Phonics
at Banana Moon Day Nursery A guide for parents
Introduction The phonics programme at Banana Moon starts in our Baby Room and grows as the children progress through the nursery. This booklet will show you how we implement the phonics programme and how you can support it at home. The most important consideration when undertaking any learning programme is that it is engaging and developmentally appropriate for every child. Before children can successfully learn ‘phonics’, they must have phonological awareness. This is when they are able to separate words into the various different sounds and are able to pronounce them. This will usually develop around three to four years old. The following pages will show you how we support children’s phonological awareness and will give you some ideas of how you can support this at home.
Baby Moons The first stage of the phonics programme is to expose your baby to as much language as possible. To acquire phonological awareness, they will need to hear a range of words in a range of contexts.
Below is a list of the ways you can do this: •
Narrate your daily routines. As you cook dinner, clean the house, wash the dishes etc. talk to your baby and tell them what you’re doing. You may feel silly but hearing these everyday words will support the development of language.
•
Narrate your baby’s routines. Talk to your baby about what you are doing with them – nappy changing, feeding, bathing etc.
•
Respond to your baby’s body language and cries. If your baby puts up their arms you can say: ‘Would you like me to pick you up?’ If your baby is crying and you recognise this as a hungry cry you can say: ‘Are you hungry? Let’s feed you now.’
•
Respond to your baby’s sounds. Around three months old they will start to make more sounds as you interact with them. Treat these sounds as you would a conversation – talk to your baby and allow them time to respond to you.
•
Read to your baby. Babies’ brains are developing rapidly and as they hear more words the language areas of the brain are stimulated.
•
If you speak more than one language at home, use the one you are most comfortable and fluent in. Your baby needs to hear language from a proficient speaker to hear the correct grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation of the language. If you speak a language to your baby that you do not know that well, you risk teaching the language incorrectly. They could make errors when they speak it because they have picked up the errors from you.
Book recommendations: •
Dear Zoo, Rod Campbell, Pan MacMillan
•
That’s Not My Llama, Fiona Watt, Usborne
•
Baby’s Very First Fingertrail Play Book Garden, Fiona Watt, Usborne
•
Baby’s Very First Black and White Book: Babies, Stella Baggott, Usborne
•
Everywhere Babies, Susan Meyers, Red Wagon Books
https://www.booktrust.org.uk/booklists/b/best-books-for-babies0-12-months/
Teenie Moons Between one and two years, your child will learn and begin to use more words. They will repeat words and will begin pointing and asking what things are.
To support phonological awareness, you can: •
Play with your child, for example, role play can stimulate the imagination and provides an opportunity to introduce new vocabulary or building towers with blocks – this provides opportunities to label colours and count
•
Listen to music and rhymes – this helps to develop an awareness of rhythm and rhyme is speech
•
Read stories together – at Banana Moon we use the dialogic reading approach. Talk to your child’s Key Person for more information on this
•
Continue to narrate your day-to-day activities – use simple sentences, emphasise key words and avoid ‘baby talk’
•
If you speak more than one language at home, continue to use the one you are most comfortable and fluent in. Your child needs to hear language from a proficient speaker to hear the correct grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation of the language. If you speak a language to your child that you do not know that well, you risk teaching the language incorrectly. They could make errors when they speak it because they have picked up the errors from you.
Book recommendations: •
Bathtime for Little Rabbit, Jörg Mühle, Gecko Press
•
Dinosaur Roar! Henrietta Stickland, Pan Macmillan
•
Fox’s Socks, Julia Donaldson, Macmillan
•
How to Brush Your Teeth with Snappy Croc, Jane Clarke, Red Fox (Penguin Random House)
https://www.bookdepository.com/category/3392/Books-forAges-0-2
Mini Moons This is the time when most children have what is called a language explosion. You will notice a sudden increase in vocabulary, and they will start putting words together to form sentences.
To support this stage of their phonological awareness you can: •
Continue to play games – below are some of our favourites: •
Talk on the telephone – each have a toy phone, pretend to dial and encourage your child to pick up by saying hello. You can then ask questions and encourage them to listen and respond
•
Play the ‘what’s that’ game. You can point to an item and ask your child to name it. They will begin to do the same to you
•
Play ‘animal jam’. You would say ‘a cat goes’ and then complete with the sound
•
Continue singing songs and listening to music – this will build vocabulary and continue to develop around rhythm and rhyme in speech
•
Continue to speak in simple sentences – modelling sentence structure will support your child to construct their own sentences. If they make mistakes, don’t correct them – repeat back what they said using the correct structure
•
Continue reading – research shows that reading from an early age can improve literacy skills when your child goes to school
•
Continue to speak in your home language.
Book recommendations: •
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? Bill Martin Jr, Penguin
•
The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle, Puffin
•
WOW! Said the Owl, Tim Hopgood, Macmillan Children’s Books
•
A Busy Day for Birds, Lucy Cousins, Walker Books
•
Room on the Broom, Julia Donaldson, Penguin Books
https://www.bookdepository.com/category/3392/Books-forAges-0-2
Full Moons As children enter Full Moons, they are generally speaking in longer sentences with more confidence. There may be some sounds that they have a few difficulties with, including r, w, l, f, th, sh, ch and dz. This is perfectly normal and will be monitored and supported during their time at nursery.
During this time, we recommend the following activities to support phonological awareness: Listening is a key aspect of a phonics programme and a skill that will be focused on during your child’s day at nursery. Listening helps children to discriminate between different sounds, which is key to the development of phoneme awareness in the later stages of the phonics programme. Some of our favourite listening games are: •
Nature walks – go to a park and listen to the sounds, birds, traffic, aircraft, insects etc.
•
Sound stories – read a story and make the sounds described in the book.
•
Soundtracks – this is a game that can be purchased and played at home with all the family https://maxedbuy.co.uk/en/ detail/1040078-galt-toys-soundtracks-listening.html
•
Socks and shakers – fill a sock or bottle with items such as, rice, money, shells etc. Ask them to close their eyes, shake the sock or bottle and ask them to identify the sound.
•
Play rhyming games – you say a word like ‘cat’ and your child has to say a word that rhymes, such as ‘mat’.
•
Use alliteration in your conversations, starting off with two words and then extending to more, for example, busy bees, hungry horses, Alex alligator adores apples.
•
Play listening and remembering games – Mummy went to the shop and bought a bag of apples, one banana and a loaf of bread.
•
Introduce new words to describe objects or activities, for example, crunchy, rough, spiky, smooth etc.
•
Ask your child to make different sounds, for example, the sound of a train choooo choooo, the sound a cow makes moo moo, the sound a snake makes sssss. This activity prepares the child’s mouth for making different sounds – this is like warming up your body before you run a marathon!
The final stage of the phonics programme at nursery will be introducing more sounds and asking the children to say them out loud during play. For example, if they are bouncing a ball, we will encourage them to b, b, b, bounce the ball.
Conclusion All of the activities in this phonics programme will help to prepare your child when they go to school. By following this programme at home, you have helped your child develop a wide vocabulary, listening skills and the ability to move their mouths and tongues to the positions needed to make sounds. All of the activities we use at Banana Moon are play-based to ensure children are always fully engaged and having fun while they learn. Your child’s reception teacher will explain the next phases of the phonics programme to you. We hope you have enjoyed this programme. For further information, please speak to your child’s Key Person or the Nursery Manager.
References: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/ system/uploads/attachment_data/file/190599/Letters_and_ Sounds_-_DFES-00281-2007.pdf