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Letters and sounds workshop September 2012 Outcomes of the session To understand the importance of teaching phonics To have a greater understanding of how phonics is taught at school. To have a better understanding of how you can help your child succeed in phonics at home.

‘Getting them reading early’ The government’s White Paper, The importance of teaching, in November 2010 stated its case for phonics. It said that it would: ensure that all children have the chance to follow an enriching curriculum by getting them reading early. That means supporting the teaching of systematic synthetic phonics and introducing a simple reading check at age six to guarantee that children have mastered the basic skills of early reading and also ensure we can identify those with learning difficulties (para. 4.6).

‘Letters and Sounds’ At Capel we teach phonics through the Letters and Sounds programme, which involves teaching the children how the alphabet works for reading and spelling by valuing children’s speaking and listening skills, and giving them the phonic knowledge and skills they need to become fluent readers by the age of seven. The programme is divided into 6 phases: The children should cover Phase 1 at Playgroup or Nursery, this recognises the importance of developing speaking and listening skills and it provides a broad and rich language experience. At the start of the Reception class most children are ready to start Phase 2 that covers teaching each of the letter names and sounds, manipulating the sounds to make simple words and learning to read some ‘tricky’ words. Phase 3 finishes teaching the letter sounds and introduces sounds represented by more than one letter. It also introduces reading and writing simple sentences and more ‘tricky’ words. By the end of the Reception year most children will be working on Phase 4 which teaches children to read and spell simple words. Phase 5 is covered throughout Year 1 and Phase 6 in Year 2. We teach Letters and Sounds in daily sessions with pictures, cards, whiteboards, computer programs and a range of practical games.

The Sounds of Letters Tips for teaching your child the sounds: *It is important for a child to learn lower case or small letters rather than capital letters at first. Most early books and games use lower case letters and your child will learn these first at school. Obviously you should use a capital letter when required, such as at the beginning of the child's name, eg. Paul. *When you talk about letters to your child, remember to use the letter sounds e.g. sssss, mmmmm, rather than the alphabet names of the letters. The reason for this is that sounding out words is practically impossible if you use the alphabet names. eg. cat, would sound like: see ay tee. However, it is still important that you reinforce the letter name also. *When saying the sounds of b, d, g, j and w you will notice the 'uh' sound which follows each, for example buh, duh... You cannot say the sound without it, however, try to emphasise the main letter sound so the sound is pure.

Daily Letters and Sounds Lesson Revisit and review Teach Practise Apply

Revisit and review clips/ Alphablockshttp:// clips/ Flash cardshttp:// Quick write: the adult says a sound and the child has to write it as quickly as possible. ‘Phoneme frame’ and ‘sound buttons’: Can you help me with the first sound? The middle sound? The final sound? Blend them together. c.c. a.a. t.t. m.m. a.a. n.n.

Teach ‘Sound buttons’ to teach blending for reading. ‘Phoneme frame’ to teach segmenting for blending. Model ‘sound talk’ pointing at each phoneme as you say it, each time blend the word together again, for example My g-r-a-n likes m-i-l-k, I eat a c-r-u-st of b-r-ea-d.

Practise Use ‘Flashcards’ and ‘Quick write’ activities to practise recognising and recalling newly learned GPCs. Use ‘Sound talk’ to practise oral blending and segmenting. ‘ Buried Treasure’, ‘Obb and Bob’ - only/BuriedTreasure2.html only/BuriedTreasure2.html

Apply Yes and no game- Adult prepares a question, child reads and responds appropriately. e.g. Can the sun sit? Is mud bad? Can a dog put on a sock? Adult prepares a sentence and asks the child to read- only/Sentences3.htmlhttp:// only/Sentences3.html

Sound Games to Play at Home… Common Objects Odd-one Out I-Spy Sounds Scrapbook Write a letter at the top of each page of a scrapbook. Concentrating on a few letters at a time collect pictures of objects that begin with those letters. Do not use as examples words where the first sound does not make its normal sound such as in giraffe, ship, cheese, thumb. Stick the pictures on the appropriate pages. Games For Recognising Letter Shapes… Fishing for Sounds Using magnetic letters and foam letters Sequencing the Letters in your Child's Name Please see leaflet for further details.

QUESTIONS

Review Outcomes of the session To understand the importance of teaching phonics To have a greater understanding of how phonics is taught at school. To have a better understanding of how you can help your child succeed in phonics at home. Please take the time to fill out a response form to this information evening.

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