Dear Parents & Carers,
The summer holidays are a great time to prepare for starting Reception. In particular, we ask that children practise dressing themselves, including buttons, zips and ties, so that they are ready for PE lessons.
Please find below some resources for supporting learning at home.
Literacy:
Drawing is a great way to improve fine motor skills and confidence needed for writing. Encourage children to talk about what is in their pictures.
It is important for reading and writing that children are able to hear the sounds in words and connect these to letters. The videos below show children at Cathedral School saying the letter sounds and demonstrating how to ‘sound-talk’ simple words.
* Practise asking for things in sound talk when playing or at the dinner table and encourage your child to use their ‘robot arms’ to help distinguish each sound (e.g. “please can I have the c-u-p?”).
* Practise writing in different mediums, e.g. a tray of sand, salt or shaving foam; or use chalks or big brushes and water to write on the floor outside.
* Encourage your child to write and draw for different reasons, such as writing cards to friends and relatives, or helping to write a shopping list. Labelling their pictures using phonic knowledge is a good way to introduce writing into drawing activities.
* Encourage independent reading by asking children to make predictions about stories and describe what they see in the pictures in more detail, or ask them to tell you their own story.
* Hunt for letters and sounds that they know in books or on signs outside and try playing phonics ‘I spy’, listening out for the initial sounds in words.
* Please follow the link for the letter formation used in school. Letter Formation
* Please follow the link for the letter names and sounds that have been taught in Nursery, with a guide to pronunciation. Letter Names and Sounds for parents.
Maths:
* Introduce addition and subtraction into play, e.g. by inviting toys to a tea party. “Three more teddies have come to the party, how many are there now?” Use mathematical vocabulary such as ‘add’ and ‘equals’ when playing.
* Mathematical questions to ask when playing with small world toys:
Can you share with your sister? How can we make it fair?
Which ones are the same/different?
Can you put them in size order?
Can you make a pattern with your dinosaurs? (Big, small, big, small)
Can you find a dinosaur taller than this one?
How many green cars have you got? How many red? Can you add them up/How many altogether?
* Create games around finding and writing numbers, e.g. rolling a dice and counting the spots, then finding that numeral in the room or chalked on the floor outside.
* Practise counting actions, e.g. “how many times can you hop on one foot?” “how many steps are there to our house?”
* Please follow the link to some number songs and rhymes we sing at Nursery: Nursery Counting Songs
Online resources and Apps:
* Youtube videos from ‘KidsTV123’ have fun and accurate songs about shape and number. Their ‘Phonics Song 2’ is also useful as the sounds are pronounced correctly.
* Sing along with Jolly Phonics Songs on Youtube and think about other words that begin with the sound in the song.
* The ‘Pocket Phonics’ app supports letter formation and helps children match sounds to letters.
I hope you find these resources and suggestions useful and fun! Please share in the comments section any activities your child has enjoyed.
Best wishes,
Miss Dace
