1. Literacy Fiction Non-Fiction Poetry

2. Speaking Listening and responding Group discussion and interaction Drama Word recognition Word structure and spelling Understanding and interpreting texts Engaging and responding to text Creating and shaping text Text structure and organisation Sentence structure and punctuation Presentation

3. Literacy Phonics

4. What is Phonics? A systematic method for teaching children to decode language In phonics children are taught the sounds and blends of letters Although there are 26 letters of the alphabet there are 44 different sounds in the English language.

5. Vowels Short vowel sounds a as in apple e as in elephant i as in igloo o as in octopus u as in umbrella

6. Long Vowel sounds The sound is the same as the name of the vowel. a as in cake e as in feet i as in pie o as in boat u as in mule

7. How many letters or combinations make the long o sound in English?

8. 7 O as in over Oa as in oatmeal Oe as in toe Ow as in blow O plus a consonant and a silent e as in bone ough as in though Ou as in soul

9. a a plus a consonant an a silent e as in cake ai as in rain ay as in pay eigh as in eight a as in baby ea as in steak ey as in they ei as in vein

10. e e plus a consonant and an e as in Pete e as in me ee as in feet ea as in sea y as in bunny ey as in key ie as in cookie ei as in receive i as in pizza

11. i i plus a consonant and an e as in bike i as in hi y as in fly ie as in pie igh as in night ye as in rye y-e as in type

12. u u plus a consonant and an e as in mule ue as in blue oo as in boot u as in tuna ew as in flew ui as in fruit ou as in soup ough as in through eu as in feud

13. Phoneme A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound. cat has 3 phonemes c-a-t Chat has 3 phonemes ch-a-t

14. How many phonemes? fish

15. 3 F-i-sh

16. How many phonemes? butter

17. 4 b- u –tt - er

18. Digraphs Are two consonants that form a new sound when combined. ch, sh, ph, th, wh,

19. Grapheme Is the smallest unit of written communication So although fish has 3 phonemes f-i-sh It has 4 graphemes F-i-s-h Punctuation is also a grapheme eg. !, ?

20. Things you can do Explore and experiment with sounds, words and text Link sounds to letters, naming and sounding the letters of the alphabet Hear and say sounds in words in the order in which they occur

21. Read simple words by sounding out and blending the phonemes all through the word from left to right Recognise common digraphs Use phonic knowledge to write simple regular words and make phonetically plausible attempts at more complex words

22. What do I do if my child makes a spelling mistake in their homework and how can I help with their spelling? Identify two or three mistakes you want to focus on, not all the mistakes. encouraging them to look closely at words and talking to them about words encouraging them to try new words (they won't do this if you're always criticizing their spelling) playing word games with them, such as: hangman Boggle Scrabble respect "good mistakes" : those which use letter patterns which do make the right sound, even though they are not right for that particular word.

23. Why has my child brought the same reading book home again? Although the child can decode the text well the teacher feels they need to focus on comprehension, as they may not be able to recall the story. They may need to focus on pace and expression, this is easier to do with a text they are familiar with.

24. What support can I give with my child’s reading? Keep reading time relaxed, comfortable and pleasurable, in a quiet corner, with the television turned off. Talk about the cover and read the title before rushing your child into the text Don't correct too quickly. If your child makes an error suggest having another go, searching the pictures for a clue, sounding out the first letter or reading on before you 'tell' the problem word.

25. As your child progresses, talk about authors, characters and plots or what new information has been learnt. When reading ask questions like…. What might happen next? How is the character feeling? How does a character change through the book? Why has the author used…..?