Phonics

At Chipping Warden Primary Academy we use Read Write Inc (RWI) for our systematic approach to teaching phonics. For more information please click below.

Fred Talk

Who is Fred? Fred is our Read, Write Inc. mascot. He can only speak in sounds though (this is called Fred Talk), so we have to help him learn to say words, instead of sounds. For example, Fred says 'c-a-t' instead of cat. (See the link above for the pronunciation guide).

Fred Fingers

We use 'Fred Fingers' to help make the transition between oral sounding out and spelling with magnetic letters or in books.

Firstly, we count how many sounds we can hear:

"bat, b-a-t, 3 sounds".

Then we hold up that many fingers.

For each sound we use our writing hand to squeeze a Fred Finger and say the sound:

"b-a-t".

Then we use our free hand to 'sweep' over our Fred Fingers and to blend the sounds into a word:

"bat"

 Be careful - words such as this needs 3 Fred Fingers - "th-i-s". Words such as flairs need 4 Fred Fingers - "f-l-air-s".

Books for Read Write Inc. Phonics

Read Write Inc. Books

Once they have learned enough sounds, children will begin to read 'Ditty' books in their lessons.  

After Ditty books, children continue to read groups of books that have been specially written to support progress through the scheme. These books follow their own colour scheme and are complemented by matching RWI Book Bag Books which are decodable books that provide an opportunity for the children to enjoy a range of books whilst becoming fluent, confident readers who are able to comprehend the stories they read.

Reading at home

We want to encourage parents and carers to enjoy reading for pleasure with their children. We have a range of books at school that the children can bring home to share with an adult at home. This is in addition to our decodable books. The children are also able to choose books from their class libraries. We would encourage you to:

• Read favourite stories over and over again
• Read some stories at a higher level than they can read themselves.
• Listen to them reading their home/school books

Writing at home

Click on the document below to see all the rhymes for helping your child form their letters correctly.

Supporting phonics at home

Please click here for a video showing you how to correctly pronounce the sounds.

Please click here for information to support you to help your child with RWI.

For 10 top tips to help you with RWI click here.