Phonics
Our school has chosen Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised as our systematic, synthetic phonics (SSP) programme to teach early reading and spelling. The children will have a daily phonics lesson. We usually teach four new sounds a week and have a review lesson on a Friday. You will get a list of the sounds that we are learning to reinforce at home each week. This will also include some words to practise reading. As well as learning the sounds each week, we will also learn tricky words. These are words that include a tricky part (not pronounced the way they look.)
For information about Little Wandle, please see the links below or come and talk to one of the team.
https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/
Reading for pleasure
If children are to become lifelong readers, it is essential that they are encouraged to read for pleasure. The desire of wanting to read will help with the skill of reading. To help foster a love of reading, your child will bring home a book that they can share and enjoy with you. This is a book for you to read with your child, not your child to read to you. It is a book to enjoy together. This book will be changed every Monday. Your child also has a reading record which allows you to add any comments. If your child has not received a new book please speak to one of the team.
In the second half term, the children will also bring a coloured banded book home. This will be for them to read to you to practise their reading skills.
Collins Ebooks
As part of the Little Wandle programme the children will also have 3 reading practise sessions a week in school. The children read the same book three times in a week. The first time we work on decoding (sounding out) the words, the second time we work on prosody which is reading with expression – making the book sound more interesting with our storyteller voice– and the third time we look at comprehension. We read the books three times at school because we want to develop the fluency. The more children see words, the more they begin to read them automatically without having to sound them out. These sessions will be taught in small groups and the books will be matched to your child’s reading level.
Your child will be issued the book that they have read the previous week in school to practice reading at home in order to become fluent, confident readers. This is their reading practise book. Your child should be able to read the practice book with developing confidence and fluency without any significant help. Your role as a parent/carer is to listen with interest and, most importantly, to encourage and praise, acknowledging all achievements. After your child has read the book, it may be helpful to talk about the book, but only so far as your child is interested. Keep the experience positive and avoid turning it into a test. We want the children to develop a love for reading.
This book will be issued as an ebook through the Collins website. Your child will be provided with a login and password to access their account and view the reading books set by their class teachers. If you have any questions please come and ask.
https://ops.collinsopenpage.com/sso/login?service=https%3A//ebooks.collinsopenpage.com/wr/index.html&eulogin=true
Physical Education
PE will be on a Monday each week.
Children need to come to school in their PE kit on this day. Please ensure that all PE kit is labelled with your child name, long hair is tied up and any jewellery is removed. See our PE section on the long term plan to see the skills the children will be taught this year.
Class Dojo
We use Class Dojo in F2 to send you messages and reminders. We will also post pictures and updates to the class page to show you an insight into the children’s day. Please ensure you use the sign up code sent to you don’t miss anything.
Contact
If you need to contact me, please use the class email.
f2@st-margaretclitherow.nottingham.sch.uk or send a message on class dojo. I will get back to you as soon as possible.
I am also available before and after school so please come and talk to me.
Useful links and information