Phonics is the first strategy used to teach children to read and write. Children are first taught the sounds (known as phonemes) that the letters (known as graphemes) make. Then they learn how to blend these sounds to make words. At Our Lady of Lourdes we follow the Jolly Phonics scheme. Children are taught the main 42 sounds, with an action to help children remember the letters. Sounds that have more than one way of being written are initially taught in one form only and then alternatives follow later.
The five basic skills for reading and writing are:
1. Learning the letter sounds
2. Learning letter formation
3. Blending
4. Identifying sounds in words
5. Spelling the tricky words
Preschool:
There are lots that you can do as a parent to help your child be really ready for phonics when they start school.This includes;
In Preschool, we play lots of games that encourage children to listen carefully and discriminate between sounds. We listen to and talk about stories, encourage children to join in with repeated lines. We also explore language and sounds by reading rhyming stories and singing nursery rhymes.
The seven different aspects:
You don't have to teach children the 7 aspects in any particular order. Just make phonics part of your every day activities by getting children to listen to the sounds around them.
You could try:
Reception:
It is really important to read, please read with your child daily. Once children are confident with the sounds learnt so far, they will start to bring word boxes home. Practice sounding out and blending these words. Once the children start to learn the tricky words, we will send home reading books with words in.