Jolly Phonics
Jolly Phonics
Jolly Phonics
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Parent/Teacher Guide
Jolly Phonics is for children aged 3 to 6
Jolly Phonics is a thorough foundation for reading and writing. It uses the synthetic phonics method of teaching the letter sounds in a way that is fun and multi-sensory. Children learn how to use the letter sounds to read and write words.
This guide provides background advice for parents and teachers. It explains the principles behind Jolly Phonics so that your understanding of the teaching, and your ability to help a child, is much greater. All the material is suitable for use in school. Much of it is also well suited to use at home; those items have been marked with a * . The items can be used together, or individually. Jolly Phonics includes learning the irregular or tricky words such as said, was and the. Together with these materials you should also use storybooks. Parental support is important to all children as they benefit from plenty of praise and encouragement whilst learning. You should be guided by the pace at which your child wants to go. If interest is being lost, leave the teaching for a while and then come back to it later. Not all children find it easy to learn and blend sounds. It is important to remember that this is not because they are unintelligent, but because they have a poor memory for symbols and words. Extra practice will lead to fluency in reading and help your child manage at school. The five basic skills for reading and writing are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Learning the letter sounds Learning letter formation Blending Identifying sounds in words Spelling the tricky words
Although the skills are covered separately in this guide they will all be taught together.
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Each sound has an action which helps children remember the letter(s) that represent it. As a child progresses you can point to the letters and see how quickly they can do the action and say the sound. One letter sound can be taught each day. As a child becomes more confident, the actions are no longer necessary. There is a list of all of the letter sounds and their corresponding actions on page 8 of this guide. Children should learn each letter by its sound, not its name. For example, the letter a should be called a (as in ant) not ai (as in aim). Similarly, the letter n should be nn (as in net), not en. This will help in blending. The names of each letter can follow later. The letters have not been introduced in alphabetical order. The first group (s, a, t, i, p, n) has been chosen because they make more simple three-letter words than any other six letters. The letters b and d are introduced in different groups to avoid confusion. Sounds that have more than one way of being written are initially taught in one form only. For example, the sound ai (rain) is taught first, and then alternatives a-e (gate) and ay (day) follow later. Examples can be found in the Jolly Phonics Word Book.
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The grip is the same for both left- and right-handed children
The pencil should be held in the tripod grip between the thumb and first two fingers. If a childs hold starts incorrectly, it is very difficult to correct later on.
A child needs to form each letter the correct way. The letter c is introduced in the early stages as this forms the basic shape of some other letters, such as d. Particular problems to look for are: the o (the pencil stroke must be anticlockwise, not clockwise), d (the pencil starts in the middle, not the top), there must be an initial downstroke on letters such as m and n. The Jolly Phonics DVD, Videos and Finger Phonics books show the correct formation of each letter. A good guide is to remember that no letter starts on the baseline.
In time a child will need to learn joined-up (cursive) writing. It helps the fluency of writing and improves spelling. When words are written in one movement it is easier to remember the spelling correctly. Jolly Phonics uses the Sassoon Infant typeface which is designed for children learning to read and write. Many of the letters (such as d and n) have an exit stroke at the end to make it easier to transfer into joined-up writing. (Check your schools policy as many schools do not teach joined-up writing early on)
3. Blending
Blending is the process of saying the individual sounds in a word and then running them together to make the word. For example, sounding out d-o-g and making dog. It is a technique every child will need to learn, and it improves with practice. To start with you should sound out the word and see if a child can hear it, giving the answer if necessary. Some children take longer than others to hear this. The sounds must be said quickly to hear the word. It is easier if the first sound is said slightly louder. Try little and often with words like b-u-s, t-o-p, c-a-t and h-e-n. There are lists of suitable words in The Phonics Handbook and the Jolly Phonics Word Book. Remember that some sounds (digraphs) are represented by two letters, such as sh. Children should sound out the digraph (sh), not the individual letters (s-h). With practice they will be able to blend the digraph as one sound in a word. So, a word like rain should be sounded out r-ai-n, and feet as f-ee-t. This is difficult to begin with and takes practice. The Jolly Phonics Regular Word Blending Cards can be used in class to improve this skill. You will find it helpful to be able to distinguish between a blend (such as st) and a digraph (such as sh). In a blend the two sounds, s and t can each be heard. In a digraph this is not so. Compare mishap (where both the s and h are sounded) and midship (which has the quite separate sh sound). When sounding out a blend, encourage children to say the two sounds as one unit, so fl-a-g not f-l-a-g. This will lead to greater fluency when reading. Some words in English have an irregular spelling and cannot be read by blending, such as said, was and one. Unfortunately, many of these are common words. The irregular parts have to be remembered. These are called the tricky words.
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Storybooks
A child will benefit greatly from a love of reading for pleasure. This can come from being read to. Once a child has begun to learn the letter sounds they will be able to pick them out in words. They should then move on to working out whole words through blending. As a result it is easier if reading begins with storybooks that use simple words. The Jolly Readers can be used to provide this progression. Once there is fluency in reading, the most important skills for a child will be comprehension and the understanding of more words. This can be developed by asking a child questions about a story they have just read.
The Actions
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1
t i p n ck e
Weave hand in an s shape, like a snake, and say ssssss. Wiggle fingers above elbow as if ants crawling on you and say a, a, a. Turn head from side to side as if watching tennis and say t, t, t. Pretend to be a mouse by wriggling fingers at end of nose and squeak i, i, i. Pretend to puff out candles and say p, p, p. Make a noise, as if you are a plane hold arms out and say nnnnnn. Raise hands and snap fingers as if playing castanets and say ck, ck, ck. Pretend to tap an egg on the side of a pan and crack it into the pan, saying eh, eh, eh. Hold hand in front of mouth panting as if you are out of breath and say h, h, h. Pretend to be a puppy holding a piece of rag, shaking head from side to side, and say rrrrrr. Rub tummy as if seeing tasty food and say mmmmmm. Beat hands up and down as if playing a drum and say d, d, d. Spiral hand down, as if water going down the drain, and say g, g, g. Pretend to turn light switch on and off and say o, o; o, o. Pretend to be putting up an umbrella and say u, u, u. Pretend to lick a lollipop and say llllll. Let hands gently come together as if toy fish deflating, and say f f f f f f. Pretend to hit a ball with a bat and say b, b, b.
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h r m d g o u l f
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b ai j oa
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Cup hand over ear and say ai, ai, ai. Pretend to wobble on a plate and say j, j, j. Bring hand over mouth as if you have done something wrong and say oh! ie Stand to attention and salute, saying ie ie. ee or Put hands on head as if ears on a donkey and say eeyore, eeyore.
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Put arms out at sides and pretend to be a bee, saying zzzzzz. Blow on to open hand, as if you are the wind, and say wh, wh, wh. Imagine you are a weightlifter, and pretend to lift a heavy weight above your head, saying ng v Pretend to be holding the steering wheel of a van and say vvvvvv. oo oo Move head back and forth as if it is the cuckoo in a cuckoo clock, saying u, oo; u, oo. (Little and long oo.) Pretend to be eating a yoghurt and say y, y, y. Pretend to take an x-ray of someone with a camera and say ks, ks, ks. ch Move arms at sides as if you are a train and say ch, ch, ch. sh Place index finger over lips and say shshsh. th th Pretend to be naughty clowns and stick out tongue a little for the th, and further for the th sound (this and thumb). Make a ducks beak with your hands and say qu, qu, qu. Pretend your finger is a needle and prick thumb saying ou, ou, ou. Cup hands around mouth and shout to another boat saying oi! ship ahoy! Point to people around you and say you, you, you. Roll hands over each other like a mixer and say ererer. Open mouth wide and say ah. (British English) Flap hands as if a seal and say ar, ar, ar. (Nth Am English)
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Jolly Songs*
A collection of songs set to popular tunes for each of the 42 letter sounds in Jolly Phonics. These songs are sung by children on the audio CD. Perfect for use at home, one-to-one teaching or small groups. Also includes: Recordings of all the 42 letter sounds Examples of words being blended from their sounds *Suitable for use at home
Jiglets*
These magnetic jigsaw puzzles encourage children to spell words from their sounds. The children must identify the sounds successfully to spell the word correctly.
Stencilets*
Stencilets help young children with their pencil control and letter formation. They clip the paper firmly in place and are made of durable, washable plastic.
Jolly Jingles
An enjoyable and interactive way to reinforce the letter sounds and develop reading skills. Each page gives the words to the Jingle, the action for the letter sound(s), and the traditional tune used. Accompanied by an audio CD of the Jingles, sung by Canadian children.
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Level 3
Level 2
Level 1
Jolly Readers*
Interesting storybooks for children who are just ready to read. Controlled vocabulary enables them to read the words from their letter sound knowledge.There are only a few essential tricky words, and these are shown at the back of each book. There are three series, Inky Mouse and Friends, General Fiction and Nonfiction. There are 6 different books in each series pack.
Designed to help children improve their reading and writing, and become independent learners. The 6,000+ ageappropriate words have carefully selected definitions that children find easy to read and understand. The award-winning, Jolly Dictionary is beautifully illustrated throughout, often using the Jolly Phonics characters to help clarify examples. Divided into 4 colour sections to help children learn how to use the dictionary A unique Pronunciation Guide for each word using joined digraphs and showing the stress *Suitable for use at home
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Jolly Dictionary*
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Email: [email protected]
www.jollylearning.co.uk
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