Helping your child to… Read - River Beach School · Helping your child to… Read At River Beach,...

Helping your child to…

Read

At River Beach, we teach your children to read using the Read, Write, Inc. (RWInc) phonics scheme by Ruth Miskin.

We begin by teaching sounds, then we teach the children how to blend these sounds together into words. We hope you can help at home too!

Sounds Children learn sounds first. For example:

‘mmm’ for mum, mouse, mountain, mat ‘a’ for apple, ant, and ‘sssss’ for snake, sister, sea, silly ‘t’ for tower, tall, tidy, tickle ‘d’ for dinosaur, dad, dig, dog

Each RWInc sound card has a picture to help the children remember it:

m = maisie mountain mountain a = apple s = slither down the snake

We practice our sounds all the time so whenever the children see ‘m’ they know it makes a ‘mmmm’ sound. You can help by pointing to different sounds and asking your child what it says!

Some sounds have special friends - this is when 2 letters join together and make 1 sound. Whenever

you see these sounds stuck together, you know they are special friends.

Eg s & h together always make sh sh (ship) ch (chips) th (three)

qu (queen) nk (sink) ng (wing)

Fred Talk and Blending When the children know the sounds, we can begin reading. First we have to Fred Talk (sound out each sound) then blend (this is when we join sounds together to make words).

If the children see the word cat, they Fred Talk (sound it out) c-a-t, then blend it into the word ‘cat’.

Eg Fred talk m + a + t then blend = mat sh-o-p = shop th-a-nk = thank w-i-n = win

It is really important to practice Fred Talk and blending - this is the trickiest part of learning to read. You can help your child by sounding out words while you are talking.

They will love you talking like Fred!!! Parent: Where is the d-o-g? Child: d-o-g = dog! Parent: Can you get your h-a-t? Child: h-a-t = hat!

Green words - most words are ‘Green’ - this means we can sound them out and blend them together. d-a-d b-i-n h-o-t s-i-t s-o-ng c-u-p m-u-m th-i-ng w-i-nk j-u-g

But, some words don’t work! These are Red Words. You just have to learn these words - if you try to sound them out and blend them together, it doesn't make sense! the I my he she you said was

Helping your child to…

Write

Forming letters

As your child learns to recognise and read the sounds, we also teach them how to write.

You can help your child by showing them how to hold their pencil correctly. We begin by learning how to form each sound. Each RWInc sound card has a picture and rhyme, which helps the children know how to write that sound.

m - ‘mmmm’ - maisie mountain mountain - start at the top, draw down maisie, over the mountain and over the next mountain. a - ‘a’ - apple - start at the top, draw round the apple, and down the leaf. t - ‘t’ - tower - start at the top, draw down the tower, then across the tower. s - ’sssss’ - snake - start at the top, slither down the snake.

You can help by practising the letter formation sheets we send home.

Writing words

Now your child can read some words and form the letters correctly, they can start to write words too!

First, the children need to Fred Talk! If they want to write the word ‘cat’ they need to sound it

out like Fred would! cat = c-a-t We use Fred Fingers to help us know which sounds we need to write.

How many sounds is cat? c-a-t = 3 sounds = put 3 fingers up. Tap each finger as you say each sound c - a - t. Now you can write it!

You can help by reminding your child to use their Fred Fingers and Fred Talk the word before

they start to write it. Then, make sure they are holding their pencil correctly!

c

a

t

Websites for extra tips and information: CBeebies Alphablocks is a great phonics game for learning sounds and blending www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/alphablocks RWInc Ruth Miskin training website www.ruthmiskintraining.com Oxford University Press resources and information for parents www.oup.com

Helping your child to learn Spell

Red Words cannot be sounded out like most words (green words). We need to learn these words off by heart. Each week, as well as sending home sheets for you to practise the sounds with your children (eg: m, a, s, d...) we will also send home 4 red words. Please help your child learn these words by showing the words to them regularly at home, and pointing them out if you see the words when you’re out and about—at the shops maybe—or when you come across them in story books. Say “that’s a red word, it says…” You can also support your child by helping them learn to write the word. The children can be told the sounds they need for red words, they can’t sound them out themselves.

This week’s Red Words...

the the the the

you you you you

my my my my

to to to to

This week’s

Red Words

no no no no

I I I I

said said said said

your your your your

Remember to keep practising how

to read and write last week’s red

words too!

the you my to

This week’s

Red Words

he he he he

she she she she

of of of of

me me me me

These are the red words we have

learnt so far:

the you my to no I

said your

This week’s

Red Words

are are are are

go go go go

all all all all

be be be be

How many of these can you read?

the you my to no I

said your he she of

me

Red Words

1. the

2. you

3. my

4. to

5. no

6. I

7. said

8. your

9. he

10. she

11. of

12. me

13. are

14. go

15. all

16. be