Itsy Bitsy Bumble Bee

Itsy Bitsy Bumble Bee, can you find the sound for me?

A class of Reception children are sitting in a circle, with the teacher. One child is given a dice with phonemes (sounds) on, and another child is given a bumble bee finger puppet. The child with the dice has to roll it, and then everyone says 'Itsy Bitsy Bumble Bee, can you find the sound for me?' The child with the puppet then has to tell everyone what the sound is. The children then do the action and the teacher asks if they can think of any words with that phoneme in. The children are also able to say whether the sound is at the beginning, middle or end.

When 'ff' comes up, the children try to describe how it is different from 'f'', one child states that it has 2 sounds, which the teachers corrects by saying "good try, it has 2 letters doesn't it, but only one phoneme". When asked what these are called, another child is able to correctly answer with "digraph". This shows the children have obviously had the correct language modelled and taught to them. This game is good, as if a child gets it wrong, its 'Itsy Bitsy' that got it wrong, oops, can we help Itsy bitsy have another try? However if a child gets it right, then in principal, it should be Itsy Bitsy that actually gets it right, else it creates a misleading rule.

Children who are shouting out, even if they have their hand up, are 'dismissed' as teacher is looking for people with 'quiet hands'.

The teacher then gets the class back to normal seating space and introduces a new sound. She shows the letter card to see if any of the children know the sound already. She then introduces the action, and discusses with the children any words they can think of with the 'l' sound in them, be it at the beginning, middle or end. Uses the jolly phonics big book page to help, using a 'pointing hand' to give clues. Also looks at children's names-who has an 'l' in their name, and where?

Then the children form a circle again, to play, 'What's in the Box?', as found in 'Letters & Sounds (pg 59 amongst other). Teacher has a box in the middle of the circle which has words in, there are corresponding pictures on the floor, around the box. The teacher explains to the children that when they get a word they are going to "blend and segment using your robot arms". This is modelling the appropriate vocabulary for children, and reminding them what they have to do. The teacher then demonstrates, so she chooses a word and sounds if out, using her 'robot arms', l-e-m-on (she hasn't sounded each phoneme, she has blended them together) She then chooses a child to say the word, and another child to choose the picture. They discuss where the sound is in the word-at the beginning. She then places the word card and the picture card by her side, reminding the children that she going to"put it right there, I'm not going to touch it or fidget with it". The game continued, with some children having turns, talking about whether their word had the 'l' sound in or not.

Once the children have had a few turns, the teacher brings out 'Philippa Phoneme', a hand puppet, who helps the children count the phonemes in words. Teacher shows Philippa a word the children found l-i-d and reads it out, the children are asked to show their 'phoneme fingers' i.e how many fingers for how many phonemes. The teacher has a look at them, and then praises the class-"well done everyone, 3 phonemes". Philippa wants to have a go at writing the phoneme, but asks class not to shout if she gets it wrong, as that will scare her, so they are to put their hands up instead.

Some children put their fingers up to draw in the air, so teacher says "you've got your hand up to show her first, that's a good idea". Gets them to demonstrate the writing. Now asks children to help Philippa with where to start-at the top. So Philippa writes the phoneme, starting at the bottom. Teacher asks '"whats the problem"? Reminds children to put their hands up (using whispering tone), one child says 'she started at the bottom'....so teacher reminds Philippa that she has to start at the top, and gives her another try. Starts from the top this time, but takes pen off, then puts it on again for the flick-children point this out, teachers agrees-"she lifted the pen up, but its got to be stuck, stuck, stuck hasn't it?" The teacher is using humour and fun in her lessons to help lighten the mood and also making it more likely to children to remember things as opposed to just remembered what has been said, they are remembering the song, or the chant etc.

Playing a game called 'Yes/No'. All the children are given a card with 'yes' on one side and 'no' on the reverse. The teacher has a question on the screen such as 'Can I lick my lips?' The children have to hold up their card showing the correct side. The purpose of the game is to get the children thinking about the sounds, blending them together to read words, and then being able to understand the meaning of the words.

Overall, I think this was a fantastic phonics lessons. Phonics is often seen as auditory, however the teacher has the children getting involved physically, with hands on activities,for those kinesthetic learners and she also has word cards and pictures for visual learners.

I basically have an awesome 20minute phonics session, just from watching this video, it was awesome...I'd love to analyse more, but I'm off to get cake!! *om nom nom*