Literacy
We use Development Matters to plan for the different ages and stages:
Reading
30 - 50 months:
– Enjoys rhyming and rhythmic activities.
– Listens to and joins in with stories and poems, one-to-one and also in small groups.
– Joins in with repeated refrains and anticipates key events and phrases in rhymes and stories.
– Beginning to be aware of the way stories are structured.
– Suggests how the story might end.
– Listens to stories with increasing attention and recall.
– Describes main story settings, events and principal characters.
– Shows interest in illustrations and print in books and print in the environment.
– Recognises familiar words and signs such as own name and advertising logos.
– Looks at books independently.
– Handles books carefully.
– Knows information can be relayed in the form of print.
– Holds books the correct way up and turns pages.
– Knows that print carries meaning and, in English, is read from left to right and top to bottom.
40 - 60 months:
• Continues a rhyming string.
• Hears and says the initial sound in words.
• Can segment the sounds in simple words and blend them together and knows which letters represent some of them.
• Links sounds to letters, naming and sounding the letters of the alphabet.
•Begins to read words and simple sentences.
•Uses vocabulary and forms of speech that are increasingly influenced by their experiences of books.
• Enjoys an increasing range of books.
•Knows that information can be retrieved from books and computers.
Early Learning Goal (the aim for most children by the end of Reception):
Children read and understand simple sentences. They use phonic knowledge to decode regular words and read them aloud accurately. They also read some common irregular words. They demonstrate understanding when talking with others about what they have read.
Exceeding in reading (the aim for some children by the end of Reception):
Children can read phonically regular words of more than one syllable as well as many irregular but high frequency words. They use phonic, semantic and syntactic knowledge to understand unfamiliar vocabulary. They can describe the main events in the simple stories they have read.
Writing
30 - 50 months:
– Sometimes gives meaning to marks as they draw and paint.
– Ascribes meanings to marks that they see in different place.
40 - 60 months:
•Gives meaning to marks they make as they draw, write and paint.
•Begins to break the flow of speech into words.
•Continues a rhyming string.
•Hears and says the initial sound in words.
•Can segment the sounds in simple words and blend them together.
•Links sounds to letters, naming and sounding the letters of the alphabet.
•Uses some clearly identifiable letters to communicate meaning, representing some sounds correctly and in sequence.
•Writes own name and other things such as labels,captions.
•Attempts to write short sentences in meaningful contexts.
Early Learning Goal (the aim for most children by the end of Reception):
Children use their phonic knowledge to write words in ways which match their spoken sounds. They also write some irregular common words. They write simple sentences which can be read by themselves and others. Some words are spelt correctly and others are phonetically plausible.
Exceeding in writing (the aim for some children by the end of Reception):
Children can spell phonically regular words of more than one syllable as well as many irregular but high frequency words. They use key features of narrative in their own writing.
In Nursery we concentrate on developing the pre reading and writing skills that children need before learning to read and write. This is closely linked to the Prime areas of learning, particularly Communication and Language and Physical Development. Children’s writing develops through several stages before they are ready and able to form letters that are recognisable. This becomes our focus towards the end of Nursery into the children's Reception year.
In Reception we use our Phase 2,3 and 4 phonic knowledge to begin to make recognisable letters when writing. We practise segmenting to write words and begin to join words together to write a sentence. We find out about finger spaces and begin to use them when writing.
The early years are crucial to developing a lifelong love of reading; at St John the Baptist Catholic Primary School we want to ensure that children learn to read so that they can then read to learn.
During the Autumn Term we encourage the Nursery children to listen to and play with sounds, the sounds they can hear in the environment and in spoken words as part of our daily phonics sessions. The Reception children begin their Phase 2 phonics (see phonics page) and also begin Literacy focus sessions where they begin to retell stories, sequence the events and ask and answer questions about the characters. We share books and rhymes regularly and encourage children to talk about what they can see and hear.
Throughout the year books both fiction and non fiction are in high profile around the setting to support different areas of learning e.g dinosaur and animal books in small world areas, alphabet books in the writing area.
We teach the children about book skills and the need to care for them.The stories we will use during the Autumn term include The Rainbow fish, Tiddler, The Great Explorer and Polar Bear, Polar Bear, what can you hear?
During the Spring term we will focus on the books: The Gruffalo, Room on the Broom, Jack and the Beanstalk and The Three Little Pigs.
We use methods such as drama, role play, puppets, masks and story sacks to support our teaching. We draw attention to story book language and ensure that children have the opportunity to retell the story. Through many activities we build on the children’s language and understanding skills which are necessary to support their writing.
From very early on we encourage children to recognise their own name through e.g self registration and names on pegs and encourage them to note print in the environment.