Literacy

At Ashworth Nursery School, we believe that we have a vital role to play in developing our children's language to prepare them to read and write well in the future, as this not only underpins academic success in every subject but is fundamental for building fulfilling careers and rewarding lives. 

Phonics is fun!

 

We provide lots of fun opportunities for children to listen and contribute to rhymes and poems, exploring words and meaning. We use the Read Write Inc. Phonics programme that teaches children to read and write, at the same time as developing their spoken language, vocabulary, grammar and spelling. Phonics is taught daily in small differentiated groups. All phonics sessions are planned for by the teaching staff and teaching assistants are trained to deliver phonics sessions and use Read Write Inc resources. Children are given the opportunity to consolidate the skills taught throughout the continuous provision.

What is phonics?

 

Phonics is a method of teaching reading matching sounds to letters and groups of letters.

 

The English alphabet writing system has only 26 letters to write the 44 English speech sounds. This means that the same letter, or groups of letters, can represent more than one sound. For example:

 

The letter ‘a’ as in ‘cat’ can also be used to write ay in ‘angel’.

The letter ‘I’ as in ‘pin’ can also be used to write the sound igh in ‘find’.

 

Before children can start to read, they need to learn to:

 

• Say the sound that is represented by each letter and group of letters
• ‘sound out’ words, e.g. c-a-t, sh-i-p, s-t-o-p.

Pure sounds

 

When teaching children to say the sounds, it’s important to say the pure sounds. This means that we say mmmmm not muh and lllll not luh. This will really help children when they come to join sounds together to read words, because it’s easier to put ‘m-a-t’ together than ‘muh-a-tuh’.

Activities to support learning phonics at Ashworth Nursery School include:

 

• storytelling;
• singing songs;
• listening to rhymes and repeating patterns and refrains;
• playing alliterative games;
• using creative language in role play, drama and dance;
• identifying sounds in names, words in the environment etc.

Fred Talk

 

Fred is a small toy frog used in Read Write Inc. Phonics to help children practice blending sounds together. Fred can only speak in sounds so he needs the children to say the words for him e.g. Fred says c-a-t as a series of separate sounds, then the children repeat the sounds and say cat.

Sound Blending Books

 

When children are ready and they can blend sounds, they will be given a reading book to bring home (Read Write Inc. Phonics Sound Blending Books).

 

At home you will be able to listen to your child read the books. Ask your child to:

 

1. Say the word in 'Fred Talk' and then read the word.

2. Turn over the page to reveal the picture to see if he/she is right.

 

Writing 

We also help children practice writing letters and teach pencil grip and formation.