Newspaper Lesson

An Observed Lesson

One of my favourite lessons that I’ve done incorporates a lot of child independent work and a lot of good resources (if I do say so myself!).

Resources for this lesson:

	Blank News Paper Writing Frame Print this out A3 sized and it will be your display final piece of work. Children can stick on photos they take into the boxes and editors can write the stories. Download here.
	Press Badges Each child will have a job and a press badge to go with their job. The badges are all colour coded so that you know which child is in each group. Also helps the children to remember! Download here.
	Interview Sheets These interview sheets are for your lower attainers. The children write the name of the person they are interviewing and then draw a picture of that person. Download here.
	Reporters Sheets These are for your middle and higher attainers. They can write some notes about the news stories they see, ready to report them back to their editors. Download here.
	Newspaper Word Banks For those groups who are working independently in the classroom, children can write their own news stories in the classroom in their child independent time. Download here.
	Blank Stories for Independent For those groups who are working independently in the classroom, children can write their own news stories in the classroom in their child independent time. Download here.

You could also put out some My News templates from Twinkl, turn your Role Play area into a news room for independent work and leave some fine motor skill activities out for the children.

Lesson Plan:

Number Bingo Cards

0 – 6 and 0 – 20

I’ve just realised that I should have made some 0 – 10 cards, but I think I already have some of those in my classroom somewhere so that’s probably why I haven’t made them.

	0 – 6 Bingo This document contains 11 bingo boards and the calling cards for 0 – 6 on page 5 of the document. Download here.
	0- 20 Bingo This document contains 20 bingo boards and the calling cards for 0 – 20 at the end of the document. Download here.

Remember all resources are free to download and use in classrooms, or at home.

I’d suggest laminating the cards and using white board pens to tick off the numbers so that you can use and reuse the activity.

The kids do enjoy the competitive nature of the bingo game and it’s a good, sneaky way of helping them to recognise numbers.

Phoneme Flash Cards

Phase 2 and 3 of Letters and Sounds Grapheme, Digraphs and Trigraphs

Click here to download the phase 2 and 3 graphemes, digraphs and trigraphs.

A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound, like s or t and ch or igh. A grapheme is a one letter sound, like s, a, t, p. A digraph is a two letter sound like ch, sh, ai and oa. A trigraph is a three letter sound like igh, air and ear.

This download contains flash cards for the phase 2 and phase 3 phonemes, which includes graphemes, digraphs and trigraphs. I’ve made them all by myself so there’s no copyright or anything on them. I’m sharing them for everyone to use.

The order for the 23 phase 2 phonemes is..

s a t p i n m d g o c k ck e u r h b l ll f ff ss

The order for the 25 (26) phase 3 phonemes is…

j, v, w, x, y, z, zz, qu, ch, sh, th, (ng), ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, ure, er

It is important to always teach to the children’s local accent. For example, when I speak I do use the /ng/ phoneme. So that the word ‘wing’ is broken down into w – i – ng.

However, in my local area, the ‘g’ sound is pronounced at the end of words so ‘wing’ is broken down into w – i – n – g.

If your local area pronounces the ‘g’ at the end of words, I would suggest not teaching the /ng/ phoneme as it won’t be used. It isn’t needed for spelling words at this stage.

I’ve Been a Busy Bee!

The Laminating Day

It’s half term so that means one thing and one thing only: laminating! I am one of those sad teachers who has their own laminator at home. Well, it means I can get my work done in front of the TV!

I have been making literacy and numeracy resources, ready for the lessons I planned for next week. And behold!

I’ve made a high frequency word bingo I downloaded from Twinkl, medium sized number flash cards, 0 – 20 number bingo, 2 sets of phoneme flash cards, large number flash cards, and 0 – 6 number bingo. I’m yet to cut out the cvc word cards, also from Twinkl. All the rest I made by myself!

I don’t always agree with flash cards, but the children seem to respond well to them when used for a quick recap session. Also, the children can use the number flash cards for ordering numbers and the phoneme flash cards for building words.

All resources are available to download for free!

CVC Word Pairs

Consonant Vowel Consonant

While ‘dog’ is a cvc word, don’t forget that ‘kick’ is also a cvc word as the /ck/ phoneme counts as one consonant sound.

The Letters and Sounds website, which also has a lot of free resources, is fantastic and can explain phonemes if you need any clarification.

A phoneme is basically one unit of sound, like t or c, or sh or th.

Here is the dog phoneme card with it’s clear 3 phonemes.

Interestingly, ‘wing’ is always debated about over a Baileys and Hot Chocolate on cosy nights in (not). Wing has 3 or 4 phonemes depending on where you’re from. Those people in the Midlands would say there are 4 phonemes in wing, but those in the south would say only 3, counting ng as one sound.

Right, enough chatting.

This post is about a cvc matching pair game. Children need to use the phonemes they have learnt (phase 2 of L&S) to read the words and match with the pictures.

To download the cvc pairs matching game click here.

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.

Shared Resources Coming Soon!

I Have my USB’s!

Now that I have my USB’s back, with all my work on them, I can start uploading resources to share with everyone!

I want parents to know that this blog isn’t just for teachers, you can download and use the resources too! For free!

Everything you’re downloading I’ve made myself. I’ll also include links to good resources I’ve found online too.

I will spend the weekend uploading resources and hopefully it will be useful to other teachers and parents!