English philology faculty teaching english methodology and educational technologies department methodical instructions

6.Poop Deck Pirates

A phonics game which can help you to build words. Read the words and decide if they are real words or not. The game links to phases 3, 4 and 5 of the 'Letters and Sounds' programme. It works well on an interactive whiteboard.

7.‘Fontastic’ fun

Children who are learning to write will enjoy exploring different fonts, styles, colours and sizes on the word processing app on a computer or tablet. Show children how to change the fonts in a variety of ways and invite them to write their name using lots of different fonts.

Ask children to create their own name card, print them out and laminate. Invite them to write common words and simple sentences. Challenge them to write a letter or an invitation to an upcoming event using their own design of fonts and layouts.

Go to abcya.com/games/word_clouds and let children create ‘word clouds’ or graphics of a group of words.

8. Story time

The computer or tablet can be used as a fantastic resource for listening to and telling stories. Try the CBeebies Storytime app which includes interactive stories featuring favourite CBeebies characters and shows. At booktrust.org.uk there are lots of well-known and new books read aloud so children can read along and even join in learning to sign.

Many children’s books can be found read aloud on YouTube including some read aloud by the authors. Ones to look out for are ‘Kids’ Poems and Stories With Michael Rosen’, Kes Gray, Oliver Jeffers at oliverjeffers.com/books#/abookaday and Julia Donaldson and friends reading her stories on The Gruffalo Facebook page.Also try out the Farfaria Stories to Read along app which claims to turn ‘screen time into reading time’.