A Guide to Early Reading - Week 2

Working in partnership with Carter's Yard Phonics, these weekly guides are for parents & carers who wish to support their child with phonics at home.

Queens Park Rangers: A Guide to Early Reading

Ask your child if they know any words that start with the sound 'i':

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Tip: keep repeating the sound as they collect their thoughts.

Today, children in schools up and down the country are taught to read using phonics. Phonics is a tried and tested method of learning to read where learners link letters (graphemes) to corresponding sounds (phonemes) and combine them to produce words. Sound confusing? It can be! Working in partnership with Carter's Yard Phonics, this weekly guide is for parents and carers who wish to support their children with phonics at home. Consisting of daily 20 minute sessions, each day will introduce a new grapheme and phoneme with supportive materials to help support you and your child.

“Nighty-night, knight,” said one knight to the other knight the other night. “Nightynight, knight,” answered the other knight the other night.

Tip: when reading the tongue twister, be sure to emphasise the 'n' sound throughout. When finished, read again but ask your child to stop you every time they hear the 'n' sound.

"Working with Carter's Yard Phonics has allowed us to enhance our delivery as part of our Premier League Primary Stars programme. The cards have supported coaches' interventions with the children &amp; have been a real hit with teachers &amp; parents/carers."

Paul Mitchell QPR Community Trust Education Manager

Monkey see. Monkey do. Come meet monkey in the zoo. If you make a face, He might make one too. Monkeys love to mimic you.

Tip: creating actions for the song is a great way to build your child's coordination, gross and fine motor skills and increase motivation

Tip: if your child is finding some sounds tricky when blending, be sure to go back and practise them again.

Create an action or a movement that represents the sound 'd'.

Tip: remembering all the sounds is tricky - actions can help children to recall the sounds.

Tip: be patient - blending is tricky. Remember that every child learns at a different pace.

“The Week 1 guide was so helpful. I'm not great at the pronunciation of the sounds so scanning the book with my phone and having the pages talk to us was brilliant. It was like having a teacher in the room with us!. My daughter absolutely loved that too.

“The Interactive phonics guide is an engaging and accessible booklet that the children loved exploiting, using the Zappar app. It reminded us of the correct way to make the sounds.”

Joe White, Assistant Headteacher - Special School

Start by scanning the zap code on the previous page. Take it in turns to repeat the sound 5 times to each other. Finally, ask your child again: what letter is this and what sound does it make?

Tip: remember not to use 'uh' at the end of each sound.

I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with 'm'?

Tip: extend the game and ask your child to lead. Can they 'spy' something else in your home/ garden that begins with 'm'

James Tancock, Deputy Headteacher - Sheringham Primary School

"As a dad and Deputy Headteacher, I've found the guide to be an amazing resource for both my son and our students. It's fun and engaging and I would definitely recommend it."

Hi Andy Sinton here at QPR. Congratulations on getting this far. Reading is a really tricky skill to master, but you're doing great. Keep up the hard work

Create an action or a movement that represents the sound 'i'.

Ask your child if they know any words that start with the sound 'm':

Tip: continue to model putting your finger under each sound before sounding them out.

Ask your child if they know any words that start with the sound 'n':

There are many technical terms used as we move through this booklet. Where necessary, we will define these terms on the page. For now, here are a few to get us started:

a written letter or group of letters that represent one sound, like ‘d’, ‘s’, ‘igh’ or ‘are’. Some graphemes are single letters like ‘f’; others are digraphs like ‘ay’.

using your phonic knowledge to sound out and read words.

two letters that make one sound together, like ‘sh’, ‘ay’, ‘oo’.

combining the individual sounds in the word together to read the whole word, e.g. ‘r-e-d, red’, ‘c-a-t, cat’.

Ask your child if they know any words that start with the sound 'd':

During each session, you will notice a 'zap code' that appears on the bottom right of each page. This 'zap code' is an interactive code that can be brought to life using the free to download Zappar app.

When scanned, the page in the book will be brought to life with an interactive menu that will help you and your child with the pronunciation of the new phoneme and blending sounds together to form a word.

Which of the following images start with the sound 'n'?

Which image does not have the 'n' sound in the word?

Tip: try sounding out each word so your child can hear which word does not have the 'n' sound. If not, write down the words and show them visually.

Ask your child to use their finger on the screen to trace the formation of the 'i' sound. Repeat as necessary.

Tip: as your child is forming the letter, ask them to repeat the sound again and again.

Limited Edition QPR Talking Phonics Flashcards

Available to purchase exclusively from the QPR Superstore for £9.99, with all proceeds going to the QPR Community Trust

Where possible be mindful of your pronunciation of the sounds - the zap codes within this guide will help. Many people pronounce 'm' as 'muh' instead of 'mmm' or 't' as 'tuh'. This can end with blending difficulties. Think of the word: ‘mat’ if you sound it out as ’muh-a-tuh’ and then blend them together you get ‘muhatuh’ a long way off from ‘m-a-t’ and then ‘mat’.

Read, read and read some more!

Children who are read to, exposed to lots of chat and language at home are more likely to succeed at school. This is particularly true of early reading. Although you may not be a teacher, your role at home is vital. Books are not the only type of print that can be read and discussed. Use your child's interests and tap into them. Comics, magazines and matchday programmes are all types of environmental print that can be used.

Danny duck and his friend Dennis Dog had just finished their delicious dinner. ‘Did you do the dishes yesterday, or did I?’ asked Dennis. ‘I did them,’ answered Danny.&nbsp; ‘Well you definitely don’t need to do them today,’ said Dennis, ‘it’s my turn.’ ‘Thanks Dennis,’ replied Danny. Dennis dawdled out towards the dishes to find they had magically disappeared!

Tip: ask your child to think of some more name/animal combinations that start with the same letter.

Blending: combining the individual sounds in the word together to read the whole word, e.g. ‘r-e-d, red’, ‘c-a-t, cat’.

1. Point to each grapheme (letter) in order before saying the sound. 2. Go back to the beginning and run your finger under the letters as you say the word.

Tip: encourage your child to speed up saying the sounds to help form the word. 

Paul Mitchell QPR Community Trust Education Manager

Carter’s Yard Phonics Flashcards are a set of 64, interactive ‘talking’ flashcards that are used in classrooms throughout the UK. The fun, engaging, multi-sensory cards are the perfect phonics accessory for home and school.

Created by two passionate and experienced primary teachers, Carter’s Yard Phonics Flashcards are&nbsp;proven&nbsp;to support children as they progress from producing individual sounds to reading words and allow them to learn at their own pace, with or without input from an adult.

During each session, you will notice a 'zap code' that appears on the 'Today's new sound...' page. This 'zap code' is an interactive code that can be brought to life using the free to download Zappar app.

When scanned, the page in the book will be brought to life with an interactive menu that will help you and your child with the pronunciation of the new phoneme and with blending sounds together to form a word.

Give your child two minutes and ask them to find (or point to) as many things as they can beginning with 'd'

Tip: memorable experiences help children to recall information.

Create an action or a movement that represents the sound 'm'.

It's now your child's turn to attempt reading these words independently. Point to any word &amp; listen to them read.

Tip: reading independently for first time is a huge challenge and children will make mistakes. Be sure to praise both effort and achievement. 

Create an action or a movement that represents the sound 'n'.

If your child has progressed from blending sounds to form words, now try reading sentences together. 

Let your child read the circled words. Remind them to use their phonic skills (decoding) to read them.

Tip: ask your child how many words they can think of that rhyme with the word you are focussing on.

Inky the octopus hid in his house, With Sid the Fish and Mitch the Mouse, Inky was cleaning his football kit, And Mitch the mouse had nowhere to sit. Sid the Fish said “move over please,” “It’s starting to be a bit of a squeeze!”

Tip: Ask your child how many other names they can think of that begin with 'm.'

AN INTERACTIVE PHONICS GUIDE

Learning to read is tricky and supporting the process at home is a great way to speed up the journey of getting children to read whatever they like! The sections below offer guidance and support about how to move through this booklet.

Before you embark on the process of learning to read together, it is vitally important to note that every child learns to read at a different pace. Every child's starting point begins with them learning to develop their speaking and listening skills - known as Phase 1 of Phonics. Phase 1 is divided up into 7 aspects and largely focuses on children being able to listen to the sounds around them, separate the sounds and copy them. Before proceeding through this booklet, we thoroughly recommend you take time to familiarise yourself with this phase.

Use your child's interests to keep each 20 minute session fun! Sing songs, create silly rhymes, use instruments and the world around you to bring learning to life!

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