Unlocking Literacy and how you can help at home.

1. Unlocking Literacyand how you can help at home.

2. Seven areas of learning and development in the Foundation Stage: • Personal, Social and Emotional Development • Communication and Language • Physical development • Literacy • Mathematics • Understanding the world • Expressive arts and design

3. Early Learning Goals for Literacy: • Reading; Children read and understand simple sentences. They use phonic knowledge to decode regular words and read them around accurately. They also read some common irregular words. They demonstrate understanding when talking with others about what they have read. • Writing; Children use their phonic knowledge to write words in ways which match their spoken sounds. They also write some irregular common words. They write simple sentences which can be read by themselves and others. Some words are spelt correctly and others are phonetically plausible.

4. What does this look like? • Photos of expected reading and writing

5. Prime areas are the building blocks Reading & Writing Communication & Language

6. It’s good to talk! Always talk about books and discuss what you are reading. Comprehension is the key!

7. 3 simple steps to help us start reading; • Talk about stories and tell our own 2. Use words as labels; names, nouns etc • Build in some simple structure words e.g. ‘I’ ‘am’ ‘can’ to form simple sentences. “ I am Bob.” “I can see a hat.”

8. Skills and strategies used to help us when we read; • picture clues • scanning • word recognition • decoding unfamiliar words PHONICS (see handouts)

9. Phonics (sounds) • Children are taught individual letters and sounds and how these blend together to form words eg. i-t c-a-t m-oo-n n-igh-t • Statutory phonic assessment at end of Y1 • Beware! English language does not always follow phonic rules! ‘What a noise the giraffe made when she ate eight oranges with a small spoon! Then she sat and read her large, red book. She loves reading.’ ghoti

10. Ensure correct pronunciation of sounds • Letter sounds, not names • Different types of sound ; soft – h strong - ck long – ee / oo (as in moon) short – oo (as in book) • sounds do not have an ‘u’ at the end! (lots of examples of correct pronunciation on the internet)

11. Top tips for reading at home; • Share books every day, even if only for ten minutes. Aim for a QUALITY experience • Talk about the books; don’t just focus on the text • Re-read the books; it helps young readers gain familiarity and confidence • Sign, date and comment in the yellow reading record • Send book bags to school everyday; we will listen to them and change books every week

13. 2 elements to writing WHAT What’s the purpose for writing? What do you want to say? HOW How do we write it? Physical aspects, correct pencil grip, control, pressure, orientation of letters.

14. How you can help with writing: • WHAT– value and encourage ‘emergent writing’ and mark making. • Write with your child. Help them to form what they want to say. Write it for them reading aloud what you’ve written and let them trace over it and copy it. • HOW - Encourage activities that stimulate and develop pincer grip eg. sorting small buttons, beads, sequins, threading etc. • Model writing for your child to copy/write over, assisting with pencil grip so the child can feel the writing and be comfortable. Need to secure a TRIPOD GRIP. • Encourage independence; ‘have a go’, using phonic knowledge – don’t worry too much about accurate spellings to begin with.

15. We want to foster a love of literacy! • It’s pleasurable • It’s a positive experience • It can be shared • It’s valued in all it’s forms