Letters and Sounds: resources for phonics

The Letters and Sounds webpage

This site is used by the teachers in the Reception classes at my school (and undoubtedly many other British schools) and provides resources to help with the introduction of phonics to 4-5 year old children and onwards. In general, nursery classes (3-4 year old children) follow Phase 1 and reception (4-5 year old children) classes follow Phase 2 & Phase 3. Phase 1 is the listening and communicating stage and Phase 2 onwards starts to introduce letters and their sounds.

Jolly Phonics sound and actions

I'm really enjoying teaching phonics to my nursery class. They follow the Jolly Phonics programme, which links an action to the letter sound. All the kids like doing them, and many spontaneously produce them when they hear the sounds alone. I think its a really good way for kids to remember English sounds.
http://jollylearning.co.uk/2010/11/03/jolly-phonics-actions/

Help your kids with school work: Sparklebox 家で英語を教える

イギリスの小学校の先生がこのウエブ・ページをよく使っています。
フォニクス、数字、理科などいろいろプリント・アウトでいるの。
使ってみて！
今娘が宇宙について勉強しているなので、Sparkleboxで宇宙を検索して、宇宙のポスター、宇宙飛行士のマスク、宇宙人の粘土マットとか印刷した。娘かなり気に入った。

http://www.sparklebox.co.uk/

Absolutely super website used by primary school teachers for ideas in Maths, English, Science...everything!!
Reinforce what your kids study at school by helping them at home too.
All kinds of resources can be printed out and they all look so good.

Right now my daughter's doing space at school, so we've printed out a space banner, astronauts for a rocket and space-themed playdough mats, just to name a few!!

Really, really check it out.

http://www.sparklebox.co.uk/

Montessori tools: alphabet cards and the senses

Montessori classrooms have sandpaper letters which help children learn the alphabet. The individual letters are made from sandpaper and each pasted onto a square board. Not only can children see and arrange the letters freely, but they can learn the alphabet through touch.The added sensation  further enhances the learning experience, according to Maria Montessori.

Today I made not sandpaper letters but tinfoil ones stuck onto pink cardboard squares (recycled from packaging) I made my daughter's name in English and Japanese. She was quite enamored with them and lined them up on the dining table, then the coffee table. She is quite into seeing her name now. Friends have given her pictures for her birthday with her name written on it, and I've also been sewing her name into her clothes for starting at nursery.

Now could be the start of her sensitive period for letters...I'll keep an eye on how things go.

Great books for little ones: Kipper the Dog and Maisy the Mouse

I teach rhythmic English classes to Japanese toddlers. We play with balls, practice tidying up, sing songs, do crafts and have story time.
I often think it needs a bit of care choosing books for non-English speakers. It's very important to choose colourful, eye catching books with pictures that tell the story. Often there is a whole lot of reading to do with just one picture on the page. It cant hold kids' attention for too long at the toddler age. And at this age, I think the same is true for English speaking kids. See the picture, understand the situation, hear words that repeat what they see. Of course a good storyteller can also add questions, make noises and embellish on the text as much as he likes.
Today we read Kipper in the Snow, part of the Kipper the Dog series. It's aimed at 3-5 year olds although I think they are fine for 2 year olds too. The pictures are clear and tell the story. It's a great book for teaching about weather and winter activities. I really like all the books from this series. It's also a tv series too, and can be found on DVD. We also used Maisy's Weather book for the older kids today. This has lovely pop up parts and spinning parts to change the pictures. Really great for showing what activities are done in different kinds of weather.

What does this say, darling?

I think kids learning English should be able to read their text books. I'm talking from my experience in teaching English as a second language, but the same must be true for native language learners too. If they can understand the contents of their books then they can read them aloud by themselves. If they cannot, then children lose their confidence and start to dislike their English class.
When parents look at their child's book together and ask, "how do you say this?" then children who cannot read their books again lose their confidence and desire for learning English. This is where a sound knowledge of phonics is important.
During the years that I've been teaching English in Japan, I've found that the Finding Out series of text books resolve this problem. They start off simply, introducing phonics from the beginning. The letter sounds are all introduced, followed by 2 then 3 letter combinations then simple sentences. The format is also a very cute, cartoon style with lots of colour. Used with the Finding Out flashcards a teacher can give his students the tools they need for successful reading.
For a look inside these text books, please click on this link:
http://mlh.co.jp/catalog/category/1901/