1. Summary October 2013 “The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.” Dr. Seuss

2. What is phonics? Phonics is a method of teaching children that words are made up of lots of sounds. E.G. Cat is made up of /c/ /a/ /t/. It teaches the children the sound each letter makes and how to blend them together to read words and how to segment them (pull them apart) to write them. We call each spoken sound a ‘phoneme’. This is the smallest unit of sound. Examples of phonemes are, /s/ /t/ /u/ /ch/

3. Segmenting Segmenting is when we break words down for spelling. We think of the sounds that make up that word. cat

4. Blending Blending is when we sound out the letters in a word and put them together to read the word. c a t

5. How do we teach phonics? Revisit & Review: We revisit & review any previous sounds taught. Teach: We teach a new letter, and the action – or we may be teaching them how to blend sounds to read, or segment sounds to spell. Practise: We practise reading and/or spelling words with the new letter. Apply: We apply our knowledge throughout our planned activities.

6. A couple of key points! We teach the pure sound (E.G. S makes the sssss sound, not suh) Children are taught cursive handwriting – not print I.E. When writing lower-case letters they always have an entry stroke. Please also encourage this at home. We do not join our letters in Reception. E.g. a t Keywords are words that can be sounded out but are used often in reading. Children should learn to read these from memory once secure rather than sounding out. Camera Words are like keywords, but these cannot be sounded out. E.G. the, you. We tell the children to take a photograph of these words in their head, to help them to read these from sight.

7. How can you help at home? Sound books – Please use the opposite pages to support your child’s learning. See inside the soundbook for suggestions. Practise writing their sounds (Not just with a pen and paper, try sand, shaving foam, paint... Anything that makes it fun so the children learn to enjoy writing) Word Boxes – These will be sent home once the first six sounds have been taught. A note will be placed in reading records to explain these. Keyword bookmarks – These will be sent home at the end of term – Please practise these regularly. Guided reading books/Library books Bug Club – More info to come! School Expectation is that children read for at least 5 minutes EVERY day at home. But most of all.... "There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island." — Walt Disney

8. Encourage a love for reading! “I have a passion for teaching kids to become readers, to become comfortable with a book, not daunted. Books shouldn't be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives a terrific advantage.” -Roald Dahl Let children see you enjoying books and looking after them properly. Read them a bedtime story every night and help them to enter the magnificent, enchanting world of reading!

9. Resources and Games www.phonicsplay.co.uk www.letters-and-sounds.com Google ‘Mr Thorne does phonics’ for videos Check out our list of useful websites for Reception which has lots and lots of fun, free websites to help you and your child. These can be found on our class page.

10. Please talk to your child’s class teacher if you have any questions at all! "All you do is to look At a page in this book Because that’s where we always will be. No book ever ends When it’s full of your friends The Giraffe and the Pelly and me.” -Roald Dahl