Page 341 - KSPK ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Words and pictures in the environment
 When possible, make word cards, which can be placed alongside the picture flashcards used to
introduce the topic target language. These can be placed together on a wall as a display, or used
in matching games to match the picture and the word.
 Label as many objects the children can say in the classroom as possible, e.g. chairs, doors,
windows, tables. Children will begin to see a relationship between the word they can say and the
word they can see.

Playing with different sounds

In Lesson 7 of the Scheme of Work (5+)a sounds activity is suggested.This is simply an awareness
raising activity built around the most common sounds in some of the topic words that are being taught.
We begin by looking at first letter sounds, to support children’s understanding and learning of the alphabet
and associating words which start with the same letters or combination of letters.

Please be aware of the following:
1) One hour a week of ‘teaching and learning' Englishis not a sufficient amount of time to develop a firm
understanding of phonics.
2) The list of words selected to promote a topic approach to the ‘teaching and learning' of Englishdoes not
follow a phonics-based approach to learning to read. The word list is varied and does not explicitly
introduce words that are easily learned through a phonics approach.

Use word cards to support the sounds activity:
1) Read a word out loud, e.g. Sunny.
2) Focus on the first letter and sound it out, e.g. sss (not suh)
3) Ask children if there are any words that begin with the sss sound in the topic. If there are, put the word
cards together so children can see them and recognise the letter s.
4) Look at other topic sets, are there any other words they know which begin with the sss sound?Or do
any children in the class have a name that begins with this sound?
5) Collect as many words as possible and then say them all together. This can be the beginning of creating
an alphabet washing line, an alphabet mobile, alphabet cards or even a sound table.

Tip!
It is best to start with sounds made by single letters, e.g. s. Careful with words that start with digraphs, two
letters that together make a sound, e.g. st, th or cl. Treat these separately.

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