b - what's in the box?

Children in Reception will be learning to:

Examples:

leaf - l/ea/f

fork - f-or-k

rock - r-o-ck

This activity is all about hearing the sounds and orally blending them together to make a word. Blending is when you say the individual sounds then merge them together to make a word e.g. c-a-t --> cat. In Reception children will blend letters to read words but in nursery the focus is on developing this skill orally first which is really important.

Place one set of objects in front of your child and hide the second set. Place one of the hidden objects in the box. Give your child a clue e.g. it starts with a l sound. See if they can work out which object is hiding by checking if any of the objects on the tray begin with that sound.

Then sound out the whole word e.g. l-ea-f. Were they correct? Let them open the box to check. As you tell them if their guess was correct, sound talk the word and then blend it together e.g. yes it was a l-ea-f, leaf.

Take it in turns. Let them hide an object for you. Can they give you a clue using the initial sound or by sounding out the word? When children start with the word, then sound it out e.g. dog, d-o-g, this is called segmenting. This skill will help children when they begin to spell.

If your child finds it tricky to blend the sounds together, you could break the word into two parts - the initial sound and then the rest of the word e.g. instead of d-o-g you could say d-og. This is called onset and rime. Onset is the initial sound (e.g. d in dog) and rime refers to the string of letters that follow, usually a vowel and final consonants (e.g. og in dog). When your child becomes confident blending the onset and rime you could try breaking the word into individual sounds e.g. d-o-g.

Aspect Seven: Oral Blending and Segmenting

Children begin to orally blend and segment sounds in words focusing on what they can hear. The will sound out words and try to remember the order of the sounds. This will help when they begin to read and spell in Reception when they begin Phase Two.

If you have a go at this activity and share any photos on social media I would love to see them. Please tag @miniwritersclub and let me know how you get on.

Anna