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you will follow step by step, but rather anapproach you will take to develop children’slanguage skills across the whole curriculum.This means that you will be ‘doing phonics’

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As early years practitioners youare urged to look foropportunities to developchildren’s language throughplay across the whole day –

luckily, there’s inspiration to be foundthroughout the Early Years FoundationStage, and sometimes where you’d leastexpect to find it. For example, althoughthere might not seem to be any obviouslink between counting and phonics, we aregoing to show you in this article how youcan combine the two with few resourcesand just a little additional planning.Counting will be a part of every day’sactivities in your setting, so dip into theideas below and choose the one that bestfits the session you have planned.

All of the ideas are based on Phase Oneof ‘Letters and Sounds’. This phase is allabout making the children aware of sounds– those sounds that are all around them,those that they can make themselves – and,eventually, helping them to recognise thesounds that we use to create words. PhaseOne is not intended as a programme that

Noisy vehiclesPlay a guessing game with vehicle noises.Ask a group of five children to think of fivedifferent vehicle noises – e.g. police car,

racing car, ambulance, tractor, motorbike.Each child in turn makes one of thevehicle noises. Can anyone guess whichone it is? Next time try five farm animals,zoo animals or pets.

Where’s the bus going today?Arrange some chairs to represent abus. Five children sit on the bus.Tell them where they are going –e.g. the market, seaside, zoo.Everyone tries to name a soundthey will hear there.

Listen and countAsk the children to sit on the carpet. Help them to count out five cups. Now ask them to close their eyes andlisten carefully. Pour water into some orall of the cups. Children should counthow many theyhear, and hold upthat number offingers.

at the same time as lots of other EYFS-based activities.

There are seven aspects of phonicsdescribed in ‘Letters and Sounds’ (seepanel for details), and we have divided theactivities into these seven categories, sothat you can keep a record of thechildren’s phonic experiences. They arebased on the number ‘5’, but you can veryeasily adapt them to any number youwould like to focus on...

SOUNDS

ENVIRONMENTAL SOUNDS

SOUNDS

countingFINDINGPHONICS:

In the first of two practical articles, Gill Coulson and Lynn Cousins demonstratehow you can help children to develop theirlanguage skills using everyday number gamesand activities...

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42 Teach Nursery

Name the instrumentHelp a small group of children select fivedifferent instruments. When they play one ofthem (hidden behind a screen) can the otherchildren identify which instrument it was?

Musical bottlesUse food colouring to make some colouredwater. Set out five glass bottles and help acouple of children to fill them with differingamounts of the coloured water. Tap thebottles and hear the five different tones created.

INSTRUMENTAL SOUNDS Many action songs

start with thenumber ‘5’. Try thistraditional one, anda new one...

Five littlemen in aflying saucer

Five little men in a flying saucer

(stretch out arms to make a bigflying saucer)Flew round the world one day

(skip in a circle)They looked left and right,

But didn’t like the sight

(turn head from side to side, then shake)So one man flew away.

Make the flying saucer smaller as each verse is repeated for 4, then 3, 2 and 1 man.

Five little biscuitsThe children could make cardboardbiscuits and arrange them on a paper plate...

Five little biscuits spread out on a plate

(point to the plate of ‘biscuits’)

Lily (name a child in your group) is going

to eat one,

They taste just great.

(Lily takes one of the ‘biscuits’, then makesa sound effect: yum, yum; crunch, crunch,mmmmmm; or an action: rub tummy, rubhands together and then pretends to eatthe biscuit.)

Four little biscuits spread out on the plate

Josh is going to eat one,

They taste just great.

(Josh makes a different sound effect oraction)

Repeat until all five biscuits have been ‘eaten’.

BODY PERCUSSION

Any story, rhyme or poem can be usedto raise children’s awareness of thisaspect of phonics.

Feel the beatSing 1 2 3 4 5, Once I caught a fish alive.Encourage the children to clap therhythm of the numbers (1*2*345*) as yousing each line of the rhyme. An extraadult can help them to keep the rhythmcorrect as you say the words.

Try changing the creature that wascaught to another one syllable word – e.g.frog, fly, crab, ant, bird, newt.

Count and point

Five little fish

Swimming in the sea

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, I see.

As the children say the numbers, theypoint to one finger for each number.

Change the word ‘little’ for anotherdescriptive word and repeat the rhyme.

How about striped

fish, big fish, pink

fish orhungry

fish?

RHYTHM & RHYME

Show your numberWhat do the children notice about thenumber words four and five? They startwith the same sound, /f/. Two children hidetheir hands behind them. Ask them tochoose the number ‘4’ or the number ‘5’ –secretly! When you say “Show yournumber”, both children show their fingers –four or five. Clap if they are both the same.

NamesHave you any children with a name thatstarts with an /f/ sound, the same asnumber ‘5’? Challenge the children to thinkof five names that begin with the sound /f/– e.g. Freddie, Fatima, Frances, Phoebe,

Phillip, Fiona, Felix, Fergus, Faye, Florence.

Fly and flutterPlay a game outside on a soft surface. Usefive toys that move in special ways. Showthe children the toys and encourage themto name the things they can do – which allstart with the sound /f/.

Plane: flyFlag: flutter

Fridge/freezer from the dolls’ house: freeze

Rag doll: flop

Humpty Dumpty: fall

Show the toy, name the action and let the

ALLITERATION children do this action.

Can you fffffffffff ...fly?Can you ffffffffff ...flutter?Can you fffffffffff ...freeze?Can you fffffffff ...flop?Can you fffffffff ...fall?

High-fiveUse these five actions to play a version of‘Simon says’. You say the action words (notoys this time) as often as you like, and inrandom order. Children do the actions.Occasionally shout “five!”. Everyone has tofind a friend and high-five them.

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Teach Nursery 43

RESOURCE TROLLEY

Find out more at www.tts-shopping.com/earlyyears or call 0800318 686.

THREE RESOURCES TO AID LANGUAGEAND MATHEMATICAL DEVELOPMENT FROM TTS...

Number RhymesBasket (EY04735),£39.95 A fabulous collection offabric objects containedwithin a basket. Children

can take out objects and sing along tomemorable nursery rhymes such as 10green bottles and Five currant buns.Ideal for language and mathematicaldevelopment.

Bumper Maths Bag(EY04737), £99.95Quite literally brimmingwith resources designedto engage and bringmaths to life. This

versatile resource means maths can beexplored in a number of different ways,shape, size, counting, sequencing,fractions and length.

44 Sounds andSpelling PhonicsTubs (LI00769),£99.95Teach phonics with amore tactile approach.

Each tub represents one of the 44sounds; they include visual items toshow and represent the alternativespellings of one particular sound, e.g.:‘ai’ for snail but also ‘a_e’ as in cake.

HERE ARE SEVEN QUICK COUNTINGIDEAS THAT ILLUSTRATE THEDIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SEVENASPECTS OF PHASE ONE...

1 Environmental sounds: listen carefully to all the sounds around you.Go outside and listen for five different sounds.

2 Instrumental sounds: be aware of therange of sounds made with instruments.Notice the sound getting louder as 1, then2, then 3, 4, 5 children play shakers.

3 Body percussion: create sounds withtheir bodies and move in time to rhythm.Let five children stand at the front as you allsing an action song together – “If you’rehappy and you know it stamp your feet...”

4 Rhythm and Rhyme: to appreciaterhythm and rhyme.

‘LETTERS & SOUNDS’ PHASE ONE

Change the number word as you sing afamiliar rhyme. Try Five in a bed or Fiveblind mice!

5 Alliteration: to start to understand thatlots of words start with the same sound.Paint five snakes. Describe each one witha word that begin with ‘sss’ – slow, soft,slippery, scary, silly.

6 Voice sounds: to distinguish betweenvocal sounds.Record five individual children sayingyour name. When you play each oneback, can the others guess who is speaking?

7 Oral blending and segmenting: tohear the individual sounds in a word andblend them back into a whole word.Say any number up to five in ‘sound talk’,e.g. th-r-ee. Children show that number of fingers.

In the bagChoose five objects from the classroom – e.g.a pen, cup, shell, book, key (keep the objectsto words made of only 2–3 phonemes). Makesure the children can name them beforehiding the five objects in a bag. Sound outthe name of one of the objects – e.g. sh-e-ll.Whoever can guess what it is reaches in thebag and finds it – without looking in the bag!

Find meChallenge the children to work with a friendand find:

■ Five b-oo-k-s■ Five c-u-p-s■ Five c-ar-s

Can they work out what to find by blendingthe sounds they have heard?

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DON’T FORGET BOOKS!Remember, the purpose of learning phonicsis to be able to read and write, so take everyopportunity to share books with yourchildren – including counting books. Childrenwill enjoy listening to a counting book atstory time, but you can also share one at thestart of the day, leave them out for childrento look at during their free play, or use themas a basis for a display.

Try making your own little counting books.Staple together five sheets of paper inside acardboard cover, and number each pagewith a large figure, from 1–5. Write The NoisyFarm as the title. Let the children cut out andstick on the appropriate page: 1 cow, 2 ducks,

3 sheep, 4 pigs, 5 hens.

Read the book together, making the animalnoises, then try another theme.

The Rainbow FishRead the story The Rainbow Fish byMarcus Pfister. Prepare a cardboard fishwith five detachable scales made fromcoloured foil. Show the children the fishand choose five of them to ask for a scaleeach. They should use the words from thebook, “Please give me one of your shinyscales”. Encourage them to try to speak in a fishy voice. Imagine trying to talkunder water!

A fairy storyChoose a story with five main characters– e.g. Red Riding Hood, Grandma, Wolf,

Woodcutter, Mummy. Choose fivechildren to be these characters. You tellthe story and whenever you mention achild’s character he or she ‘helps’ you tosay the relevant words in a suitable voice.

VOICE SOUNDS

ORAL BLENDING &SEGMENTING

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