Sample Lesson – The Letter ‘P’
Hi Everyone!
In the Phonics classes we take key features from our regular school literacy and phonics curriculum, and condense them down. The children get a good overview of a letter, sound and matching hand signal, and it really inspires them to start move forwards with their reading and writing.
The lovely thing about this system is that it caters for every type of learner, so it really captures all children’s attention. It is narrated by cute hand puppets (who also appear throughout the books) and Sammy Snake and Inky really help us to set the scene each week! We have new letter sounds every session and we reiterate as well. Each sound has its own special song and hand signal, which help the children really connect with the sounds.
Take a look at the letter we chose to demonstrate this concept for you – we welcome the letter ‘P’! In these photos you see children from various ages (our Pre-Phonics and Phonics groups) having a lovely lesson.
We had a lot of fun with the letter P'!
| We use the Big giant Jolly Phonics book to talk about P and establish what it looks like in context |
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| We trace letters and find pictures of words that begin with ‘P’, and the children love seeing who identifies them first. Ten out of ten guys! |
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| We make our very own cakes with, of course, Pink dough, which we called Puttty, and we poked and pinched and punched it into shape. What a lovely Pink Pig cake ..Puff! |
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Then make the sound for ‘P’, which is like a P-P-P blowing sound that we practice with our finger close to our lips, and then we practice blowing out the candles with that sound!
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| We pretend to eat the cake and talk about the word Pretend and other P words, still quite a tricky concept at this stage |
| We chant the rhyme: "Puff out the Candles on the Pink Pig cake", and we joke that it should be called Pink Pig Pie! |
After all this excitement we return to our phonics activity table and bring out the magic letter bag – which was….(drum roll) ‘P’!
The children take turns taking out objects and shouting out what they are called…all sorts of things, like Princess and Pineapple!
Phew what a Party!
By this time it is ‘brain time’ and we trace our P very carefully.
After studying the letter P in so many ways we ask the kids if they felt really confident with the letter 'p', and it appears so much so that when I ask, “Who wants this worksheet?” they shout out, "Me, me, me!"
We had a Perfect afternoon, and hopefully the children go back to mummy and Point out Ps all over the house for you now!
Our older groups (Advanced Phonics, Word Explorers and Word Wizards) also have special focus on other areas and work on the far trickier concepts of the language.
Although some age groups cover the same letter, and use similar materials, each age-banding has its own special content and appropriate and unique challenges, to ensure the children make progress. In the older groups the children learn to blend letters and put the sounds together. We use a system of hand movements that enable memorization and letter recall, and the children also spend time working on their reading.
Our Mother & Child Phonics Workshops (run at various stages in the year) also cover special letters each week, with a combination of songs, music, movement, art, fun activities and
Come and see a trial class with us!
