Reception Curriculum
Evening
24th October 2012
The Early Years Foundation Stage
Just a reminder…
• The Early Years Foundation Stage ensures there
is consistency in provision for children from birth to
five.
• We provide the foundations for future learning.
• ‘Early Learning Goals’ are set within this framework –
the knowledge, skills and understanding that children
should have acquired by the end of their first year at
school.
• The ‘Early Learning Goals’ are based around
seven areas of learning and development.
Seven areas of
learning and development
Prime areas
• Communication and language
• Physical development
• Personal, social and emotional development
Specific areas
• Literacy development
• Mathematics
• Understanding the world
• Expressive arts and design
Communication and language
Speaking and listening
• Unlocks the door to reading and writing!
• The more words children know and understand
before they start phonics work the better
equipped they are to succeed.
• Stories, rhymes, drama and songs fire
children’s imagination and interest and
encourage them to talk a lot, increase their
vocabulary and improve their use and
choice of words.
To be a successful reader and
writer…
Ingredients:
Phonics
Letter formation
Key
words
Speaking
and
listening
Time to practise
A successful reader can…
• Use a range of strategies with a strong
emphasis on phonics
• Recognise high frequency words, many of
which cannot be sounded out phonetically
• Look at context and other clues to assist in
understanding text
E.g. Using pictures
Reading
At school
• Individual, group and shared reading
• Phonics sessions and high frequency words
• Oxford Reading Tree (ORT) is our main scheme
At home
• Sharing and talking about books, rhymes and stories
• Look at and talk about printed language in their
environment, on food packets, road signs, labels and
leaflets
• Read ‘target’ books and write in the reading diary
What is phonics?
• Phonics involves teaching how to connect the sounds
of spoken English with letters or groups of letters.
E.g. a says a.
• Although there are 26 letters in the alphabet there
are 44 phonemes in the English Language.
• A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a word.
E.g. c-a-t
• We use a letter or a group of letters to represent
these sounds (grapheme – how it is written).
E.g. c-a-t
• Pure sounds – don’t add ‘uh’!
Phonics
• We follow the ‘Letters and Sounds’
programme with ‘Cued Articulation’ signs to
support.
• ‘Letters and Sounds’ is a six phase
programme that aims to ensure that by the
end of KS1 children develop fluent word
reading skills and have good foundations in
spelling.
• Daily 20 minute sessions.
Letters and Sounds
Phase 1
•
•
•
Activities to promote speaking and listening skills
Phonological awareness
Oral blending and segmenting. Sound talk!
•
•
•
Learning to pronounce sounds in response to letters
Blending sounds for reading
Segmenting words for spelling
•
•
•
Completes teaching of the alphabet
Introduces sounds represented by more than one letter
Begin learning at least one representation for each of the 44 sounds
•
•
•
•
Learning to blend and read words containing adjacent consonants
Learning to segment and spell words containing adjacent consonants
Read and spell the tricky words
Write each letter, usually correctly
Phase 2
Phase 3
Phase 4
What does ‘learning a letter’ involve?
• Recognising the shape of the letter from
other letter shapes
• Recognising and articulating a sound
(phoneme) associated with the letter shape
• Recalling the shape of the letter when given
its sound
• Writing the shape of the letter with the
correct movement
• Naming the letter
Phonics at home
Sounds sent home each week:
• Cued articulation action and letter
shape
• Correct letter formation
• Letters to cut out for word games
• Words for reading and spelling
High Frequency Words
• Sight words should be read ‘automatically’
(improves the fluency of reading)
• Some can be sounded out and some can’t be sounded out
(tricky words)
High frequency words at home
• Sets of words sent home will mainly consist of tricky
words
• Children need to recognise these words automatically
• Keep in book bags
Suggested activities:
• Matching games
• Flash cards
• Spot the words in stories
A Successful Writer
• Children begin with ‘wiggles and
squiggles’.
• They begin to ascribe meaning to these
marks.
• Increasingly use phonic knowledge and
letter formation in their writing.
• Write simple ‘CVC’ words as knowledge
increases.
‘Wiggles and
squiggles’
Letters
with
meaning
Beginning to use phonic knowledge
Writing
simple
words
What you can do to help!
• Encourage your child to draw, paint etc.
• Show children your writing, shopping lists, things to
do, cards.
• Make scrap books, write postcards, party invitations.
• Develop fine motor skills by cutting, sewing, dot-todots etc.
• Encourage your child to have a go and praise all of
their efforts!
Mathematics
Children will have opportunities to:
• Experience counting games, number rhymes, songs
and stories
• Count objects
• Learn the order of numbers
• Recognise numerals
• Write numerals correctly
• Sort and match objects by colour, size and shape
• Recognise and recreate patterns
• Use mathematical understanding to solve practical
problems
Addition
Subtraction
Multiplication
Division
Maths at home
• Point out numbers around you, on houses, cars,
television channels, cookers and microwaves,
• Say number names in order as you climb the
stairs, count teddies on a bed, plates on the
table.
• Compare quantities, who has the most sweets,
which shopping bag is heavier?
• We will regularly send home a challenge linked
to what we have been learning about at school.
Any questions?