Literacy Resources

Literacy in EYFS

The English curriculum is taught through core texts as a basis for topic planning and usually start with an exciting hook to engage children in both the topic and the book. Children develop their literacy skills by the imitation of stories that they learn using actions and story mapping techniques. They then move on to innovation of these well-known stories by including their own ideas. Children also have the opportunities to show independence in their writing by planning and telling/writing their own stories. Literacy opportunities are also promoted in many of the continuous provision activities available to children during the week.

Phonics is taught daily through Read Write inc. The phonics activities are revisited over the year and supported in a range of ways.

Here are some games that you could play at home:

Sounds games……

• Common Objects – Collect several objects that begin with the same sound and make a card with this letter sound on it. Make a second group of objects beginning with a different sound and a card to go with those. Discuss the sounds of the letters on the two cards with your child and shuffle the objects. Separate the cards on the floor and ask your child to put each object near the sound that it starts with. This activity can help your child to ‘hear’ the first sound of a word.
• Odd-one Out – Say a number of words, all but one of which begin with the same sound. See if your child can pick out the odd one. It can be helpful to have the corresponding objects there for the child to look at.
• I-Spy – For small children the usual way of playing that starts ‘I spy with my little eye something that begins with ….’ Can be too difficult. You can make this easier by providing a clue. ‘I spy with my little eye something that barks and begins with d’.
• Sounds Scrapbook – Write a letter at the top of each page of a scrapbook. Concentrating on a few letters at a time collect pictures of objects that begin with those letters. Stick pictures on the appropriate pages.

Games for Recognising Letter Shapes….

• Fishing for sounds – You will need a few cards with individual letters. Attach a paper clip to each card. Using a small stick with a string and magnet, your child fishes for letter sounds. If your child can say the sound of the letter he/she wins the card, otherwise you win it.
• Sequencing the letters in your child’s name – Providing the individual letter cards for each letter of your child’s first name can be useful way to teach the sequence of letters. Remember you will need to write a capital for the first letter and lower case for the rest. Show your child how to make the name first, before shuffling the cards for him/her to have a try. For a very long name work with the first few and build up a letter at a time.
• What does it start with? Box – You will need a box, several items each beginning with a different sound, corresponding letter cards This game is similar to the common objects game mentioned earlier, but the emphasis now is on recognising the sounds the letters make. Ask your child to choose an object from the box, to think what its first sound is and then to matchthe object with the relevant card.
• Sand tray or Finger paints – Children enjoy writing letters with their fingers in a tray of sand or with finger paints. These ways provide good opportunities to teach correct letter formation.

Sentence Games
This activity is quite useful when your child has been given an early reading book. Quite often parents say ‘ He’s not reading the book. He’s remembering the story off by heart’.
This can happen. Some children become over-dependent on the picture clues and do not look for clues from the words.

• Making sentences – Read the book with your child so he/she is familiar with the story.Then simply use the first sentence from the reading book and copy it out on a strip of paper. Cut up the sentence into individual words e.g. is dog This a. Ask your child to make the sentence ‘This is a dog’ using the individual words. At first you will probably need to help. When he/she has made the sentence ask your child to read it to you and encourage him / her to point to each word with a finger.

Retain interest by only spending a few minutes a day on the activity. If your child makes a mistake do not say ‘That’s wrong’ immediately because negative comments discourage. Ask your child to read the sentence and mistakes will often be self corrected. If not, you can give clues such as, ‘What sound does dog start with?’ If your child is unable to read it say positive comments such as ‘What a good try. You got all these right and only this part wrong. Well done’. Then show your child the correct order.
If you require further information or advice please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Armstrong.

General tips to support Reading

• Once is never enough –Encourage your child to re-read favourite books and poems as well as their school reading scheme book. Re-reading helps children read more quickly, accurately and confidently.
• Dig deeper into the story – Ask your child questions about the story you’ve just read. Say something like ‘Why do you think he did that?’.
• Take control of the television – It’s difficult for reading to compete with the TV and x-boxes etc. Encourage reading as a distraction free activity.
• Bepatient – When your child is trying to sound out an unfamiliar word, give him or her time to do so. Remind your child to look closely at the first letter or letters of the word. Encourage them to predict what it might be.
• Pick books that are at the right level – Help your child pick books that are not too hard. The aim is to give your child lots of successful reading experiences.
• I read to you, you read to me - Take turns reading aloud at bedtime. Children enjoy this special time with their parents.
• One more time with feeling – When your child has sounded out an unfamiliar word, have him or her re-read that sentence. Often children are so busy figuring out a word they lose the meaning of what they’ve just read.

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