Getting Ready for Phonics in Nursery
A word from our Early Years Leader & Nursery Teacher, Mrs Julia Weights.
In Nursery we look for key signs that tells us a child is ready to begin to be introduced to Set 1 sounds.
- They are able to listen to a story, answering questions about the story and telling you what they see using a rich vocabulary.
- They are able to hear initial sounds in words and tell you such as, 'My name starts with a m' or, 'That letter is in my name'.
- They can hear the rhyme in words such as 'cat', 'mat', 'hat' and 'sat' and can add rhymes of their own and identify rhyming words in a story or poem.
- They are beginning to show signs of wanting to write, putting their name on their paintings, making pretend shopping lists.
- They understand that print has meaning i.e. saying, 'Can you read that to me?' or 'What does that say?' when they bring you a book or they see you writing.
When a child is beginning to show us these key learning behaviours, we would then begin to introduce them to Set 1 sounds in a small group or individually, if needed. For those children who do not show these learning behaviours we continue to use 'Letters and Sounds' as the basis for much of our language work, working through aspects which are Environmental sounds, Instrumental sounds, Body Percussion, Rhythm and rhyme, Alliteration, Voice Sounds, Oral blending and Oral Segmenting.
ALL CHILDREN WILL BE INTRODUCED TO THE FIRST 8 SOUNDS BY THE SECOND HALF OF THE SUMMER TERM SO THAT WE INTRODUCE THE SOUNDS AND THE LEARNING BEHAVIOURS SUCH AS 'MY TURN, YOUR TURN' IN READINESS FOR RECEPTION.