Playing With Sounds

[Guest]

Does anyone use the playing with sounds book. We have a copy in school but has never been used. I really want to get to grips with it. However i seem to be very lost with it i realise i am being very dim but i can't seem to fathom it out?! I was assuming each card was like a mini activity but now not so sure

Does anyone else use it and if so how and what do they think to it?

 

Sorry for being so dim but any help would be greatly appreciated!!

[Guest]

Hi again Lola

Mine came today in the post if its the same one from Department of education and skills

Looks good so far, but havnt read it properly, will keep you posted

[Guest]

Thanks akire that would be great.

[Verona]

After ordering a copy before Christmas I have just received 5 copies!! Like you Akire have looked through it quickly and will try to find time to go through it properly during the hols

 

Sue J

[Guest]

hi i use at school. its an extention for the pips (progression in phonics) it has many of those activites but links them to the stepping stones and puts the activites into context for foundation stage. it hightlights were you might see some of them in play or where you could use them. good ideas in there as i said i use it but dont follow it religously i dip in and out of it.

[JacquieL]

The cards are matched to the steeping stones and linked iwth PIPs. they are for dipping in and out if and give lots of ideas for games, activities and how you can link your phonic work with other learning.

[Guest]

Hi,

I have recently been on a training course to use the playing with sounds. We were told that it was not for dipping in and out. We should use it rigirously (sorry about the spelling) and make sure that we are systematic with our teaching of phonics. The first page (the one facing you - on the right is what that card is about and over are the suggested activities.

I hope that makes sense. You need to know where your children are and plan accordingly. It was for year 1 but they said that in Sept a further book would be brought out to extend or make clear what we should be doing.

I dont know if that helps or confuses people. Since my course I have been using the document.

Abi

[Marion]

Surely Playing with Sound is aimed at Foundation Stage AND Year 1. At my training course we were told we could use it to suppliment our existing practice

[Guest]

Thanks Abi

So we work through the book going to the section which suits where our children are at i.e maybe go straight to grey cards for some but for others begin with the earlier cards. Is that right or am i completely missing the point!!!

Lola

[JacquieL]

We were told the same as you Marion and we used it from Nursery onwards, beginning at Step One, as well as the PIPs as they complement each other.

[Guest]

On the course I attended we were told that pre-schools should concentrate on cards 1-5.

 

Anita

[Guest]

I find it quite frightening how we all do the same job and yet LE's or LA's (whatever they are called now) never seem to be singing from the same hymn sheet. We all strive to our very best in our jobs and i sometimes feel that it is t he inconsitencies of the LEA's whichmakes us doubt ourselves.

 

Sorry for being negative!

 

Lola

[Guest]

On a course run by my LEA we, meaning Reception, were asked to teach up to, and including, section 14. That covers all the phoneme/grapheme correspondences for a - z, plus the digraphs ch, th, wh, sh, ck, ss, ff, ll and zz.

 

I don't use it as a bible but I've found it's helped to give me some more interesting ways to present things.

 

Kat very kindly shared some of her great phonics plans in which she drew on the Playing with Sounds folder. Perhaps this would help you to see how it works 'in action' so to speak! You can find them here

[Guest]

On a course run by my LEA we, meaning Reception, were asked to teach up to, and including, section 14. That covers all the phoneme/grapheme correspondences for a - z, plus the digraphs ch, th, wh, sh, ck, ss, ff, ll and zz.

 

After looking into the synthetic phonics approach and reading how many other teachers are using it I was really starting to panic about how much we are meant to cover. However, from what you say about the playing with sounds sections, Moose, I began to feel a bit better but then I read Kat's plans which seems like she has taught ai ee etc to the whole class which has set me off panicking again.

 

We are going to begin grouping for phonics after easter and I just want to get it right. Should we be exposing our poorest children to all the possible sounds as the synthetic phonics approach suggests or just go slowly as we normally do through the letters using pips games to support?

 

I am getting really bogged down with all the different ideas around at the moment. I am teaching overseas so the only way I REALLY know what is happening in UK classrooms is from forums like this - can someone enlighten me please before I totally re-write our plans over easter! Not a happy prospect and I'm really not sure its the best thing to be doing for them

[Guest]

At the moment i suppose we do a bit of both gaynor. We introduce new sounds as a whole class 3 a week so every child in the class is aware of these sounds. We then have a reinforcment group time for those who are struggling to pick up sounds. By doing this we have found that some of the poor children mayb picking up some of the earlier sounds and maybe say ee. ai etc.. but may have trouble remembering some of the later single sounds.

 

So sorry that doesn't really help you much does it now that i have read that back - but what i am trying to say is that we do a bit of both!

 

Lola

[Guest]

Thanks Lola that makes me feel a bit better. We have been teaching ch, sh, th to the whole class over the last 3 weeks but I think we are going far slower than others seems to be. After easter we will split them into phonic groups so they won't have a whole class phonic time at all anymore but will do PIPs at their own level. We are hoping this will move the more able ones on quickly and the less able be given extra focus time to pick up what they haven't grasped yet. Can I just ask if the order sounds is taught in with synethetic phonics is completely different to the PIPs order? I have just been browsing sites looking at info over the last week or so to get a feeling for it but I guess my brain didn't take much in! Thanks

[Susan]

Hi gaynor

hope you get yourself sorted on this one.

 

Synthetic phonics of which Jolly Phonics is one method, moves at a much faster pace than PiPs and I believe the order is different. PiPs and PwS were written to support NLS and as such have been promoted by LEA literacy advisors.

I have adapted the games to consolidate phonic skills but have not used Playing with sounds as I am now supply teaching.

The advocates of synthetic phonics in its purest form would not suggest mixing the 2!

 

The emphasis at the moment is on fast introduction of phonics --which the synthetic methods do.

I always revised all the previously introduced sounds at every session and although some shildren did reach saturation point before others. the constant revisiting did work.

 

Good luck.

[Guest]

Hi Gaynor

We follow the Jolly Phonics handbook which promotes rapid introduction of the sounds (one a day). Using this method the children (YR) cover all the alphabet and vowel digraphs by Christmas. All the sounds are revised every day after they have been introduced. Even my weakest child now has secure knowledge of 18 sounds and many know all of them. Although some children struggle to keep up at first, the daily quick-fire revision is the key - they just seem to absorb the knowledge!

Definitely worth trying

 

Fox xx

[SmileyPR]

I started Jolly Phonics last year (January 2005). The group was able to learn all the letters of the alphabet as well as with ch, sh and th by the end of that school year.

 

This year we were going to start the 1st month with just listening and discriminating sounds and then follow the JP pace, but I just wanted to try 2 letters/week and see how it would work with the group. It went excellent until December.

 

Since it had gone so well, we tried 1 letter/day. It was horrible . It was too much for our children, who most of them have EAL. So the next week we went back to our 2/week and the children were happy again and were responding well. Even a native English speaking mum said that she had not had positive results with her 2 older girls in the UK when they used JP there with a 5/week pace and that she was noticing a great difference the way we were doing it at our school.

 

We finished the alphabet and ch-sh-th. Then we tried the next diagraphs. You should have seen their faces !

 

I said to myself: "What is the reason to push them so much? Why do I have to expect them to be 2 years above their expected development? WHY? Why do I have to keep such a marathonic pace for the most advanced and leave the rest of the group feeling frustrated because they cannot do as well as the 'best'? Yet... they are doing very good for their age and even better being EAL learners !!!"

 

So, what we have been doing is review and consolidate their current knowledge and working a lot with CVC words. We have slowly introduced some high-frequency words = tricky words in Jolly Phonics, but slowly (the, are, said, I). I always challenge those who are more advance with more difficult words (clusters and so on). Most of my pupils can read simple sentences with more than 3-letter decodable words! They have become so enthusiastic and they feel more confident on trying to write all by themselves.

 

After the Easter recess, I will be working with Playing with Sounds: the double consonant endings (ll, ss, ff, zz) and wh, ck, ng, qu ... until Step 5, as well as all the other high-frequency words that they can learn.

 

Oxford Reading Tree has just published a new series that will be compatible with Playing with Sounds and we are looking foward to use that next year. It is called: Songbirds (Phonics). http://www.oup.co.uk/oxed/primary/whatsnew/

 

I didn't liked the main trunk because it was a lot of guessing, although the stories were wonderful. I did make a selection from them and used the most appropriate ones: First Phonics and Patterned Stories.

 

I think that we cannot structure our children to this or to that. We need to know our children and see what is the best for each and one of them. Not one specific treatment is good for everyone in the medical world. Then why should we use just one specific way of teaching with all of our children? I have found that using a wide range of resources and techniques has been the best for all of my children, leaving no one behind .

Edited April 8, 2006 by SmileyPR

[Guest]

We use Playing with sounds as the basis for our planning, but we incorperate JP actions, as this helps some children. As Literacy co-ordintor I wanted to get it right in my own class, and for the first time I can really say phonics is working!!

 

The playing with stuff sounds is great, and we introduce 8 sounds over 2 weeks. Much of this is done in the first week, with revisting and consolidation in the second. This fast pace means some don't pick it up straight away, but even those children can usually recognise the JP picture cards (I don't have a problem with this at all - it's just the stage they're at). And - with the fast pace we can revist them quickly and often.

 

I disagree that you can't mix ideas. Not all our children learn in the same way. Synthetic phonics will probably be the best method for most of our children, but not all. It doesn't even work for many of the words in the English language. In a recent reading audit, some of our Y2's were trying to sound out 'it' - a word they should recognise by sight now. Synthetic phonics works for words that are new /unfamiliar to us.

 

Anyway. good luck everyone. I'm sure they'll bring out another new report soon which will contradict everything they've just said!

Edited April 8, 2006 by Guest

[Guest]

We use Jolly Phonics but also lots of activites from the PWS file. The order we introduce sounds is accroding to JP but once all 42 phonemes introduced we go on to Card 12 'll' 'ss' etc.

Lots of practical deas with PWS and in your planning you can say

PWS File Card 12 Phoneme Frame L.I - To Spell Words

Steps_2_3_4_PWS.pdf

[catma]

I think the key thing (and this is what I have said in my trainings) is that you need to teach phonics in a daily, lively but consistent way. If some children have securely got some of the phonemes, then introduce them in final and medial ppositions in the games you play, but differentiate the questionning and focus for different levels of ability. The cards are not necessarily for working through one after the other, but do direct you to different cards that link to the skill you are focusing on eg, games that focus on blending, but each card from the grey cards up focuses on a different set of phonemes. Use cards that match your assessment/needs of the children, but like all things this willl not account for all of them so you may need to have different groupings to take that into account. Some settings use their LSA to take a group who are still practising initial phonemes for example. The main thrust of phonics though is being able to use and apply this knowledge in your reading and spellin so opps to do this are paramount. I have seen many Y1 chn who can make all the JP sounds/actions but can't blend or segment sounds to make words!

Cx

[Guest]

Hi and thanks to everyone who has contibuted to this is anyone on cards 18 plus any good ideas out there? I am finding it very boring - has anyone got any good ideas to help the chidlren?

Thanks Abi

[Marion]

Sorry Abi non of my children are anywhere near card 18 we are currently concentrating on cards 8-14 while reinforcing earlier cards

[Guest]

Does anyone use the playing with sounds book. We have a copy in school but has never been used. I really want to get to grips with it. However i seem to be very lost with it i realise i am being very dim but i can't seem to fathom it out?! I was assuming each card was like a mini activity but now not so sure

Does anyone else use it and if so how and what do they think to it?

 

Sorry for being so dim but any help would be greatly appreciated!!

52814[/snapback]

 

yes we use it a lot as it is great having different ideas to teach same thing!

we do pick and choose to best meet need.

the only thing is that the order of letters is differenc from the Jolly Phonics order we use.

the one's we use most are name play,tray game, cross the river,fish for phonemes,hopscotch,using the phoneme frame and sound buttons,feely bag,and quickwrite.

it took us some time to realise what the PCMs were. you can download these resources from NLS - progression in phonics masters