Guest Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 Hi This is my first year back in reception in a long,long time. While my children are picking up their phonics well, we are not doing so well with the tricky words. So was wondering if anyone has any good ideas they would share for teaching and practising the tricky words either in whole class phonics session or as part of the children's independent activities. Thank-you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 Flash cards still work well! Interactive games. Bingo etc etc. It can take time but a daily exposure to a small number works well--look at the phonic phases to determine which ones to choose and search online for resources! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 I agree with Susan, I use tricky word flashcards at the start of every phonics session. There are only a small number of tricky words per phase so this really doesn't take more than a minute (and we're on phase 5) and it really improves the children's knowledge of the words. There's nothing wrong with a little old fashioned rote learning in moderation! I would introduce two new tricky words every week. I tend to start teaching spellings for that phase's tricky words as soon as the majority of the children in the group can read the majority of them. My children's favourite game is where they sit in a circle and have to come up one by one to write the tricky word on the whiteboard. We time how long it takes the whole phonics group to do this and then see if we can beat our time with the next tricky word. I have 12 in my group and we play this maybe once a week with the two new 'tricky words of the week'. They also write our two tricky words of the week on individual whiteboards everyday after the tricky word flashcards. It's made more difference to my children's reading and spelling of these words than any other method I've tried. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KST Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 I do the same. I have a tricky train, each tricky word forms a new carriage. They are displayed and referred to all the time when writing and reading. I have them on flashcards too and we do it everyday at the start of phonics, like we do with the sounds too. Its really working! Of course some children take longer than others to pick them up but practise, practise, practise! x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickynooblue Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 Good Morning, There are two activities that I use all the time and they work brilliantly - for my lot anyway! Boo! - Boo is a game that you can play with the whole class or just with a group, I have even seen them play it in child initiated time! Put into a pot, flashcards with several tricky words, so this week I had 'so. they, are, some and have'.(about 3 cards for each word) but also in the pot you need to put in 8 cards with Boo! written on them. Children take the pot and in turn they take a card and read it, if they can read it they keep it but if they pick BOO they must return all their cards to the pot. The children love the competitive aspect of this. I also have a tricky word grid - One of my display boards is divided into 3 columns and 5 rows - I did this with border role. The columns are labelled 1-3 and the rows are labelled a-e. In each section is a tricky word. Every time when we do phonics we learn our tricky words by saying things like 'what word is in e;1 - they use the co-ordinates to locate the word and shout it out. Children have made up their own grids and they use it all the time to write. I may not have explained it very well but i can send you a piccie when I get make to school tomorrow. Have fun! Nicky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 We combine these with spellings. I use a 'magic camera' with my class. We 'plug' the cable into our heads and hold our cameras up and point them to the board where the word is. We look at the word, count to 3, click (I hide the word) they say it and then write the word on their boards. This way all learners - visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners use their preferred learning style. Our reading and spelling has improved since we have really pushed it thi term - one of the mums was impressed that her son could spell because correctly! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 Thanks for all your replies - mainly I know its just plugging at it with the good old 'flashcards' but there are some great ideas here to keep the children's interest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 Oh I'm glad I'm not the only one having trouble with this! I love the boo game idea and the camera idea!! I'm having a bit of trouble getting mine to start writting a bit more independently. I only have in my cclass as we are a new starter school, so I am constantly working with them, which is great in some aspects, but it doesnt encourage them to think for themselves as they are always asking what letter comes next etc. Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 we use Action words - google them - where all the words have an action to go with them - really helps ch to remember them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 If you have an interactive whiteboard you should try http://newserver.iboard.co.uk/player/ It's free and if you look under 'curriculum resources' and 'literacy key stage 1' there are loads of high frequency word games and you can choose which words you use. We use flashcards etc as well but sometimes it's nice to have something a bit different. You should also look at the different resources on here too. There are some great numeracy games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 I've made some quick mini flashcards with the different tricky words on. We play a 'Show me' game and then after a couple of turns the children pass their word around the circle to the next person and we play again. It seems to have worked so far! We also have pictures associated with some of the tricky words. They came from an old set called 'Taming tricky words'. Thay have helped but sometimes the children say 'the moon' instead of just 'the'!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 Thanks for the link, Avoca. There are some great games on there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 24, 2011 Share Posted March 24, 2011 My lovely TA had a fab idea which the children love. We have a 'Tricky word crown' which is laminated and each day I write a different tricky word on it without her seeing. At some point during the day (often snack time) she puts it on and the children have to give her sentences with the word in and she then has to guess what it is. They think this is great and it seems to be working!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 24, 2011 Share Posted March 24, 2011 I love the crown idea! Used the iboard games today - one of my boys played all morning - working his way through the tricky word bus and train then onto the blast off games. Absolutely fab! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 24, 2011 Share Posted March 24, 2011 I agree, my children share a whiteboard between two and we look, cover,spell check - this has helped thier writing a lot, even less able children reading and writing tricky words. We also play a game where all children stand in a circle and I go around, showing tricky words, against clock (minute egg timer) to see how many children we can get sat down - i.e have read a tricky word, before timer runs out - we try and beat our own record each time - now we can get all of us sat down! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KST Posted March 24, 2011 Share Posted March 24, 2011 If you have an interactive whiteboard you should try http://newserver.iboard.co.uk/player/ Hi Avoca, Thank you so much sharing this link, its fab! x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 Mafon have you tried introducing some time when the whole class has to write a sentence independently? Our school does 'Big Write' once a week; the reception teacher does it differently but calls it the same name. Each week there is something to write about linked to something they have been covering such as a festival or a book they've read, for example "I can hear..." The children talk about it as a group, discuss their sentence with each other so they all have an idea about what to write and then the children have to work independently to write the sentence. Everyone does it at the same time and they just get as long as they want to write it down but during this time they know they aren't allowed to talk to the teacher. Those who can't write just mark make but are still doing it independetly. The children love it because they all feel they have achieved completely by themselves and their ability to write independently is amazing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 26, 2011 Share Posted March 26, 2011 That's a great idea Kariana! Thank you, i'll try it out next week and see how it goes! Are they just writting these sentences on white boards or on a big piece of paper? Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 (edited) Each child gets a a sheet of paper usually with a fancy border or something like a large speech bubble on it or other shape (relevant to what they are writing about). They write their sentence on this completely independently (ie. sat at tables with no adults sat with them - they tend to do things like sit around the creative table since there definitely isn't a space per child in terms of 'work' tables). Ours are kept in the child's folder and they love looking back at their writing. Edited March 28, 2011 by Guest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 Oh that's love;y that you keep a record of them - that's great!! Thank you so much! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 29, 2011 Share Posted March 29, 2011 Glad you like the site KST. We use it all the time both on our interactive whiteboard and on individual laptops for the children to use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 Love the crown idea too! We do something similar with the hat, but the other words in the hat are made up words using similar letters, the children all pick a word in the group, then the one who thinks they have the real word stands up. its great fun and the children often try to sound out the made up words too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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