Phonics sessions
Thank you to all the parents who attended last week’s phonics sessions, the third of three rounds of ‘open mornings’ over the course of the year. Nearly all children had a dad, mum or other relative attend, taking the time to learn more about how we teach phonics and thinking about you can can support at home. Here are a few of the comments:
- “Love these sessions – they are very helpful. It’s amazing to see the class learning and seeing the improvements and progress over the year. Very effective in helping parents to help their children.”
- “The children were so well-behaved and paying attention. Great to understand more about how they blend words and to see how the class is progressing.”
- “Lovely session. Very informative and great to see the children working.”
- “Surprised at the level – much higher than expected.”
- “Loved seeing the techniques used to create sentences and understand them.”
As you can see, visitors found the session entertaining and informative. There were lots of comments about the high level of children’s learning.
Phonics mornings
We hope you can attend the third and final phonics morning this week.
The sessions will be on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 9am.
See you there.
Keeping safe and fit
John, from White Rose Martial Arts, demonstrated in the assembly today some of the skills that can be learnt at the karate after-school club, running again this term.
Pupils who have already attended the club confidently showed their karate techniques alongside some key messages about self-defence from John.
There was a lot of interest from the children so please contact John directly to secure a place for your child. Information can be obtained from the office or your child’s teacher. There is a free taster session on Tuesday 05 May but places are limited.
Writing
As you know, at the end of the year we’ll be assessing the children in 13 areas of the curriculum. One of these areas is writing. The early learning goal is:
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 spelled correctly and others are phonetically plausible.
The children are all confident in recognising their letter sounds and now need to develop confidence in ‘having a go’ at writing. Remember, it doesn’t matter if words aren’t always spelt correctly as long as the children are recording the sounds they hear.
‘Tricky’ words like I, the, said, he, me need to be learnt and practised.
Please could you practise a simple sentence every day at home with your child. Bring their writing to school for us to celebrate.
If you have any questions, please ask.
Our new SEAL theme for this half term is…
…relationships.
This theme explores feelings within the context of our important relationships including family and friends.
It aims to develop knowledge, understanding and skills in three key social and emotional aspects of learning: self-awareness, managing feelings and empathy.
There is a focus throughout the theme on helping children understand the feelings associated with an experience that we all need to cope with at some time: that of loss – whether of a favourite possession, a friend, a family home, or a loved one. Although relatively few children are bereaved, most will experience losses of other kinds during their childhood; losing a home, losing friends because of moving house or changing schools, or losing a pet are examples.
We would therefore ask for parents / carers to alert us to any experiences your child has had that might make this area particularly difficult for them – for example, a bereavement.
Variety is the spice of life!
If you ask your child what they’ve done today, you may be surprised! From learning Mandarin to finding out about geysers, it was all going on. All the children were mixed up for the morning and took part in four different lessons – there are eight different lessons altogether so there will be some more mixing up going on tomorrow. These lessons have been part of our Enrichment Week where children have thought about a variety of subjects in lots of different ways. Here are some photos to give you a taste of what has been happening: learning Urdu or Mandarin, art work, music, PE, geography, programming and DT.
Phonics
This week, we begin phase 4 of our phonics programme.
During this phase, your child will continue to practise previously learned graphemes and phonemes and learn how to read and write words with four phonemes. These are called CVCC words (consonant, vowel, consonant, consonant) and include words such as, tent, damp, toast and chimp. Although ‘toast’ has five letters, oa work together to make the long vowel sound o, pronounced ‘oh’; similarly, c and h in ‘chimp’ work together to make the phoneme ch. For example, in the word ‘toast’, t = consonant, oa = vowel, s = consonant, t = consonant.
Your child will also learn to read and write CCVC words such as swim, plum, sport, cream and spoon. For example, in the word ‘cream’, c = consonant, r = consonant, ea = vowel, m = consonant.
In addition, they will be learning more tricky words and continuing to read and write sentences. There are no new phonemes taught in this phase.
Tricky words in phase 4:
- said
- so
- do
- have
- like
- some
- come
- were
- there
- little
- one
- when
- out
- what
Ways you can support your child at home
Practise reading and spelling some CVCC and CCVC words but continue to play around with CVC words. Children like reading and spelling words that they have previously worked with as this makes them feel successful. Make up captions and phrases for your child to read and write, for example, a silver star, clear the pond, crunch crisps. Write some simple sentences and leave them around the house for your child to find and read.
Please look at the homework pages on our website for more sentences to read and write with your child.
Tricky words
‘Tricky words’ are those words which children cannot use their phonic knowledge to blend.
Once you’ve introduced tricky words and practised them, reinforce the words regularly when sharing picture books and reading together.
When helping your child to learn to spell the tricky words you may decide to use the ‘Look, Cover, Write and Check’ method. This involves first looking at the word and identifying which part is tricky, covering the word, writing it and then checking the spelling. Remember: if phonics can’t work, it’s not possible to sound out all the sounds, so you might want to start using the letter names.
Aim to make learning tricky words a fun and enjoyable activity, perhaps by writing the tricky words in sand, paint, shaving foam or glitter. Once your child has practised a few times in a less structured way, give them the opportunity to practise writing the tricky word on coloured paper with pencil colours or felt tips. The only way these words can be read and spelt correctly is by learning them and having plenty of practice.
The tricky words children learn in Reception are:
- the
- to
- I
- no
- go
- into
- he
- she
- we
- me
- be
- was
- you
- they
- all
- are
- my
- her
- said
- have
- like
- so
- do
- some
- come
- were
- there
- little
- one
- when
- out
- what
Thank you for coming to our class assembly…
…It was great to see a record number of parents at the assembly!
Here are a few of your comments:
- “Lovely poems. Very impressed with the children’s contribution.”
- “Fabulous timing – just lovely.”
- “Fantastic performance from the Reception class. Looking forward to the next one.”
- “Very enjoyable – great to see all the children contributing.”
- “Well done! Loved the interactions and the singing.”
Frozen!
