What I'm teaching this week - Phonics!

Now that I am working in our Early Years Classroom this term I am teaching phase 2 phonics much more. This week our focus is on the sound /t/. As I work with children with a range of SEN needs I try to incorporate a multisensory approach to what I teach.

Visual: My Mother created this adorable bags for each of the sounds. The one in the picture is for the sound /t/. I then filled this with a jelly letter t, objects and pictures of things that start with /t/.

Tactile: I make sure that the bag is filled with items that begin with the sound and a jelly letter for that sound so that the children can touch and feel the different items and the letter. They can also trace their finger over the letter or trace around the letter. My Mother also sewed a letter t onto the bag from felt which has a different texture to the bag itself.

Auditory: At my school we use the Jolly Phonics (search on google for their resources) resources for a lot of our phonics teaching. I have a copy of the CD which has the Jolly Phonics songs for each sound. We play the song and sing a long! We also practice saying the sound to one another. This is a huge part of the learning for my children as many have speech and language difficulties too.

Kinaesthetic: Following on from the Jolly Phonics songs, they also have a movement for each sound. In the case of /t/ it is moving your head back and forward as if watching a tennis match while also saying the sound as if it is the ball being hit. We also use movement to sound out words. We use round textured disks on the floor and children can jump from disk to disk using them as stepping stones while saying the sounds in the words they are sounding out.

I don't generally use taste and smell in my phonics lessons but if the sound is also a food such as a tomato then we may incorporate that item into our cooking lessons that week!

How do you incorporate different sensory experiences into your phonics teaching? Tell us in the comments section below!