Nessy

Winter break offers a much-needed pause for children, families, and teachers. For new and striving readers, including those with dyslexia, long breaks from routine can make literacy skills harder to maintain. The good news? Gentle, low-pressure support can help keep skills strong while still letting everyone enjoy the holiday season.

Here are some stress-free ideas for parents at home and teachers preparing for the new term, all aligned with Nessy’s philosophy: fun, structured, and confidence-building.

For Parents: Fun & Low-Pressure Activities at Home

You don’t need worksheets or formal lessons to support your child over the holidays. Instead, try weaving reading and language into enjoyable, real-life activities.

1. Read Together - Even for Just 10 Minutes

Shared reading strengthens fluency, vocabulary, and confidence. Choose:

• A cosy holiday picture book
• A short chapter book you read aloud to them
• A factual book about something they love (dinosaurs, space, baking)

Let the focus be on enjoyment, not perfection. For more help, see our Snowy Stories, Strong Skills: High-Impact Tips for Winter Stories sheet with advice from Dr Molly Ness.

2. Winter Word & Sound Games

Help your child build early reading skills this winter with fun, easy games you can play at home. No prep, no materials, just cosy learning together!

❄️ Sentence Awareness - “Snow Fox and the Snowy Sentence Steps.”

A winter twist on the classic game “What Time Is It, Mr Fox?”

How to Play:

1. One player (or the adult) is the Snow Fox; the child stands across the room.
2. The Snow Fox says a winter sentence.
3. The child takes one step per word.
4. Keep going until the child reaches the Snow Fox.

Special Rules:

• If the sentence contains “snow,” the child says “Brr!” and shivers before stepping.
• If they forget or take the wrong number of steps, they go back to the start.
• The child wins by reaching the Snow Fox.

Tip: emphasise the word ‘snow’ when reading the sentences, especially for young children.

2-word sentences:

• “Penguins slide.”
• “Snow falls.”
• “Ice melts.”
• “Fox runs.”

3-word sentences:

• “I see snow.”
• “Hot cocoa warms.”
• “The snow falls.”
• “We build snowmen.”

4-word sentences:

• “The snowman is tall.”
• “Hot cocoa warms hands.”
• “Snowflakes cover the ground.”
• “Penguins slide on ice.”

❄️ Syllable Awareness - “Stomp the Snow.”

Pick a winter word. Clap, tap, or stomp for each syllable.

1 Syllable Winter Words (1 stomp)

• Snow 
• Ice

2 Syllable Winter Words (2 stomps)

• Snowman  
• Mittens 

3 Syllable Winter Words (3 stomps)

• Evergreen 
• Icicle

Watch the Syllable Smash song on Nessy’s Go Hairy YouTube page for more learning fun!

❄️ Phonemic Awareness – Winter Sound Games

I Spy Snow Sounds
Play “I Spy” with sounds: “I spy something that starts with /s/ — star.”
Focus: identifying beginning and ending sounds

Winter Sound Hunt
Pick a sound such as /n/, then hunt around the room or house for winter items that start with that sound.
Example: /n/ → nut
Focus: isolating and recognising sounds in real words.

Segmenting and Blending
Say a word slowly and have the child segment the sounds.
Example: nut → /n/ /u/ /t/

Or give the sounds and have the child blend them to say the word.
Example: /n/ /u/ /t/ → nut
Focus: breaking words into sounds and putting sounds together.

 More winter words for segmenting and blending: hat, cap, log, and coat.

Visit the Go Hairy YouTube page for fun learning video playlists!


These playful moments strengthen essential early reading skills.

3. Try Baking or Crafting Together

Using recipes or doing crafts together helps children practice putting steps in order and learn new words.

You can:

• Read the ingredient or supply list together
• Point out tricky words and say them aloud
• Use a timer to practice planning and staying on track

Plus, you get something tasty at the end!

4. Use Audiobooks to Build Language Skills

Tip: You can listen together and pause to talk about the story. Ask questions, discuss new words, or guess what will happen next. Have fun adding ideas or events from the story into everyday conversations. This helps your child develop a deeper understanding of the story.

5. Provide Gentle Repetition

Children learning to read, particularly those with dyslexia, thrive on repeated practice. The break is a great time to:

• Revisit favourite decodable books
• Re-watch educational videos
• Play games that review phonics patterns

Short, regular practice beats long sessions every time.

6. Celebrate Effort, Not Accuracy

End-of-term tiredness can make reading feel harder.
Offer plenty of praise:

• “I love how hard you tried!”
• “You may not know how to say all the sounds in that word YET, but that’s okay.”
• “Would you like me to tell you the word, or do you want to keep trying?”
• “You didn’t give up, even when that word was tricky.”

Confidence fuels progress.

For Teachers: Preparing for a Strong Start in January

The Winter break can also be a valuable planning window for teachers. Here are supportive, evidence-aligned ways to get ready for the new term, without adding stress.

1. Review Screening Data & Plan Small-Group Support

Take time to look back at early screening or progress monitoring results.
Identify:

• Which pupils need more vocabulary, phonemic awareness, or phonics practice
• Who may benefit from targeted intervention, and how you can group children for skill-based lessons accordingly. 
• Any other gaps in phonological awareness, decoding, or fluency

A clear plan now leads to smoother lessons later.

2. Refresh Your Decodable Reading Pathway

Check that the decodable books you’ll use next term align with:

• The phonics sequence
• The skills you’re teaching
• The needs of the lowest-progress readers

The right match reduces frustration and boosts success.

3. Set Up “Low Prep” Literacy Stations

Simple, reusable stations based on key skills mean less planning mid-term.

Options include:

• Sound sorting
• Blending and segmenting with counters
• Morphology building games

Note:  Morphological awareness, especially derivational morphology, isn’t just a “nice to have.” For children with dyslexia, it provides a vital additional route to understanding and decoding words. Because derivational morphology focuses on meaningful building blocks (roots, affixes), it helps children “chunk” language more effectively than relying solely on letter-sound (phonemic) decoding.

• High-frequency word practice

Mapping sounds and providing structured opportunities for repetition are particularly helpful for students with dyslexia.

Examples of activities:

❄️ Morphology Activity: “Build the Base – Verbs Edition.”
Objective: Identify a base verb and add a suffix without changing the spelling.

Materials:

• Base verb cards (e.g., play, jump, help, call, walk)
• Suffix cards: -ing, -ed, -er

How to Play:
1.    Give each student (or group of students) a base verb card.
2.    Lay out the suffix cards.
3.    Students combine the base with a suffix to make new words and run their finger along the base to show it doesn’t change.
      Example: play → playing, played, player

Variations:
•    Sentence Challenge: Use the new word in a winter-themed sentence.
• What’s Next? Introduce words that change when a suffix is added (e.g., run → running) after teaching the relevant rule (e.g., doubling rule).

❄️ High-Frequency Word Game with Heart Words
Objective: Heart Words are high-frequency words with tricky, irregular, or unfamiliar parts. Students learn them by mapping sounds, writing the word, and marking a heart above the tricky part.

Materials: Crumpled paper from the class recycling bin, each with a label containing one target word.

How to Play:
1. Pick a “Snowball”. Student reads the word on the label (tricky part has a heart above it).
2. Map It. Student maps the sounds in the word by tapping or moving counters, then write it on their whiteboard, adding a heart over the tricky part.
3. Throw + Say. The student throws the snowball into a bin while using the word in a sentence.  

4. Revisit Classroom Routines

Predictable routines reduce anxiety for struggling readers. Consider:

• A consistent daily phonics warm-up
• Regular fluency practice
• A visual schedule for literacy lessons

Small adjustments create big improvements in confidence.

5. Explore New Resources for January

The break is a great chance to:

• Look at the new free resources
• Refresh your understanding of dyslexia
• Try short training modules or revisit structured literacy strategies
• Understanding Dyslexia course 

Even one new technique can transform a child’s reading experience.

Looking for printable resources and games?

Hairy Reading and Nessy Reading and Spelling have hundreds available, all based on the skills taught in the games. Don’t have access? Learn more and sign up for a free trial at nessy.com.

A Gentle Reminder: Rest Matters Too

For parents, teachers, and students alike, winter break is a time to slow down. Learners with dyslexia often work very hard during the school term. Rest helps them return refreshed, ready to learn, and more receptive to support. A little structure, plenty of fun, and a balanced approach are the best gifts you can give.

Snowy Stories, Strong Skills: High-Impact Tips for Winter Stories

Based on advice from the article Harnessing the Power of Read-Alouds by Dr Molly Ness.

1. Build Background First
Before we start the story, let’s think about winter together!

• Look at pictures or short videos of snow, ice, winter animals, and cold landscapes.
• Talk about what winter feels, sounds, and looks like.

Parent prompts:

• “What do you usually wear when it’s cold outside?”
• “Have you ever played in snow or ice? What did you do?”
• “What does our family do that’s special in winter?” 
• “Have you seen other families do different things that look fun”?

❄️ Gives children the background knowledge they need to understand the story.

2. Make It an Interactive Read-Aloud
Let’s bring the story to life! Use your voice, make sounds, and act out what’s happening.

• Try character voices or a chilly “brrr!” for the cold parts.
• Ask questions while we read and tell me what you think.

Parent prompts:

• “What do you think that snow feels like?”
• “If you were there, what would you do?”
• “What do you think will happen next?”
• “I notice ___ in the picture, what do you notice?”

❄️ Turns reading into a rich conversation, not a performance.

3. Model Your Thinking (Think-Aloud)
Share your thoughts out loud so your child can see how you figure things out in a story.

• “I’m wondering why the tree is bare.”
• “Maybe the animal’s paws help it walk on ice.”

Parent prompts:

• “At first I thought ___, now I think ___.”
• “I’m confused here, so I might reread this part.”
• “I’d like to ask the author why ___ happened.”
• “I wonder how the character feels—what do you think?”

❄️ Shows children how readers make predictions, inferences, and sense of new ideas.

4. Connect the Story to Their World
Let’s think about how this story is like or different from what we know.

• Compare the winter in the story to our weather or your experiences.
• Talk about any animals, people, or places that are different or the same.

Parent prompts:

• “We don’t get snow here, but what if we did?”
• “How is this story’s winter the same or different from ours?”
• “Have you ever done something like the character in the story?”
• “What would you do if you were in the story?”
• “Can you think of a different way to solve the character’s problem using what you know?”

 ❄️Helps them relate the unfamiliar to something they know.

5. Extend the Story Through Play

After the story, we can play and explore winter together!

• Set up a “winter play zone” with cotton-ball snow, paper snowflakes, ice cubes, or toy animals.
• Retell the story, invent a new snowy adventure, or draw a winter scene and tell me about it.

Parent prompts:

• “Can you tell the story from the fox’s point of view?”
• “What would you do if you were the character in this snowy scene?”
• “What else could happen in the story if it kept going?”

❄️ Play helps you live the story and practice your storytelling skills.

Are you a member of your local library? Most libraries now offer both hard copy and digital book services. They often have great selections for seasonal books.