It was lovely to see some of you at our Reading Information Evening last night and, as promised some links, I hope will be useful. If you were unable to attend copies of the booklet will be coming shortly – they will be by the blue side gate in due course, ready for you to help yourself to.
Getting to grips with reading can be tricky to say the least as despite there being just 26 letters in the English alphabet, there are approximately 44 unique sounds, also known as phonemes. The 44 sounds help distinguish one word or meaning from another. Various letters and letter combinations know as graphemes are used to represent the sounds. The 44 English sounds fall into two categories: consonants and vowels. There is no such thing as a definitive list of phonemes because of accents, dialects and the evolution of language itself to complicate matters – so you may just discover lists with more or less than these 44 sounds!
Pronunciation is so very important and a phoneme must be articulated as a pure, clean sound – to hear the correct pronunciation of phonetic sounds we recommend the following: Click here
Phonics are a means to an end. The sooner that children can recognise the sounds (phonemes), the letters (graphemes) that represent them and blend them together in order to read words, then the sooner they can read for understanding, purpose and pleasure.
Marilyn Brocklehurst, through her Norfolk Children’s Book Centre, freely dispenses her unquenchable enthusiasm for books and reading; it is definitely worth taking a look at her website. Her contact details are as follows: marilyn@ncbc.co.uk Norfolk Children’s Book Centre, Church Lane, Alby, Nortwich NR11 7HB.
I also highly recommend you buying a copy of ‘The Story Cure: An A-Z of Books to Keep Kids Happy, Healthy and Wise’ by Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin.
Lastly, another useful website to look at is: Oxford Owl Reading Parent Top Tips Oxford Owl Top Tips
We are delighted to announce this term’s School Councillors, all democratically voted in by their peers – they are as follows: Jacob Ri (Year 2), Christo (Year 2), Charles (Year 1), Chuck (Year 1), Kostya (Reception) and Tristan (Reception). I look forward to them bringing forth ideas and suggestions to our meetings this term.
This week the Courtesy Cup and Badge went to Ethan (Reception) for his lovely manners and always trying his best.
and Stars of the Week were awarded to:
Year 2: Frank for his exceptional mathematical explanations.
Year 1: Rosie for brilliant descriptive writing.
Reception: Tristan for his super handwashing ‘Super Soap’ poster.
Congratulations to Hari (Year 2) was awarded best player at his tennis coaching class, after achieving the longest time controlling a tennis ball on his racket, Frank (Year 2) for winning ‘Man of the Match’ for the second week running and to Henri (Year 1) for winning a trophy at Half Backs Rugby for being a ‘Playball Superstar’.