Letters And Sounds Phase One

[AnonyMouse_665]

My children and staff seem to be struggling with the letters and sounds phase one activities.

 

We aim to do two activities each week.

 

Is there any simple versions of the activities any where?

 

Any advice greatly recieved about what and how you do yours with 3-4 year olds

 

buttercup

[AnonyMouse_3307]

It could be that you are doing certain bits before the children are skilled in others?

 

For example you need to focus on tuning into sounds in aspects 1-3 before they would be able to talk about sounds if you see what I mean. Aspects 6 and 7 are much easier if there is a grounding in aspects 1-5 and we recommend that they are focussed on more towards the end of the child's work in phase 1.

 

Like anything else in the programme phase 1 is progressive and although lots of elements are part of every day working e.g. putting voice sounds into story time and tuning into environmental sounds everytime a police car/fire engine goes by (which happens a lot here!!!) the 3 "levels" tuning in, the one I've forgotten and "talking about" do have a sense of necessary order about them. As do the aspects. Prehaps using the LLN statements in the L+S guidance to group children's skill sets will help the staff get the differentiation right and therefore feel more successful?

 

Cx

[AnonyMouse_30128]

is everyone following letters and sounds as a programme ? Catma is right that if the children are unable to do the activities then they are not ready for them ...but i dont follow the 'activities' in the pack exactly i just use them as a guide so this week our focus is sounds in the environment....because all the staff know this they take the opportunity to weave this into their practice (inside and outside in free flow and group led ) so that it becomes a natural part of the day not a 'lesson' which our children are not ready for either( lots of EAL and SEN). There are games that i use from the pack but often i just follow the themes ...so we've made up a song to the rhyme game which makes it easier to 'guess' the answer until the children have got the idea then you can progress to the next step. All letters and sounds is (IMO) is advice as to where you want the children to get to ...each child is unique and each group is unique...so the way you get to the final destination should be different! have fun with it!

[AnonyMouse_3307]

Agreed, I use the word programme because it is part of the overall learning programme which is necessarily structured through phases 1-6, nursery to year 2, and each phase needs the previous one to be well taught before it, for it to build on and be successful. So in essence we are all part of a programme whatever we are doing because without good grounding in phase 1 skills and then phase 2 -3 a child is behind when they move up to year 1 and so on, which will become more of a focus with the national reading test this summer.

 

Of course the described activities are not exclusive and there are lots of other ideas out there which prectise the same skills etc! I would always suggest a mix of discrete adult directed activity with inclusion of elements in all every day opportunities which again would link to children's readiness to engage in such group games! At all times though it must be playful!!

 

 

Cx

[AnonyMouse_4562]

That's interesting Catma - we were told on the training given by our LA that apart from stages 6 & 7, phase 1 wasn't really progressive and that you should continue to repeat all phases throughout the year? Which does make it very hard to plan for! I tend to plan the tuning into sounds at the beginning, then do some remember sounds, then some talking about sounds.

I've recently been recommended the book: 'Singing Phonics' which comes with a CD and is very easy to impliment. Most activities start with the tuning into sounds, then offers extensions for remembering sounds, and talking about sounds. The songs on the Cd are definately a good starts for tuning children in.

Green Hippo x

[AnonyMouse_3307]

That's how I see it as progressive!

I think you do go over different aspects across the year - but I know from our CLLD guru in our team that she would fully recommend building up the skill set in a sort of matrix of tuning in across aspects, talking about and remebering can only really happen if you can tune in and so they do build up on themselves. The first few aspects are needed in a way before you can get into speech discrimination in aspects 6 -7. ,But as long as it works for you there's really no "absolute" way of delivering!

 

Cx

[AnonyMouse_2418]

we find that the children have to be really comfortable with 1-5 before we even touch on aspects 6 and 7 , so from September/October every year we start on aspect one - and focus on that aspect for a month ( a different activity every week,for the whole week to ensure all children get some input) then we move onto two , three four etc. By April we have covered 1-5 really well ( we don't tend to do much in December as other stuff gets in the way - we then look at 6 and 7 in May -July . We were praised by our local school for this approach as apparently our children generally grasp reading and phonics in school much better than children from other settings, and this way has also helped the staff to be confident in phonics as they all get a chance to lead the activities.

[AnonyMouse_2418]

we find that the children have to be really comfortable with 1-5 before we even touch on aspects 6 and 7 , so from September/October every year we start on aspect one - and focus on that aspect for a month ( a different activity every week,for the whole week to ensure all children get some input) then we move onto two , three four etc. By April we have covered 1-5 really well ( we don't tend to do much in December as other stuff gets in the way - we then look at 6 and 7 in May -July . We were praised by our local school for this approach as apparently our children generally grasp reading and phonics in school much better than children from other settings, and this way has also helped the staff to be confident in phonics as they all get a chance to lead the activities.

[AnonyMouse_2418]

Opps - sorry so good I said it twice !

[Guest]

My LA has a similar system to this. They have us on a strict timetable for covering the aspects and this means we cover them all before the end of June. Essentially we keep going even if children haven't grasped it and support those children with recaps or extra games played in small groups during choosing time. Some will inevitably not participate and that brings some problems but it does seem to work out overall.

[AnonyMouse_665]

that makes sense. I did the training when it first came out 3 years ago or is it more? Have not really used it a great deal just dipping in and out. With alot more focus on communication at the moment thought it would be best to have a more structured programme.

 

thanks for your help

 

buttercup

[Guest]

Ditto Catma - we have a mix of ages and ability and use letters and sounds all aspects all year and progress through according to the ability of the child, they are fun to do and the children love what we do, its repetition all year

[Guest]

Hi

 

All our 3- 4 year olds are at different levels. Those that are also at the school nursery (we share day care with them) are already doing phonics etc whilst those that dont go to the nursery (just turned 3 yrs) are nowhere near that stage.

 

We therefore tend to chose one per week that can be covered by a circle time or after register, or at/using story or if we have the instruments out. We dont really follow a system.