Phonics Stars Ruislip

On first appearance, a Phonics Stars™️ session appears to be a well-structured playgroup – with children and parents enjoying numerous group and individual activities; often with huge grins all round.

Some of the activities are quiet, measured and engaging, others are noisy, energetic and joyful.
However, all of them have one common denominator; they involve interactive and enjoyable play, which also teaching valuable life skills and preparing the children’s minds and bodies for preschool and school life.

We believe in promoting learning through play. For it really is the best way!

We all know how important it is for babies to be exposed to communication. Talking to babies helps to develop social skills, bond and form attachment, this helps brains to grow and children to develop an understanding of language, facial expressions, codes of behaviour, tone and body language.

When children experience a wealth of different speaking and listening opportunities through everyday life, through play and through activities, this has a positive impact throughout a child’s life and especially during their early years and before they start school.

At Phonics Stars™️ we play a variety of different games that require the children to develop and refine these school ready for school.

We model speaking and listening skills, using a range of tone, segmenting words into sounds, breaking down last words in sentences and use sound discrimination in talk to help children hear the differences in words.

At the end of our classes, the children take turns in ‘Show and Tell’

This is a chance for the children to practice speaking and listening, for they take turns listening to each other whilst developing their confidence. Each child talks about the object they have bought to class relating to our focus sound each week.

🎈There’s more to Phonics Stars™️ than just Phonics.

🧸Our classes are planned around the Early Years Foundation Stage. Some of our activities support Mathematics and Numbers. Children will find a range of opportunities for children to develop their number skills…

🧮 Learning to count to 10

🧮 Recognising number symbols

🧮 Ordering numbers

🧮 Repeated patterns

🧮 Learning about the total number of objects in a set

🧮 Understanding and learning mathematical language of size and position – big, small, little, short, round, wide and so on

🧮 As well as the language of shape, size, measure and distance
through many different activities

Find out more about our sessions, email [email protected]

www.phonicsstars.co.uk

🤩Did you know that our Phonics Stars™️ classes also help to support Expressive Arts?

💃🏼🕺🏼Children are introduced and exposed to aspects of ‘Expressive Arts and Design’ for it is integrated in our classes.

🎶Children are encouraged to join in with songs, movement and dancing. They experiment and explore different ways to move and respond to music.

🖌🖍Exploring rhythm through dance and even mark making. Especially once those mark making items have been put under a magic spell, the pens, crayons or even paint brushes can actually dance to all kinds of music! It’s a wonderfully magical way to express emotions through a range of movements.

✂️👐Children are offered opportunities to participate in circle games, different activities and learn how to use tools safely and effectively, especially when they join in with craft activities - this also encourages those amazing imaginations!

📚Reading books and telling stories is so important to us at Phonics Stars™️.

💕We love to recommend our favourite story or information books.

🙌It would be great if you could share with us your children’s favourite books too, whether they’re fact or fiction, we love to discover new books to read.

💖So, what is yours or your children’s most popular book to read together?

We’re thinking of all children, parents, carers and teachers as we head back to school life.

We send our love and luck to all as they venture off to school. Wishing everyone good health and happiness.

With love from all of us at Phonics Stars 💕✨

Between 2 and 3 years some children develop their spoon feeding skills as well as learning to use a fork to stab and pick up foods.

By 5 years a child is learning to spread and cut with a knife. Try not to worry though it is often not until they are around 7 years of age that a child can use a knife and fork together to cut up food and are truly independent with self-feeding.

Things you can do to help:
🍴 Think about what the food is they are trying to eat. Will it stick to the fork? Is it easy to cut? Would a spoon be better than a fork?

🍴 Use a bowl or plate with a raised edge so they have something to scrape against.

🍴 Encourage a good cutlery grasp right from the start; your child’s index finger should point down the back of the fork or knife towards the prongs and blade.

🍴 Work on one aspect of using a knife at a time e.g. spreading or cutting.

🍴 You can also practice using a spoon, fork and knife (for cutting and spreading) during other activities e.g. when playing with play dough or during craft activities.

🍴 Be sure to have fun and supporting learning through play without pressure. Use role play opportunities. Feeding teddies, dollies, toy cars, toy animals or even superheroes 🧸🪆🚗🐘🦹‍♂️🦸🏽

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 stepping in and doing things for them and let’s 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 simple tricks children can learn which help them to slip into their coat independently.

Tune in to tomorrow’s post for this 😊