Is Alphablocs how phonics is taught now?

[RedRobyn24]

My daughter started reception last week and she says they watch lots of tv throughout the day, apparently a lot of this is alphablocks and numberblocks

Is this how children are taught to read nowadays? If you’re a teacher is this what they do in your school? If your a parent is this what your kids are doing?

They get taught phonics in various teaching methods - sound mats, sound buttons etc - and TV shows such as Alphablocks reinforce the learning.

Numberblocks in particular is absolutely fantastic at presenting concepts in a way that makes sense and is memorable.

It definitely wasn't the only way they're taught. Each episode is so short apart from anything else! But they're great programmes for supporting the learning.

No, absolutely not.

scotland. Read write inc. never this alone, I am a Parent.

I have seen teachers pop it on at the end of the day as a wind down, but not a method of teaching.

however, I would ask for a copy of the curriculum, and go from there. It’s very possible lots of tv means ten minutes.

get involved, ask the school the questions, gently, and go from there.

I hope that’s what it means tbh

When she says "watches a lot of TV" it's possible she is referring to the electronic white board.
It is the modern equivalent of a blackboard but is electric so like a big computer screen.
It's normal for schools to use Numberblocks and Alphablocks as a learning tool.
It's what would have been called a "schools programme" in the days before Cbeebies was invented.
The episodes are about 5 minutes long if I remember correctly.

Watching alphablocks is not a phonics scheme. I suspect it’s being used as a filler when they tidy up 5 minutes faster than expected or if they’re waiting for a couple of children to finish doing something. There are worse things they can be watching! There will certainly be at some point (if not already) some actual phonics teaching too!

Tbh my ds was obsessed with numberblocks and alphablocks all through reception and y1 and he is pretty advanced at reading, writing and maths. Those programmes are really effective at teaching dc in a fun and memorable way.

This is the same method that was used when my 4 were at primary about over 10 years ago using the sound of the letters. They didn't watch a TV programme they just learnt them in lessons. The sounding out method help to read most words to start reading like c a t d o g and they learn the 2 letter sounds like ee oo for words like l oo k f ee t

My kids the ‘TV’ was put on for snack times, that would be twice a day and at the end of the day when they were getting their coats and bags.

They might watch the 5 minute video that relates to the sound they learned that day.

They might be doing some movement too, to dance videos. That’s just to get them moving so they don’t sit too long, and sometimes singing too. I have seen reception teachers use kids yoga videos too for the same reason

The school will be using a recognised phonics scheme, they may not have started it yet. It is common for reception children to watch ‘TV’ during the day, CBeebies shows, movement breaks, dough disco etc.

My daughter, now 16, seemed to watch a lot of TV in primary school. But it was a small part of the learning and when I see what they watched, it’s all good stuff. We loved alphablocks, it’s a great addition to traditional learning methods.

Remember everyone..... BBC Schools Programming started in 1957.
That's almost 70 years ago.
It's very normal for TV to be used as a supplemental learning tool.

I’m a teacher. Can’t stand Alphablocks. It is a fairly accurate representation of how we teach reading using synthetic phonics now but shouldn’t be their phonics lesson. A couple of years ago the government said every school had to buy into a proper accredited phonics scheme, eg Little Wandle. You could ask the school what this is.
Numberblocks is great. Develops children’s number sense and understanding of place value amazingly. It’s developed in collaboration with the NCETM and there are linked teaching materials so you can actually teach a lesson off the back of an episode. Obviously not just by sticking it on, but by having focused linked activities with practical manipulatives.
Please also note that children say a lot of random stuff. It is likely that she isn’t watching telly all day at school. A Reception child once told her mum I had banned her from eating lunch and made her sit in the dinner hall hungry and crying. Obviously I hadn’t, but she couldn’t remember what she’d had when her mum asked so said that.

That’s reassuring. I really don’t remember watching much tv at all, only occasionally like at the end of term. I know that’s not the same experience for everyone but if we watched tv it was on a tv on wheels and it was a video tape and it definitely wasn’t multiple times through the day

I’m 34 so it was a while ago haha

Did you not watch Words and Pictures with the magic pencil? Or whatever that maths one was with El Nombre? Such visceral memories of cramming up in the dark watching those.

Our school does use Alphablocks and Numberblocks but they also have a daily phonics lesson- we got details every day of the sound they learnt on Dojo for home practice (that was in Reception, she’s Y1 now).
Our school loosely follows Little Wandle but not religiously like some and they have books from all the different schemes. They also let able children like mine fly ahead and don’t restrict her to what they are learning.

Parents were invited to a specific intro to phonics meeting at the start of Reception. Have you had anything like
that @RedRobyn24?

Thank you. She said she’s watching “a lot”, she said the teacher pauses the tv shows lots and they sit and watch many times throughout the day. For context at home we do not watch more than 30 minutes a day.

I am finding the comments very reassuring, it’s hard to decipher what a 4 year old really means sometimes and I don’t feel comfortable asking the teacher about it.

@HyggeTygge agree number blocks is brilliant

I feel like the magic pencil might be ringing some bells, vaguely

No we haven’t unfortunately! I’d do it if we had. My daughter really wants to learn to read, I’ve not tried to teach her because I was always told not to as it could make things more difficult when she started school.

Honestly teaching now has come on leaps and bounds since I was at school (I’m your age.) We do loads! I guarantee if they were sitting watching telly all day the teacher would get in trouble.

That said, when I am old and grey and open my own free school there will not be any interactive whiteboards or PowerPoints or any of that stuff. Chalk and talk and going outside a lot all the way!

I think it’s hard to have a concept of time and frequency of events at that age. Eg in reception both mine would come home saying they’d been alone looking for their friends all lunchtime! and nobody played with me! when in fact they probably couldn’t find their friends for 60 seconds and that’s what stuck with them. If they are watching a quick alphablocks at end of each day it’s likely to stick in their mind and they may be mixing up doing it once at end of each day with multiple times on one day

And also males traditional normal methods boring and unacceptable.
Who wants to write or do exercises when they could watch cartoons instead. Why should they ever make an effort.
OP - it's poor practice. It's not how it should be taught. There would be no need for teachers if it worked.