Raising standards in KS1 and Special Needs: helping every child to succeed.
I have taught systematic phonics to all ages and abilities for over 30 years. My teaching degree was in Environmental Studies and I hate to see science reduced to box-ticking when there is so much to discover about the wonderful world we live in.
So, I produce Phonic resources that meet the real needs of children and teachers, along with science resources to engage children in learning about the natural world.
Raising standards in KS1 and Special Needs: helping every child to succeed.
I have taught systematic phonics to all ages and abilities for over 30 years. My teaching degree was in Environmental Studies and I hate to see science reduced to box-ticking when there is so much to discover about the wonderful world we live in.
So, I produce Phonic resources that meet the real needs of children and teachers, along with science resources to engage children in learning about the natural world.
A ck phonics workbook to build upon skills learnt in Reception. Introducing ‘ck’ words in the past tense adding ‘ed’ and words such as ‘pocket’ and ‘rocket’.
Activities include:
passage to read and questions to answer
study of verbs as action words
past tense verbs made by adding ‘ed’.
rhyming words
The complete lesson can be viewed here and is compatible with most other phonics programmes including Read, Write, inc. and Letters and Sounds used in most Primary schools.
This book is the second level of our 'ck’ Level 1 book.
Here are three simple activities to help a child to learn to blend (updated from advert).
I wrote them for an 8 yr old child whom I tutor. He has a smattering of phonic knowledge, but having not learned to blend properly is now guessing and unable to read fluently. This is a common problem, but it must not be allowed to persist or the child will not learn to read fluently, or will take a very long time to do so.
These activities are listening activities. This is a deliberate act to limit the amount of exposure a child has to seeing CVC words, before working on blending with him/her, and so further limiting the possibility that a child will memorise the words before having learned to blend.
By all means use ‘robot’ talk as you do these activities with your child.
Before doing these activities with your child:
Do ensure that a child can give the correctly pronounced sounds on sight of the letters of the alphabet.
Remove any distractions/background noise.
Have the child’s full attention.
Full instructions and black and white pictures provided.
This game will help children to hear the sounds ‘sh’ and ‘ch’ in words. The child is not expected to read the words, just to listen for the sounds.
Some children, especially those with a speech delay, have difficulty differentiating between ‘sh’ and ‘ch’. This game will help to focus the pupil’s attention on the difference between them.
Games can be very effective when helping such children to progress to the next step, taking the fear of failing away and making it alright to make mistakes. They are wonderful for already de-motivated learners.
Four phonics lessons for Phase 3 Set 3 Letters and Sounds:ch,sh,th and ng. suitable for all abilities, but especially helpful for special needs/catch-up work.
Video or Power Point to give more control over the speed of the lesson.
Produced by a teacher with over 30 years experience of teaching phonics to special needs children.
Great to help parents support the learning of their child at home.
Shows parents what to do and what is needed to help their child succeed as well as instructing the child.
Totally phonetic
No guessing!
REAL READING!
These lessons are intended to be watched with a teacher/parent/guardian.
Three bright, colourful Phonics Initial sounds mats for EYFS and Reception. Great for home or school use. Send home to parents for use as a chart or they can be laminated and made into a place mat.
Encourage children to become familiar with the letters - their shapes, names and the sounds they represent.
The pack contains 3 charts:
A chart of upper and lower case letters
Pictures are placed near their initial sound as a reference.
Pictures placed away from their corresponding letter so that they can be found and matched
Have you seen my ‘Bumper Pack of Alphabet Games’.
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-11998349
Or my Sound-it-out Initial sounds Worksheets for parents
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12030249
and for teachers:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-11998488
A Power Point lesson to introduce the digraph ‘ee’ to children, especially suitable for those who have special needs or need a slower pace. This is one of a series.
This is a taught lesson. The Power Point allows for control over the speed, but the video is for those who cannot use PowerPoint.
Just like having your own phonics teacher.
Written by a teacher with over 30 years experience of teaching phonics to all abilities.
Can either be used by the child, with support from an adult, as well as to give the parent a feel for what is necessary - i.e. for training purposes.
A Power Point or video lesson to introduce the consonant digraph ‘ch’ to children, especially suitable for those who have special needs or need a slower pace. This is one of a series.
This is a taught lesson. Stop the video if you need more time on a slide. The Power Point allows for more control over the speed.
For supporting flashcards/worksheets/reading book and game see:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/complete-ch-sh-lesson-for-special-needs-home-learning-12462988
Just like having your own phonics teacher.
Written by a teacher with over 30 years experience of teaching phonics to all abilities.
Can either be used by the child, with support from an adult, as well as to give the parent a feel for what is necessary - i.e. for training purposes.
This is a listening game to help the child to hear the ‘oo’ sound in words, as different to the ‘o’ sound as some children have difficulty hearing the new ‘oo’ sound.
One of my pupils has a speech delay. When I introduced him to ‘oo’, he tried to sound out the words saying ‘o’ instead of ‘oo’. It was as if ‘oo’ was a foreign sound to him. So, I devised this game to help him to hear the ‘oo’ sound in words he uses frequently in speech. After playing it a few times he is now happily sounding out to read and spell words with the ‘oo’ sound.
This game uses only the ‘oo’ sound as heard in ‘moon’.
For more help teaching phonics, see my FREE Phonic reading and Spelling programme, Reading Made Simple. https://readingmadesimple.weebly.com/level-1---oo.html
A pack of simple games to help teach children the initial sounds.
Everything provided.
Games can be played by 2 players, or an adult with a child. They are great for sending home to reinforce work done in class, or for use by teaching assistants.
They can also be enlarged and used for whole class/group teaching activities.
Several games are suggested, but you can make up your own using the given materials!
If you can enlarge them to A3 it would make them more suitable for really tiny fingers.
A Power Point or video lesson to introduce the digraph ‘oo’ to children, especially suitable for those who have special needs or need a slower pace. This is one of a series.
This is a taught lesson. Stop the video if you need more time on a slide. The Power Point allows for more control over the speed.
Just like having your own phonics teacher.
Written by a teacher with over 30 years experience of teaching phonics to all abilities.
Can either be used by the child, with support from an adult, as well as to give the parent a feel for what is necessary - i.e. for training purposes.
A Power point or video lesson to introduce young children to the concept of blending, starting with words in the ‘a’ family.
Simple, to the point and short.
Stop the video if you need more time on a slide.
This is a taught lesson, but the Power Point allows the teacher to have more control over the speed.
Like having your own phonics teacher!
By a teacher with over 30 years experience of teaching phonics.
Can either be used by the child, with support from an adult, as well as to give the parent a feel for what is necessary - i.e. for training purposes.
A Power Point or video lesson to introduce the consonant digraph ‘sh’ to children, especially suitable for those who have special needs or a slower pace, but fine for all abilities.
This is one of a series of videos.
This is a taught lesson. Stop the video if you need more time on a slide. The Power Point allows for more control over the speed.
For supporting flashcards/worksheets/reading book and game see:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/complete-ch-sh-lesson-for-special-needs-home-learning-12462988
Just like having your own phonics teacher.
Written by a teacher with over 30 years experience of teaching phonics.
Can either be used by the child, with support from an adult, as well as to give the parent a feel for what is necessary - i.e. for training purposes.
Reading Made Simple: helping parents to teach their child to read.
An easy reader about mushrooms for those beginning to read longer simple texts - with words that can be sounded out using phonic knowledge and only a few most common sight words.
Learn about mushrooms through a simple story.
For lesson notes and more help see:
https://ks1nature.weebly.com/free-science-lessons/mushrooms-for-ks1
See also our mushroom lesson resources and Power Point.
Help children read and spell a wider range of ‘oo’ words (comprehension passage and questions included)
Help teach to/two/too
Learn more about past tense verbs: adding ‘ed’ to words that do not change and run/ran, sit/sat etc…
To be used with level 2 of Reading Made Simple, but can be used with any programme. Level 2 ‘oo’ builds upon the work done in Level 1 ‘ck’. These books build upon each progressively, so providing a robust scheme of work for spelling and for the less able reader. Suitable for children who have covered all of the Phase 5 sounds for reading at least.
The words are all phonetic with no nasty surprises, but as all schemes differ, please ensure that your children have all the necessary phonics skill to read the text before starting the exercises.
Reading Made Simple: systematic, progressive and truly phonetic - for all abilities and ages.
An easy phonetic reader for those beginning to read longer simple texts - with words that can be sounded out using phonic knowledge and only a few most common sight words.
Learn about a garden bird - the Chaffinch- through a simple story. Learn Science at the same time!
Use with any phonic programme after a child has learned the basic digraphs and trigraphs, for example, after Phase 5 Letters and sounds, or after RWI Speed Set 3 have been completed.
This book contains factual information about Rooks besting in spring, written in fictional style. Children will have fun learning science as they read!
A simple phonic board game to practice reading words containing the phonic sounds: ck,oo,ee and sh.
As your pupil has fun, his/her confidence will get a boost!
Use with any phonic programme provided the above sounds have been taught.
Great for any pupil, but especially those with a special need.
*Written especially for use with Reading Made Simple, a 100% FREE reading and spelling programme of systematic phonics, for use by home-educators, parents and schools. So systematic it works even for those who have failed with other programmes.
Here are 12, FREE to download, phonic reading books to support the blending of CCVC words with a short vowel sound, for the very earliest stages of learning to read with phonics.
Suitable for use with all phonic programmes.
The focus is purely on sounding out with only the key words
** I, and go, to**
being gradually introduced.
Pictures are minimal to encourage the child to gain meaning from the text and not to guess.
Phonic words are introduced and then met again in subsequent readers, to help develop confidence and fluency.
The stories are based around farmer Tom with his animals, his wife, his son Sam and daughter, Pam, dog Jiff and the cat.
Highly suitable for special needs children who have failed with other programmes.
Many parents have told me they wished they had found these books sooner, or had found them at all, as they would have been ideal for their struggling reader.
They have been thoroughly tested by my current pupils all of whom are boys. Even my nine-year old boy pupil loves them. He is just so glad to be able to read.
For more help see READING MADE SIMPLE, the 100% FREE, systematic, synthetic phonic reading and/or spelling programme.
An easy reader for those beginning to read longer simple texts - with words that can be sounded out using phonic knowledge and only a few most common sight words.
Learn about the Song Thrush through a simple story. Learn Science at the same time!
Use with any phonic programme after a child has learned the basic digraphs and trigraphs, for example, after Phase 5 Letters and sounds, or after RWI Speed Set 3 have been completed.
See more at https://ks1nature.weebly.com/tipsideasfreebies/song-thrush-for-kids.
How to teach phonics effectively is a resource to help schools improve their delivery of phonics, through which ever programme they choose.
The author has 30 years experience of teaching phonics, both in a main stream school, where she had responsibility for the teaching of phonics throughout the whole school and with individual, special needs children.
She draws on her experience of helping both parents and teachers to use phonics to best effect.
Help your children to spring ahead in reading with our Spring Phonics Game, designed to help children become more confident at tackling multisyllabic words.
Suitable for children at the end of Phase 5 Letters and Sounds.
As a spin off, children will also learn to identify common spring plants and animals.
See also our Spring Science Snap game
Remember to print out two sets of the word/picture cards!