Christmas is coming…..
This week is my last blog post before Christmas, Therefore, I just wanted to add some Christmas items and last minute information. This year, more educators worldwide have started to teach reading skills based on the Science of Reading research, which has proven to be really effective. Assistive technology continues to be developed and the strengths and skills of neurodiverse individuals are beginning to be recognised and valued.
He always knew he was a little different, but he let his light shine regardless of what others said. Be more like RUDOLPH!
Gingerbread Man or Christmas Reindeer?
Did you know, if you wanted to make Christmas themed biscuits, you can just use your gingerbread man cutter if you have one? Just turn it upside down and the gingerbread man’s head will be Rudoph’s nose, the legs his antlers and the arms can be the reindeer’s ears. Use a cherry for Rudolph’s nose and ice more detail on his antlers for a better effect. I will upload a picture when I actually get to make them myself to demonstrate further!
Spelling generalisation for ‘ou’ or ‘ow’
This week, I have come across some helpful information explaining when to use ‘ou’ or ‘ow’ in a word when spelling. The usual ‘best bet’ is to use ‘ow’ at the end of a word and ‘ou’ in the middle of a word. However, there are many exceptions when the ‘ow’ can be used in the middle of words. Today a fellow educator explained clearer: ‘ou’ usually in the middle, ‘ow’ usually at the end unless the word ends with n, l, er or el. To remind pupils of these exceptions, they use the phrase ‘The brown owl has a flowered towel’. I like this idea and the accompanying phrase and will be using this in the future to help explain the spelling.
Win a Nessy Hairy Soft Toy!
This week I won a Nessy Hairy soft toy, which I look forward to receiving and introducing to my students who love learning on the Nessy programme! You can be in with a chance of winning one too, just by going to the Nessy facebook page and answer the questions in the Nessy Hairy competition (all the answers can be found on Nessy Hairy you tube channel).
Don’t miss out on the 40% off Nessy Reading and Spelling, Nessy Fingers Touch Typing, and the Spell and Type Pack! Use the code HOLIDAY21 on all Nessy@home products available to parents up until 22 December 2021 on the Nessy.com shop ‘Nessy at Home’ page.
Fun Reading Games
My favourite educational reading games this month (and the ones the children have really enjoyed playing ) are:
Truggs – a card game, which is similar to the old fashioned game ‘Beat Your Neighbour’, but the players have to read the word on the cards as they place them down. This game is good to learn how to read longer words and it is a good chance to remind the learner to chunk the words into syllables to read accurately. The winner is the player who has the most cards at the end of a set amount of time or who wins all the cards.
Blah, Blah, Blah – another word card game, but this time the winner is the first to play all of their cards. This game encourages learners to sound out each of the phonemes accurately before blending a word and helps players to identify the graphemes, as they have to match one of the graphemes on the previously played card when it is their turn.
Well, that’s it for this year. Thank you to everybody for reading my new blog. Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year. PJ 🙂
Help your child learn to read, write and spell 