Dobcroft Infant School Supporting Your Child in Literacy and Numeracy.

Aims •Explain how literacy and numeracy skills are

taught in school.•Ideas of how parents/carers can support

children develop reading, writing and number skills at home.

What is Literacy?• Speaking and listening~ speaking clearly in a

sentence. Asking questions. Answering questions. Listening to adults in school and being able to follow instructions appropriately. Listening to other children. Engaging in simple drama and role play activities ,using talk to recreate roles and experiences. Retelling familiar stories using a story map.

• Phonics ~ learning letter names and the sounds individual letters and groups of letters can make.

• Reading and Writing ~Children use phonic knowledge for reading and spelling.

Teaching Phonics in School.

• Children are assessed to find out what phonic knowledge and skills they have on entry to school.

• All the children receive a daily “phonic “ slot as part of a larger group .

• Children working on similar phonic skills then work with the classroom assistant and the teacher to consolidate knowledge and skills.

How do we Teach Phonics?

We teach phonics using a multi sensory approach~ so the children are engaged in activities that involve listening, looking and movement. The children learn phonics through activities inside and outside.

We use a scheme called “Jolly Phonics” ~ the children are introduced to the letters accompanied by an action. The children also learn songs to remember the letter , sound and action.

Development of skills in Phonics.

• Hearing and discriminating general sounds, speech sounds .

• Generating different sounds during singing times ~ clapping, tapping and making different sounds using voices.

• Identifying and clapping syllables in familiar words.• Identifying and continuing a rhyming string.• Identifying alliteration in a song, story or tongue twister eg

Swan swam over the sea.• Hearing and saying sounds (phonemes) in an initial

position ~ s,a,t,p,i,n• Auditory skills segmenting sounds eg robot talk ~

commands in PE h-o-p , s-t-o-p, r-u-n .• Orally segmenting words eg net ~ n-e-t , sat ~ s-a-t• Rhythm ~ clapping and tapping beats ~ singing songs

using the “Beat Baby”

Supporting Phonics at Home.

• Reading rhyming books to your child~ can they spot the rhyme can they think of another word to rhyme? ~ There will be a selection of rhyming books for the children to borrow in a special box in their registration area.

• Talking about sounds you can hear around the home and outside.• Listening for the initial sound in simple and familiar words. Can the

children spot “alliteration?”• Reinforcing the language associated with first, last/ end and middle.~

Who was the first to finish their lunch, who is sitting in the middle ? Etc

• Orally blending words eg do you want j-a-m or ch-ee-se on your sandwich ?

• Listening to words and then segmenting them. bed ~ b-e-d . Can your child segment words?

• Practise the Jolly Phonic actions ~ find words that start , end and have those letters in the middle.

• Make your own sound book with pictures cut out of magazines and catalogues

• Continue to read stories, poems and rhymes to your child ~ enjoy words and rhymes. Support your child in learning Nursery Rhymes.

Reading

Children learn to read at different rates.Successful readers have high self esteem of

themselves as a reader. They enjoy books ~ reading them independently or sharing them with another “reader”.

In school the children use their phonic skills to decode texts, they play games to help recognise high frequency words such as “the” and “said”.

The children “read” big books as a group joining in with the rhyme or repetition . The teacher will point out full stops and capital letters .

The children will be encouraged to “spot” keywords in the text.

The children will be asked to explain and talk about what they have read.

Supporting Reading at Home.When your child has acquired the skills for segmenting and blending simple

words and can recognise some of the keywords ~ Bring home simple cvc words to segment and blend eg pin, tap, sit• Bring home simple sentences to segment and blend at home.• Once your child is confidently segmenting and blending independently

your child will bring home a reading book with a coloured sticker on. When you change your child’s book please take another book with the same colour sticker.

• The teacher will hear your child read once a week and make comments in the green booklet. ~Write down the books you read together at home and please add your own comments when you hear your child read.

• The green reading record provides a list of skills for your child to practise and develop.

• Your child can have a new reading book everyday if you wish. Please change the book in the morning.

• Make a quiet time to share the book with your child.• Encourage your child to use their segmenting and blending skills to decode

the text.• Ask your child about what they have read.• Look for keywords in the text .Play simple games with the words in the

pack.

Developing Writing Skills.

• The children are encouraged to develop “gross” motor skills ( large body movements such as hopping , crawling skipping ) during PE lessons and outside.

• Children learn to form large letters outside using chalk and paint to encourage an anticlockwise formation of letters.

• Children use streamers and ribbons to practice the anti clockwise movement needed to write many letters.

Fine Motor Skills During the week the children will work on

activities to develop the fine finger control they will need to be able to write.

These activities could include using tweezers, threading, mark making in the sand, cutting with scissors, painting, hole punching , rolling and pinching play dough and clay.

All these activities will develop the muscles and coordination in their hands.

We are encouraging the children to develop a pincer grip.

Developing Writing Skills at Home.

Encourage your child to “mark make” using different pens, paper and chalk outside.

At this stage it does not matter if you cannot understand or read your child’s ”writing” ~ but your child will be able to talk about what they want to say in their “writing”.

As the children become familiar with the letter sounds and the corresponding letter shape they may begin to write the first letter to represent a word.

Numeracy

• What is Numeracy?• Numeracy is a proficiency which involves

confidence and competence with numbers and measures.

• Children require an understanding of the number system and an ability to solve problems in different contexts.

• Numeracy also includes a practical understanding of the properties of shapes, and gathering information from counting and measuring.

Numeracy in School

• The school follows the National Primary Framework.

• The Framework is a teaching tool which outlines the key objectives for each year group in the Primary School including the Foundation Stage.

• Each term we will be sending home a booklet showing the number targets and activities to support mathematical development.

What will your child learn in Numeracy?

• Say one, two, three, four… to twenty.• Select the correct number to represent 1 to 9 objects.• Count up to 10 objects and beyond.• Recognise, write and order the numerals 1, 2, 3, 4… to 20.• Find 1 more or 1 less than any number from 1 to 20.• Add two small groups of objects (total 10 or less).• Partition a group of objects eg six cubes into 2 sets 3+3 or 4+2 or 5+1• Count how many are left when some are taken away.• Select two groups of objects to make a given total.• Solve simple problems such as finding ways to arrange 8 crayons in two pots .• Count aloud in twos ,fives or tens.• Double numbers eg 3+3 makes6 4+4makes 8• Share a set of objects between 2.• Split a shape in half.• Decide on a criteria for sorting a set of objects.• Make simple patterns and talk about them.• Name 2D and 3D shapes such as a circle, square, triangle,• rectangle, cube, cone and sphere.• Uses words to describe position such as over ,under, next to and behind. Use words such as more,

less, greater, smaller, heavier, lighter, full and empty to compare objects or amounts.• Say the days of the week in the correct order and be able to say what the day was yesterday and

what the day will be tomorrow.• Tell the time using o’clock.• Recognise and the know the value of 1p-20p

How to support your child at home.

1. Encourage matching activities eg setting the table for the family.

2. Sorting activities such as sorting toys or coins and deciding how to sort and then explain eg All the red cars here and the “not” red cars here.

3. Counting accurately 1:1 small sets of objects.4. Using language “more” or “less” ~ eg if you

have 1 more how many will there be now? Say the number that is 1 less than 5.

5. Finding a total of two small sets of objects.6. Play dice games eg beetle drive.7. Looking for numbers and using numbers in the

environment eg house numbers, bus numbers and car number plates.

Trips and helping in School

• If you think you would like to help in school or come on a trip with us you must fill in a list 99 form , available from the office.

Thank you for attending this meeting.Please remember to sign the attendance

sheet before leaving.We will be sending out an evaluation

sheet before half term. We value comments and suggestions made by parents/carers . We use the results from the evaluations to develop our

transition process into school.Thank you Good Bye.