It has been another busy fortnight in Team Kahikatea! Please enjoy reading and viewing what recent highlights below. 

Wellbeing 

Over the past fortnight, we have been learning about how to make friends, communication skills and conflict resolution. Our focus has been on using our words to.... 

Structured Literacy 

We have started our structured literacy lessons this week. Students work in targeted groups with their literacy teacher, and cover phonics, reading, spelling and writing. Each child has been assessed and is working at their specific point of need. When they are not with the teacher, the students enjoy oral language, rhyming and word building games and practise working co-operatively (photos below!). 

Literacy: How can you help your child at home?

The emphasis in teaching spelling is to focus on the sound, not the letter name. Making the phoneme (sound) - grapheme (letter shape) connection is the first step in literacy learning.

Ensure that your child is saying the ‘pure’ sound without an ‘uh’ sound on the end, for example, ‘lllll’ rather than ‘luh’ for the L sound. Please refer to this clip, The Sounds of New Zealand English for more information on the sound that matches each of the letters. Feel free to practise letter sounds and blends at home (cards will be sent home soon), as well as the Heart Words (learn to read and write). 

You may like to play games like: 

• Speed Sounds: your child can look at each letter card and say the sound it represents. See if your child can do this at speed.
• ‘I Spy’: You can play games such as ‘I Spy’, using the letter sound (not the name).
• Stepping Stones: Place the cards on the floor with the letter facing up, as if they are stepping stones across the river. Explain to your child that they have to cross the ‘river’ without falling in the water. Your child steps on each card and says the corresponding sound.
• Fish or Memory: You could make up a matching set of letter cards, and use both sets to play Fish or Memory together, by placing both sets of cards face down on the table or floor. Each player has to be able to say the sound, if they are to keep a matching pair of cards.
• Reading aloud to your child/ren continues to be hugely valuable and important for their literacy development. Click to read further information on the importance of reading at home can be read here.

Clapping the Syllables Game

Rhyming Activities

CVC word writing

Kinetic Letters Handwriting Program

Discovery Photos 

Evaporation Experiment

 Kia ora Whanau,

This is an information letter providing an update around our school-wide approach to teaching Reading and Writing -  Structured Literacy. 

The Structured Literacy approach is based on over 40 years of world-wide academic research. It is an approach in which children are taught systematically and explicitly to firstly recognise speech sounds, as our brains are designed primarily to process speech. Reading and writing are human inventions, so it is vital we work from speech and then move to print. Children are taught to recognise individual words, syllables, onset sounds, rime and individual sounds in a word.

At the same time, children are gradually introduced to the letters of the alphabet and the sounds the letters represent. They are also taught to write the letters. As the children increase their letter/sound knowledge, they will be shown how to read and write words with these letters. 

The children will be learning to read using decodable books. Stage 1 of these books contain words the children can decode (sound out) using the first group of 8 letters (m, s, f, a, p, t, c and i). Stage 2 introduces 8 more letters, and so on. As the English language is not phonetic, the teachers will gradually introduce the spelling rules and patterns we need to know in order to read and write in English. The books we will be using follow a sequence and will support the teaching. 

Your child will not necessarily bring books home straight away. They need to know the first 8 letters and the sounds they represent, as well as the skills of segmenting and blending sounds, before being given a text. This is to ensure success and accurate reading, rather than guessing. In the first instance, we will be supplying you with flashcards for each of the sounds the children are being taught. Reinforcing the sounds they have learnt at school, when at home with you, will be extremely helpful for your child. 

In our Senior Classes the explicit, sequential teaching will be done with small target groups and also through daily whole class phonological awareness and spelling sessions.

When your child brings their Literacy Folder home (NE to Year 4), you will find literacy resources that you can use at home to support their learning. Please ensure the folder is returned to school the next day with all the resources inside.

We are excited to be helping the tamariki with our fun, engaging and evidence-based literacy programme this year.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with your child’s Home Group Teacher.