Literacy

literacy

INTENT

Have a great love of stories and books. To be able to retell stories and imaginatively contribute ideas to extend a story.
To have a wide repertoire of songs and rhymes.
To understand that print has meaning and that English print is read from left to right and top to bottom. To learn the different parts of the book, such as the spine, author, illustrator and blurb.
To learn about rhyming words and count and clap syllables in a word.
To develop good hand, eye co-ordination and fine motor skills.
To form recognisable letters correctly and start to blend sounds to write simple words, including their names.
To learn the phonic sounds of letters, to promote early reading skills.

IMPLEMENTATION
Children are exposed to a wide variety of rhymes and story telling throughout the day, We sing songs with actions and props, children take turns to choose songs from our singing baskets, which involve actions and role play such as 'five monkeys jumping on the bed' with the children being the cheeky monkey's (always a highlight). We have interactive counting song sticks, where children take turns to push down a duck or frog when singing the songs.
Books and stories both indoor and outside are enjoyed through quiet times, snuggled up listening to stories together or in larger groups with props, instruments and role play to make the stories come alive.
In our pre school rooms we have special storytelling sessions called 'talk for writing' which is an engaging teaching framework developed by Pie Corbett (used in many schools). It helps to support children transform from readers into writers, performers and storytellers using engaging activities and traditional tales. The storyteller wears a MAGIC storytelling cloak and invites the children to participate in actions when telling the story. We also use the 'Read Write Inc' mnemonics to help children learn the correct formation of letters.
Throughout the nursery 'Letters and Sounds' phase one activities help develop listening and language skills by playing fun games such as 'silly soup', scooping out letter sounds from soup pot and making the correct phonetic sound or going on a 'listening walk' around the setting to see what we can hear. Children have fun with rhyming words, pointing them out in stories and making up silly nonsense rhymes together.😋 In our weekly drama sessions children contribute ideas to extend the role play story, PROBLEM SOLVING and ACTING.
Print is used though-out the setting to label areas such as our animal enclosures, where children can look at our brightly coloured information boards and learn about how to care for their furry and feathered friends.
Children practise early mark making in sensory trays of shaving foam, paint and mud. They experiment with different tools, fingers, sticks, paint brushes and pom poms. They mark make and draw on a big scale with paper on the floors, easels and fences as well as at tables, colouring and writing.
Before early mark making we participate in many fun activities developing our motor skills to support writing. From large motor movement activities such as obstacle courses and dancing with ribbons, moving shoulders and arms to develop fine motor movements such as play dough, rolling and cutting to using tweezers and tongs and fingers to pick up pasta, pom poms and gems.