way for an enjoyable and successful school experience. Phonics helps children to develop good reading and spelling skills We use a synthetic scheme called ‘Letters and Sounds’ as our teaching resource, along with ‘Jolly Phonics’ to introduce the sounds and ‘Read Write Inc’ to aid letter formation.

Why synthetic phonics? Synthetic phonics is simply the ability to convert a letter or letter group into sounds that are then blended together into a word.

How do we teach it? Jolly Phonics is multi-sensory. The children use a story, action and song to help them to learn the letter sounds. We play lots of fun games during our daily phonics sessions. The children will bring home a sound book and worksheets each week. Main focus this term is to recognise and say each sound, and write it correctly.

How to say the sounds Saying the sounds correctly with your child is extremely important The way we say sound may well be different from when you were at school We say the shortest form of the sounds As well as the alphabet, the children also learn some digraphs (two letters that make one sound) To check pronunciation, go to http://jollylearning.co.uk/gallery/audio-2/

The 44 phonemes /b/ /d/ /f/ /g/ /h/ /j/ /k/ /l/ /m/ /n/ /ng/ /p/ /r/ /v/ /w/ /y/ /z/ /th/ /ch/ /sh/ /zh/ /a/ /e/ /i/ /o/ /u/ /ae/ /ee/ /ie/ /oe/ /ue/ /oo/ /ar/ /ur/ /au/ /er/ /ow/ /oi/ /air/ /ear/ /ure/

Blending Recognising the letter sounds in a written word, for example c-u-p and merging or ‘blending’ them in the order in which they are written to pronounce the word ‘cup’ They use this skill to begin reading and will bring home reading books in Term 2.

Segmenting ‘Chopping Up’ the word to spell it out The opposite of blending Identifying the individual sounds in a spoken word (e.g. h-i-m , s-t-or-k) and writing down letters for each sound (phoneme) to form the word him and stork

Segment and Blend these words… drep blom gris Nonsense games like this help to build up skills – and are fun!

Segmenting Activity Using your ‘phoneme fingers’ can you say how many phonemes are in each word. shelf dress sprint string

Did you get it right? shelf = sh – e – l – f = 4 phonemes dress = d - r - e – ss = 4 phonemes sprint = s – p – r – i – n – t = 6 phonemes string = s – t – r – i – ng = 5 phonemes

Letter formation Alongside saying the sound, we will begin teaching the correct letter formation. It is important that the children learn this as soon as possible, so as not to get into any bad habits! Correct pencil grip is the first skill to get right. We practise in lots of fun ways including writing in sand, making letters out of playdough. We use Read Write Inc. phrases and visual clues to help the children with letter formation. They will focus on writing their name correctly this term and will be bringing a name card home to practise.

How can I help? Practise sounds in sound book daily (and keep it in their book bag!) Complete letter formation worksheets Begin to use sound mat and phrases at home when encouraging writing – perhaps start with their name Play sound and letter games – make it fun! Praise your child for trying out words Read to your child every night to develop their love of words and books!

Phonic Games Go on a sound walk Play ‘Simon Says’ to help with listening skills Make up alliteration sentences Make up rhymes Sing an alphabet song together Play ‘I spy’ Go on an initial sound letter hunt Play with magnetic letters on the fridge Encourage children to write a shopping list (using the initial letters at first) Look for phonic games Play pairs with words and pictures