Activities to support letters and sounds:

  • Sound talking–orally putting sounds together to help your child blend for reading (c-oa-t is coat). This can be done throughout daily opportunities, for example, ‘It’s time for b-e-d’.
  • Sound talking–splitting sounds to help spelling using sound fingers (bat would be b-a-t)
  • Sound books – quick and pure (recognition for reading). Encourage your child to say the sounds in sound book regularly so sounds quickly identified for reading. Ensure these are pure, for example, ssssss not s-uh, t not t-uh.
  • Spotting letter sounds out and about on road signs, in books etc…
  • Spelling – finding letter sounds when said by an adult and writing in response to one said, so adult says ‘s’ sound and children either find ‘s’ card or write sound ‘s’
  • Reading words – sound buttons – real (treasure) and nonsense words (bin)

cap

gop

‘Ahoy there me hearties!’

‘Crunch crunch munch munch!’

  • Spelling words – putting sounds together. Sound talk first, for example, c-a-t then finding letter sounds/writing
  • Changing letters to make different words, for example, make the word ‘cat’ – change one letter to make ‘cot’ – change one letter to make ‘hot’ etc…

c o t h

  • Remember ll, ff, ss, ck make one sound and usually come at the end or near end of words – underline to show one sound and encourage children to do this in their writing, for example, hill. (Underlining these sets of 2 letters that make one sound will help prepare your child when they start to learn sounds such as ‘ow’ ‘ch’ etc… and will be in the habit of underlining which will help them to recognise in reading and apply to writing)
  • Applying sounds to reading, for example, ‘pat a dog’. Sound talk ‘p-a-t’ then say ‘pat’, read ‘a’ then say ‘pat a’, sound talk ‘d-o-g’ then say ‘dog’, then say together ‘pat a dog’
  • Applying sounds to writing – encourage children to say lots of times to remember what they are writing, sound talk and write, encourage children to read what they have written
  • Formation – top to bottom, anticlockwise circles and down up and over the hill directions for letter formation (paint, squeezy bottles, paint brushes and water on patio area, tray of flour etc…). Practising these directions will greatly help letter formation and ensure good habits.
  • High frequency ‘tricky’ words – remember they are not spelt as they sound, for example, go. Encourage children to recognise these in books, signs etc…
  • High frequency words that can be sounded out, such as a-t, once your child has seen this word many times it will not need to be sounded out but will be recognised.

Useful website:

An excellent range of literacy and numeracy resources