Strange worksheet given to ds (Reception) - not sure what the point of it is

[saadia]

I am hoping someone might be able to enlighten me as to a worksheet ds has brought home. Basically it has all the letters of the alphabet with illustrated actions to go with each letter eg for "i" it says "pretend to be a mouse by wiggling fingers on end of your nose and squeak i,i,i"

and I cannot make a connection between some of the letters and their actions. Does anyone know what it's all about? Is it something to do with improving memory?

Sounds like Jolly Phonics - which helps them learn to read. Google it, it should give you some info. My girls did this in reception and I remember being very confused by it all to begin with but I think it's quite an effective way of learning.

yes it's jolly phonics
each letter sound has a rhyme that goes with it
your ds will be learning one sound at a time and he will come home with the ryhme(which will make the actions make more sense)
it works really well but i did have a bit of trouble getting the habg of it to begin with

Yep, deffo sounds like Jolly Phonics.

Each 'sound' (often a letter or couple of letters such as 'sh', 'ch', 'oo') has an action and a rhyme which is supposed to help them remember it. Ds1 couldn't be bothered with the actions and stuff that went with it and just learned the sounds quite easily on their own.

Although the actions etc might sound a bit daft - phonics is definitely the best way to learn to read (imo anyway, I know there are other ways that work too).

jolly phonics! By doing the action whilst making the letter sound it helps the child to remember what the letter should be. Strange idea but relly works as a good foundation for reading, dd in year 3 and we still go back to jolly phonics when she gets stuck on a word!

Ds's school had an introductory session for parents on jolly phonics, in which we all had to sit there like loons waggling our whiskers etc. But at least we did know what the worksheets were about!

thanks everyone, it's reassuring to know that this method is effective. He already knows letters and sounds but I guess this will reinforce things for him and make reading easier.

It just seemed really odd intially .

elc do a range of j/p stuff, found very useful especially the workbooks.