Support for Parents of Nursery Children

Phonics

Early phonics teaching in pre-school, nursery and at the start of Reception focuses on developing children’s listening skills. Early years environments do a lot of oral work at quite a slow pace, training children in awareness of sounds.

In Foundations for Phonics, children are taught about:

• Environmental sounds
• Instrumental sounds
• Body percussion (e.g. clapping and stamping)
• Rhythm and rhyme
• Alliteration
• Voice sounds
• Oral blending and segmenting (e.g. hearing that d-o-g makes ‘dog’)

Typical activities for teaching Phase 1 phonics include 'listening' walks, playing and identifying instruments, action songs, learning rhymes and playing games like I Spy.

This phase is intended to develop children’s listening, vocabulary and speaking skills.

Please read the booklet below on how you can support your child further with their Phase 1 Phonics.

Early Writing & Mark Making

Mark making simply refers to the creation of different patterns, lines, textures and shapes. This term is typically used to describe the scribbles that early years children make on a piece of paper with pens, pencils or crayons. However, mark making doesn’t just refer to squiggles made with stationery, children are still mark making if they use their hands, paintbrushes or sticks.

Mark making gives children the opportunity to express themselves and explore new materials other than pen

and paper.

Encourage them to create marks using their fingers to draw in the sand, paint on an easel or prod them into soft dough. Mark making isn’t just bound to the indoors either – head outside with the children to explore the natural world and take mark making to the next level! Let them drag a stick through the mud or go wild with colours using paints or chalks ect.

Mark making develops the child's brain and language development, creativity, physical development and early writing skills.

This will all help children to develop onto making meaningful marks i.e. recognisable pictures, early letter formation in name writing as well as a good pencil grip. Look closely at the stages of emergent writing in particular to help your understanding of what to expect at this stage of development.

Stages of Emergent Writing / Early Mark Making

Stages of Pencil Grip

Pre-Writing Shapes to Develop Fine Motor Skills (ready for letter formation)

Use the 'Literacy Knowledge and Skills' document below to help you to work out what areas your child will need to work on next. Each step is divided up into smaller more achievable areas to work on in order to get them ready for the end of Nursery and beyond.

In order for your child to 'tick off' an objective, the intention is that they can do that thing 'NICEly'

Naturally (on their own)

Independently (without any adult support or intervention)

Consistently (wasn't just a one off)

Embedded (has demonstrated they really know it well)

Early Mathematics

Nursery Maths focuses on getting children to understand number and shape in the world around them. We do lots of practical activities at school. Counting songs are a huge part of our Nursery Mathematics curriculum and from this we draw most of our learning. They help the children to recognise numerals, count in an order, know that the last number that they say is how many, knowing one more and one less, comparing groups, talking about height, time, weight, change and much much more. We use lots of props, rhymes and singing to support their learning.

BBC Schools Radio - Counting songs

Number Formation Rhymes

As with Writing, I have developed a 'Mathematics Knowledge and Skills' document which I have placed below to help you to work out what areas your child will need to work on next. Each step is divided up into smaller more achievable areas to work on in order to get them ready for the end of Nursery and beyond.

In order for your child to 'tick off' an objective, the intention is that they can do that thing 'NICEly'

Naturally (on their own)

Independently (without any adult support or intervention)

Consistently (wasn't just a one off)

Embedded (has demonstrated they really know it well)