Louise MorettaThursday 2nd July 2015

EYFSReading, Writing and

Maths

The government has set out a series of early learning goals (ELGs) that the majority of children are expected to achieve by the end of the Foundation Stage

Early Learning Goals

Listening and AttentionChildren listen attentively in a range of situations. They listen to stories, accurately anticipating key events, and respond to what they hear with relevant comments, questions or actions. They give their attention to what others say and respond appropriately, while engaged in another activity.

UnderstandingChildren follow instructions involving several ideas or actions. They answer ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions about their experiences and in response to stories or events.

SpeakingChildren express themselves effectively, showing awareness of listeners’ needs. They use past, present and future forms accurately when talking about events that have happened or are to happen in the future. They develop their own narratives and explanations by connecting ideas or events.

Communication and Language (Prime Area)

Reading (ELGs)

• To read and understand simple sentences • To use phonic knowledge to decode words and read

them aloud• To read ‘tricky’ words • To demonstrate understanding by discussing what

they have read

Literacy (Specific Area)

We follow ‘Letters and Sounds’ to teach phonics • Children learn the phonemes (sounds) for a number of letters (graphemes) • Children will learn that some phonemes are made up of more than one letter, e.g. ai, igh. • We use ‘Jolly Phonics’ actions to help children to remember the phonemes.

Phonics Teaching

We teach children how to say the sounds aloud and then merge them together to make the whole word. The merging is called blending, and is a vital skill for reading. Eg: c-a-t = cat Children will also learn to do this the other way round. Eg: cat = c-a-t. This is called segmenting, and is a vital skill for spelling.

Phonics Teaching

Children are taught how to pronounce the sounds (phonemes) correctly to make blending easier. Phonemes should be ‘soft’ sounds where possible.

Try to avoid saying ‘p-uh’, ‘c-uh’, ‘m-uh’ ‘y-uh’ or ‘cee’, ‘bee’

Your child will also learn tricky words (High Frequency words); those that cannot be sounded out, eg: the, to, I, go, no.

Phonics Teaching

Read bedtime stories. Choose books with your child.Visit the library.Encourage your children to orally retell stories.Discuss the story together.... ‘What is going to happen?’ Encourage children to identify initial sounds.Hear your child read as often as possible!

Ways to help at home

• To use their phonic knowledge to write words in a way that match their spoken sounds• To write some ‘tricky’ words correctly• To write simple sentences using phonics that can be

read by themselves and others• Some words are spelt correctly and others

phonetically plausible

Writing (ELGs)

We are led by children's interests.We learn and remember full texts using pictures and actions so children have an internalised bank of ‘story language.’ We encourage children to throw, catch, thread, knead and squeeze objects.We show children how to hold their pencil correctly. We model how to form letters by starting in the correct place.We provide opportunities for children to write independently everywhere!

Teaching Writing

Find objects that have three sounds and try to sound out the words....c-u-p.Encourage whole body co-ordination by throwing and catching, skipping, balancing.Practise a ‘pincer’ pencil grip by using pegs or threading.Practise using scissors.Play ‘bingo’ with key words or sounds.Encourage children to write using lower case letters and form letters in the correct way.Encourage your child to speak in full sentences that are grammatically correct as they will write in the same way as they speak!

Ways to help at home

Mathematics involves providing children with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in counting, understanding and using numbers. They calculate simple addition and subtraction problems and describe shapes, spaces, and measures.

Maths

Stories - e.g. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Great Pet Sale.

Songs and rhymes- e.g. 'One two, buckle my shoe' are the start of learning to count.

Imaginative play- shop keeper, café, finding treasure, dinosaur land.

Your child will also learn about numbers and how to solve problems in practical ways such as: board games, talking, counting, cooking.

Early Learning Experiences

Count reliably with numbers from one to 20. Recognise, read and write numbers to 20. Place numbers in order. Say which number is one more and one less than a given number. Using quantities and objects, they add 2 single digit numbers and count on to find the answer. Using quantities and objects, they subtract 2 single digit numbers and count back to find the answer. They solve problems, including doubling, halving and sharing.

By the end of the year children should;

• Children carry out practical play based activities in the continuous provision. • Use ICT games.• Children learn to count using a range of resources such

as cubes, numicon and carpet tiles.• We provide daily opportunities for children to explore maths in the classroom and outdoors.

How do we teach maths?

• Games such as Snakes and Ladders, Snap, computer games reinforce learning. • Once your child has mastered a number line i.e. counting

from 1 to 10, and recognising the number symbol, it is time to introduce concepts such as: • Which number comes before? • What is one more/one less?• Which is greater? • Using a number line: Put your finger on 2 then jump 2

numbers higher • Which number comes before 6? • Which numbers are greater than 7?

It is important to be able to identify in which order the numbers do go. This comes with constant practice and incidental learning.

• Children can often recite numbers up to ten by habit without any other concepts behind this.

• The difficult part is teaching children to associate, for example, the number 3 with three items.

• This can take a long time but with constant play, demonstration and even trial and error, your child will successfully be able to bring you one book, and two pencils etc.

+ + = 3

• Children use everyday language to talk about: Size, weight, capacity, position, distance, time, money. (Comparing quantities and objects to solve problems).

• They recognise, create and describe patterns.

• They explore characteristics of everyday objects and shapes and use mathematical language to describe them.

Shape, space and measure (ELGs)

• Patterns- we will look at colours, shapes and repeating sequences. • Time- we will teach sequencing: before, after,

earlier…• Measures- we use non- standard measures i.e.

cubes, objects, hand span. • Mathematical language to compare measures. (Full,

empty, half full, longer, longest, shortest, smaller, bigger, biggest etc.)

Shape, space and measure

• Sorting – you can let children sort shopping, socks, money, toys.• Rhymes – learning rhymes helps them to talk about numbers

and order them.• Recognising coins – this is a great thing to do when you are

out and about. Talk about how much an item has cost.• Patterns and sequencing – look at patterns in the

environment. When you are out and about they can count items in sets, such as apples, yoghurts.• Shape and space – recognising shapes in the environment and

talking about their features, such as corners, sides, curved edges and straight edges. Junk modelling is great for this at home!

Helping At Home

• Measures – cooking together, weighing ingredients and looking at weights on packages. Comparing long and short items. Playing with water and bottles in the bath and looking at how much containers hold. Talking about time, using the language associated with time such as ‘bedtime, bathtime, date of birth, days of the week and months of the year. Talk about what time they go to bed or have lunch.• Correcting number formation and practising

writing numbers to 10 then 20. • Counting together. • Playing number games. • Taking an interest and talk about maths positively!

All children have different starting points and learn at different rates. Some find reading, writing or the concept of number very easy whereas others need more individual help in one or all areas. Try to avoid comparing your child's progress to that of other children. Everything the child does should be fun and enjoyable.

Remember!