K Jolly Phonic
Keesha Ondieki
Talking of Jolly Phonics...did 'a' sound today, skywriting, sung jingles,etc, when we followed up the input and asked children to think of a word beginning with 'a' we got 'a ball', 'a bone', 'a cup' and so on. A while later my nursery nurse decided to prompt the children by saying 'What do we call a man who goes to the moon?' (obviously hoping for 'astronaut') 'Kevin!' came the reply!!!!! Couldn't stop laughing!!
Last year we changed to the PiPs order of teaching sounds but used JP as the main teaching 'method' this year I have found I am using very little JP (only retaining the actions to provide the multi sensory aspect) We are still doing 5 sounds a week although in a very informal way at the moment (no handwriting /sound sheets) Probably half the class know the majority of sounds taught so far but as you say the other half are just not ready.
We are also using Foundations of Literacy as a basis for our literacy teaching so lots of stories lots of rhymes lots of songs lots of keeping the beat lots of opportunities for speaking and listening.
We were praised for using jolly phonics and moving faster than the NLS. Only a few children have failed to respond and they picked up more that they would have done had they been offered nothing at all.
We teach phonics using JP and it seems to work really well. As a school, we have now decided to introduce joined handwriting right from the start and the chidlren are finding this far more difficult to remember than the standard printing we taught last year.
We do use the worksheets, but have adapted them for cursive script. It does take one adult the whole day to get through 30 children though and I long for the day when it is all finished and we can have 2 interesting focus groups intsead of JP taking up one of them. What does everyone else do in this respect?
I did training with Sue Lloyd a few years ago and she said the worksheets were never intended to take that long. The idea is to introduce the letter formation and not to do any colouring or give instructions to colour a very small part the rest to be completed at home. With 82 in the unit what you describe would be unworkable and in my opinion a waste of effort.
We introduce the letters in the PiPs order using the JP stories and actions letter formation will be introduced later after alot of pre writing activities and then on a large scale initially before progressing to 'normal' sized (size depending on the childs ability) writing.
Having been an NQT last year, this is only my second year of doing JP and i must admit i totally agree with you about the colouring in etc. We never ask children to colour the sheets, they take an additionlal sheet home in a little book that comes back in to school every day - this is not for homework, but just to keep the parents up to date with what and how they have learnt their sounds etc. If they want to, they can pratise the sheet again and colour this one in. We have adapted the sheets and only expect the children to spend a short time on the activity including the lead up with writing in sand/whiteboards etc. Because we tend to work in small groups initially it akes ages to get through everyone!!! I am also using larger writing skill activities with children who find it very difficult and we do the Write Dance program too. I am hoping to get some JP training though,as i would like to have more ideas to keep it fresh and new and exciting throughout the year, even once we get to tricky words and so on. It is easy to let it get samey and i really don't want that. Does anyone else find this tricky?
I'm into my third year of using JP. We adapted the worksheets to fully cursive script at head's request and included a patter for writing each letter (agreed by HT and intended for use across school). This year we have moved away from doing the handwriting on the sheet but send it home so that parents are aware of action, story, patter, handwriting style etc. I got some ideas on here from Marion I think for varying the writing input and now we're doing a variety of things. Very large writing on big whiteboards, small whiteboards, rainbow letters on A3, writing in sandtray, painting letters on paving slabs with water and big brushes. This is taking less time than the sheets did and is more fun for the children. Some of them are colouring their sheets and doing some handwriting at home, but we stressed in guidance to parents only to do this if they feel their child is ready. I'm still asking myself questions about whether this is the right approach for all of them - as some of the younger ones are really struggling with writing, pencil grip, movements etc. Perhaps I should invest in writedance.
Ah so cute Marion! I bet they'll never forget that one. Did they all bring brollies in or do you have a selection? A real downpour followed U input for us, just a day late. I had several very excited pupils on the playground at lunchtime wanting to show theirs off to me. So proud! I think the input mine have enjoyed most so far has been the 'pet' soft toy dog 'Rags' from the home corner doing a great tussle with the baby's blanket from the house. Sorry no snaps! It caused lots of hilarity and further play with the toy in the role play house. Thanks for all the writing ideas, I think ours are enjoying it much more this year. I'm sure it's still not perfect, but nothing ever is, so better than it was last time around is OK!
I have always used draw a triangle to see when children are really ready for letter formation. I've known this so many years now I cant remember where the original idea came from (perhaps someone else does?) and I find it accurate in most cases (alwasy exceptions I think to pretty much anything we do)
Ask children to draw a triangle freehand, showing them a triangle if they dont know what one is. Dont model how you might draw it, just ask them to draw one. Basically what they draw falls into three broad categories.
2. An underastnding that there are 3 definate lines (occasioanlly 4) but these dont join and may look like the capitla E without the middle 'prong'. These children can identify change in direction and so are nearly ready to write letters, but not quite.
We sent a letter home asking parents to send waterproof coats and umbrellas if they had them and warned them their child would get extremely wet . (We have a selection of wellies and a few umbrellas in the rainy day box so could supply those children whose parents forgot) We turned a hose pipe on our little darlings
I did a quick introduction to the sound /t/ this time and both boys were eager to practice their letter formation. They love the grooved letters in their finger phonics book that it is sometimes quite difficult to draw their attention to the pictures in the book. I explained how t is written, from the top down and straight across. Xxm could do it independently but Xmm needs me to guide him along.
Yeah, having learned three letter sounds, we made our first attempt at blending. We revised our /s/ and /a/. I demonstrated how to blend at and sat. You can watch this YouTube video on how to introduce blending.
I found a new iPad app called LetterSchool which makes for a fun and engaging way to practice writing your letters (both uppercase and lowercase) and numbers. There is a lite version which is free to try but I guarantee you, you will definitely get the full version after seeing it.
Xxm practiced writing t on LetterSchool. He actually went on to write other letters and enjoyed himself thoroughly doing so.
Xxm loves the letter t since he started learning his alphabets. In fact, it was his first letter which he had picked up from starfall months ago. His fascination with t and progressively the rest of the alphabets is primarily because t is for train. Hence, he worked on his usborne sticker book happily upon seeing the train in the book. Xxm learned that t is for truck, teddy bear, tree, toothbrush, table, tractor, train, tiger and tomato.
Just joined and just read listing re. JP. Been teaching Reception for two years. Was told 'we use Letterland' by initail co-teacher who left after 1 term. Replacement used a mixed bag of ideas but was swaying towards Jolly Phonics. I've continued with Letterland as find the children really enjoy it. We do 1 sound a week from Sept to half term as some morning only and then 2 sounds a week through to Jan. I recap weekly as a mental starter and we do actions for all the characters and they're sounds e.g. like walking like a duck, waddling whilst saying, d, d, d.
The children seem to really like it and it certainly helps them learn their sounds and how to write the letters. Even the ones who are already good at alphabet & have started emergent writing, enjoy the story telling side of it. We don't do copious worksheets or any videos but we do do singing and talking about the characters and their sounds. I watched a couple of the Jp video's and found them very slow and dull 9yes, I know it's not meant for my age!)
I used Letterland in my last job about 5 years ago and on the one hand I thought it was great. The problem was that it was not carried when children left the nursery. Some of the later stages (like the quarrelsome queen never goes anywhere without uppy umbrella) intrigued me and I would have liked to get to know more. From what I recall it was very well thought through by whoever created it! there is no doubt the children loved the songs and actions ( I had a soft spot for poor peter!!) but almost to the extent they got carried away - we had all the story books for each letter and the children adored the 'M' character, was it monster munching mike?! but it got to the stage they just liked the stories in the same way as they liked any other. To a degree they recognised letters but they always said "it's annie apple" if shown an 'a' and then it was what sound does annie apple make and sometimes they would say 'a'. I remember a child looking at the word dog and saying "dippy duck, oscar orange and golden girl!" Where I work now we dont use either and I have seen children progess just as well, and in some cases better than with Letterland. I think alot of Letterland depends on how it is delivered and maybe in my last job we never got it quite right! I certainly thought I would miss it but I dont. It would be interesting to see others points of view.
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