Phonics and reading
Pre-school children are fascinated by books, sounds, and letters and we are very keen to support and encourage this at home. The details below demonstrate what your child will be taught in preschool, and how you can help prepare your child for their journey to Reception.
Phases in phonics
Your child has begun to learn phonics. In preschool, we will use the Twinkl Phonics programme and some aspects of Sounds-Write, which develops children’s abilities to listen, make, explore and talk about sounds. Sounds are explored and developed through games to practise:
Tuning in to sounds (auditory discrimination)
Listening and remembering sounds (auditory memory and sequencing)
Talking about sounds (developing vocabulary and language comprehension)
At Fairfield Community Preschool, we aim to give our children the best possible start and will begin to work on phonics when your child is ready. They will be given lots of opportunities in our play-based setting to develop their understanding of sounds. They will learn to segment and blend to read consonant vowel consonant (CVC) words (e.g. cat)
It is essential that your child practises phonics learned in our setting, as this will help them to develop a love of language at home. We also recommend that you share books, listen to sounds, and make and talk about sounds with your child, in addition to sharing and reciting nursery rhymes.
Twinkl Phonics – Phase 1
Twinkl phonics covers 7 aspects of phonics which are taught through games/activities in large and small groups.
The 7 aspects are listed below:
Environmental sounds
Instrumental sounds
Body percussion (e.g. clapping and stamping)
Rhythm and rhyme
Alliteration.
Voice sounds.
Oral blending and segmenting (e.g. hearing that d-o-g makes 'dog')
In the Summer Term, your child will also begin some activities from the Sounds-Write phonics programme in preparation for their reception year.
Sounds- Write
The Sounds-Write programme begins with the sounds in speech and moves from the sounds to the written language. It uses pure sounds to enable children to blend the sounds to read words effectively. Please see the video below showing the pronunciation of the first set of sounds we will be teaching your child in preschool/reception.
Book list
Below is a recommended book list for preschool children. These are books that will engage your child with reading by building their language and their sound knowledge through listening and are fun books to enjoy as a family at home.
Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen
The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr
Where’s Spot by Eric Hill
Each Peach Pear Plum by Allan Ahlberg
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
The Elephant and the Bad Baby by Elfrida Vipont
Dogger by Shirley Hughes
Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson
I Want My Potty! by Tony Ross
Ten Little Fingers Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? By Bill Martin Jr and Eric Carle
Come on Daisy by Jane Simmons
Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell
Hairy Maclary by Lynley Dodd
Hug by Jez Alborough
Jaspers Beanstalk by Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen
The Train Ride by June Crebbin and Stephen Lambert
You Choose by Nick Sharratt and Pippa Goodhart
Many more book titles can be found here https://www.booktrust.org.uk/booklists/1/100-best-0-5/