1. Reading at Ravenor

2. Aims To share how phonics and reading are taught at Ravenor
To outline the different stages in phonic development
To develop your confidence in helping your children with phonics and reading
To share resources which you can use to support your children at home

3. Why are reading experiences both in school and at home important?
Let’s talk about books
Why are reading experiences both in school and at home important?
Provides a stimulus for talk
Develop children’s understanding of the world around them (real and imaginary)
Develop communication, language and vocabulary (modelling expression and language).

4. Other talking opportunities
Talk can be encouraged through everyday activities, such as:
Preparing meals
Tidying up
Through these activities, children hear the way language is put together into sentences for a purpose.
Putting shopping away
The journey to and from school

5. Reasons to read
There are many reasons why we read and therefore why children will read:
for pleasure and interest
to learn about the world e.g. news
to obtain information e.g. recipes and signs
to develop imagination
Reading is a life long skill

6. Phonics Challenge Phonics Terms Phoneme Grapheme Blending Segmenting
Diagraph
Trigraph
CVC
Common exception words

7. Phonics Challenge Phonics Terms Phoneme – sound
Grapheme – letter formation
Blending – putting sounds together to make words
Segmenting – breaking words into sounds
Diagraph – 2 letters making 1 sound oo ai
Trigraph – 3 letters making 1 sound igh, ear
CVC – consonant, vowel, consonant – cat
Common exception words – tricky spellings that can not be sounded out

8. Phonics in Nursery (Phase 1)
PHOTO
Developing children’s speaking and listening skills as a basis for sound discrimination
The more words a child knows and understands the better equipped they are to start phonics.
Sound discrimination games (sounds on a CD, on a walk, to a story, musical instruments, rhyming games and tongue twisters).

9. How to help at home How you can help at home
Learning nursery rhymes, songs and action rhymes.
Adding sound effects to stories
Practising ‘sound talk’. First just let them listen, then see if they will join in for example saying:
“I spy a c-u-p cup
It’s time to brush your t-ee-th”
Silly sentences: “A tall tin of tomatoes!” “Tommy, the ticklish teddy”. This is called alliteration. Use names for example “Georgia gets the giggles”.

10. Phase 2
Phonics – Phase 2
In Reception we use Jolly Phonics actions to support our teaching as a mnemonic (memory tool).
Children are taught to recognise the letter (grapheme) sound (phoneme) correspondence (which letters make which sounds). s,a,t,p,i,n this order allows for early word building
The letter sounds are short sounds (phonemes) are short sounds e.g. g, s, r, h, m (careful not to include an uh sound at the end).
As soon as they know the first few they are taught to blend and segment with them

11. Phonics Video

12. How do we teach reading at Ravenor?
Phonics
Guided Reading
Reading for enjoyment (class novel)
Shared reading
Real texts to enhance group activities

13. Reading at home

14. When you take a book home…
Find a time and place where your child feels relaxed and comfortable.
Turn the TV/music off.
Encourage your children to be independent and get out their own books and reading diary.
Keep each reading session short and fun.
Vary the reading activities that you do together.
Give lots and lots of praise.

15. Looking at a book for the first time - 1
Look at the front cover together.
‘Walk through’ the pictures.
Read the book to your child before expecting them to read it to you.
Point to the words and pick out any they remember.

16. Looking at a book for the first time - 2
‘sound out’ simple words.
Look at the pictures.
Not all words can be sounded out. Watch out for those ‘tricky words’ e.g. the, was, you, go, to.
Discuss experiences.
Talk about the characters .
Ask questions .
Retell the story.

17. Home Reading
When you share a book with your child at home, please remember to record it in the reading diary.
It is good practice to read the same book a few times to develop fluency and confidence. It is not a race.
The class teacher will monitor your child’s progress.
Don’t forget – sharing a story book, borrowing a book from the library and even reading a menu together in a café are all reading opportunities that can be recorded in their records!

18. Local Libraries Greenford Library Ealing Central Library
Northolt Library
Jubilee Gardens Library