Curriculum afternoon for new parents.

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Curriculum afternoon for new parents.

• How do we teach your children to read, write and
  communicate successfully?

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Speaking and listening.

• You might think my child doesnt need to be
  taught to speak. The problem is getting them to
  be quiet. But there are actually a lot of skills
  that we hope to develop in your childs first
  year at school.

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Speaking.

• The EYFS is a play based curriculum. Theres a
  lot of research to show that the language
  children use in play is far richer than that they
  use in more formal situations.

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How do children develop their speaking skills in
school?

• In the role play and small world play areas
  children use language to imagine and recreate
  roles and experiences.
• Knowledgeable adults help extend their language
  in these play situations.
• During a plan/do/review process children learn to
  explain, and clarify their ideas and feelings.
• Remodelling and extending encourages children to
  talk in complete sentences and to develop their
  vocabulary.
• Stories, songs and rhymes are all important.

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How can you help?

• Make time to talk to your child every day. It
  might be when you sit around the table to eat in
  the evening. Or when you are playing Lego. Or you
  might get out their Barbies or Power Rangers and
  enjoy some pretend play.
• Even if you are really busy try to avoid this
  turning into a list of instructions.
• Specific skills
• Modelling how to extend their sentence not simply
  one word answers.
• Quiet reminders not to shout.
• Reminders not to interrupt.

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Listening.

• Children need to learn the kind of behaviours
  that a good listener shows.
• -Sitting still
• -Sitting quietly
• -Looking at the person whos talking
• -Trying to remember what the speaker said
• -Not interrupting

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How do we develop listening skills in school?

• Carpet sessions which are initially kept short
• Circle games such as pass the whisper.
• Talking to a partner and remembering what they
  have said.
• Musical games- copying patterns, using different
  voices.
• Using Signalong to support comprehension.

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Reading.

• I will be talking about what your child will do
  in their first few years at school.
• Children develop at different rates based on
  gender, previous experience and age.
• Some children will be confident readers by the
  end of their Reception year. Others will be just
  beginning to read independently. Others will not
  be reading at all but will take off in year 1.
  All three of these stages are perfectly normal.

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4 main skills that we want children to develop.

• 1. Love of books. Try to read a bedtime story
  every evening and make that story time a special,
  calm, cosy time.
• 2.Knowing how books work. Which way up the book
  goes, how to turn the pages carefully. Predict
  what might happen next. How do the characters
  feel?
• 3.Letter recognition.
• 4.Phonic skills

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Letter Recognition.

• We teach the children the 26 letters of the
  alphabet and also some digraphs and trigraphs.
  e.g ch, ee, ear, air.
• We use both Jolly Phonics and Letterland to teach
  the sounds. We follow the governments own
  Letters and Sounds programme alongside this.
• We have a short daily phonic lesson and children
  take home the new sounds as they are introduced
  in their Sound Book.

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Phonic Skills.

• Children need to be able to blend (put sounds
  together) to make words.
• Some children, especially the oldest ones, come
  to school able to do this but most dont. It
  takes a lot of practise and really good listening
  skills.

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Reading Development.

• 1. Child knows and sounds out simple cvc words
  but cant hear the word. c-a-t dog
• 2. Child can hear the word if an adult sounds it
  out.
• 3. Child can sound the word out and hear it
  independently.
• 4. Blending has become so fast and automatic that
  a child looks at a word and says what it says.

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Tricky words.

• Some words cannot be sounded out easily. These
  are known as Tricky words. E.g the, come.
• When learning to read these words it helps to
  look at the regular part, the letters that make
  the sounds we would expect and then to look at
  the tricky bit.

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How can you help?

• Practise their Sound Book for a short time each
  day.
• Dont use it as a test but say the sounds
  together.
• Remember to sound digraphs and trigraphs as a
  unit not individual sounds. E.g ch-i-n not
  c-h-i-n
• or h-air not h-a-i-r.
• Point out letters and sounds in the environment.
• Play games such as I Spy.
• When you get them, practise blending the words in
  the packets.

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Writing.There are 4 main skills.

• 1. Letter formation.
• 2. Segmenting words. (robot talking)
• 3.Understanding how to write a sentence.
• 4.Seeing themselves as writers.

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How do we teach Letter Formation?

• We develop the fine motor skills needed for
  writing through a range of activities. E.g
  threading, using clothes pegs, popping bubble
  wrap, painting, posting objects
• We practise letter shapes emphasising anti
  clockwise and vertical strokes and a correct
  tripod grip. It is important to develop a correct
  grip right from the start. Again clothes pegs are
  useful!
• We develop gross motor skills (strength in the
  shoulders) through climbing, throwing and all
  large scale movements.

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Segmenting.

• We need to be able to segment or robot talk words
  in order to spell words we dont know. Night
  n-igh-t

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Understanding how to write a sentence.

• Deciding what to say before writing it.
• Where to start the sentence.
• If you cant spell the word sound it out. What
  sounds do I need? How do I write those sounds?
• Leave a finger space between each word.
• Where do I go when I get to the end of the line?
• Put a full stop at the end of the sentence.
• Read the sentence back through to check it makes
  sense.

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Seeing themselves as writers.

• Children need to write for a range of purposes
• Letters, lists, cards, signs, stories,
  instructions.

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How can you help?

• Encourage a correct pencil grip when you see your
  child holding felt pens, paint brushes etc. Try a
  clothes peg if they find this hard.
• When writing letter shapes encourage
  anticlockwise and vertical strokes.
• Let your child see you write.
• When your child brings home a Writing Book make
  time to help them with this.
• Later in the year when some of the children will
  be bringing home dictations you will need to talk
  them through this.

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Finally!

• Dont worry! Your child will learn to read,
  write, and be an effective communicator.
• You can come in to see me for ideas whenever you
  feel you need to.