Learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage

October 2015

Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum (EYFS)

EYFS Profile Phonics Reading Maths General Information

Aim of the Evening

How do young children learn?

Playing and Exploring – engagement

Active Learning – motivation

Creating and Thinking Critically - thinking

Characteristics of effective learning

Principles of the EYFS Curriculum

A unique child Positive

relationships Enabling

environments Learning and

development

The Early Years Curriculum

The Three Prime Areas of Learning

Personal, social and emotional development.

Communication and language.

Physical development.

Four further areas

Mathematics Literacy Understanding the

World Expressive Arts and

Design

Self registration (choosing lunch)

Exploring and learning Reading/Big Book Whole class session Adult guided activities Child initiated learning Phonics

What does a school day look like?

Lunch in the hall Playtime after lunch Handwriting and busy fingers More adult guided activities and child initiated learning Story time Home time

And then…

Using the Early Learning Goals an assessment of your child’s progress is made throughout the year.

These assessments are based on

observations and information gathered.

The assessments results are, in June, reported to yourselves, Year 1 teachers and County.

Assessment

Share information about what your child can do during parent interviews and through ‘WOW’ stickers.

Comment on what your child can do in your purple message book.

Comment on how children have responded to reading at home.

Encourage independence and a love of learning.

How can Parents Help?

In Reception we teach a daily phonics lesson following the Letters and Sounds scheme where children are taught to say, read and write sounds.

The children are currently learning to hear different sounds, rhyme and alliteration. These form the basic skills needed before learning to read and write.

We focus on teaching the children the name of a letter and to say the sound the letter makes.

We teach children to say the pure sound, without adding ‘uh’!

There are 6 phases within Letters and Sounds. Phases 1-4 are taught in Reception.

Some words you may hear:◦ Phoneme◦ Grapheme◦ Digraph◦ Trigraph

We ensure the teaching and learning of each letter and sound is made fun and interactive.

We teach the children to use their sound knowledge to read simple words. (sound blend)

m-a-t matsh-o-p shop

We teach children to use their fingers to help spell words. We touch each finger as we say each sound.

c-a-t catk-i-ng king

Tricky Words

Along side our phased phonic teaching we teach the children ‘tricky words’ which cannot be easily decoded.

For example:the, to, go, all, was, you, are, they

These are fed into our phonics planning for the children to learn by sight.

Encourage your child to teach you the sounds they have been taught.

Find the letters to match the sounds when you are reading together.

Find objects in the house that start with certain sounds.

How you can help at home

Children read with an adult at least once a week.

Messages and children’s progress can be recorded in the purple message book.

Children will bring home high frequency words for you to practise together at home (these will include some of the tricky words taught in phonics).

Reading

Share a variety of books with your child. Listen to your child ‘read’ regularly. Join a library. Read to your child exposing them to

more complex language. Practise reading key words.

How you can help at home

We encourage lots of gross and fine motor movements to improve pencil control.

Writing is closely linked to phonics.

We use an interactive handwriting scheme – Penpals.

Writing

Encourage your child to have a go using the sounds they have learnt through phonics.

Exercising muscles e.g. monkey bars, climbing frames, wheelbarrow races, pegging, squeezing sponges, bead threading

How you can help at home

Fun Active Thematic Purposeful Successful

Mathematics

Counting Counting objects reliably Using mathematical language Practical addition and subtraction.

Developing number strategies

2D/3D shape. Repeating patterns. Measures- non standard units. Comparing quantities. Problem solving.

Other aspects of mathematical development

How you can help at home

Use real money Use time vocabulary Play board games Use mathematical language Continue to spot numbers in the

environment.

Foster independence. Named clothes. Reward system. Book bags. Wellies, rain coats and sunhats. Long hair tied back. Named clothes.

General Information