Jolly Phonics

[MoodyM]

Hello, I'm new here.
My son (Yr1) has just started to bring home spellings and he really isn't keen.

Any ideas how I can make this fun and the new sounds easier to remember.

Thanks :)

Isnt there a range of DVDs to support Jolly Phonics - perhaps your library could get them for you?

Early learning centre do all sorts of fun things in the Jolly Phonics range, My DD learnt to read and write doing this, its a great method

Hi. Thanks for your replies. :) I do have the Jolly Phonics Finger Phonics books 1-7 myself but his spellings now have new sounds which aren't in the book such as 'ph'. I am not aware of more sounds books but maybe I just haven't seen them will have a look in ELC.

My DD learned to read really quickly using JP's. Every week she'd have a couple or three sounds to learn using the actions and sounds. The book had one page with the sound and letter on it and on the facing page we had to draw or cut out and stick objects which began with that letter.

Think of fun ways to practice spellings using as many multi-sensory ways as possible. Children tend to learn better the more different senses you can involve.

You could:
get him to spell them with magnetic letters;
get him to write them with his finger in a thin layer of salt/sand/dried rice on a tray;
use bath crayons and let him write the spellings on himself and/or the bathroom tiles at bath times;
use old house painting brushes and a bowl of water and let him "paint" them on an outside wall or patio (water just dries so there's no mess)
let him write them with finger paints (very messy)
use a program such as sound buttons
www.kenttrustweb.org.uk/kentict/content/games/sound_buttons_v14.html
where he can click and drag the letters and then press the buttons to hear the sounds in the words he has made;
Another site that looks good is Phonics play
www.phonicsplay.co.uk/InteractiveResources.htm Ive not used it myself but it seems to have some spelling based games, not all reading ones;
buy him a little whiteboard and some dry-wipe pens and let him practise his spellings on this - for some reason children really seem to like whiteboards;
let him give you a spelling test (where you deliberately spell some of the words incorrectly). He has to "mark" the test,spot which words are wrong and write the correct version for you! He'll love giving you 3 out of 10 or whatever;
make up silly songs to link words with the same grapheme (eg train and rain and again etc);
let him ice this week's grapheme with an icing pen on some biscuits or fairy cakes. Every day he learns one word. When he spells it correctly, he can eat a cake or biscuit.

Vary the methods you use, try different ones on different weeks

p.s.
If you think the spellings are too hard or he is really struggling, or really unenthusiastic try just learning half of them to start with.

The main thing is to have fun while you learn them!

Thanks Sarah, some really good ideas there.

He may like watching YouTube Videos... such as those by Mr Thorne (a Yr1 teacher). www.MrThorneDoesPhonics.com