A Few Questions.......!

[Guest]

I am new to the Foundation stage and was wondering if anybody could help by answering a few questions?

How soon do you give out reading books? We follow Jolly Phonics and I am sure I read last year (whilst I was in Y1/2) that they should not have a book until they know all of the phonemes. The reception teacher (for past 4 years) has always given books out on the children's first day as it makes them feel like they are at school!

We are planning for children to self register then have a choice of activities to settle in with when they first arrive. This is probably a silly question so I apologise but do you encourage the children to stay at one activity or allow them to keep moving round when they choose (as long as not too many children on each activity)?

We are hoping to do cooking with half the class every week. Do you charge for your children to cook? How much do you find covers the cost?

We are thinking about just covering the Jolly phonics for the Literacy sessions (up until Christmas) but also having times for reading and writing outside of this. Is this OK or should we only introduce one phoneme a week and do other Literacy?

Sorry for all of the questions but I am so glad I found this website as it is making my life a lot easier as don't feel alone!

[Susan]

Possible answers!

I would hold off giving out reading books for as long as you can. I was bound by school policy to give reading books within the first half term but I delayed as long as possible and certainly until I had had opportunity to observe the children with books and to note their skills.

Jolly Phonics needs to be addressed quickly for maximum effect, you might want to assess childrens prior phonic knowledge before beginning.

Yes you can dip in and out of literacy activities throughout the day in reception, so dont do a literacy hour! offer phonics daily and some reading and writing throughout the week.

I prefer children to be able to move around at activities at their own pace but know others who encourage children to stay put, you also need to offer children some opportunity to choose their own activities rather than from a range you have preselected.

I have always preferred not to limit an activity to a the number using it except when behaviour is an issue. Children do usually self select re numbers at each activity quite well but you may need to monitor at first.

[Guest]

We give children a book after a couple of weeks - we promote reading for enjoyment so at forst they are books for parents to share with children rather than a book the child shoule read.

 

We don't have activities for children to access when they first arrive so cant answer that one!

 

When we cook we dont charge but we are very lucky to have a large consumables budget and don't do it as often as you.

 

Phonics we do 3 sounds a week we do them as part of literacy - and at other times throughout the day. When you say you are doing phonics for literacy up until Christmas do you mean you wont be looking at any other asects of literacy until after Christmas?

[Guest]

We give the children a sharing book within the first few week so they have something to put in their new book bags! They change those 1-2x a week.Some move onto 'reading books' by haf term, others not until after Christmas, depending on whether we feel they are ready for them.

 

Two years ago we had the children self-registering with photo cards, but haven't so much this year with R/Y1. The children come in, choose a book and sit on the carpet with friends to chat/share books. there is also a visual timetbale on the interacive whiteboard that some chidren look at and others discuss. We have found this is a calmer way of getting the children in and also having time to greet each child as they come onto the carpet area.

 

wedon't have a regular cooking slot, but tend to do the usual porridge/bread/biscuits/soup as the topic/interests dictate. Usually it comes from a school budget as we share it together in school, not take it home.

 

we do between 2-4 jolly phonics sounds a week, depending which sound it is, what else is going on that week, how quickly the children are picking it up (though some get stuck after the first few, so I'm not sure how much point there is in them continuing with it! We actually withdrew 3 of our SEN children from the JP session as it wasn't appropriate for them and they did other sound discrimination type activities/langugae games. Luckily, as we have R/Y1 again this year, they are going to slot in with the R as they are more ready to do JP this year. The most important literacy I think you can do, especially early on, is speaking based, and lots of opportunities/modelling of writing in different areas of the classroom (shopping lists, etc.)

 

We have 'rough' limits for some areas, that do get very crowded; e.g. sand, home corner. Often, role play activities take place wherever the childrne can find a little space/ clothes to put on. I like to let the children decide how long to stay in a certain area, encouraging some of the 'flitterers' to stay and play more productively after a while. My job-share colleague likes the children to stay in a set area for a longer period of time, and doesnt allow them to change for say, 15 minutes.

[Marion]

We give out books without words initially and have a reading readiness policy (adapted from a school in Cheshire who kindly shared it with us) so introduce books with words when we consider children ready over the year, (Its on my memory stick which isnt handy right now but will include later publisher format)

Our children have free movement between activities although we do limit numbers for certain areas.

We cook two sessions a week but dont directly charge for this. We do ask for a contribution of £1 a week for snack and use this to purchase extras like ingredients for cooking.

We do a sound a day and cover most of JP by half term We do this alongside other literacy activities big emphasis on speaking and listening and emergent writing /roleplay.

Edited August 23, 2006 by Marion

[Marion]

Sorry cant attach the file

[Guest]

Marion, When you introduce a new JP sound each day do you do the usual of telling the 'story', singing the song, etc. Do you use small whiteboards/ sheets from handbook to practice writing letters? I'm just interested as we have tried 2-5 sounds a week, with varying classes and varying success! My job share colleague is very keen on the children colouring in the sheet from the handbook whilst talking about the sound and also practising writing it on the back of the sheet (we use yellow pen/highlighter for the children to write over). I don't always feel this is necesary and try to do things like big painted letter formation, sand writing, playdough letter making, etc. I do find it a bit of a bind after a while to 'get through' the sounds and do some more exciting/varied stuff. Perhaps its just me- the children are also keen to know what the new sound is!

[Guest]

Reading books- We give our books out the first week that they are full time. These books are picture books though with no pictures. The children then have these books for around 4 weeks. Then they get books with words when they are ready.

 

I let children move around as they want to. I do have posters up to say 'Two children can play in the sand' etc. and i explain to the children how many are aloud in the roleplay area. Last year i did have to introduce a rule that children could play at a table if there was a chair there for them as i was getting lots of children hoarding round an activity and this encouraged snatching and behaviour bits!

 

Cooking- we like to do lots of cooking, one of my friends schools charges parents £10 for the year. Which we are going to also do. It does sound a bit steep initially so we might ask parents for a amunt per half term- about £2 ish.

 

Jolly Phonics- we intro 3 sounds a week in the suggested order! We do story, song, thinking of words with a 's' in them , names etc. then the children have the adult directed activiites set up for them. The chidlrne are free to move aroudn these activiites, and the we will have a directed activity which hopefully all children will complete. The other activities usually include a 'play' item, starting with the sound, form letter in coloured sand, a malleable activity- making snakes for 's', shaping the clay onto a letter tile to make shape of letter, a fihing game- foam letters in water tray- fish for todays letters, a tracing activity- tracing a picture of something beginning with said letter or a charcater ie. P Postman Pat. etc. then directed will be s for sandwiches or something fun. We always do a 'plenary' (god my head would be proud) of what did you do today, why did we have snakes out and singing songs again. this does not necessarily happen at end of the session- could be start of next. depends. And it is not all serious silent sitting - although my head would love that! lol

[Guest]

Thanks to everyone who replied, your ideas and practice is much appreciated. I am starting to feel a lot more confident about what lies ahead in just under two weeks (sorry to remind everyone!)! .... Or at least we are on the right line!

[Marion]

I first started using JP about 12 years ago and was lucky enough to do some training with Sue Lloyd (the author) she was very much against 'colouring in' the worksheets her suggestion was for the children to be given an instruction such as colour the dog's rag for the 'r' sound sheet or colour the snakes spots for the 's' sound colour the dancers castinettes etc (good listening skills) and let the children complete the colouring at home if they wish. Stops the task dragging on.

 

Sue also recommends 6 letters per week but I have struggled with this and find one a day more managble

 

 

When we introduce the sounds we use the JP story with the board books and the pictures from the freize cut up and laminated (but in PiPs order not JP order)

At this point we don't use the worksheets as the letters are too small for the children's level of pencil control.

Initially we would 'air write' the letters to introduce starting and finishing points and directions. Making sure we reach high and low so we cross the mid point this also provides a good brain break for young children who have short attention spans.

With reception children and more able nursery we do A3 size 'rainbow' letters (outlines of the letter shape with a starting point and direction arrow) the children write the letter inside the outline with as many rainbow colours as they can paying particular attention to starting points and direction.

At the early stages we dont do anything 'small' we have 3 easel type white boards a bit bigger than A2 size the children are encouraged to write one letter to fill the board we also write the letters outside using chalks chunky pens paint and water and only progress to small scale when the children have had lots of experience. We use dough and sand/flour/foam and also the lightbox and a giant letter on the interactive whiteboard.

Our first focus is phonics for reading then writing as children are ready. Usually use the flash cards once the letters have been taught for lining up at lunchtime / home time children say the sound /name then can get ready.

HOW_DO_WE_KNOW_IF_YOUR_CHILD_IS_READY_TO_READ.doc

Edited August 24, 2006 by Marion

[Guest]

That's great, thanks for the attachment!