Primary 1 have been working hard all term to learn their initial phonics sounds, and are now working on the first set of tricky words. We call these ‘tricky words’ because they cannot be sounded out phonetically. Instead, children need to learn to recognise them instantly. We have been practising this in class over the last 2 weeks, but help at home with this would make a huge difference.
Our tricky words are -
I
go
to
the
no
into
Here are a few activities that you could do at home to support with this…
- Make flashcards of these words to practise often
- Make 2 sets of flashcards to enable you to play pairs/snap
- Use chalk to write these outside, then play games for example, “Can you hop to the word ‘the’?"... Play tig, “this time the word ‘go’ is den" etc.
- Play snakes and ladders, connect 4 etc but before each go you have to read one of these words
- Go on a word hunt! Can you find these words in books, newspapers etc? If you have a highlighter handy, we love highlighting them in magazines.
- Practise writing the words in a salt tray
- Make the words using playdough
- Practise writing the words using rainbow colours
These are all activities you could use to practise the sounds children have been bringing home, or practise putting sounds together to read CVC words (cat, fox, mug, pen, nap, mug etc).
Thank you for all your support this term! I hope you all have a fantastic October break:)
Miss Sweeney
*Photos taken throughout the term of us practising various phonics skills.