Synthetic phonics in nurseries - three to four year olds!

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debbie
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Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 2:28 pm
Location: UK

Synthetic phonics in nurseries - three to four year olds!

Post by debbie »

When I visit schools, I am finding that they are starting their phonics teaching in their nurseries - with the three to four year olds.

I have never advocated teaching phonics to three year olds in nursery settings although I appreciate that one of my boys taught himself all the letter/s-sound correspondences in 'The Phonics Handbook' (Jolly Learning) when he was three and a half. In one month he knew the simple code to automaticity and could blend and segment words with consonant clusters in with no difficulty. Then he used to 'act them out'.

He would blend words like 'frog' and then jump round the room like a frog saying 'ribbit'.....

Anyway, I'm now working on providing some material with the three to four year olds in mind and consulting with nursery teachers wherever I visit.

If anyone has any suggestions or requests for resources, please let me know via this thread! :wink:
Debbie Hepplewhite
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debbie
Posts: 2596
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 2:28 pm
Location: UK

Post by debbie »

In England, in the government's guidance manual 'Letters and Sounds', teachers are expected to do lots of 'sound' work with the three to four year olds - activities such as sounds in the environment, musical sounds, body sounds, sounds in words, language play with rhyme and alliteration and so on.

There is a distinct avoidance of any guidance which includes the actual LETTER SHAPES however.

In the nurseries I have visited, the 'sound' work also includes looking at letter shapes and their corresponding sounds.

This may well be a continuation of what nurseries were introducing prior to 'Letters and Sounds' being published - so that in these settings the routines have been established to teach some letters and their corresponding sounds.

These nurseries all report that the children enjoy their phonics and that whilst some children are simply being 'exposed' to the knowledge and skills, other children make remarkable progress.

A common comment from teachers is that the parents of the children were already introducing letters and sounds to their children - so the setting may as well undertake this type of teaching where there is harmony about it between parents and teaching staff and where the children clearly thrive on it and are not force-fed!
Debbie Hepplewhite
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