Term 3 Week 7 – Letter x

We dedicated only two pages on our literacy workbook to letter x.  (They usually find this letter easy to write).  I reminded them that there are only a few words in English which start with this letter sound.

Sometimes instead of saying the letter sound we even use the letter name such as in xylophone.

The children watched this video clip to see that letter x can be placed in other places as well in a particular word.

The Letter X Song” by ABCmouse.com –

The jolly phonic letter x song –

We emphasized words that finish with x such as box, fox, six, mix, fix.  The students practiced their writing skills on their literacy workbook 9.  Here are the pages.

Success Criteria to be able to write letter x –

• You start writing this letter from the top.
• Slant down.
• You have to lift the pencil
• Go to the top again other the other side and slant down the other way.
• There are no straight lines in x, if we do this we end up writing a plus (+).

We ended our letter x sessions with the following video clip.

The Skeleton Dance –

Term 3 week 7 Letter w

Letter w is the second zig zag monster letter which we looked at.

It is very common that the children mix this up with the letter v at first.  So I emphasize that w has two points at the bottom whilst v as we saw during the previous week has only one.

The following are the words the children came up with starting with w: window, wall, watch, witch, wind, wand, win, work, white and whale.

We also looked at names of people and animals: William, Wendy and Willow.

Besides doing its formation in the air, on the interactive whiteboard and in sand they also formed it using both hands.  Finally they practiced writing it on their workbooks.  Here is how the pages looked like.

Success Criteria to be able to write letter w –

• You start writing this letter from the top.
• It is like writing 2 v’s stuck together.
• There are no straight lines in this letter.
• This letter is special because it has two points at the bottom..

After finishing the letter w pages the children also worked a mixed page where they had to match the letters v and w to pictures which start with these two sounds.

This is another video clip the children watched in relation to letter w.

 

Term 3 Week 6 Letter v

The literacy lessons about letter v focused on other words which start with v besides vet.

The Children came up with various words such as van, violin, vase, vegetables, violet, and voice. We also practiced the v formation in the air and in sand as well as using bottle caps and large flashcards.

The children recorded this letter in their literacy workbook 9.  Here is how the pages looked like.

This letter is one of the four letters forming the zig zag monster letters because there are slanting lines in its formation.

Success Criteria to be able to write letter v –

• You start writing this letter from the top.
• You slant down the slide.
• Stop, don’t lift hand but go up the hill.
• There are no round parts in v.
• There are no straight lines either.
• V has only one point at the bottom.

The children saw two video clips:

The v song –

Jolly phonic – Letter v –

After the children were ready with practicing letter v they had a special page where we blended three words – yes, van and vet and then the children coloured in the page.

Term 3 Week 6 Letter y

We dedicated three pages on our literacy workbook to letter y.

Before practicing their writing skills, the children came up with their own words such as yellow, yard, yell, yawn, yes and yoghurt.

We also played a game on the interactive whiteboard where we saw pictures of words which start with y and they had to spot them out.

Jolly Phonics Extra Letter Sounds Book – /y/

Here is how the pages looked like.

Success Criteria to be able to write letter y–

• You start writing this letter from the top.
• First you go down.
• You have to go round and not do a sleeping line.
• The round part does not have to be too narrow or too wide.
• When you go back up, the line has to be the same size as the first line.
• Don’t forget to go down and make a hook.

The children saw this video clip:

The jolly phonics letter y song –

 

 

Term 3 Week 5 Letter u – underground

We dedicated three pages on our literacy workbook to letter u.

Before practicing their writing skills, the children came up with their own words such as up, under, us, underground, umbrella and upside down.

We also played a game on the interactive whiteboard where we saw pictures of words which start with u and they had to spot them out.  I pointed out that there aren’t many words which start with this letter sound.

Most of the time you would find this letter in the middle of a word or in other places if the word is long.

Jolly Phonics Extra, Letter Sounds Book – /u/

Here is how the pages looked like.

Success Criteria to be able to write letter u–

• You start writing this letter from the top.
• First you go down.
• You have to go round and not do a sleeping line.
• The round part does not have to be too narrow or too wide.
• When you go back up the line has to be the same size as the first line.

The children saw the following video clip:

The jolly phonics letter u song –

After completing these pages we had an extra page with 5 different letters, j, u, l, t, i and the children had to match these as first letter sounds to their appropriate picture and record them on their workbooks.  This is the page:

Term 3 Week 4 – Letter j

Besides watching the jolly phonic rhyme song pertaining to this letter, the children listened to a very short story which had j words in it.

They also observed the objects in the same picture which started with letter sound j.

The jolly phonics letter j song –

Jolly Phonics Extra, Letter Sounds Book – /j/

They then mentioned the words: Jane, jelly, jacket, jam, juice, jigsaw and juggler.  They also said jug, jar, jump, jog and jeep.

Success criteria for writing j.

• J has a tall back.
• It has a hook and not a tail or it would become a different letter.
• You have to lift your hand from the paper to do the dot at the top.
• The dot does not have to be very big nor very small.

I showed them the difference between j and i so they would not get confused whilst writing.

They practiced the letter j formation in sand as well as with buttons on big flashcards and finally recorded their work on their literacy workbooks.

Here is how the pages looked like.

Term 3 Week 3 Letter b

As regards the letter b we followed the usual procedure.  The words that they came up with were the following, boat, block, big, blue, banana, balloon, bag, bat, bug, bread, bed amongst others.

We also played a game where each group of children at their respective tables were given a letter we would have already done along with letter b example b, l, o, m.

I then gave them clues to a word starting with one of the letters and the children had to discuss what word they thought it was and the table representing that letter had to say the word.

Before starting the writing session I reminded the children of the little trick to use when writing b.  b looks at d.

Other success criteria for writing b:

• b has a tall back.
• When you go up to start the tummy go up only to the middle that is: a small bounce.

The writing section of the lesson consisted of experimenting on the mini whiteboards, practicing the letter formation on the big interactive whiteboard and finally recording it on their workbooks.

Songs we played in class as movement breaks related to this letter were these:

The jolly phonics letter b song –

The Letter B Song by ABCmouse.com –

This section of the workbook ended with a picture game where each group of children were given one of the letters below and they had to match them to the first letter sound of each word and then write it down in the corresponding box.

Term 3 Week 3 Letter l

In one of the previous topic blogs related to Holland I had spoken about locks.

It follows that the letter associated with this topic is letter l.  The children found letter l easy to write.  They came up with the usual list of words starting with l.

They mentioned words like lemon, leg, laugh, lion, and lollipop. Obviously they mentioned the children in class whose name starts with l too:  Luisa, Luca, Lemonie.

As usual besides experimenting with various mediums such as sand and different thickness of markers they wrote letter l on their workbooks.  Here is how the pages looked like.

Success criteria to be able to write letter l –

• You start writing this letter from the top.
• It has to straight.
• Don’t forget the tail at the end.

The children saw two video clips:

The jolly phonics letter l song –

The letter l song –

New Readers

Dear parents and guardians,

As I had posted in an earlier blog, starting from this term I am giving out the new readers as part of our library time at home.

Not all children will receive these books at one go as they slowly enter into a rotation system of about five children per week.

The rest of the students will receive the usual library book of their choice as we have usually done until all the children will enter into the rotation system.

The way to read a book with your child

For those children getting the usual readers they chose in class –

1. First look at the cover of the book, ask the child what he/she thinks the book is all about.
2. Mention the title of the book. What does this tell us about the story?
3. Say the name of the author and the illustrator.
4. Read the book to the child explaining difficult words on the way if any.
5. Ask the child about how they think the story will continue or finish or how would they end it?
6. If along the way you see any cvc words like cat, dog, run etc first ask the child to say each individual sound and try and blend the sounds together slowly. First blend the first two sounds and then add the third one.
   • Cat -> say the sounds individually – c-a-t.
   • Blend the first two sounds – c- a = ca.
   • Blend the third sound as well – c – a – t = cat.

For those children getting the new readers.

Please follow steps 1-3 as above

4. For step 4 first show them how to blend by using the method shown in step 6.

Allocate enough time for the child to try to blend the words and don’t give the answer straight away if you see they don’t say the word.  Give them some time and encouragement.  Praise them if they say the word.

Ideas of how to check if they really know the word.

• Choose a page at random and point to a word and ask what it is, blending slowly.
• Write the word on a whiteboard or piece of paper and ask what the word is, blending slowly.
• Write each word found in the book on a small piece of paper for each one and put them in a bag. Ask the child to take one out and try to blend it alone or with your help.

Term 3 Week 3 Writing Letter g

By now you got used to the usual routine, that after the topic work we focus on the literacy aspect of the letter of the day.

The children came up with their own words starting with g.  These were some of the words grass, glove, gate, girl, glass, garden and game.

Besides doing its formation in the air and on the interactive whiteboard they also practiced writing it on their workbooks.  Here is how the pages looked like.

Success Criteria to be able to write letter g –

• You start writing this letter from the top.
• The curve must not be too big or there would not be space for the hook at the bottom.
• The curve cannot be too small either.
• Always remember to do the hook at the end or it ends up being another letter altogether.

The children saw two video clips:

The g song –

Jolly phonic – Letter g –

During this week we also focused on first letter sounds.  These are the pages we worked out.