Literacy in the Nursery

Writing Before being able to hold a pencil correctly and form letters, children need to develop their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Activities such as play dough, threading, large tweezers and pegs can help children develop their fine-motor skills. At home you could thread with pasta! Larger movements, such as twirling ribbons outside and mark-making with big paint brushes and water or on large sheets of paper or outside with chalk also help.

Provide children with a range of different opportunities, and materials, to make marks.

Make writing meaningful (e.g. helping to write a shopping list and taking it with them to “read” while shopping. Writing in a card for a friend’s birthday.) Set a good example and be the role-model – children learn through listening, watching, copying and doing. As children become more aware of what writing is about they begin to give meaning to their pictures, squiggles, circles, lines and random letters. Encourage children to talk about the marks they have made – this also develops early reading skills. As children then begin to develop their phonic knowledge they will begin to hear and write the sounds the can hear in words. The first and most meaningful letters are the letters in their names. We teach and use lower case letters when writing. Always encourage and praise children for their attempts.

I will learn to write… but first I need to Build: I need to use my fingers independently to write. Imagine: Making up stories as I paint and create will help me to write. Scribble and Draw: Making marks and shapes to convey my message will help me to write. Manipulate Using paintbrushes, crayons, pencils and pens will help me to write. Climb I need strong arm and body muscles to sit up and write. Play with letters and words I need to be interested in letters and words to write. and…. I need someone to show me how important writing is every day.

Reading Read to your child as much as possible – in English or your home language. As children get to know songs, rhymes and stories, children can join in repeated phrases or fill in the missing words. Talk about the pictures and the story and ask questions.

Point out familiar letters (e.g. letters in your child’s name) Talk about rhyming words in the story. Encourage children to recognise and “read” familiar words and logo’s. Recognising their name is also a first step in reading.

In the Nursery, there are different opportunities for the children to read all around them, not only in the book corner. We use a range of items such as story stones, pictures and puppets to encourage children to re-tell and talk about stories.

Phonics The phonics programme that we follow is called Letters and Sounds. It has 6 phases which start at Nursery and continue through until Year 2. In Nursery, our main focus is on Phase 1 which is teaching the children to become aware of, and to listen to, different sounds.

Phase 1 is divided into 7 aspects. We use stories and fun games to teach these different aspects during our small groups times, as well as generally throughout the day when talking to, and working with, children. You could do some of these activities at home too. 1.Environmental sounds – hearing and identifying sounds around us. Going on a “listening walk” 2.Instrumental sounds Identifying instrument sounds. Matching sounds. Playing in different ways to change sounds – e.g. loudly, softly, quickly, slowly.

3. Body percussion Making sounds with our bodies. Being able to follow a sound pattern. 4. Rhythm and rhyme Many stories and songs contain rhyme. We play rhyming games – e.g. In a Nursery rhyme, we might miss out the second rhyming word. Rhyming silly soup.

5. Alliteration Hearing and saying the first sounds in words. We can play games such as silly soup. I spy with my little eye. Using alliteration when talking to children (e.g. Can you put on your cosy coat.) Knock, knock, what’s in the box? Saying the first sound in a child’s name when handing out book bags.

6. Voice sounds We explore the way our mouths move and distinguish between different vocal sounds Mouth movements (blowing, sucking etc.) Voice sounds Story sounds

7. Oral blending and segmenting Hearing, recognising and using sounds in words. We always use the letter sound, not name. Segmenting: Producing each phoneme in words in the correct order. The child can hear and say each sound in a word. (e.g. If I say “cat” you can say “c – a – t”) Blending: Hearing the sounds in words and putting them together to say the word. (e.g. If I say “c – a – t” you can put the sounds together and say the full word, “cat.” Children should have the experience of adults modelling these in everyday situations. For example: ‘Put your c-oa-t on.’ Games such as Simon says “touch your h – ea - d.”