Jolly phonics is a fun phonic scheme that we introduce children to from Pre Prep. Initially the children learn the sounds of the letters through songs, these songs all have actions and the children really enjoy doing this as a group at circle time, we do these every day morning and afternoon, and the children enjoy looking at the picture flash card that relates to each song.The children all have their own name flash card with the initial letter oftheir name in a different colour this helps them to recognise the soundfor their name and that of their friends. We encourage the children tofind their name at circle time and when the children can recognise theirname we encourage them to put their name on the board when theycome in to nursery. We have a jolly phonics letter of the week thechildren contribute to the display with pictures and words starting withthe letter, and the children can bring in objects to display. We do one to one activities with the children sounding the sounds on the flash card, picture and letter ones first and then move on to just the letter. We introduce Jolly phonics work sheets where the children write the letter and bring this into their formal letter formation and topic books when ready. We include Jolly phonics in all our nursery activities, writing the letters with our fingers in the gloop and wet sand as well as our painting activities , we hide the letters in the sand and can fish for them in our water play. We enjoy playing the mystery bag game where the children pull out an object and say the sound it begins with. Brainstorming at circle time asking the children what begins with We have flash cards with the days of the week and Months of the year with the initial sound in a different colour that we change as appropriate at circle time with the children. We label objects around the room and encourage the children to sound out the words.We find that using this fun scheme throughout the day the children respond in a very positive way and start to recognise the sounds and progress to the letters this makes a very good transition to the formal Oxford reading scheme that your child will progress to in Prep One.
When colouring in skills have been nicely developed nicely we start to introduce pattern writing. This work comprises a wide variety of fun sheets that we will be doing with the children. It may be a picture of "take the postman to the post box" and there is a zig-zag line to join the two together, or dot-to-dot work for the children to join - everything begins from left to right, which is the basis for reading and writing. When we are forming our letters, the correct sequence of dot-to-dot work is encouraged - the correct place to start and where we go to next. There is always a table set up with a more formal piece of work; be it some dot-to-dot pictures, some basic number work, number games, number sheets, or perhaps counting, matching, sorting, putting things in pairs and of course the Jolly Phonics sheets. The children are all encouraged to come and do a piece of work as well as joining in the play activities going on around. The children enjoy this work so much that most will usually do a few pieces of work; It is important that it is the children's own enthusiasm for this work that motivates them, we will not be forcing children to do any activity that they themselves do not want to do.The Pre-prep facilities are in the extended part of the nursery building. There will be some role play set up, some floor play as well as the table top, the educational toys and more formal activities, discussed earlier. A second room is used as the children's activity room, where they will spend time - in rotation each morning and afternoon. This means they will all spend some time here; baking, enjoying art and craft and the natural play activities and this is where all the lovely messy activities are taking place. Naturally Pre-prep children make full use of the indoor/outdoor facilities described earlier and we look to get them out at least twice a day and if it is not possible to physically go outside then we will go into the linked conservatory and use the facilities we have there. Again a number of these children will need to sleep, so the activity room will be set out after lunch, with sleep beds, mats and fresh bedding and any of the children who need a sleep can be put down for a sleep, which is still important - they are still young children.
© Clarendon Cottage Preparatory School
"When children are ready, they progress to our Pre-prep group, which is
located in an extension to the main building. The children in Pre-prep are
between the ages of 2 and 3 and this is the feeder into our nursery school.
Children go into our simple uniform at this age, comprising a bottle green
sweatshirt and polo shirt, and this starts to help the children identify with
one another and feel part of the group; again this is an important factor for
when they lead on into school. Child initiated activities are encouraged as
well as our more focused activities. They have access to continuous
outdoor provision in the well resourced and exciting outside play areas.
There is also more emphasis now being placed on introducing pre
reading, writing and number activities. One of our main methods of
introducing these skills is through a clever range of phonic activities. We
now use the Jolly Phonics scheme and it has proved incredibly successful.
More Information
The area’s leading educational nursery
