1. Dobcroft Infant School
Supporting Your Child in
Literacy and Numeracy.
Aims
•Explain how literacy and numeracy skills are taught
in school.
•Ideas of how parents/carers can support children
develop reading, writing and number skills at home.

2. What is Literacy?
• Speaking and listening~ speaking clearly in a sentence.
Asking questions. Answering questions. Listening to
adults in school and being able to follow instructions
appropriately. Listening to other children. Engaging in
simple drama and role play activities ,using talk to
recreate roles and experiences. Retelling familiar
stories using a story map.
• Phonics ~ learning letter names and the sounds
individual letters and groups of letters can make.
• Reading and Writing ~Children use phonic knowledge
for reading and spelling.

3. Teaching Phonics in School.
• Children are assessed to find out what
phonic knowledge and skills they have on
entry to school.
• All the children receive a daily “phonic “
slot as part of a larger group .
• Children working on similar phonic skills
then work with the classroom assistant
and the teacher to consolidate
knowledge and skills.

4. How do we Teach Phonics?
We teach phonics using a multi sensory
approach~ so the children are engaged in
activities that involve listening, looking and
movement. The children learn phonics through
activities inside and outside.
We use a scheme called “Jolly Phonics” ~ the
children are introduced to the letters
accompanied by an action. The children also
learn songs to remember the letter , sound
and action.

5. Development of skills in Phonics.
• Hearing and discriminating general sounds, speech sounds .
• Generating different sounds during singing times ~ clapping,
tapping and making different sounds using voices.
• Identifying and clapping syllables in familiar words.
• Identifying and continuing a rhyming string.
• Identifying alliteration in a song, story or tongue twister eg
Swan swam over the sea.
• Hearing and saying sounds (phonemes) in an initial position ~
s,a,t,p,i,n
• Auditory skills segmenting sounds eg robot talk ~ commands in
PE h-o-p , s-t-o-p, r-u-n .
• Orally segmenting words eg net ~ n-e-t , sat ~ s-a-t
• Rhythm ~ clapping and tapping beats ~ singing songs using the
“Beat Baby”

6. Supporting Phonics at Home.
• Reading rhyming books to your child~ can they spot the rhyme can they
think of another word to rhyme? ~ There will be a selection of rhyming
books for the children to borrow in a special box in their registration
area.
• Talking about sounds you can hear around the home and outside.
• Listening for the initial sound in simple and familiar words. Can the
children spot “alliteration?”
• Reinforcing the language associated with first, last/ end and middle.~
Who was the first to finish their lunch, who is sitting in the middle ?
Etc
• Orally blending words eg do you want j-a-m or ch-ee-se on your
sandwich ?
• Listening to words and then segmenting them. bed ~ b-e-d . Can your
child segment words?
• Practise the Jolly Phonic actions ~ find words that start , end and have
those letters in the middle.
• Make your own sound book with pictures cut out of magazines and
catalogues
• Continue to read stories, poems and rhymes to your child ~ enjoy words
and rhymes. Support your child in learning Nursery Rhymes.

7. Reading
Children learn to read at different rates.
Successful readers have high self esteem of themselves
as a reader. They enjoy books ~ reading them
independently or sharing them with another “reader”.
In school the children use their phonic skills to decode
texts, they play games to help recognise high
frequency words such as “the” and “said”.
The children “read” big books as a group joining in with
the rhyme or repetition . The teacher will point out
full stops and capital letters .
The children will be encouraged to “spot” keywords in
the text.
The children will be asked to explain and talk about
what they have read.

8. Supporting Reading at Home.
When your child has acquired the skills for segmenting and blending simple words
and can recognise some of the keywords ~
 Bring home simple cvc words to segment and blend eg pin, tap, sit
• Bring home simple sentences to segment and blend at home.
• Once your child is confidently segmenting and blending independently your child
will bring home a reading book with a coloured sticker on. When you change your
child’s book please take another book with the same colour sticker.
• The teacher will hear your child read once a week and make comments in the
green booklet. ~Write down the books you read together at home and please add
your own comments when you hear your child read.
• The green reading record provides a list of skills for your child to practise and
develop.
• Your child can have a new reading book everyday if you wish. Please change the
book in the morning.
• Make a quiet time to share the book with your child.
• Encourage your child to use their segmenting and blending skills to decode the
text.
• Ask your child about what they have read.
• Look for keywords in the text .Play simple games with the words in the pack.

9. Developing Writing Skills.
• The children are encouraged to develop
“gross” motor skills ( large body movements
such as hopping , crawling skipping ) during PE
lessons and outside.
• Children learn to form large letters outside
using chalk and paint to encourage an
anticlockwise formation of letters.
• Children use streamers and ribbons to
practice the anti clockwise movement needed
to write many letters.

10. Fine Motor Skills
 During the week the children will work on activities
to develop the fine finger control they will need to be
able to write.
 These activities could include using tweezers,
threading, mark making in the sand, cutting with
scissors, painting, hole punching , rolling and
pinching play dough and clay.
 All these activities will develop the muscles and
coordination in their hands.
 We are encouraging the children to develop a pincer
grip.

11. Developing Writing Skills at
Home.
Encourage your child to “mark make” using
different pens, paper and chalk outside.
At this stage it does not matter if you cannot
understand or read your child’s ”writing” ~ but
your child will be able to talk about what they
want to say in their “writing”.
As the children become familiar with the letter
sounds and the corresponding letter shape
they may begin to write the first letter to
represent a word.

12. Numeracy
• What is Numeracy?
• Numeracy is a proficiency which involves confidence
and competence with numbers and measures.
• Children require an understanding of the number
system and an ability to solve problems in different
contexts.
• Numeracy also includes a practical understanding of
the properties of shapes, and gathering information
from counting and measuring.

13. Numeracy in School
• The school follows the National Primary Framework.
• The Framework is a teaching tool which outlines the
key objectives for each year group in the Primary
School including the Foundation Stage.
• Each term we will be sending home a booklet
showing the number targets and activities to support
mathematical development.

14. What will your child learn in
Numeracy?
• Say one, two, three, four… to twenty.
• Select the correct number to represent 1 to 9 objects.
• Count up to 10 objects and beyond.
• Recognise, write and order the numerals 1, 2, 3, 4… to 20.
• Find 1 more or 1 less than any number from 1 to 20.
• Add two small groups of objects (total 10 or less).
• Partition a group of objects eg six cubes into 2 sets 3+3 or 4+2 or 5+1
• Count how many are left when some are taken away.
• Select two groups of objects to make a given total.
• Solve simple problems such as finding ways to arrange 8 crayons in two pots .
• Count aloud in twos ,fives or tens.
• Double numbers eg 3+3 makes6 4+4makes 8
• Share a set of objects between 2.
• Split a shape in half.
• Decide on a criteria for sorting a set of objects.
• Make simple patterns and talk about them.
• Name 2D and 3D shapes such as a circle, square, triangle,
• rectangle, cube, cone and sphere.
• Uses words to describe position such as over ,under, next to and behind. Use words such as more, less,
greater, smaller, heavier, lighter, full and empty to compare objects or amounts.
• Say the days of the week in the correct order and be able to say what the day was yesterday and what the
day will be tomorrow.
• Tell the time using o’clock.
• Recognise and the know the value of 1p-20p

15. How to support your child at
home.
1. Encourage matching activities eg setting the table
for the family.
2. Sorting activities such as sorting toys or coins and
deciding how to sort and then explain eg All the red
cars here and the “not” red cars here.
3. Counting accurately 1:1 small sets of objects.
4. Using language “more” or “less” ~ eg if you have 1
more how many will there be now? Say the number
that is 1 less than 5.
5. Finding a total of two small sets of objects.
6. Play dice games eg beetle drive.
7. Looking for numbers and using numbers in the
environment eg house numbers, bus numbers and car
number plates.

16. Trips and helping in School
• If you think you would like to help in
school or come on a trip with us you
must fill in a list 99 form , available
from the office.

17. Thank you for attending this meeting.
Please remember to sign the attendance
sheet before leaving.
We will be sending out an evaluation sheet
before half term. We value comments and
suggestions made by parents/carers . We
use the results from the evaluations to
develop our transition process into school.
Thank you
Good Bye.