Phonics Stars Dulwich, Forest Hill & Chislehurst -Phonics fun for everyone.

Being able to use scissors is an important skill for children to develop. Using scissors in many activities, including arts and crafts, gardening and problem solving.

Children may have the skills to use small scissors by 3 to 4 years of age, but
scissor skills are not always fully developed until around 6 years of age.

Before teaching your child to use scissors, encourage children to participate in some fun activities that will strengthen hand and finger muscles and improve bilateral coordination.

Fiskar scissors are useful for early learning cutting for they open and close easily and have a short, blunt tip for safety.
It’s important to find easy to use scissors to build skill and confidence, if the scissors children use do not cut well this may lead to frustration.

Scissor safety is critical and should always be emphasised at the
beginning of each cutting activity.

✂️ Avoid walking with scissors, but make sure you model the correct way to hold scissors when walking (blade down inside a fist of a hand)

✂️ Remember moving the paper and keeping the elbow and arm nice and still helps to learn good control.

✂️We keep in mind what we are cutting. Whether it’s paper, string, playdough or any thing else, we always check with our grownups what we can and can’t cut.

Above all stay safe and have fun!

Phonics Stars™️ would like to mark the sad passing of Jill Murphy by recognising the value of her wonderful work.

Murphy has created many stories that have helped children to understand the world around them as well as giving them the inspiration to become creative and independent learners.

Her legacy will be to have given generations of children from the past, present and future many hours of delight and precious happy memories reading.

Research had shown that reading with children contributes to the following:

📚 The ability to learn new words and understand the language they hear.

📚 Picture books are 2 – 3 times more likely to include a word that isn’t among the 5000 most common English words.

📚 It’s not just how often you read together but how you read together. Starting a conversation about the story, labelling objects or talking about characters feelings further helps to develop a child's vocabulary.

This in turn helps them to express
themselves at school, self- regulation and have fewer behavioural problems than peers without the same level of language skills.

These are but a few benefits or gifts that we can give our children by teaching them how to read.
What better way to do so than with a Jill Murphy story?

"The hour was late. Mr bear was tired, Mrs bear was tired and baby bear was tired so they all went to bed"

A classic and timeless child's book.. we hope you find Peace at last. Thank you and Goodnight Jill Murphy.

This is something to work on as early as possible, especially when you want to somewhat master our last Top Tip - Getting out the door.

Our children are used to us doing things for them and lets face it we often do it because we are in a hurry to get on with the next thing in our busy schedules.

Taking the time to encourage your child to be independent in dressing and un******ng is a vital skill for them to master before going to school.

There are some tricks to putting on a coat 🧥…see tomorrows post for this 😊

As our children transition from being a 'big fish in a small pond to a small fish in a big pond', that pond can seem a bit daunting to such young people.

As parents, carers and teachers, we can try to boost their confidence and try to alleviate all those worries so that they can happily look forward to an exciting adventure of learning and fun.

Your little one may already attend our classes, which is great, you’ve already exposed them to some really good learning opportunities that support starting school.

We understand that children and parents may well be experiencing a range of different emotions due to this transition.

We want you to know that this is okay, it’s perfectly normal for both you and your child to feel excited or apprehensive.

Starting something new may bring with it feelings that haven’t been felt before, therefore some children might display emotions they’ve not shared before. Change can feel unsettling but also exciting.

Children and adults might find expressing or talking about these feelings challenging. Use opportunities to talk, listen, share thoughts and ideas in a range of ways. Use play such as mini world toys, draw pictures together or make little books.

It can be helpful to show their children photos of their teacher from the school website and do a practice run of the journey, make it extra fun and follow a simple map to get to school.
Perhaps they could take their new book bags with them to make them feel more grown up.

Some children might benefit from support to ease any anxiety they maybe experiencing especially if they missed their transition days and meet the teachers. Making a visual timetable can be useful as well as reading books about starting school.

Emphasise how much fun they are going to have. If you can find time to meet up with other children starting in their class.

Above all, encourage children’s confidence by building independence through love, patience and through play.

Stay tuned for more top tips coming soon…

Learning Phonics through play, really is the best way. 💫

At Phonics Stars™️ we believe in play! We provide play based, innovative games and activities which offer children opportunities to learn though play, listening games, movement and dance.✨

Find a class is near you. https://phonicsstars.co.uk/find-your-local-phonics-classes/

What is Phonics Stars? We hear you ask...

Phonics Stars™ is an organisation that supports children to learn about letters and sounds through movement, play and dance. Encouraging physical development, speech and language, listening skills, visual tracking and muscle building.

Our licensed and trained class leaders engage children and adults to learn phonics through the phases in a range of ways. We believe in our love of learning letters and sounds through play - Phonics and Fun for Everyone!

Phonics Stars Covid safe public sessions are attended by children and families but sessions are also provided within schools, nurseries and preschools.

Phonics Stars is an educational and interactive club. We hold engaging sessions which promote letters and sounds, imaginative play, creativity, physical development, good mental health and support the well-being of children and adults through active learning through play.

Our covid safe face to face sessions and are fun, educational and interactive; providing children with the foundations for learning, thus supporting school ‘readiness’ and much more!

Our sessions are themed around a sound of the week, and focus on letter / phoneme recognition, pronunciation and formation as well as developing muscle and motor strength, fine motor skills, pencil grip, visual tracking, hand eye coordination, speaking, listening and communication and lots more, including number work and creative activities.

The range of activities provided offers children from around the age of 2 1/2 years, a variety of learning opportunities which link to the EYFS, we offer ways to extend or simplify activities.

Many families, schools, preschools and nurseries receive support and advice from an experienced Early Years practitioner or teacher who is licensed, trained and supported through Phonics Stars™️ HQ.

Find out more. www.phonicsstars.co.uk

Email [email protected]

🌟 Phase 1 ~ Aspect 7 of 7 ~ Oral Blending and Segmenting 🌟

Tuning into sounds - the main purpose is to develop oral blending and segmenting of sounds in words.

🗣 Oral blending and segmenting.🗣

As we’ve explained before, modelling language is important. Especially when we’re breaking words down into sounds.

For example, one way to support children with audible and oral blending and segmenting is to occasionally break the last word in your sentence down into 3-4 sounds e.g. “can you find your sh-oe-s shoes (sh-oo-s)? “ look, there is a d-o-g dog” “ can you get your c-oa-t, coat! or Touch your t-oe-s, toes!
In the past my children and I have played a game which we like to call “can you guess the secret word?
You can play this (no resources required) listening game at home, when out walking or in the car. “Can you guess the secret word c-a-t? Continue to play this with other words that you can break down into 3 sounds. CVC words (consonant/vowel/consonant) will work better but you can split many words into sounds, even ‘super duper - soo-per-doo-per’ younger children might benefit from breaking into 2 sounds, such as ‘d-og = dog’ or ‘c-up = cup’ etc
It is important to break down and blend back the last word in the sentence for processing and to reduce overload.

Reading stories is also an opportunity to model oral blending, in particular with rhyming books with the last word in the sentence, such as ‘a squash and a squeeze’ “take in the p-i-g = pig” “take in the g-oa-t”

Prior to our SHIMMI dance, the children try to guess the colour of the Pom Poms taken out of the bag, “r-e-d “ “g-r-ee-n” etc
Repetition is effective for it continuously models broken sounds in words and blending them back together again.

Linking oral blending with play. Mini world, imaginative play is a great way to act out and engage children. Also, using toys over puppets is far more effective for SAL, for children will watch the adult’s face and mouth to see the sounds being articulated clearly, rather than focusing on the imitated movements of the puppet.

👂🗣🐱🐶🐷🦊🐔🦇🪲🐟🐑

🌟 Phase 1 ~ Aspect 6 of 7 ~ Voice Sounds 🗣

The main purpose of aspect 6 - Voice Sounds is to help children distinguish between the differences in vocal sounds, including oral blending and segmenting which links nicely with aspect 7.

Having fun, exploring our mouth movements with children can be both interesting and comedic.

Exploring and highlighting different mouth movements such as sucking, blowing, tongue rolling, stretching, sticking out and wiggling. Practising these movements regularly to music can be fun and helps children with their articulation and pronunciation.

Lead by example...
When we use certain words, sounds, noises through speech we are supporting taught behaviour. As adults, it’s effective to model langue and sounds.

For example, if we make sounds with our voices, children will begin to copy:
So make those noises, whether this is in real-Iife, such as at the park, through mini world play, role play, when you’re reading books or through storytelling.

Imagine the following...

🎢Going down a slide? Accentuate your voice going down a slide – wheee! (Let the ‘whee’ stretch out as long as it takes to get down the slide.🏂

⚽️🎾⚽️🎾Sounds like a bouncing a ball – boing, boing

😲Sounding disappointing - sucking in - gasping

🐝 Buzz like a bumble bee – zzzzzzz zzzzzzzzz

😧Sound really disappointed or interested – oh - oooooooh

🚂 sounding like a train – ch ch ch ch ch choo choo!

🐍Making ssss hissing sounds like a snake – ssssss

🤫 sh let’s be quiet – shshshsh 😴

🐷 snorting like a pig - snoring or snorting sounds

🐮moo like a cow – mmmoooo

🐴🐎 clip clop like a horse - sucking and rolling tongue to make a tick tock/ clip clop sound.

⏰ Ticking like a clock – tick tock.

🏴‍☠️ ❌One of our favourites is the X! X marks the spot! “You can do it with your arms! You can do it with your fingers! You can do it with your legs, and you can even do it with your whole body! Every time a child makes the X, they say the sound. It really is x x x excellent 🤞

🎺A fun and effective activity is to make trumpets from kitchen roll tubes or by simply rolling cones from paper or card and experiment by making different noises through the cones.

🗣Model sounds for the children: this is a great way to recap environmental sounds. Think about the neee-naw in emergency vehicles, the up and down wail a tweet of a bird.
👄Contrast loud and soft sounds. Invite the children to share their favourite sound for the rest of the group to copy.

Most of all have fun!

💫 ⠀

Happy Funday Monday!

We’re wishing a happy Monday to you all. We’ve been wondering, what are we actually celebrating today, why is today a bank holiday?

Do you know? Enlighten us...

Do people celebrate the spring bank holiday?

For most, the spring bank holiday simply serves as a break from work or school without any traditional celebrations to undertake.

However, across the UK, there are some specific celebrations that take place on the late May holiday.

On Cooper’s Hill in Brockworth, Gloucestershire, the annual spring bank holiday event of Cheese-Rolling and Wake takes place.

From the top of Cooper’s Hill, a large round of Double Gloucester cheese is sent rolling, with competitors racing after it. The first person over the finish line wins the wheel of cheese.

That sounds like fun! Yes please to the cheese 🧀 😆

What are you getting up to today?

Well, the weekend is upon us and half term is here!

Wishing all of our Phonics Stars™️ children, families and followers a very happy half term and a wonderful weekend.

If you have a spare moment, please don’t forget to vote for us to win a What’s on for Kids Award🙏

It’s really easy to do....

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To our families, friends and all of our Phonics Stars™️ followers,
from the bottom of our hearts, we thank you 🙏 💕

Happy Friday 💕