Spring Term 2 -2017
Home Learning Tasks for Foundation Stage
Reading
We know this is the key skill children need in order to be successful in their learning
We ask that you share a story with your child at least 5 times a week. This could be their school library book or any
other favourite book from home.
For parents of children in F2 we also ask that you spend about 5 minutes listening to your child read their reading
book and talk together about the book at least 3 times each week.
Encourage your child to:
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Ask questions about books they read or have read to them.
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Question new or unknown vocabulary.
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Explain their opinions or express their feelings about books they have read or listened to.
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Predict what might happen next based on what has been read so far.
In addition to their reading books F2 children will also bring home sight vocabulary words to learn. These words
need to be practised for approximately 5 minutes at least 5 times a week in order to develop instant recognition.
F1 Phonics activities
PHASE 1 ACTIVITIES- Suggested activities & websites:
www.phonicsplay.co.uk – FREE PHONICSPLAY Phase 1 activities
www.letters-and-sounds.com - Phase 1 activities
www.letters-and-sounds.com – Phase 1 games
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Play I spy. If your child finds this difficult put a selection of objects out and play the game using these to
narrow down the choices.
Look at the writing on boxes, food wrappers etc. Can your child find any of the letters in their name?
Read a rhyming story or a nursery rhyme. Pause before reading the rhyme and see if your child can fill in
the missing word. Eg Jack & Jill went up the …….
Go on a sound hunt around the house. Choose a sound eg, ‘s’ or ‘t’ and write it down on a card. Walk
around the room making the sound and see how many items you can find that begin with that sound.
You could write them down and talk about the list at the end of the activity.
F2 phonic & spelling activities
We are currently asking you to use the Reading Log to record the tasks completed by your
child each week and to provide us with feedback about what your child has particularly
enjoyed or benefitted from and anything they have found tricky and need more help
with…
PHASE 2 & 3 - Suggested websites:
www.phonicsplay.co.uk
www.ictgames.com
www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/games/alphablocks-games
www.topmarks.co.uk
www.mrthorne.com
www.starfall.com
www.oxfordowl.co.uk
PHASE 2 & 3 - Suggested I pad apps:
Free apps:
Pocket Phonics
Doodle Buddy
Simplex Spelling Phonics
Cambug Letter Sounds
Paid for Apps:
Jolly Phonics Songs £2.99
Jolly Phonics Letter Sounds £4.99
ABC Pocket Phonics £4.99
Cambug Phonics £2.29
Phonics Glossary
blend (vb) — to draw individual sounds together to pronounce a word, e.g. s-n-a-p, blended together, reads snap
cluster — two (or three) letters making two (or three) sounds, e.g. the first three letters of 'straight' are a consonant
cluster
digraph — two letters making one sound, e.g. sh, ch, th, ph.
vowel digraph — two letters which, together, make one vowel sound, e.g. ai, oo, ow
split digraph — two letters, split, making one sound, e.g. a-e as in make or i-e in site
grapheme — a written letter or a group of letters representing a single sound, e.g. sh, ch, igh, ough (as in 'though')
grapheme-phoneme correspondence (GPC) — the relationship between sounds and the letters which represent
those sounds; also known as 'letter-sound correspondences'
mnemonic — a device for memorising and recalling something, such as a snake shaped like the letter 'S'
phoneme — the smallest single identifiable sound, e.g. the letters 'sh' represent just one sound, but 'sp' represents
two (/s/ and /p/)
segment (vb) — to split up a word into its individual phonemes in order to spell it, e.g. the word 'cat' has three
phonemes: /c/, /a/, /t/
VC, CVC, CCVC — the abbreviations for vowel-consonant, consonant-vowel-consonant, consonant-consonant-vowelconsonant, which are used to describe the order of letters in words, e.g. am, ham, slam.
For a video guide to the articulation of pure sounds, follow the link below.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWLpffbMNXo
We are using colour names for our different phonics groups. You will be informed about
which group your child is in through their reading diary.
We ask that your child completes a phonic or spelling task every week. Suggested tasks
are listed below
Turquoise group
Week 1
27.2.17
Week 2
6.3.17
Week 3
13.3.17
Week 4
20.3.17
Week 5
27.3.17
Revision of phase 2 phonemes and blending
The phase 2 phonemes are: s a t p I n m d g o c k ck e u r h b f ff l ll ss
 Play ‘Dragon’s Den’ on www.phonicsplay.co.uk - all phase 2
 Go on a hunt for ‘b’ words around your house or garden. How
many things can you find that contain this sound? eg bottle, box,
bag. Repeat the above activities for other phase 2 letters.
 Practise writing the letters m & n. This could be done in the air or
with a range of media such as chalks, felt pens, water &
paintbrushes, in a tray of shaving foam etc.
Revision of phase 2 phonemes and blending
 Play I spy but sound out words instead of letters. For example ‘I spy
with my little eye, something with the sounds b-o-x.’
 Play Letters & Sounds ‘Phoneme Pop’ on www.ictgames.com letter
group h,b,f,ff,l,ll,ss
 Practise writing the letters m, n & h. This could be done in the air
or with a range of media such as chalks, felt pens, water &
paintbrushes, in a tray of shaving foam etc.
Revision of phase 2 phonemes and blending
 Play ‘Buried Treasure’ on www.phonicsplay.co.uk all phase 2
 Make up your own 3 letter words and non- words using phase 2
phonemes. Sound out and blend each word and then scrunch them
up and throw them in a either a ‘treasure box’ or a ‘bin’ .
 Practise writing the letters m, n, h, & r. This could be done in the
air or with a range of media such as chalks, felt pens, water &
paintbrushes, in a tray of shaving foam etc.
Revision of phase 2 phonemes & blending
 Play ‘CVC Pop’ on www.ictgames.com
 Write the letter h, e, u, b, p, t, n on cards and see how many real
and nonsense words you can make using 3 letters at a time. Make
sure one of the letters is a vowel. You could write the vowels in a
different coloured card.
 Practise writing the letters m, n, h, r & b. This could be done in the
air or with a range of media such as chalks, felt pens, water &
paintbrushes, in a tray of shaving foam etc.
Revision of phase 2 phonemes & blending
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Play ‘Simon Says’ but sound the actions out instead of saying the whole
word eg Simon says j-u-m-p, h-o-p, s-i-t.
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Play alphablocks blending games on
www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/games/alphablocks-games
Practise writing the letters c & o. This could be done in the air or
with a range of media such as chalks, felt pens, water &
paintbrushes, in a tray of shaving foam etc.
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Orange group
Week 1
27.2.17
Week 2
6.3.17
Week 3
13.3.17
Week 4
20.3.17
Week 5
27.3.17
Revision of ‘sh’
 Go on a hunt for ‘sh’ words around your house or garden. How
many things can you find that contain this sound? It could be at the
beginning or end of the word eg shell, brush
 Play ‘Dragon’s Den’ on www.phonicsplay.co.uk Phase 3 sh
 Practise writing the tricky words the, no & go. This could be done
in the air or with a range of media such as chalks, felt pens, water
& paintbrushes, in a tray of shaving foam etc.
Revision of ‘ch’
 Make up a tongue twister with as many ‘ch’ words as you can
 Play ‘Blending Dragon’ on www.ictgames.com ch
 Practise writing the tricky words the, no, go & me. This could be
done in the air or with a range of media such as chalks, felt pens,
water & paintbrushes, in a tray of shaving foam etc.
Introduction of ‘th’
 Watch Mr Thorne & Jolly Phonics videos for ‘th’
 Write a simple sentence using the tricky words I & go. Eg I go up
the hill.
Revision of ‘th’
 Play ‘Buried Treasure’ on www.phonicsplay.co.uk Phase 3 ‘th’
 Make up your own words and non words containing ‘th’ eg thin,
thick, that, this thap, path, that. Write them down on individual
pieces of paper and ask your child to choose 1 at a time. Sound out
and blend each word and then scrunch them up and throw them in
a either a ‘treasure box’ or a ‘bin’.
Introduction of ‘ng’
 Watch Mr Thorne & Jolly Phonics videos for ‘ng’
 Make up a silly sentence with words rhyming with ‘sing’. Have a go
at writing the sentence and drawing a picture to go with it.
 Play ‘Phoneme Pop’ on www.ictgames.com for ch, sh, th, ng
Purple group
Week 1
27.2.17
Week 2
6.3.17
Week 3
Revision of ‘ai’ & ‘ee’
 Play ‘Dragon’s Den’ on www.phonicsplay.co.uk Phase 3 ai & ee
 Practise writing the tricky words my & was. This could be done in
the air or with a range of media such as chalks, felt pens, water &
paintbrushes, in a tray of shaving foam etc.
Revision of ‘igh’ ‘oa’ & ‘oo’
 Make a list of words that rhyme with light. Try to write a sentence
containing one of these words.
 Play ‘Phoneme Pop’ on www.ictgames.com ai, ee, oo, oa
 Go on a hunt for ‘oo’ words around your house or garden. How
many things can you find that contain this sound? Eg broom,
spoon, book.
Introduction of ‘oi’
 Watch Mr Thorne & Jolly Phonics videos for ‘oi’
13.3.17
Week 4
20.3.17
Week 5
27.3.17
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Play ‘Blending Dragon’ on www.ictgames.com oi
 Write a simple sentence using the tricky words my & was. Eg, My
coat was wet.
Introduction of ‘ar’
 Watch Mr Thorne & Jolly Phonics videos for ‘ar’
 Play ‘Buried Treasure’ on www.phonicsplay.co.uk Phase 3 ‘ar’
 Make up your own words and non words containing ‘ar’eg car,
star, part, lart, far, dar. Write them down on individual pieces of
paper and ask your child to choose 1 at a time. Sound out and
blend each word and then scrunch them up and throw them in a
either a ‘treasure box’ or a ‘bin’.
Revision of ‘ar’
 Read ‘Car Race’ on www.starfall.com
 Make a list of words which rhyme with ‘car’. You could draw a
roadway to write the words on.
 Practise writing the tricky words my, was & you. This could be done
in the air or with a range of media such as chalks, felt pens, water
& paintbrushes, in a tray of shaving foam etc.
Letter Formation
In addition to the above activities it would be helpful to practise letter formation with your child,
revising n, m, h, r & b, c, o, a, d, g and beginning to work on q, s, u & y This does not always need
to be done on paper but could be drawn in the air, on each other’s backs, written in shaving foam
or in trays of rice etc They can also be formed by driving toy cars around the letter shape or
writing the letter outside using water and an old squeezy bottle such as a washing up liquid bottle
or just . Zip lock bags filled with cheap hair gel or something similar can also be used for letter
formation.
See www.doorwayonline.org.uk/letterformation & http://www.ictgames.com/sky_writing.html
for demonstrations of letter formation.
This year we have also begun to use the Ruth Miskin letter rhymes to reinforce correct formation.
Follow the link below to find download a powerpoint showing the rhymes and illustrations.
http://www.linakerschool.co.uk/read-write-inc-letter-formation-rhymes-1/
We hope you will enjoy our Home learning activities with your child