Phonics Fun with Mrs Mactivity: Phase Five Activity Pack

(Review / Gifted)

I can't believe the school year is almost over! My son is quickly coming to the end of Year One and will soon be taking his Phonics Screening Check. As I also teach Year One, revising all we have learnt in phonics is high on the agenda both at home and at school!

Phonics is the systematic approach to learning to read and spell, with the 44 phonemes (sounds) being taught in different phases throughout Reception and Year 1.

By the end of Year 1, children are given a Phonics Screening Check to assess whether they have mastered the basic phonics system, and identifies any areas they need help with as they go into Year 2. It checks that your child can:

• Sound out and blend graphemes (the letter/letters that represent a sound) in order to read simple words.
• Read phonically decodable one-syllable and two-syllable words, e.g. cat, sand, windmill.
• Read a selection of nonsense words which are referred to as pseudo (or alien) words.

When your child learns phonics, they will also be taught "tricky words." I wrote a post explaining why these words are classed as tricky, and how you can help your child learn tricky words in a fun, multisensory way, which is full of easy ideas.

A - Z of Multisensory Language Learning for Kids: Letter D

In this new series, I'll be sharing some multisensory language learning ideas, which will help you to teach languages to your young children in a fun, engaging way. If you're not teaching languages however, most of these activities can be adapted to fit many themes in your own language too!

You can find quick links to our previous posts and the reasons behind them on our Language Learning Adventure page. 

D is for...

Make Learning Fun with Mrs Mactivity and The Greatest Showman

To our delight, my two children (aged 5 and almost 3) and I discovered two new things this week - 
1 - The film The Greatest Showman, and 2 - Mrs Mactivity's boutique teaching and learning resources!

Both my son S and my daughter R love music and dancing so they we're absolutely enthralled with the film from start to finish! Although with such catchy songs, they couldn't sit still and danced around the living room singing and dancing!

My children dancing to The Greatest Showman!

It's such a heartwarming story about following your dreams, friendship and acceptance. I used the messages in the film to talk to my children about the importance of being kind to one another and how you shouldn't base your friendships on how another person looks.