Overview of learning 12

Example of literacy planning and resourcing 12

What we want children to learn (Development matters)

Use their phonic knowledge to read simple regular words and make plausible attempts at longer or more complex words
Read a range of familiar and common words and simple sentences independently

Related Early Learning Goals

Move with control and coordination (PD)
Recognise numerals 1 to 9 (MD)

Possible contexts

Use books, rhymes, music, songs and poetry.
Provide collections of favourite stories/rhymes for regular rereading and getting to know.
Provide a variety of texts in the environment inside and outside.
Play games involving word recognition, for example matching words to pictures.
Make books and displays.
Use children's name cards, for example for self-registration, copying to write onto own pictures, copying for sending notes and messages.
Use signs and labels purposefully.
Use word banks and collections of words.
Use wooden or magnetic letters for play in the environment, for example on boards, in water - they float and can be fished out - or buried in sand to find.

Example of adult-led activities

Context: Games, making a challenge trail

Invite the children to make a challenge trail for everyone to enjoy outdoors. Ask them to gather up the chalk they will need to mark off spaces, metre rulers to help with the lines, and cards and pens to write large signs for the challenges.

Ask the children all the different ways they can move: crawl, hop, run, skip, jog, jump, etc. As they say the words, write them in a list so that they can be remembered, and model segmenting the sounds. Ask some children to write the words on the cards for signs.

Chalk out spaces for the challenge trail outdoors. Number each challenge and link them with arrows. Put up the signs so that children know what the challenge is in that area and three numbers for options of what challenge they would like to go for. Add a sound mat to make the challenges more fun or more challenging.

Support the children in having a go at reading the signs and numbers (the numbers could be written in words as well as numerals). Mix them up regularly so the challenge trail changes and they need to keep reading. Add in new signs and numbers and encourage the children to do this too.

Capture the children's successes with photographs, and write underneath in pencil the challenge they did and the number of times they managed. Laminate these and display outside by hanging on a fence or shed.

Adult role

Develop children's phonological awareness through games, music, songs and rhymes.
Pay attention to print. Make reading strategies overt.
Model reading strategies when reading.
Use children's own writing/mark making as a basis for reading.
Run your finger under text or point out/find words together when reading.
Provide familiar texts with short sentences that are enjoyable and can be committed to memory.
Involve the children in identifying letters by their sounds.
Play games that encourage letter recognition and blending CVC words.
Help children build up the sounds in words.
Provide opportunities for linking language with physical movement in action songs and rhymes.

Opportunities for children to explore and apply

Use a large phoneme frame with groups of children and give them small magnetic ones of their own, so that they become more confident in using their phonic knowledge in spelling.

Demonstrate writing so that children can see spelling in action. Encourage them to apply their own knowledge of sounds to what they write.

Encourage children to recall words they see frequently, such as 'welcome', own and friends' names, 'open' and 'bus stop'.

Play word bingo to develop children's grapheme correspondence, so that they can rapidly decode words.

Make books regularly. For example, as a follow-up to the adult-led activity make zigzag books: encourage the children to write a different action on each page of their book.

Make 'I can' zigzag books, for example 'I can jog'. They can support their sentence with a photograph or drawing. They could add a numeral for the number of times they were able to carry out the action. Take home to celebrate their achievements.

Adult role

Make a language and literacy rich environment. For an audit see Early Reading Audit.
Plan an environment that reflects the importance of language through signs, notices and books.
Develop children's phonological awareness through games, music, songs and rhymes.
Pay attention to print. Make reading strategies overt.
Model reading strategies when reading.
Use children's own writing/mark making as a basis for reading.
Run your finger under text or point out/find words together when reading.
Provide familiar texts with short sentences that are enjoyable and can be committed to memory.
Involve the children in identifying letters by their sounds.
Play games that encourage letter recognition and blending CVC words.
Help children build up the sounds in words.
Provide opportunities for linking language with physical movement in action songs and rhymes.

Look, listen and note

How do children use initial sounds at the beginning, short vowel sounds within words and endings of words? For example: Ranjit notices the letters in his name whenever he sees them, such as 'j' at the beginning of jam.
Which children are confident in using segmenting and blending skills and phoneme-grapheme knowledge to read and spell regular CVC words?
Observe the ways in which children use their phonic knowledge and the number of phonemes and graphemes children know and recognise in a variety of contexts.

Assessment opportunities

Can children recognise their own name, for example on a name card?
Observe children playing with and identifying sounds in words, for example noticing when a sound is the same as a sound in their name or a friend's name, playing with rhyme or alliteration.
Observe how children increasingly recognise letters and identify their sounds in words, for example noticing familiar letters in books and identifying their sounds.
Observe children beginning to recognise some words by sight.
Observe children adopting the behaviour of a reader, for example holding a book, turning the pages, using the language of texts or intonation in retelling.
Look at children using print in the environment: are they following simple written instructions with picture cues, for example in cooking?
Observe whether children are able to attempt to read unfamiliar words and the strategies they use.
Are children able to read short sentences?