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See and Learn First Sentences -
Guide to the activities

Activities

See and Learn First Sentences consists of four activities:

1. Matching Words
2. Selecting Words
3. Naming Words
4. Matching Sentences to Pictures

For full details, see the instructions for each activity by following the links.

Progressing through the activities

See and Learn First Sentences follows on from the previous steps, See and Learn More Word Pictures and See and Learn First Written Words.

The focus of See and Learn First Sentences is on teaching reading to promote the understanding and use of three ‘key’ words in sentences. All of the individual words used in See and Learn First Sentences were introduced in See and Learn More Word Pictures or will be introduced in this step. This ensures that your child only learns to read the words that he or she already understands.

The reading activities begin with Matching Words for the first set of four words. You teach your child to read the words using four words at a time, working through the following sequence of three activities:

1. Matching Words, then
2. Selecting Words, then
3. Naming Words

While you are doing this sequence of three activities with the first set of four words, you can practise and consolidate learning by looking at the books together, which include these words in three ‘key’ word sentences. Support your child to ‘read’ the sentences with you.

You then introduce the next set of four words and complete the Matching, Selecting and Naming activities with each set. Your child will need repeated practice to develop and maintain his/her early sight reading.

When you have completed the sequence for all the sets of four words, the final activity – Matching Sentences to Pictures – allows your child to practise ‘reading’ the words in three ‘key’ word sentences from the See and Learn First Sentences resources.

Please note: If your child has not already completed See and Learn First Written Words, you should also use the resources provided to help your child learn to read the 8 additional review words (see box to the right)

When you have completed all of these steps, you will be ready to move on to See and Learn More Sentences.

Following your child’s lead

The activities in See and Learn First Sentences give your child the opportunity to learn to read independently. Some children will learn to sight read quickly, others will make slower progress.

If your child takes more time to develop his/her sight reading skills, he/she will still benefit from reading in a ‘supported way’ by being read to and encouraged to copy. In this situation, move through the first three activities supporting your child with as much help as necessary, focusing on reading the different books to your child, rather than developing a sight vocabulary.

In the final activity, read the three ‘key’ word sentences to your child to check his/her understanding. It is important that your child demonstrates his or her understanding of three ‘key’ word sentences before you move on to the next stage of the See and Learn Language and Reading programme.

About the three ‘key’ word sentences

At this stage in development, your child may still be using ‘telegraphic’ language – e.g. only saying the ‘key’ words in the sentence and missing out some of the smaller ‘connecting’ words such as "the", "of", "a" and so on.

See and Learn First Sentences introduces a variety of sentences consisting of three ‘key’ words, such as "The duck is on the box." or "Ben is throwing the ball." (key words indicated in bold). When your child starts using these sentences, he or she is likely to miss some of the smaller ‘function’ words in the sentence (such as "the", "is" and so on) – before being able to say all of the words in the sentence. When your child is at this stage, encourage them to learn the full sentence by repeating it back to him or her, as this will help teach the correct grammar for the sentence.

Making your own supplementary resources

Another motivating way to help your child learn sentences with three ‘key’ content words is to make personal books that include photos of familiar people, objects and activities, with sentences of three ‘key’ words to describe the photo.

You may have made some personal books during See and Learn First Written Words. In that step, we recommended that you make books of familiar people eating, drinking, etc.

You can now add another word to the sentence in the book to make it a three ‘key’ word sentence (e.g. ‘Daddy is eating a sandwich.’ or ‘Mummy is drinking juice.’).

Your child is likely to find these personal books very motivating and it is a great opportunity to practise understanding and using sentences with three ‘key’ words.

Recording your child's progress

Use the First Sentences record sheets to record your child's progress through the activities and plan his/her practise sessions.

Common questions

Before starting any of the activities, read the answers to these common questions about the See and Learn Language and Reading programme:

• Should I use signing?
• Where should we do the activities?
• When should we do the activities?
• How long should an activity take?
• How often should we do the activities?
• How should I present the activities?
• How do I make the activities interesting for my child?
• How can I help my child to be successful at each of the activities?
• Can I do the activities with a group of children?

 

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