Holy Cross Primary School

This term, Primary 1 families were invited to take part in another Family Learning Club. The focus for this club was ‘Playing with Sounds’. This is an initiative to involve parents in playing games that will reinforce early literacy skills. Our main focus over the course of these sessions was to reinforce and further develop children’s phonological awareness.

Phonological awareness is the ability to hear and play with the sounds of spoken language. It is an essential skill that is the foundation for developing reading and spelling skills.  It is an aural skill so there are plenty of fun opportunities to reinforce this skill which don’t involve writing or reading.

The reason these sessions are game based is primarily to make them fun for all of you and not feel like an additional task or chore to complete. Playing games at home can increase a child’s confidence and social skills, boost their brain power and memory and develop their language skills.

Over the course of the sessions we explored the ‘Playing with Sounds’ games and you were able to take these home to continue the learning at home. We also played a number of rhyming and sounds based games to give you further opportunity to develop phonological awareness. The children particularly enjoyed the rhyming games and requested that the activities are even harder for next time! The biggest thing they all agreed on in their feedback was that they loved having their parents in school and that having you here helped them to learn. Thank you so much for coming a long and supporting these sessions.

Within the take home games there were suggestions for a ‘Chat Together’ time. I have listed some of the ideas from Chat together below so that you can continue the family learning fun even without the packs. If you weren’t able to make the Family Learning sessions, the ideas  below are very simple but effective ways to reinforce your child’s phonological awareness and a fun way to boost their literacy skills. Have a try at home and let us know how you get on.

Chat together ideas

Sing nursery rhymes and songs

Miss words out from nursery rhymes and songs and wait for your child to finish the line.

Play ‘”I spy with my little eye” using initial sounds e.g. ” I spy with my little eye something beginning with p”. Change it up to make it harder, ” I spy with my little eye something ending in p”.

Play ” I hear with my little ear something that rhymes with star”  e.g. car

Read rhyming books to your children – the local library will be well stocked but you will also find examples  in the Bookbug bags you’ve collected over the years.

Practise sounding out 3 syllable words- use objects you can show them around the house. Build it into your routine i.e. as you wash the dishes, hold up a baking tray and ask them to count the syllables e.g ba(1)- king(2) tray (3) so three syllables. 

When you are reading a story to your child, say some of the words in individual phonemes e.g. The f-o-x saw the chickens in the farmyard. Ask your child which word it was.

When you are reading stories together, ask your child where they hear certain sounds in words. Take turns to do this. If you were reading Farmer Duck, ask you child: Where do you hear the d in duck? Or ask, what sound do you hear at the start/middle/end of duck?