As part of their Phase 1 Phonics learning, the nursery children have been exploring instrumental sounds. They’ve enjoyed discovering the names of different instruments and learning how to play them. The children also had great fun experimenting with playing loudly and quietly, developing their listening and sound discrimination skills along the way

The nursery children enjoyed a 'drumming walk' as part of their Phase 1 Phonics. The children enjoyed using the claves to drum quietly, loudly, quickly and slowly. They enjoyed exploring the different noises the surfaces made as they drummed on them.

Fabulous feedback from our year 1 parents who attended the Phonics screening workshop which explained the process of the Phonics Screening test and also provided parents with some ideas to help their child with phonics at home.

Parents joined a Phonics workshop to help them understand how we teach their children to learn to read words in Read, Write Inc. Phonics by blending sounds together: alongside teaching their children sounds, parents were introduced Fred and how we use Fred Talk to blend sounds to read words e.g. s-a-t sat. 

Children in after school Phonics club really enjoy all the activities and like to share their Phonic knowledge. This picture is just one of the activities children use to help them get better at Phonics.

What an incredible turnout from parents supporting their child's phonics journey! Today, we welcomed parents into school to explore ways they can support their child in reading their Read Write Inc. Phonics decodable storybooks at home. Parents also enjoyed learning how re-reading books can boost fluency and inspire children to use expressive storytelling voices.

This week in phonics we have been learning about alliteration and initial sounds. Alliteration supports children's listening and recognition skills. Today we sorted objects according to their initial sounds.

What a fantastic amount of parents attending our very first phonics session. Thank you so much to each and everyone of you, your support is very much appreciated.

The first session introduced parents to phonics, what it is and how we teach it in EYFS.

Keep an eye out on parent mail for the next one in the next half term.

Parents and grandparents were invited to attend an, 'Introduction to Phonics' workshop. Miss Tomlinson explained what we do in school, who phonics is for, what phonics is and how we teach phonics in school. Children joined us to take part in a phonics lesson and then joined in phonics activities to demonstrate how they apply their phonic knowledge.

How can your adults help you with phonics? 

In Nursery children begin their phonics journey by working through the stages of phonological awareness. They work through structured activities and materials that are used to teach early phonological awareness skills, paving the way for the systematic teaching of phonics, Read Write Inc. (RWI) later on in the year. We focus on:

• general sound discrimination
• environmental sounds
• instrumental sounds
• body percussion
• rhythm and rhyme
• voice sounds
• alliteration
• finally oral blending and segmenting

 After covering all these areas, most children will begin learning their set one sounds.

Useful websites for Parents

Please find a list of websites that you may find useful in helping you and your child  learn about phonics. Games and fun activity websites are also included.

http://jollylearning.co.uk/ - Games and information for parents

http://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/ - many games to play

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1/literacy/phonics/play/ - fun games for the children to play

http://www.ictgames.com/literacy.html  - fun games for the children to play

http://www.kenttrustweb.org.uk/kentict/kentict_home.cfm  - fun games for the children to play and information for parents

http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/  - fun games for the children to play

http://www.starfall.com/  - fun games for the children to play

http://www.firstschoolyears.com/  - fun games for the children to play

Sparklebox - lots of resources to print off and help you support your child at home

BBC Bitesize - many games to play covering all areas of the curriculum