Phonics & Spelling
Our phonics programme:
We begin our journey to read with Phonics.
At Orchard Infant School we use Essential Letters and Sounds to support your child with learning phonics. This means the children learn how to “read” the sounds that are within words and how these sounds can be written down. We teach the children how to segment (break up) and blend (put back together) sounds to read and write words, using a range of strategies. The children also spend time practising reading and spelling our tricky words, this is then sent home with the child as weekly homework. The children practise their reading with books that match the phonics and the ‘tricky words’ they know and it is incredible to watch their confidence flourish.
Our phonics mascot, Mr Bump, supports the children in making sure that phonics learning continues throughout the day. He likes to bump into our phonic sounds and tricky words of the week, so the children have to be extra vigilant when reading anything!
Below is some more information about our phonics programme.
els information for parents.pdf
Here are the phase 2, 3 and 5 phonic sounds your children will be learning.
Library
All about our wonderful library at Orchard Infant School!
In our school library we have a wide selection of fiction and non-fiction texts to engage the children in reading.
Library Sessions
Each class has a library session each week where the children can browse the books or sit and read, either on their own or with their friends, sharing stories or facts with each other.
I pose a question each week on the board to link in with our map wall. This encourages the children to explore the globe and map and find out an interesting fact. It also sparks lots of conversation.
E-Platform
Each child in the school has access to our oxford owls E-platform where they can download fiction and non-fiction books to read at home.
Junior Librarians
Each class chooses 2 children to be Junior Librarians. These lovely children have sessions with me learning about looking after books and encouraging their classmates to do the same in the library and in the classroom. They also find out about new books and authors with me when I exchange books with the School Library Service and then they relay this information to their class, so the children know what new books are available.
Library Skills
The children in Year 1 and Year 2 take part in Library Skill sessions with me as part of their Guided reading times. They get to learn about how a library is set up – fiction books shelved by authors surname and non-fiction using the Dewey System. We also look in more detail at fiction and non-fiction books, authors and illustrators. The children use these skills during their library sessions and help each other to use the ‘Where to Look’ poster, which helps the children to find the correct Dewey number for the subject they are looking for.
Story Club and Book Club.
Year 1 children have the opportunity to take part in Story Club, where we enjoy sharing lots of stories with each other. The children love this and it encourages them to bring their own books to share as well as finding authors that they love to read.
Year 2 can take part in Book Club. We spend time exploring fiction and non-fiction books, characters and authors, delving into books, looking up authors’ websites and enjoying reading and sharing books together.
Hampshire Picture Book Award
Year 1 take part in this award each year and it is so exciting. They get to read the 4 chosen stories lots of times, so they know them well and do activities related to them. They also find out about each author. Then they get to vote for their favourite. The children love the fact that it is only them that vote not the adults. There is always much excitement when we find out the winning book!
