Jolly Phonics Staff Professional Development

Today for our staff Professional Development we  learnt about Jolly Phonics and how to "Create Independent Readers, Writers and Spellers" in the classroom.

The programme is useful from year ones to year 8s.   The research states that when Jolly phonics is implemented children's reading skills were 11 months above the level of their expected for their age.

Jolly phonics comes in Precursive or Print letters.  It is recommended to use Jolly Phonics in the classroom in print format.

Jolly phonics is useful for different learning styles such as Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic/Emotional, Tactile learners.

The first stage is learning to read and the second stage is comprehension.  It takes approximately 3 years for the results: 1st year-Jolly phonics, 2nd year-Jolly grammar/Jolly readers.

Children learn basic 5 skills altogether: Learning letter sounds, letter formation, blending, identifying sounds in words, tricky words.

1: Learning the letter sounds:

• Everything is done in colour. 
• After you have started first letter sound they can start spelling. 
• There is a specific letter sound order for teaching sequence. 
• Kids need to learn what the sound is for theme to spell them

Story line and Actions:

For the teaching for the sounds stories and actions are used. There is also videos and songs on you tube. For example: Learning the letter "s" Action: Weave hand like a snake, saying the phonic sound ssssss.

The Phonics Handbook:
Used as a useful teaching took which provided detailed teaching notes, sound sheets and games and activities.

When the children have learnt the first three sounds, they can then be taught to blend the sounds together and they learn to read s-a-t.

children then learnt to identify the sound and where in the word it is located. For example, neck, nip, hand, man.


Children then learn to progress into learning capital letters and the names of letters at the end of the third group of letters. Children need to learn to know that capital letters make the same sounds even though they look different.

Digraphs:

• There is a structure to teaching Digraphs. 
• There are 9 digraph sounds.
• There are 27 letter combinations to make these sounds. 
• You start with the simple sounds like ai, oo-Two or more letters that make the same sounds.
  Two vowels go walking the first one does the talking(Rule)

Alternative Vowel Sounds:

Introduced as: 'ai' (rain)        Alternatives taught later: 'ay' (play) and 'a-e' (flame)

'ee' (feet)                               'ae' (leaf)

'oa'(boat)                               'ow' (snow) and 'o-e' (bone)

2:Letter formation:

Feel formation:

• Finger phonics books
• On the board
• On the sand
• In the air.
• On the ground.

Pencil hold:

• Tripod grip
• "Froggy legs' movement.
• Frog on the log.

Writing letters:

• Tracing dots
• Pencil stroke directions. 
• Joining tails. 
• Joined-up(Cursive) handwritng. 

3: Blending:

Its more than just sounding out letters. 

Hearing individual sounds:

• Hearing one sound. 
• Identifying all sounds in a words not just one.

Activities:

• Mining words
• Pointing to letters one by one. 
• Read and see books.
• letter mat.
• Use fingers to count the sounds or tap them out. 
• Word book: Everyday have list of words ready for practice.

Blends with Consonant Blends:

• pl-a-n....plan
• tr-i-ck...trick
• br-u-sh....brush.

There is a phonics words book for blending word practice. 

Word building cards used for children that learn by doing so they are able to create words that they have learnt. 

4:Identifying Sounds in Words:

Game and activities:

• I-Spy
• Counting sounds.
• Word families.
• Rhyming words.

5: Learning Tricky Words:

• Identify the tricky part of the word.
• Use colour to highlight. 
• Reading it as it says. 
• Write it as it sounds.
• Use word flowers or build your down tricky word tree.
• Spelling technique: Look, cover, write and check. 

Lesson guide:

1. Create story and teach action.
2. Show Flashcard, sing song.
3. Letter formation.
4. Listen for sounds. 
5. Blend sounds to make words..
6. Tricky words. 
7. Dictation.
8. Game, miming, letter mat etc. 

I found the Professional Development session on Jolly Phonics which was presented by " Jayne Fynn" very informative. She presented a range if ideas and how Jolly Phonics is used in the classroom. I look forward to implementing the activities and strategies in the classroom. 

Here is an example of Teaching jolly phonics using actions and jolly phonics songs.