Today's spotlight is on the second of the 'Big Six' keys to reading...Phonological Awareness.

Phonological awareness is the ability to hear the sounds within words. This involves children being about to hear:

• words and word spaces in language
• syllables (a unit of pronunciation with one vowel sound; for example, cat has one syllable, water has two syllables)
• rhyme (two or more words with the same ending sound; for example, ring, king, thing)
• alliteration (two or more words with the same beginning sound; for example The boy buzzed around as busy as a bee.)
• phonemes (the individual sounds within a word; for example, dog has three phonemes, d-o-g).

Being able to hear or ‘isolate’ these sounds gives children a foundation for learning to manipulate the sounds of sentences and words as they learn to read and spell.

Families can support their child at home with their Phonological Awareness by:

• Reading aloud books or poems with rhyming words at the end of lines or sentences - encourage your child to join in and predict the next rhyming word.
• Listen for and clap with the syllables of familiar and new words, for example, jump-ing, wa-ter, ha-ppi-ness, wee-kend.
• Sing songs, say nursery rhymes, chants, riddles, silly poems, tongue twisters and jokes.

See our next newsletter for the next 'Big Six'... Phonics.

Mrs Christine Perre - Acting Assistant Principal