Reading

What are the aims?

• Increase parental understanding of reading at Reception level

• Support children’s progress

• Learn various techniques to aid development

• Aware of the expectations for Reception aged children.

Reading• Your child will bring home a reading book and a library book,

along with their sound cards• Your child will read their reading book with their teacher

once a week• Can you please make sure that you listen to your child read

at least twice a week and read the library book together• Please write a comment in the yellow reading record and

encourage your child to draw or write about what they have read in their homework book

• Please use the sound cards to make two letter or three letter words for example c-a-t, i-t, d-i-g.

Phonics & Reading• Children need to have a sound grasp of letter

sounds in order to read• 20 minute phonics sessions everyday• Reception – Start in phase 2 of letters and sounds

document• Phonics sessions are fun sessions involving lots of

speaking, listening and games• Please remember, not all children will learn at

the same rate. Your child should be supported whatever their rate of learning.

Literacy:

Reading Writing30 – 50 months

• Enjoys rhyming and rhythmic activities.• Shows awareness of rhyme and alliteration.• Recognises rhythm in spoken words.• Listens to and joins in with stories and poems, one-to-one and also in small groups.• Joins in with repeated refrains and anticipates key events and phrases in rhymes and stories.• Beginning to be aware of the way stories are structured.• Suggests how the story might end.• Listens to stories with increasing attention and recall.• Describes main story settings, events and principal characters.• Shows interest in illustrations and print in books and print in the environment.• Recognises familiar words and signs such as own name and advertising logos.• Looks at books independently.• Handles books carefully.• Knows information can be relayed in the form of print.• Holds books the correct way up and turns pages.• Knows that print carries meaning and, in English, is read from left to right and top to bottom.

• Sometimes gives meaning to marks as they draw and paint.• Ascribes meanings to marks that they see in different places.

40 – 60 months

• Continues a rhyming string.• Hears and says the initial sound in words.• Can segment the sounds in simple words and blend them together and knows which letters represent some of them.• Links sounds to letters, naming and sounding the letters of the alphabet.• Begins to read words and simple sentences.• Uses vocabulary and forms of speech that are increasingly influenced by their experiences of books.• Enjoys an increasing range of books.• Knows that information can be retrieved from books and computers.

• Gives meaning to marks they make as they draw, write and paint.• Begins to break the flow of speech into words.• Continues a rhyming string.• Hears and says the initial sound in words.• Can segment the sounds in simple words and blend them together.• Links sounds to letters, naming and sounding the letters of the alphabet.• Uses some clearly identifiable letters to communicatemeaning, representing some sounds correctly and in sequence.• Writes own name and other things such as labels, captions.• Attempts to write short sentences in meaningful contexts.

Early Learning Goals

Children read and understand simple sentences. They use phonic knowledge to decode regular words and read them aloud accurately. They also read some common irregular words. They demonstrate understanding when talking with others about what they have read.

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.

Phonics – Phase 2• The separate sounds (phonemes) are spoken aloud, in

order, and merged together into the whole word.• The merging is called blending, and is a vital skill for

reading.• Eg: c-a-t = cat• Children will also learn to do this the other way round.

Eg: cat = c-a-t• The whole word is spoken aloud and then broken up

into its sounds (phonemes) in order. • This is called segmenting, and is a vital skill for writing.• We use actions to help to remember the phonemes

(Jolly Phonics)

Phonics – Phase 2• C = consonant, V = vowel• VC words eg: at, in, up• CVC words eg: cat, dog, pet• Words such as tick or bell also count as CVC

words; four letters only three sounds• Tricky words; cannot be sounded out eg: the,

to, I, go, no

Phonics – Phase 3• The main individual letter phonemes have now

been learnt, and children are reading CVC words independently

• Phase 3 teaches children to learn the graphemes (written sounds), made up of more than one letter, eg: ‘oa’ as in boat

• Read more tricky words and begin to spell some of them

• Read and write words in phrases and sentences

Supporting your child at home• Provide your child with lots of different

opportunities to speak and listen with others:– Preparing meals - go get me the sp-oo-n– Tidying up – push in the ch-ch- chair– Putting shopping away – where does the milk go?– Getting ready to go out – what should we pack?

• Switch off the TV, radio and mobile phones• Show you are interested in their conversation• Use puppets and toys

Supporting your child at home

• Read stories• It is VITAL that children read every day.• Reading is not just sounding out the words, it

is also understanding • Question their understanding by talking about

the story. • Read, sound out, then re-read.

Supporting your child at home• Read the environment• not all reading is in

books• surrounded by print

that communicates a message

• alert your child to uses of print in the environment

• point out signs and labels