Fred Frog Beanie (Pack of 10)

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Watch video tutorials on http://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/parents/ to help you to understand more about Read Write Inc. Phonics and how to help your child read and write at home. We have produced a range of videos for you to access at home to help your child practise phonics sounds. We start the systematic teaching of phonics throughout the Early Years Foundation Stage. The children learn to recognise the shape of letters and the sound they make. This is essential for reading, but it also helps children learn to spell well. We teach the children simple ways of remembering these sounds and letters. Book Bag Books: matched to the Storybooks children read in school and used for extra practice. They include many of the same reading activities that we use in class and include parent guidance. In Read Write Inc oral blending and sounding out is called FRED TALK. Children are introduced to Fred - a puppet who can only speak in sounds (Fred Talk) and must help him to blend his sounds together to make words. Whenever, we sound out, we call this Fred Talk to help the children to remember the process.

Phonics is taught daily to all children in Year R, Year 1 and those in Year2 who have not passed the phonics screening in Year 1 or completed the Read, Write Inc phonics programme. Our aim is for most children to be finished Read Write Inc Phonics by the end of year 1 or shortly after they start year 2. They will then start on our Read Write Inc Spelling Programme. Fred the Frog helps children read and spell. He can say the sounds in words, but he can’t say the whole word, so children have to help him. Last and past’ Storybooks: contain sounds and words the children know. This is the Storybook they have just read at school and maybe some they have read before, for extra practice. Please don’t worry that books are too easy. Children enjoy re-reading stories they know well. Their speed and understanding improves on every read. For example ‘ship’: spot the ‘sh’, then Fred Talk and blend to read the word e.g. sh, sh-i-p, ship. As children become more able, they will access Read Write Inc dittys (small simple sentence books) and eventually longer books which they can use their skills to read.

say words by sounding-blending (Fred talk) eg. m-a-t = mat, sh-o-p = shop. Children then learn to read words by saying the sounds in a word then blending them together to say the whole word.

Children love reading the same book again and again. Their reading becomes speedier and they understand what they are reading. Watch the ‘ Reading the stretchy sounds with your child’, ‘ Reading the bouncy sounds with your child’ and ‘ Reading the digraphs with your child’ parent films on http://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/parents/ to see how to teach Set 1 sounds Practise reading known Set 1 Speed Sounds cards speedily. If needed, show your child the picture side of the card to help them remember the sound.Read the story once without stopping so they can enjoy the whole story. If you think your child might not understand something say something like ‘Oh I think what’s happening here is that…” Due to the success of RWI, Ruth Miskin is currently involved in a series of nationwide training programmes for primary schools commissioned by the UK government, aimed at training teachers in effective phonics teaching. - Praise your child for spelling using the sounds they know, even if their handwriting is not perfect. Say the handwriting phrase to help them form the letter correctly – see Handwriting Phrases on http://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/parents/

At St Peter’s Folkestone we use the Read Write Inc. (RWI) programme to begin our children’s reading and writing journey. RWI is a method of learning which teaches letter sounds and synthetic phonics and has proved to get children off to a flying start with their literacy learning. Children use their Fred Fingers to identify the individual sounds in words. In the early stages, children are given a simple word and are told how many sounds are in that word. They then hold up that amount of fingers (with the palm of their hand facing them so they can see their fingers). As they say their word, they split their word up into individual sounds, using one finger for each sound in sequence (left to right). For example, in the word bag, children would be told that this word has 3 sounds. They would then hold up three fingers and look at them. The next step is to touch their left-most fingers and say the first sound ( b). They then move to the next finger and say ( a). Finally they touch their next finger and say ( g). As they become more confident at linking letters to sounds and at writing those letters they will become increasingly more and more able to write the words after they use their Fred Fingers. This is the basis of writing using phonics. At Our Lady of the Assumption, we teach children to read and write using Phonics. The scheme we are using this year is called Read Write Inc. We teach children to read and spell using Fred. He is a toy frog who can say the sounds in words, but not the whole word. Children have to help him.Loving stories is important because children who love stories want to read stories for themselves. Children who read a lot become better readers. Please avoid saying, “This book is too easy for you!” but instead say “I love how well you can read this book!” Many children have a few sounds that they can hear clearly but find it difficult to say, particularly the l-sound, r-sound, w-sound, th-sound, s-sound, sh-sound and j-sound. Often they say a t-sound for the c-sound; "tttssh" for the s-sound; "w" for the r-sound and "r" for the l-sound. You can help your child by encouraging him or her to look at your mouth when you say the sound. They can easily learn to read, even if they find one or two sounds difficult to say. Speed Sounds cards: for children to practise reading speedily. If needed, show your child the picture side of the card to help them remember the sound.

Your child has a Storybook matched to the sounds and words they know – a decodable book – so they should be able to read all the words. We use various ways to find out how the children are progressing in reading. Each half term the children in Year R and Year 1 are assessed in Phonics. They are then grouped accordingly to ensure they are always being taught at the correct level to provide challenge. In class we regularly assess how fluently and accurately the children can read words. Children who are at the same reading level are grouped together for guided reading however these groups are fluid and if a child makes faster progress they are swiftly moved to a different group. Children who are not making the expected level of progress in phonics and reading will receive intervention support. We use Read Write Inc one-to-one tutoring for children from YR to Y2 who require extra phonics tuition to catch up with their peers.Use pure sounds, not letter names. Watch the ‘ how to say the sounds’ parent film on http://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/parents/ Use every opportunity to talk with your child throughout the day – meal times, playing together, bath time Read Write Inc. uses a systematic approach to Phonics to help children to learn to read and write. Children learn new sounds daily - these are letters and the most common sound that they make. When they have developed their knowledge of several sounds, they then begin to put these sounds together to make words. This is called blending. Blending is a very important milestone in children's reading because once they can hear the sounds in words and blend the sounds together to make words, they are ready to access books and begin to read independently.