Helping at home

We will value and share any research that your child carries out at home linked to our topics. The staff at Crosby Library are very welcoming and will happily order in topic related books to support.

English

Handwriting: 

Practise letter formation and joins. It is important that capital letters are clearly distinguishable. 

All of our lower case letters start at the bottom. 

We teach all of the letters that start with the curly 'c' shape first (c, a, d, g, o, q).

We teach all of the letters that begin with the 'l' shape together (l, b, h, k, t).

We talk about our 'down letters' having their chin on the line and their tail underneath (g, j, p, q, y).

The image above helps children remember which letters are ascenders and which are descenders. ascenders go up into the blue sky, descenders go down into the soil, half way letters stay in the green grass. 

Children can practise the letter shapes using pens, pencils, crayons, paint...

 

Writing: 

Try and give children as many real life opportunities to write as possible (letters, shopping lists, diaries, instructions, invitations, labels). 

Encourage children to include full stops and capital letters in their sentences. 

Encourage children to use their phonics to spell unknown words. We find that using a robot voice to segment words helps. 

Encourage children to think of their next sentence, say it out load, write it and then read it back to themselves before going on to the next sentence. 

 

Reading: 

Children should read a little at home every night. It is good to start with a chat about the book. Looking at the front cover, encourage your child to tell you what they think the book will be about. Ask about any similar books they have read and link the topic to their personal experiences. Next, allow your child time to look through the book, look at illustrations and chat about what they can see. 

When reading, encourage your child to use picture clues. Encourage them to sound unknown words out. 

If they are stuck on a word and can't decode it, tell them the word and encourage them to reread the sentence. 

Ask lots of questions and discuss how characters might be feeling. Encourage your child to describe different characters and setting. 

After reading, you could role play and retell the main events. Ask your child to draw their favourite part of the story and write a sentence. It is good to reread books to build confidence and fluency. It is good to listen to your child read and for them to listen to you. 

Classes have enjoyed visiting Crosby Library. Children take take up to 20 books out (free of charge) and can renew them on line. 

 

Phonics: 

We teach daily phonics lessons in school and children use their phonics knowledge to blend (reading) and segment (spelling) many of our phonetically decodable words. 

 

Please encourage your child to use their phonics when reading and writing at home.

 

Phase 2

In Phase 2, letters and their sounds are introduced one at a time. Children should be able to read and spell the following phonemes: 

Set 1 : s,  a,  t,  p,  i,   n 
Set 2: i,  n,  m,  d
Set 3: g,  o,  c,  k
Set 4: ck,  e,  u,  r
Set 5: h,  b,  f,  ff,  l,  ll,  ss

 

Tricky words introduced in Phase 2:

Phase 3

By the time they reach Phase 3, children will already be able to blend and segment words containing the 19 letters taught in Phase 2.

Over the twelve weeks which Phase 3 is expected to last, twenty-five new graphemes are introduced (one at a time).

Set 6 : j,  v,  w,  x
Set 7: y,  z,  zz,  qu
Consonant digraphs: ch, sh, th, ng
Vowel digraphs: ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, ure, er

 

Tricky words introduced in Phase 3:

we	me	be	was	no	go
my	you	they	her	all	are

 

Phase 4

 

Tricky words introduced in Phase 4:

By this point children would be expected to be reading CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words, such as cat, bag, sip, at speed along with the tricky words from the previous phases.  It is important that children are taught that blending is only used when a word is unfamiliar.

The focus in this phase is to develop blending of words such as: grip, step, crib, help.

Phase 5

 

Tricky words introduced in Phase 5:

New graphemes for reading:

During this phase children will begin reading words fluently and should no longer be blending and segmenting familiar words.

The real focus throughout the phase is to not only learn the new graphemes for reading but also to learn to read words with alternative pronunciations.  Children also will need to learn alternative spellings for each phoneme. 

 

For example:

The long 'a' sound can be written:

'a-e' as in cape (we call this a split diagraph)

'ai' as in rain

'ay' as in day

 

Our aim is for children to be secure in phase 5 by the end of Year 1.  

 

It is often helpful for children to sound out words using a robot voice. 

 

When learning new sounds and words, it is also helpful to write them with sound buttons: 

 

 

Be careful when using this strategy at home. Children are splitting words into phonemes (sounds), this is not always the same as syllables. 

 

The word 'sad' has 3 phonemes (sounds) but only 1 syllable. 

 

Common Exception Words 

 

 

Phonics Screening Test

In June, children will sit the Phonics Screening test. This test, assess their ability to read words by blending the sounds above. They will have 40 words to read and half of the words will be nonsense (alien) words. 

 

 

Please practise reading some non-words with your child at home. 

 

It is fine for children to sound out before blending. They could sound out    J-ee-v, then read Jeev. 

Maths: 

Use different household objects as counters (buttons, biscuits, toy cars)

Practise counting in 2s, 5s and 10s.

 

Practise making 10 in different ways (5+5, 6+4, 3+7) move on to 20 when ready (we call these number bonds to 10 and 20).

Hang 10 pegs on a coat hanger and split them to make 10 in different ways, encourage your child to write the number sentence.

 

Science: 

Autumn

• Have a look at some plants in your garden or on a walk in the park. See if your child can name the different parts of a plant. Explain that part of the plant is under the soil (push some back to show them the roots). Ask them if they know what the roots are for. Get them to draw their own diagram of a plant when they get back inside, labelling all the parts.
• Show your child a list of the months of the year. Ask them to circle the months that they think are the winter months. Ask them what the weather is like in the winter. What do we do in the winter to help us with the cold? Now ask them to circle the spring months. What is the weather like in the spring? Continue with summer and autumn.
• See if you can find any books in the library on different types of animals. Read the books with your child and encourage them to become an expert. 
• Sing 'Heads Shoulder Knees and Toes', talk about different body parts and how we are all different. 
• In different settings, talk about what you can see, hear, smell, taste and touch. Talk about our senses. 

 

Spring

• Help your child to distinguish between household objects and the materials they are made out of. Children can find objects that are made out of glass, plastic, wood, fabric and metal. 
• Encourage children to consider why certain materials have been chosen for different purposes. 
• Ask them to explain why windows aren't made out of wood or why pillows aren't made out of metal. 
• Help them to describe the properties of different materials (bendy, flexible, rigid, hard, smooth, light, strong).

Computing