Early Years Foundation Stage. Early phonics/reading Information Session.

1. Early Years Foundation Stage.Early phonics/reading Information Session.

2. EVERYDAY…. A named drink bottle. Book bag with reading books. Waterproof coat. Lunchbox if having own lunch. PE kit to be kept in school. (This will be sent home every half term to be washed.) Friday: Please take out your child’s library book and record book. Please do not write anything in this record book until your child moves onto the school reading scheme. Colour coded books are not recorded. Please make sure all belongings are named What does my child need to bring to school?

3. Reading and homework. • Everyone: • Colour coded book. This is a book to read with your child. It is changed independently everyday in class and is linked to your child’s reading stage. • Library book. Every Friday the class visit the school library and the children choose a book to keep at home for the week. • Only once your child is ready: • Reading scheme book. This is changed once a week and is recorded in your child’s record book. Please sign and/or comment, each time you read this book with your child. Each child will be assessed individually and only given a scheme reading book once he/she is confident to blend sounds to read words and to recognise some sight words. Target words. These are learnt at home and will be changed in class when your child is confident with reading his/her own set of words. (please hand in once completed.) January • Handwriting homework. Each week the children learn 2letters, please reinforce these at home by helping your child to say the sound and form the letter shapes correctly. This is handed in on a Monday.

4. The 2012 Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum is divided into seven areas of learning: • Three Prime areas: • Personal, social and emotional development. • Communication and Language. • Physical development. • Four specific areas: • Mathematics. • Literacy. • Understanding the world. • Expressive Arts and Design.

5. Literacy: • Phonics. • Forming letters correctly. • Early reading skills. • Independent writing (beginning to look at sentence structure.) Communication and Language: • Speaking and listening. • Role play, dressing up, pretend play. • Circle/news time. • Show and tell

6. A Reading Journey….. The steps to brilliant reading…. To begin, a child needs to: • enjoy listening to stories being read aloud. • learn to handle a book correctly. • look at the pictures and talk about different stories. • enjoy a variety of different types of books e.g. non-fiction, poems. • Next steps: • Recognise and correctly name all single letter sounds (Set 1). • Be able to hear the sound at the beginning, middle and end of simple words. • Blend two or three sounds together to read words (CVC words e.g. cat) (Fred talk) • Recognise sight words (Red words) e.g. said, to, me • Read simple sentences independently. • Begin to work on digraph sounds e.g. th, sh, ch (set 2/3) • Become more fluent, read with some expression and begin to understand basic punctuation.

7. Sounds: • Set 1: m a s d t i n p g o c k u b f e l h r j v y w z q x sh th ch ng nk • Set 2: ay ee igh ow oo ar or air ir ou oy • Set 3: ea oi o_e u_e aw are ur er ow ai oa ew ire ear ure tious tion (These lists can be found on the school website.)

8. Single Letter Sounds (Set 1) We use the ‘Ruth Miskin Phonics Programme’ across the whole school to teach phonics, reading, spelling and comprehension. It is vital that all children to learn to pronounce each sound correctly. It is important not to adding ‘uh’ to the end of a sound. Some sounds are stretchy fffffffff, lllllllllllll, mmmm, nnnnnnn. Some sounds are bouncy c, t, p, b, y.

9. Helping your child: Common difficulties: Try to encourage your child to only say the sound once, rather than over and over. Do not only focus on one scheme e.g. Letter land, Jolly Phonics. These are great but sometimes children learn the picture rather than the letter sound. Don’t get frustrated if your child can say the sounds, but not blend to read the word. With practice and patience, they will get there. Making it fun: • Eye spy. • Fred talk with a toy/puppet. • Letter hunt (What can we find starting with a ‘s’?) • Can you jump on the ‘h’? • Hide the letter cards around the room/garden. Can you shout the sound when you find it? • Bath time foam letters. • Magnetic letters on the fridge. • Phonic games/ puzzles. • Forming the letters in sand, foam, paint etc.

10. Mark Making (Pre-Writing skills): • Young children need to have the opportunity to mark make using a wide variety of resources, such as crayons, pens, paint, chalk, pastels etc. • They need to experience different textures, such as making shapes and patterns in the sand and shaving foam trays, finger painting and using chalk outdoors. • It is best to start with large movements, getting smaller and neater as your child’s pencil grip and control develops. • We can strengthen a child’s finger muscles and develop the pincer grip, by using play-dough, play foam, tweezers, pegs, collaging with rice, lentils, seeds etc. • Scissors should be held correctly and cutting needs a lot of practice. • Please see ‘Handwriting: Starting Out ‘ information sheet for further information.

11. Recording and Assessing: • Learning Journals. • Your child’s learning journal includes photographs, pieces of work during independent choosing time, observations made by members of staff and the child’s own comments. “I made a pyramid” Chloe 12.7.12 • Contributions by parents/from home: The children’s learning journals will be out in the classroom once every half term, for parents to look through and add comments. • Please encourage your child to bring in any pictures, writing, collages, paintings etc from home to be put into their ‘Learning Journal.’

12. Any Questions????