In Early level we follow the Active Literacy Stage 1 program for phonics. When your child comes home with a new phoneme (sound), you could encourage them to find, read and write words containing that phoneme within their reading books, newspapers, magazines etc. Children learn 2 phonemes each week which can be found in your child’s sound jotter.
Children are taught new phonemes using Jolly Phonics actions. The letter sounds are taught first, on their own, and children are then taught to blend sounds together to say (‘synthesise’) the word.
The five basic skills for reading and writing are:
- Learning the letter sounds
- Learning letter formation
- Blending
- Identifying sounds in words
- Spelling the tricky word
Sounds taught at early level are:
s, a, t, i, p, n c k, e, h, r, m, d g, o, u, l, f, b ai, j, oa, ie, ee, or z, w, ng, v, oo, oo y, x, ch, sh, th, th qu, ou, oi, ue, er, a
An attachment detailing the action for each sound can be found below.
Spelling is taught separate to phonics. When your child comes home with a spelling list of common words, encourage them to share with you the strategies they have learned to help them with spelling. These include:
- Sounding out the word
- Splitting the word into syllables
- Looking at the word shape
- Spotting compound words
- Spotting words within words
In Early level, pupils are given word lists for reading practise. When your child’s class teacher feels they have progressed well through the given word lists they will be given a Jolly Readers Book appropriate for their level. Encourage your child to read aloud to you and make use of word attack strategies if they meet a tricky word.
Where possible, children should also be actively reading for pleasure and are encouraged to share what they are reading with their teacher and peers. It is also important that children are read to on a regular basis, which not only promotes parents modelling good reading habits to their children, but is also a vital social experience for both child and adult.
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