Phonics - Little Wandle
At Highfields, we now use the Little Wandle scheme to deliver our phonics lessons to Reception and Year 1 children. The children are taught a daily phonics lesson, which involves a new grapheme (a letter or group of letters that make a sound) being taught each day. The children practise using this grapheme within different words. The children also recap previously taught graphemes within their lesson.
Alongside the phonics lessons, the children will be in a reading group 3 times a week. In Reception, this will begin around the October half term, and in Year 1, it will begin within the first few weeks of September. The children will read the same book 3 times each week. During the first read, we focus on the book introduction, looking at any tricky words, and discussing any words which may be new to the children. During the second read we focus on prosody (using intonation and expression). In the final read we then focus on the comprehension to check the children’s understanding of what they have read. At the end of the week, your child will bring this book home to read with you.
We cannot stress how important it is that you read this book with your child. By the time your child brings home their book, it should be quite easy for them to read and it is their opportunity to show off to you, and celebrate how well they are doing with their reading.