We put some bath letters in a bucket of blue slime, for Finn to rescue and try and sound out the stages of the frog life cycle. He chose blue slime to look like a frog pond.
Resources
- Zimpli Kids blue slime
- Bath letters
- Frog life cycle figurines
Method
First of all, Finn sat in the bucket of slime and explained the stages of the frog’s life cycle.
Next, he tipped the bath letters in to the bucket. The first word he sounded out was frog.
The next word he chose was tadpole. I let Finn spell it the way he thought, as I want him to enjoy phonics without worrying about spelling mistakes. I’d much rather him enjoy the writing process and have a sense of accomplishment. Hopefully, when Finn starts school, he will be happy to have a go at independent writing, without a fear of failure.
Whilst spelling froglet, I kept reminding Finn to have his letters facing him. He will often write words entirely upside down and in reverse.
He wrote the frog for frogspawn.
Finally he wrote the spawn in frogspawn. Again, there were some letter reversals, but look at the proud face when he finished.
Finn loved dipping up to his shoulders in the slime, then lifting his hands in the air to feel the slime running down his arms. He loves sensory play.
His completed words:
Finn kept hiding the figures in the slime, then fishing them out and matching them back to the corresponding word.
DfES Early Learning Goals (2017)
Literacy
ELG 09 – Reading:
Children read and understand simple sentences. They use phonic knowledge to decode regular words and read them aloud accurately. They also read some common irregular words. They demonstrate understanding when talking with others about what they have read.
ELG 10 – Writing:
Children use their phonic knowledge to write words in ways which match their spoken sounds. They also write some irregular common words. They write simple sentences which can be read by themselves and others. Some words are spelt correctly and others are phonetically plausible.
ELG 14 – The world:
Children know about similarities and differences in relation to places, objects, materials and living things. They talk about the features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary from one another. They make observations of animals and plants and explain why some things occur, and talk about changes.
