Reception homework: how do I approach "tricky" words

[gutzgutz]

DS has just started reception. Tonight we had a no words reading book home and some words to learn: mum, dad, I, me etc. about 6 words I think.

So I get the picture book, we looked at it and talked about the pictures and what was happening twice (it was about 5 pages long!) and then left it and read a proper book. DS said we need to tell the teacher it hasn't got words !

But I'm not too sure about the sight words. DS can't read (he is August baby so v young in year) and I haven't pushed it. We both enjoy books and I've read to him since he was a baby. I sometimes spell out simple words but he doesn't know his alphabet. Do I just go through them and say m-u-m "mum" etc or what? Do I try and make a game of it? But how?

I'm confused! I want to support DS and the school but at the same time it seems a bit crazy in week 2 to have words sent home (books I have no issues with). Thanks for any advice.

Well if they're sight words then they want him to recognise the word as a whole.

Go down the list saying each word, get DS to point to each as you say them. (Or just hold his finger yourself!)

Repeat this again, but this time ask DS to repeat each word after you. (Still pointing to each word in turn)

Final time go down the list again and see if DS has remembered any of the words.

It's not a particularly effective way of learning to read, but that's how you teach it.

Oh and it should only take a few minutes, definitely no longer than 5mins.

DD has come home with words too, according to the school they teach reading phonically so was expecting cvc words. DD who knows most letter brought home yes, no, in, here, look and you today, I am sounding them out and putting a dot under single letter sounds and a little line under digraphs to show they are 2 letters but make one sound. Ho do they expect a child who doesn't know all their letters/sound to read?

Hum, thanks duckandcat. I thought the whole thing with phonics was to sound out words so I was confused about this approach. Seems a good way to put a child off trying to read! I'll give it a go.

I have a pack of flash cards bought cheaply from amazon and if there are any words that need rehearsing I magnet them to the fridge and get him to read them every time we get something out!

He has just started Reception too and started the slog through the Ginn 360 series which is neither phonetic nor inspiring. In Level 1 many of the book have both 'where' and 'here' in and he was occasionally mixing them up so we have those two on the fridge this week.

Yet another school trying to fail it's next OFSTED by not teaching phonics but Look and Say.
Have they learnt any phonics at all? If so they are likely to have done s, a, t, p, i and n which doesn't really help at all with the words mum, dad, me etc.
I would see if he recognises any of the letters and then tell him the other ones, as a 'you haven't learnt this one yet but it makes an mmmmm sound'. Then ask him to say all the sounds in the word and blend them together. If he can't blend them yet, then blend them together for him.

We use bracelets with all the phonics on, ds wears one and we try and talk about the sound and find things with the sound in, he likes it! I think they're called jellypips and bought them at a school fair.
Tricky words - I try to make a joke of them and sound them out phonetically by the spelling and the association of the silliness with the words is helping him remember.

My ds has just started reception and is also an august born. Our school use Read write inc and we had a meeting last night.

Basically there are 44 letter sounds and they should start them off learning simple sounds, often S A T P I N first. Don't teach the alphabet!

Some words can't really be sounded out phonetically and that is where sight words come in- they just have to be learnt. We've been given a sheet with these on but the goal is to know these by the end of the year and to focus at the moment on sounding out and blending words together, the teacher said last night just to practice practice practice.

Ds had the picture books last year and often a colouring in and sequencing exercise to go with it as part if reding is to understand the order of the story.

AFAIK the new national curriculum says they have to teach phonics ( I could well be wrong though).

Personally I would go in and ask when they will start to teach the letter sounds as your ds needs that knowledge first.

There is a good App called pocket phonics which will introduce your ds to the letters if you want to progress him.

mum, dad, yes and in make me despair more.

At least with 'I' and 'me' there's a weak argument that the alternative pronunciations of 'i' and 'e' aren't usually taught in the early stages and those words are very high frequency and likely to appear in simple texts a lot.

I would do what LittleMissGreen suggests, and be prepared for the fact that you might have to teach him the basic phonics at the same time so it may be quite slow.

You are almost certainly going to get non-decodable books when you start to get ones with words, so this might be a long process until his phonics is much more advanced.

When DD started phonics she brought home ORT Stage 2 Biff & Co, often Look and Say versions. She tried her best to sound out the words but if it didn't work like "I" or "me" we just told her how the word is pronounced and left it.

No flashcards, no "tricky word list", just including it into the reading.

I actually think to call them "tricky" can backfire as it imply that there is something tricky about reading and can knock back less confident children.

We have 5 sight words to learn: a to the and said

I have written them out on cards and we do the matching game with them (turn over 2 and if they match you win them). I make DD say what the words are on each card she turns over (I am telling her most of the time but she has grasped 'to' - hurrah!)

I have written them a few times on the brick wall in our garden (a word per brick) and when we're outside I'll point to one and ask her what it says (again, I'm telling her a lot at the moment).

I've also printed them out a few times and have cut the words out and blu tacked them by the side of her bed, the inside of the front door, the cupboard opposite the loo...basically, she sees these words everywhere!

We have them written in the fridge magnets too!!

When we read a bedtime story we ask her if she can see any of 'her' words.

This sounds really intensive but actually we feel we have taken a soft approach. We don't sit and look at a list of words going over and over them.

Our school does identical - phonics every day and this is the main focus but also word sheets to home for common words to learn to recognise eg mum dad me I . Personally I thought it was a sensible approach and it caused no issues.

Haven't read all replies so sorry if I'm repeating someone else.

I think tricky words are usually words that cannot be sounded out phonetically, and therefore children need to be taught to side read them.

There are no 'tricky words' though, just words with a tricky part, i.e. a phoneme that hasn't been taught yet. So whilst me is initially tricky as a reception child may have learnt mmmm they won't have learnt that e can make an eeee sound as well as making a /e/ sound. Further on in their school career when they are taught that e can be eeee or /e/ the word no longer has a tricky part and becomes phonetically regular.
The problem in this case is that every part of the word is tricky because the child is not being taught using phonics, or not being given words using the phonics they have learnt, which makes teaching reading nonsensical.

What is usually meant by tricky words are ones which contain one or more letters with less usual or unique pronunciations, such 'One' or 'unIQUE'.

ThE and mE are a bit like that too.

Sadly, ordinary books contain quite a few of those, and phonics alone gets children only so far. But starting simply, as with words than can be formed from the letters S A T P I N is a good idea.

Because of the phonic irregularities of many English letters, there is still no complete agreement on how best to teach reading. There are also different views on exactly what is meant by phonics.

Correction: words that can be formed ... not than

Some schools are much better at explaining to parents how they teach reading and how they expect parents to help.

If u are confused, u may just have to ask the teacher.
Your help has a big impact on your child's progress, but don't worry too much about how to do it. Using your common sense won't put u far wrong.

Sigh.

Approach "tricky" words in the same way as you approach all words - explain the letters are the spellings for sounds and help him put the spellings together to hear the word.

I really despair that any school would class a as a sight word!

What is meant by "tricky words is common words that contain spellings for sounds that haven't been taught yet - definitely not a !

Oh god! Thanks all and thanks for the game suggestion. Easy enough but sometimes I need things spelt out (haha). I really need to go to school to learn all this stuff, think I will give it a go and then will have to ask teacher.

One further question, do these need to done very night? We have 3 nights where we get home lateish and I feel bad putting pressure on to do homework. Happy to incorporate a book into our usual bedtime stories but the words seem more homeworky IYSWIM.

Little and often usually works better than longer, fewer sessions.

Hi gutzgutz:

You'll have to search through (years are indicated on left of files -look for R) but here is a link to HIGH FREQUENCY WORDS: www.primaryresources.co.uk/english/englishA3c.htm

We had these alongside jolly phonics (mash-up of old & new techniques in teaching I suspect).

Usually they'd gone over them in class and we'd review how to say them - but then I just included them in our own reading (guided reading books from school/ books from home/ library).

With the 100 most common words/ high frequency words - my approach was to write the 5 words (we also got 5 a week) down a piece of paper I use as a book mark - and every time DD2 and I stumbled across them I'd get all excited - OOoooo that's one of your words this week - and have her read it.

She got very excited and pleased about this because quite quickly it lead to reading whole sentences.

The cat sat by me.
The dog ran to me.
I am 5.

etc...

I think that there are some words (no expert here) whose pronunciation isn't straight forward - she/ he/ me/ I (it's not obvious to a new reader these are 'long vowel' sounds) - and there is an element of just learning these. Because you can't always predict as a child why it's 'ih' in sit and 'long I' in site - because of magic 'e' trick - but he/ she/ we also have a long e. But I accept that leads to much gnashing of teeth here on MN.

Personally as a parent - and not an uneducated idiot - I find the fact that it teachers on here and at our school can't agree on this suggests there isn't some blissfully simple way of learning this. I think you have to be open to the fact that you may need to try one thing for a bit, if that doesn't work try another, etc.... Certainly both DDs learned how to read in very different ways and mastered the skills at different speeds.

Ooh PastSellByDate, thanks for that. Going to make our own word bingo!

Actually there is a blissfully simple way to learn this but teachers can be creatures of habit and do cling to the familiar