'Reading to children is the best way of encouraging them to love books and reading' Ruth Miskin

When children start nursery, there is an emphasis on developing their love for reading through introducing them to a range of quality stories, poems and rhymes.  Story-times are a special time, when children can be introduced to new books linked to our theme learning, or can listen to favourite stories over and over so that they can join in with the parts they know. These books are then made available to the children in our comfortable reading area, within the unit, so that they can share and retell the stories with their friends or an adult.

The development of children's vocabulary grows through the exploration of these stories, poems and rhymes and also through 'Planned Talk' opportunities. Children's communication and language development underpins all other areas of learning. In nursery, we make sure that we plan lots of opportunities for children to talk with adults and each other, using questioning to develop their knowledge, vocabulary and ideas further; and modelling how to listen effectively and respond appropriately in full sentences.

In the summer term before they start school, the nursery children start learning their set one phonics sounds using Read Write Inc. Each sound has a picture card and a rhyme so that the sounds can be remembered.  Initially, the children learn to name the picture for each sound. Then they move on to recognising and pronouncing each sound clearly and correctly. 

Alongside recognising the letter sounds, the children are also supported to orally blend and segment sounds in words. The adult will sound out a word: s-a-t  to see if the children can put the sounds together to say the whole word.

The children do this with the help of their friend 'Fred' the frog!