Learning to read/ Jolly Phonics/Reception class

[pigleychez]

DD is 3.5 and doing very well with all her phonics etc and is putting sounds together to make words and knows many 3 letter words.
Im looking at the next steps really and learning to read. Not pushing her, she has always picked things up really quickly and thrives on learning.

Can any reception teachers/ parents with DC in reception classes tell me whats the best way to encourage her next. Am I right they do Jolly Phonics? What reading books do they have? Any recommendations?

Most schools use some for of phonics and Jolly phonics is very popular. However there is so much more to learning to read that decoding words. Understanding plot, motivation and characters are the foundation of understanding what you are reading. As an early years teacher I would spend time reading to her, asking her questions about the book and what may happen next and why she thinks that. Dressing up or using puppets to retell stories and making up your own stories are important skills. The one most important ingredience to continued reading success is a love of reading, so encourage this above all. HTH.

Thanks Rainnie. She does have a huge love of reading! She adores books as does her 22mth olds sister.
We share lots of stories and chat about the pictures.
Shes very good with making up her own stories etc and even gives them all different voices.

Would any of the Jolly Phonics books be good for her?

Yes, Jolly Phonics is a good scheme.

Remember that there is more than one aim here. Wider literacy is the aim, so rainnie's advice about story telling is good. But learning to decode securely is a vital step in learning to access text independently, and if she is genuinely interested in cracking the code it is a good way ahead. They are not mutually exclusive activities.

I wouldn't worry about formal reading schemes and keep her interest with simply-worded story books, newspaper headlines, pointing out words on road signs and shop fascias. I don't think she needs to know about plot, motivation and character at this stage, just keep it fun. There's not much plot to a STOP sign.

My DS's school do not use Jolly Phonics. They use Oxford University Press Read, Write Inc. Using this system, he learnt the sound and how to write it. For example D is duh, duh, duh - down the dinosaurs body, up his tall neck and down to his feet. It worked for him.

It helps if your child can dress themselves etc and I think this is more important than academic skills. Epic fail on my part; DS could do buttons on a polo shirt but not on a proper school shirt.

To get him ready for learning in school, over the Summer holidays, we were advised us to:
. Teach them the sounds of the alphabet;
. Gave us pictures and names of Chip Biff etc to put up on the wall and talk about;
. A word wall top become familiar with (he, she, I, me, Mum, Dad, and, it, etc);
. Asked us to read to our child for ten minutes a day.

There are lots of phonics based web games on ictgames and phonicsplay. However, its best to read whatever she is interested in and not limit it to pure phonics. As a Reception teacher it is more beneficial to have children who can use a range of strategies to decode/read words (using pictures, recognising words within words, what should fit) as well as a good grasp of how stories generally work rather than a child who can 'decode' fluently but has no clue as to what is actually happening!

Thanks for all the replies.

She herself in the last few weeks has started commenting on general words around her and pointing out the letters etc. She has all of a sudden developed a love of letters!
She knows the letter sounds but not in the Jolly phonics way. Ive bought her the pack of workbooks so will do them with her to help with their sounds and it also covers the ,correct writing of the letters. She's pretty good and can write her name although the odd letter isn't written correctly as such. Her g looks abit like a 3.

I also got some Oxford reading tree phonics books.(Biff, Chip, Kipper etc) I struggled to find other non reading scheme books with simple sentences. She loves them though and is doing very well on the level 2 books. They include activities related to the stories and encourage lots of discussions about the book. She does love to point out lots of things in books so she will enjoy them.
DD has loved books from tiny (as does her sister 21mths) and you can often hear her calling DD2 for 'Booky time!' :)
Nursery have commented too that she is often found in the book corner and loves story time.

I used these videos to teach my 3 yr old to read. These video lessons have been very effective with us. You can also teach your child to read with the help of these video guides. Check out:

www.firststepreading.com

Hope it helps you too :)

I used Jane and Peter (ladybird books) for my kids. You can get them from Amazon. Good for sight words. Learning the letters phonetically is more important though I would say - you can also get flashcards for the first 100 sight words etc...