Been told to do some word/letter work with ds1....

[becaroo]

...and dont know where to start really

He is 7 and is now at a new (lovely) school after a bad experience at his old school.

He has the confidence knocked out of him wrt literacy and sort of "gave up". There were serious bullying issues too. He became so unhapy that I home schooled him for most of last year and he started his new school in November last year.

He has settled in very well
They have assessed him (he didnt do SATS as he wasnt in school at the time) and have no major concerns but he has got "gaps" in his knowledge wrt reading/spelling/writing.

His letter formations are very good. He knows all his letter sounds. However, his writing is HUGE and despite my (constant) reminders he is not making progress in writing any smaller. He also forgets his finger spaces a lot.

The teacher (who works with him 1-1 for 30 mins each friday) has also said he gets "i" and "e" mixed up and also sometimes struggles with "ch", "sh" and "th" (which surprises me as he was great on them a few months ago )

Anyway, I wondered if any of you had any ideas what I could do to help him with theses issues she has highlighted......games etc?

She suggested magnetic letters.....I have some but what do you do with them!? How will they help him???

He got the "boggle" game, Bananagrams and a gruffalo rhyming game for xmas which we havent really looked at yet...should i be using these and how often?

Thanks!

Hi I'm sure more people will be along with ideas soon but here are a few:
With the magnetic letters have them ready perhaps in individual pots and ask him to make words with them sheep ship chips etc... You could get pictures of objects ie a ship and ask him to make the word of what he has got the picture of.
You could write a sentence on a magnetic white board and she has to finish it with magnetic letters to make the word you want ie: In the field there are lots of fluffy ?

The magnetic letters as they help children who learn visually and kinesthetically (sp) as they can physically move the letter.

I always say to my 1-1 that the i is the one with the dot at the top. (He mixes i and e too)

Try squirty bottles and water on the patio/path to practice words or sounds.

Shave foam is fun to write words using their finger.

Playdough to make the words is also fun

Writing words/sounds in wet/dry sand is fun.

You could hide loads of pictures of words with a specific sound in it around say the living room and then get your DD to write (magnetic letters etc) what the picture is.

HTH

My ds loves those work books with gold stars eg. carol vordaman maths/english made easy. Could you do 10 mins or so of those a day with him?

Hi.

I have used those books with him - both maths and english and we used Toe by toe (he hated it) and we also paid for him to do an online reading programme called "headsprout" which he did well at.

It seems to me like stuff he knew 6 months ago he has forgotten. I said this to the teacher and she said that this is quite common but it is worrying me.

I also dont want to do any more stuff at home with him that is "work2 IYSWIM? I wanted to utilise games to help him so he is learning without realising it.

Try not to use work books, make it fun. A child can go back about 6 months when they move school.

Some ideas of "fun" stuff you could do with ds

sound grids: Mark a 3x3 grid with chalk on the patio/drive (or with tailors chalk on the lounge carpet if it is big enough and you are feeling brave!) and chalk an individual letter or grapheme in each square. You say a word and he has to jump onto the squares in turn that spell the word. Take in in turns, you can deliberately make mistakes for ds to spot - be a bit silly and have fun.

Build activities based on what he likes doing. Is he into arts/crafts? You could try something like getting him to make a 2 letter grapheme (eg ch, sh) out of plasticene (roll sausages and bend into shape) Then make loads of things out of plasticene that have that sound/grapheme in them. eg for "ai" you could make a rain drop, a train, a brain, a nail, a pail etc. You could spread this out over several days. Show him the list of items you could make, get him to suggest some (if he says game, etc just say, well done for picking the right sound but actually that word uses a different way of making the ai sound).
Practice making the "ai" words using the plasticene "ai" he has made and magnetic letters for the other letters

Make a "feely grapheme": print the grapheme very large onto card, ideally using a joined up font, otherwise use a pen to write it large yourself. Glue string along the line of the letters ( following the line you would use if writing, so the string may be double in places where you go back along the same bit iyswim) and then glue strips of kitchen foil over the string to cover it completely. Get him to say sound "ai" or whatever the sound is while tracing it with his finger.
Ice single letters and 2 letter graphemes onto individual biscuits and eat a new word every day! (eg 3 biscuits might have r / ai / n)
Make snap cards of single letters plus the double letter graphemes you want to practice and play, but you have to shout the sound of the grapheme rather than snap. You can also use these cards for Pelmanism/pairs games where you turn them all face down and take it in turns to try and pick a pair. It is important with this one that you talk through the game too, so have a rule that you have to say the sounds too as you turn them over. That's no good

Children love using voice recorders. You could try activities like giving him a word eg chat - he sounds it out into the voice recorder (ch/a/t), then has to run to the other end of the room with it, press the play button and write the word on a whiteboard, bring the whiteboard back over to you and tell you what the word is. Helps with working memory whilst being fun and having the sound recording there as a prop!

Use bath crayons and give "spellings" he can write on himself or the bath tiles while he is in the bath.

Boggle and bananagrams may be a little advanced for him at the moment I think, but there are plenty of easier games you can make like the card games I mentioned above. Also have a look at Adrian Bruce's website www.adrianbruce.com/ which has some great reading games to print and play. There are also some websites with free online phonic games and activities - just google - but here is one to start you off www.sumsphonics.co.uk/

I hope you have fun!

- no idea where "Thats no good" came from! Please ignore it!!

Thank you sarah x