Letters And Sounds/handwriting

[Guest]

Hello

 

I have just started a new job at a different school and feel like I'm starting all over again! :0(

 

Does anybody know if you are suppposed to teach the children to write letters in the order as in Phase 2 phonics? It is just at my old school we taught curly caterpillar letters, long ladder and one-armed robot letters etc and did this as a seperate Penpals session, seperately to phonics. (In phonics we concentrated on letters and sounds and I would model the new sound on the board and teach them to write in the air and eventually with whiteboards.)

 

Many Thanks!

[SmileyPR]

Hi KennyKat,

 

I used to just use PenPals on Fridays (starting with workbook 2 instead of the 1st one) and the daily phonics session apart as you did... but reading suggestions in the forum... I did something different this year and it seems to be creating more interest in the children, including boys.

 

So, now I introduce 4 letter sounds per week with the Jolly Phonics big book, then write down all of the things they see on the book or they think about with that letter sound on the board (red for the that letter sound and blue for the rest) while they help me 'spell it out' with the corresponding sounds. We take a break and play in the classroom. 10 or 15 minutes later they come in front of the screen and observe the letter formation (from Communication4all) while doing 'air formation' three times. Then they can do it on the whiteboards. They love it! Nevertheless, I keep on working a letter on Fridays with PenPals for F2 and introduce each pattern (curly caterpillar letters, long ladder and one-armed robot letters etc) with an appropriate pre-handwriting activity (e.g. PenPals for F1).