Phase 3 Resources

Letters and Sounds

I have made some fill the gap and match the pairs resources to help children with reading the digraphs and trigraphs from the Letters and Sounds Phase 3.

	Matching Pairs This is a simple game, basically the children read the word and then match up to the correct picture. I tend to ask the children to be competitive and see who can collect the most pairs. Download here.
	Fill the Gap I’m going to laminate these cards and put Velcro in the space so that when the child puts the sound in the box it will stick in. It’s all about choosing the correct sound for the word. Download here.

These resources are designed to try to encourage the children to read the trigraphs and digraphs as a single sound and not sound out each individual letter. I’m not sure if it’ll work but I am hoping to try it.

Phonics Resources

Working with Di and Tri-Graphs

I’ve noticed while doing phase 3 of the Letters and Sounds scheme that the children are struggling to use the digraphs and tri-graphs from that phase.

For example, when reading words containing that digraph, I encourage the children to sound it out. They are sounding out each individual letter, eg r-a-i-n instead of
r-ai-n. So, to help the children with their reading I’m going to make some phonic resources which I will of course share on here.

I’m thinking of highlighting the graphemes to encourage the children to read them as a collection of letters with one sound. For example:

train          stairs          fork          down

I’m hoping that highlighting these sounds will help the children to read them as a single sound without sounding out each letter.

I’m hoping this will make a huge difference but I have noticed that the Letters and Sounds scheme really works and the children make fantastic progress!

It’s All Gone a Bit Gruffalo

I am Gruffalo Mad!

I’ve been a huge fan of the Gruffalo from the first time I read the story. It’s different and unique and sparks the children’s imagination. There are thousands of lesson plans you can use from the Gruffalo, and I’ve gone a little bit Gruffalo Mad!

My husband will say I don’t need an excuse to spend money, but with a Gruffalo lesson week coming up, I couldn’t resist!

I am teaching a rhyming lesson, but I didn’t want the children to only be involved in rhyming, I wanted them to have a rounded experience of the Gruffalo so the resources I have are:

• Gruffalo role play
• Gruffalo story sequencing
• Gruffalo large pairs matching
• Gruffalo small pairs matching
• Matching the written description to the picture (that’s to challenge my highers)
• Matching rhyming pairs, so ‘snake’ would be paired with ‘lake’ for example
• Making a Gruffalo’s child puppet
• Writing the roasted fox, owl icecream, scrambled snake and Gruffalo crumble recipes
• A maze (for fine motor skills)
• Story writing frames if the children would like to write their own Gruffalo story
• And a Gruffalo puppet
  
  
• I also have in my classroom a matching rhymes game that isn’t Gruffalo related

Diwali

The Festival of Light

It’s always difficult to find good resources for religious festivals (except Christmas) online so I’ve gathered some resources I’m using for you to share.

Interactive Online Rama and Sita Story	My Favourite Day – Diwali
Read-Along Interactive Story	Twinkl Diwali Resources
Interactive Story Scenes	Activity Village

These are some lovely resources, many of them interactive for your white boards or for the children to use independently on computers in the classroom.

As I’m sure you know, it’s important to share different cultures and religions with the children to given them an idea of beliefs shared by different people around the world. 

Newspapers pt 2

The Second Lesson

To find the resources for this lesson and the first part of the lesson click here.

Resources

• Digital cameras
• Interviewer notes
• Reporter notes
• Press badges

Introduction

Suggested Time Table

Just a Suggestion

Different schools have different ways of working. I would never suggest that everyone should follow the same time table or routine in their classroom.

As Early Years practitioners we should always work to our children’s levels.

The time table below is a suggested time table for those schools who teach Literacy and Numeracy as discrete subjects. It could also be applied to schools which work on a thematic structure, incorporating literacy and numeracy into topic headings.

This is more of an Autumn time table, but it could be suitable for schools where children are working below the national average. The longer sessions in the morning give children the opportunities to really get stuck into what they’re doing without having to change to a different subject or activity.

Useful Links

 

Literacy ICT Resources

	Cbeebies Alphablocks My absolute favourite resources for phonics and literacy! The children completely adore working on the Alphablocks. They work as a whole class teaching resources, a small group resource and even an independent activity. You can use the Alphablocks on your white board or on laptops. I would recommend Alphablocks to all Early Years, EAL and SEN teachers!
	Letters and Sounds The Letters and Sounds website is stuffed to full with resources and ICT games for the children to use! It’s mainly good for teaching phonics using the Letters and Sounds scheme, but all the resources are free and again can be used as a teaching session or independently.
	Sequencing on Cbeebies This is actually a really nice game for sequencing. The children can watch the video and then put it into the correct order afterwards. Children can do this independently or in a small group.

Numeracy ICT Resources

	The Numtums This is more for your children who aren’t yet recognising numbers, although if you’re playing this game with your SEN children you may find the others come to watch. The children pop the balloons and hear the numbers read out as they pop each balloon. Also good for EAL children.
	Cbeebies Numberjacks A bit like the Alphablocks, the Number Jacks site is full of fun activities for young children to work on in groups or independently. There are even some more difficult activities to challenge your gifted and talented children.
	Sorting We all teach sorting by colour or sorting by shape, but there are actually lots of different ways to sort. Using this site will show you lots of good ways to work on sorting with your little ones.
	Higher or Lower One of the Early Years targets is to know if a number is larger or smaller than another number. This game allows children to work with numbers in a fun and unique way. There are also higher numbers for your extension activities. This could be done as a mental oral starter or as part of a plenary.
	Basic Counting 1 - 6 You may have some children who start in Reception, or children who are in Nursery, who need counting reinforcement. This could be done as part of a mental oral starter in the Autumn term, or in small groups for your target children.

Thematic ICT Resources

	Diwali The British Council website has lots of fun little activities for young children. Difficult concepts like religious festivals are explained in a simple way that appeals to young children.
	Chinese New Year This is one of my favourite videos. You can pause and discuss what’s happening, play the video a few times and there is a fun year picker at the end so that children can see what year they were born in. Do the children have the same birth year as the teacher?

Congratulations!

You’re an Early Years Teacher!

Congratulations, you’re an Early Years teacher! You are now working in the most fun year group that there is! You will have more breadth than ever before to express your fun and creative side!

The other year groups are great too, but nothing beats the Early Years Foundation Stage!

Basic Tips for the Early Years

• Have lots of free flow!
  Children learn in many different ways, especially at such a young age. Whole class teaching, small group teaching is great but allow the children to learn independently using appropriate resources in the classroom.
  
• Small group teaching!
  The little ones can often find it difficult to concentrate in large group teaching sessions. I love teaching tables as they allow you to work almost one on one with a small group.

picture from TTS Catalogue.

The Case of the Missing USB’s

Why I Haven’t Posted Yet

The genius that I am left all my USB’s at work so I can’t post any of the resources I have made, which is the entire purpose of this blog!

What I am going to do instead is work on the links page so that if any parents or other teachers are looking for different resources you will be able to find the links on here! Hopefully this blog will be useful to other teachers. Especially those who find themselves in the Early Years and aren’t sure what they’re doing!

Please keep checking back, progress will be made soon!