Phonics Stars Redhill, Reigate and Horley

🤩Did you know that our Phonics Stars™️ classes also help to support Expressive Arts?

💃🏼🕺🏼Children are introduced and exposed to aspects of ‘Expressive Arts and Design’ for it is integrated in our classes.

👣👯‍♂️🎶Children are encouraged to join in with songs, movement and dancing. They experiment and explore different ways to move and respond to music.

🖌🖍Exploring rhythm through dance and even mark making. Especially once those mark making items have been put under a magic spell, the pens, crayons or even paint brushes can actually dance to all kinds of music! It’s a wonderfully magical way to express emotions through a range of movements.

✂️👐Children are offered opportunities to participate in circle games, different activities and learn how to use tools safely and effectively, especially when they join in with craft activities - this also encourages those amazing imaginations!

📚Reading books and telling stories is so important to us at Phonics Stars™️.

💕We love to recommend our favourite story or information books.

🙌It would be great if you could share with us your children’s favourite books too, whether they’re fact or fiction, we love to discover new books to read.

💖So, what is yours or your children’s most popular book to read together?

Between 2 and 3 years some children develop their spoon feeding skills as well as learning to use a fork to stab and pick up foods.

By 5 years a child is learning to spread and cut with a knife. Try not to worry though it is often not until they are around 7 years of age that a child can use a knife and fork together to cut up food and are truly independent with self-feeding.

Things you can do to help:
🍴 Think about what the food is they are trying to eat. Will it stick to the fork? Is it easy to cut? Would a spoon be better than a fork?

🍴 Use a bowl or plate with a raised edge so they have something to scrape against.

🍴 Encourage a good cutlery grasp right from the start; your child’s index finger should point down the back of the fork or knife towards the prongs and blade.

🍴 Work on one aspect of using a knife at a time e.g. spreading or cutting.

🍴 You can also practice using a spoon, fork and knife (for cutting and spreading) during other activities e.g. when playing with play dough or during craft activities.

🍴 Be sure to have fun and supporting learning through play without pressure. Use role play opportunities. Feeding teddies, dollies, toy cars, toy animals or even superheroes 🧸🪆🚗🐘🦹‍♂️🦸🏽

This is something to work on as early as possible, especially when you want to somewhat master our last ‘Top Tip - Getting out the door’.

Our children are used to us stepping in and doing things for them and let’s face it, we often do it because we are in a hurry to get on with the next thing in our busy schedules.

Taking the time to encourage your child to be independent in dressing and un******ng is a vital skill for them to master before going to school.

There are some simple tricks children can learn which help them to slip into their coat independently.

Tune in to tomorrow’s post for this 😊

Our best advice for this is to have a schedule/routine and if it’s possible, try stick to it as much as you can.

However, let’s be realistic, sometimes things are easier said than done.

Be kind to yourself and allow a little extra time in your routine for those occasional mornings when everything goes wrong..... when there's no milk or you’ve forgotten to make the packed lunch, the children need to go to the toilet as you are just about to walk out of the door…

Creating a visual timetable can be really helpful for not only you but your children too. Try to stick to the schedule and 99% of the time it will work and you will be there on time. Good luck!

For that 1% when you’re late, don't beat yourself up about it...... we are all late sometimes. That’s life 😊

Being able to ask for help is an essential skill for everyday life, but it may be a tricky concept for some young children as they often want to 'do it themselves' or are totally reliant on you helping them with absolutely everything!

Talking about the following questions might help them navigate how to ask for help appropriatly:

⭐️ What are somethings you can do without asking for help?

⭐️ What are some things you still need help with?

⭐️ How can you ask for help?

Having suggestions for answers of each of these could be useful. The last one would be great to model with your child or role play..... you be the child and let them be the teacher. 👩‍🏫

As our children transition from being a 'big fish in a small pond to a small fish in a big pond', that pond can seem a bit daunting to such young people.

As parents, carers and teachers, we can try to boost their confidence and try to alleviate all those worries so that they can happily look forward to an exciting adventure of learning and fun.

Your little one may already attend our classes, which is great, you’ve already exposed them to some really good learning opportunities that support starting school.

We understand that children and parents may well be experiencing a range of different emotions due to this transition.

We want you to know that this is okay, it’s perfectly normal for both you and your child to feel excited or apprehensive.

Starting something new may bring with it feelings that haven’t been felt before, therefore some children might display emotions they’ve not shared before. Change can feel unsettling but also exciting.

Children and adults might find expressing or talking about these feelings challenging. Use opportunities to talk, listen, share thoughts and ideas in a range of ways. Use play such as mini world toys, draw pictures together or make little books.

It can be helpful to show their children photos of their teacher from the school website and do a practice run of the journey, make it extra fun and follow a simple map to get to school.
Perhaps they could take their new book bags with them to make them feel more grown up.

Some children might benefit from support to ease any anxiety they maybe experiencing especially if they missed their transition days and meet the teachers. Making a visual timetable can be useful as well as reading books about starting school.

Emphasise how much fun they are going to have. If you can find time to meet up with other children starting in their class.

Above all, encourage children’s confidence by building independence through love, patience and through play.

Stay tuned for more top tips coming soon…

Stay tuned for our Phonics Stars™️ TOP TIPS, supporting transition and school readiness.

Handy hints and 'hacks'
To 'have their backs'.
Start schools
With our tips and tools!

In the words of Albert Einstein “Play is the highest form of research”

At Phonics Stars™️, we believe in play. We provide opportunities for children to learn through play. Our activities can be adapted to simplify or extend learning and how children recreate or play with the toys and games can vary from each individual child.

Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist and philosopher of science.

Even as a young boy, Einstein showed he had a great mind for maths and physics. Albert Einstein’s theories about light, matter, gravity, space and time are forever discoveries that have impacted so many.

Its interesting to learn that Einstein was slow to develop his speech, unable to speak until he was four years old. You can imagine the words used by his grandmother to describe Einstein, in the 1880s children were treated incredibly different to how they are now.
It’s also interesting to find out that apparently he was rather disorganised, often forgetting appointments, socks, brushing his hair etc.

Einstein articulated the principle of relativity and attempted to disprove quantum theory until he died in 1955 at the age of 76.

So from a child who was a late speaker, a person who may have found being organised a challenge, he was actually a world genius.

Children continue to amaze, their curiosity, their minds and how they play is fascinating.

Let children play, for play is the highest form of research.

✨A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in speech. Rather than a letter name.

💫When we support children with reading we talk about which sounds (phoneme - single letter sound) represent the letter name.

✨As an example, think about the word ‘dog’ this has three sounds and three letters. A digraph has 2 letters which make one sound. Therefore, the word ‘shop’ has three sounds but four letters because the ‘Sh’ (digraph) is one sound.

💫We promote phonics by supporting children to develop their listening skills and we do all we can to support muscle strength and physical development at an early age and continue through primary education.

✨Phase 2 Phonics involves recognising each of the sounds that individual letters (or a group of letters in later stages) make. These sounds are called phonemes, and they go together to create words.

💫When children hear phonemes in words and sound them out accurately with the correct pronunciation, children are generally well placed to make a good start in reading and writing.

✨How do you begin teaching Phonics?

💫Phonics is taught through phases, starting with Phase 1: developing listening skills. Taking the time to talk and read, share rhymes and listen to different sounds with your child will all aid with this learning process.

✨Phases 2 onwards are about recognising each letter by its sound. You can play games where you match initial sounds to objects and work out letter families.

🙌Keep an eye on our socials or scroll through our previous posts for further information…