Ideas of how to help your
child with literacy; phonics,
reading and writing.
Reception Parents/Carers
11/10/16
Phonics, reading and writing.
At the end of reception children are assessed against the Early Learning Goal
(ELG) in each of the 17 areas of learning. There are three judgements:
Emerging, Expected and Exceeding.
ELG for Writing
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.
ELG for Reading
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.
Phonics
Children should be working in (or aim to be secure in!) Phase 4 by the end of
Reception. For expectations for each phase please see Page 3 of this hand-out.
2
Phonics expectations for Phases
Please see below for the expectations of ‘secure’ in each phase of phonics.
Phase 1: Children will be able to distinguish between speech sounds and many will be able to
blend and segment words orally. Some will also be able to recognise spoken words that rhyme
and will be able to provide a string of rhyming words.
Phase 2: Children should be able to…
 Give the sound when show any Phase 2 letter.
 Orally blend and segment CVC words.
 Blend and segment in order to read and spell VC words e.g. if, am, on, up and
‘silly names’ such as ip, ug, ock.
 Read Phase 2 tricky words.
Phase 3: Children should be able to:
 Give the sound when shown all or most of Phase 2 and Phase 3 graphemes..
 Find all or most Phase 2 or Phase 3 graphemes, from a display, when given the
sound.
 Blend and read CVC words (i.e. single-syllable words consisting of Phase 2 and
Phase 3 graphemes) e.g. pain, weep, hurt
 Be able to segment and make a phonemically plausible attempt at spelling CVC
words (i.e. single-syllable words consisting of Phase 2 and Phase 3 graphemes)
 Be able to read Phase 3 tricky words
 Be able to spell Phase 2 tricky words
 Write each letter correctly when following a model
Phase







3
4: Children should be able to…
Give the sound when shown any Phase 2 and Phase 3 grapheme
Find any Phase 2 and Phase 3 grapheme, from a display, when given a sound.
Be able to blend and read words containing adjacent consonants.
Be able to segment and spell words containing adjacent consonants.
Be able to read Phase 4 tricky words.
Be able to spell Phase 3 tricky words.
Write each letter, usually correctly.
Ideas for supporting your child and useful information!
Supports with fine motor development
Play dough
Cooked recipe:
1 cup plain flour
½ cup salt
2 tablespoons cream of tartar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup water with food colouring added
1 teaspoon vanilla essence/other essences (optional but it makes the play dough smell nice!)
Put all the ingredients into a large saucepan, and stir over a medium heat until the dough
forms into a ball. Allow to cool, and then knead until smooth.
Store in an airtight container (a Ziploc bag with the air pressed out is good). This recipe will
keep for a few of weeks at least.
**You can also add herbs, scented oils or food colouring!**
1 Minute Play dough recipe: (not cooked)
Your will need:





1/2 cup of salt
1 cup of flour
1 tablespoon of cream of tartar
1 tablespoon of oil
1 cup of boiling water (from the kettle) mixed with
some food colouring.
What to do:
Put all the dry ingredients in a bowl and then mix vigorously with the hot water. Cool and
then store in an airtight container/bag.
There are lots of literacy opportunities when using play dough!
1. Use dough to make sausage shapes and form into letters. Can your child spell their name out of play dough
letters?
2. Can they make some simple words out of play dough? Eg cat, dog, jam?
4
Messy play
Ideas for messy play:










Ice
Shaving foam
Gloop, (corn flour, mixed with water)
Jelly or Jelly baff, (which can be bought in toy shops or you could make
your own)
Sand
Soapy water
Moon dough (5 cups of plain flour and 1 cup of baby oil)
Salt
Flour
Rice
What you can do with / in messy play
 Hide plastic letters
o What letter have you found?
o Can we make a word with the letters you have found?
 Hide objects
o Can they find all the objects beginning with ‘b’ .
 Write letters
o Great opportunity to practice letter formation
5
Letters!
Flashcards – simply cards with letters or words on them! Useful for...
 Recognising letters and linking them to their sounds or names
 Building words – putting letter cards together to spell simple words
 Building sentences – putting word cards together
 Playing ‘Snap!’ or pairs.
Magnetic letters – put them on your fridge or freezer. Useful because…
 They are visible and always accessible
o Recognising letters
 They can be moved making them great for building words and ‘pressure
free’ (mistakes can be easily rectified).
 You can write messages to people in your household – showing a purpose to
writing!
Alphabet frieze
 The child will see it frequently – good for recognising letters
 There are pictures to support with initial sounds
6
Online games or ‘Apps’ for tablets
There are lots of available online games or free apps that can support reading,
writing and phonics.
Here are some that we recommend:
Online






games – games that can be played independently or with your support
www.phonicsplay.co.uk
www.letters-and-sounds.com
www.crickweb.co.uk/Early-Years.html
www.ictgames.com
http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/interactive/literacy.html
www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/alphablocks/games/alphablocks-games/
Online




resources – things that you can download and print
www.familylearning.org.uk/
www.twinkl.co.uk
www.letters-and-sounds.com
http://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/ - you need to sign up in order to access lots of free ebooks
Apps
 Twinkl Phonics – there are separate apps for the different phases in phonics.
o Includes letter formation, high frequency words, buried treasure game, word
building
 Read with Biff, Chip and Kipper: Library
o Access to a few simple books that you can read with your child or they can
read to you!
 Cbeebies
o Alphablocks game for choosing letters to build words
7
Reading activities
 Make an alphabet or key words treasure hunt!
o Draw the individual letters or words on paper and hide them around the house. Give
your child a copy of the alphabet/key words as a checklist and help them tick off
each one as they find them.
 Share your child’s school reading book daily.
o Encourage them to sound out and blend the words.
o Remind them of any tricky words such as; the, go, to, as they cannot sound these
words out.
 Read for enjoyment!
o Share a book, fiction or non-fiction, with your child.
o Read it to them and talk about it with them – but don’t pressure them into
reading it themselves.
When reading with your child, make the experience interactive – does your child understand
what they have read? Ask questions about the story, the pictures and what they think of the
characters.
Some children like revisiting the same book over and over – this is perfectly normal!
 Encourage your child to read names and labels in the environment, when out and about,
for example in a supermarket or in town.
 Visit and join a library. It is FREE!!
o Borrow books to share at home or
o Enjoy the experience of being surrounded by books – share books in the library.
 Make some matching words and pictures.
o Write down some simple words on strips of paper such as cat, dog, ship, fox,
pan, rain.
o Draw (or cut out from magazines/newspapers) some matching pictures on
separate pieces of paper.
o Mix them up and then try to match them up by reading the words and finding
the matching picture!
 Cooking
o Read the recipe together.
o Then maybe write your own for something new you have cooked!
 Draw attention to writing around the house for children to read such as favourite
cereals, names on letters, the name of your street, their friend’s streets.
8
Writing activities
 Mark Making opportunities
o Get a big roll of wall paper – plain lining wall paper is inexpensive. Roll it out
– outside, secure the corners with something heavy and experiment with
different ways to make marks on the paper. – why not try hand and foot
prints, rolling toy cars through paint and then taking them for a drive across
the paper or make prints using natural objects such as fir cones or leaves.
o If you have any outdoor space at home use some chalks and get your child to
write their name on the paving slabs!
o Mark making and writing with big paint brushes dipped in water is also great
fun outside on paving slabs!
o Provide your child with a variety of writing tools as well as pencils, why not
try crayons and pens and biros to write with. Children also love writing on a
wide variety of bits of paper, card and envelopes. Post-it notes are also great
to write words on.
 Writing for a purpose
o Has a friend or family member got a birthday coming up? Can your child
write in a birthday cards, practicing writing To……. Love from …….
o Provide you child with small pieces of paper for them to help write a shopping
list. If you say the items, the children can sound them out and write down the
sounds they can hear.
o Can your child write a letter to family member that is far away?
o Perhaps they could write an email?
o Drawing a family picture and writing labels with their names
o Ask your child to hide some things in the house and then write clues as to
where to find them
o Write signs for around the home e.g. ‘My bedroom’, ‘Mum’s bedroom’ etc.
o Drawing a map to someone’s house and writing labels on it
9
Recommended books for reading to / with your child!
Julia Donaldson books
 The Gruffalo
 Smartest Giant in Town
 Monkey Puzzle
 Room on the Broom
 Cave Baby


















10
Each Peach Pear Plum – Janet and Allan Ahlberg
The Jolly Postman - Janet and Allan Ahlberg
Dear Zoo – Rod Campbell
The Very Hungry Caterpillar – Eric Carle
Guess How Much I Love You?
Princess Smartpants – Babette Cole
Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy – Lynley Dodd
Dogger – Shirley Hughes
Lost and Found – Oliver Jeffers
The Tiger Who Came to Tea – Judith Kerr
Mog the Forgetful Cat (from the Mog series) – Judith Kerr
Not Now, Bernard – David McKee
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt – Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury
A Bear Called Paddington – Michael Bond
Amazing – Mary Hoffman and Caroline Binch
Winnie the Pooh series – A.A. Milne
The Sheep Pig – Dick King Smith
Matilda (or any Roald Dahl books) – Roald Dahl