Learning and Teaching

The Science of Reading

Last session we learnt about phoneme deletion, which is the process of identifying how a word would sound if one sound was deleted. For example, the word cat, removing the /c/ would make the word at. 

Another phonemeic awareness skill is called, phoneme substitution. 

Phoneme Substitution

Phoneme substituition is the act of replacing one phoneme in a word with another phoneme to make a new word. For example, a student is able to replace the initial phoneme /p/ in the word peg with the phoneme /l/ to create the word leg.

How can you help implement this strategy at home?

• Select the word(s) to use for the phoneme substitution
• Tell your child that you are going to say some words out loud and ask them to say the words by replacing specific phonemes/sounds
• For example, What word do we have if we replaced the /s/ in sit, with /p/? (eg: pit)
• Practice substituting both beginning and ending sounds in words
• Repeat, with the aim to develop fluency in substituting phonemes with accuracy.

BOOK WEEK AT ST MARY’S HAS BEEN FANTASTIC!!!

The students have enjoyed a wonderful week, exploring shortlisted texts and responding to them in creative ways.

A major highlight was the Book Week Dress up Parade on Wednesday morning.

Thanks so much to our students and parents/caregivers who organised such sensational costumes. They were absolutely fabulous. 

We began the week with our St Mary’s magicians launching Book Week at the Monday Assembly!

Each day, the whole school enjoyed “Storytime via a Google Meet”, whilst they ate their lunch.

Passive play sessions entailed book reading and magical themed colouring!

A scavenger hunt locating the “Dear Zoo” animals and a “Guess the teacher’s voice” competition were also highlights.

The students responded to the daily texts with such enthusiasm and applied immense creativity. Yes, Book Week at St Mary's has certainly been magical!

Visit the 'From the classroom' page to view some of the wonderful text responses!