Parents meeting Monday 16 th November 9am

Why is Phonics important? There are around 44 sounds in the English Phonic code. Children need to know these sounds in order to read and write words. They also need to learn some ‘whole’ words by sight as not all words can be sounded out. We teach sounds using the ‘letters and sounds’ programme and we use ‘jolly phonics’ actions. Video: e=related&safe=active e=related&safe=active

Useful Definitions Phonemes – smallest unit of sound Graphemes – written representation of the sound Digraph – 2 letters making one sound EG ‘ee’ Trigraph – 3 letters making one sound EG ‘igh’ Split digraph – where 2 letters are not adjacent EG a-e as in gave

When do we start teaching phonics? Nursery – Preparation for learning letter sounds. Work on hearing and identifying rhythm and rhyme, distinguishing between sounds we hear around us, syllables, sound talk Reception – Continue the Phase 1 work from Nursery. Then single letter sounds, digraphs Year 1 – consolidate and apply single letter sounds and digraphs. Alternate spellings Year 2 – Support for spelling

Phase Phonic Knowledge and Skills Phase One (Nursery/Reception ) Identifying environmental sounds, instrumental sounds, body sounds, keeping rhythm and being able to hear rhyme. Starting to relate letter sounds to words EG ‘b’ to ‘bag’ Phase Two (Reception) Learning 19 letters of the alphabet and one sound for each. Begin to build simple 3 letter words EG ‘cat, pen’. Beginning to read simple captions. Phase Three (Reception) Learn all 44 phonemes, one sound for each. Graphemes such as ch, oo, th representing the remaining phonemes not covered by single letters. Reading captions, sentences and questions. On completion of this phase, children will have learnt the "simple code", i.e. one grapheme for each phoneme in the English language. Phase Four (Reception) Children learn to blend and segment longer words with adjacent consonants, e.g. swim, clap, jump. Phase Five (Throughout Year 1) Now we move on to the "complex code". Learn how to spell letter sounds in more than one way EG rain, day, make Phase Six (Throughout Year 2 and beyond) Working on spelling, including prefixes and suffixes, doubling and dropping letters etc.

How do we teach phonics? Discrete daily phonic sessions – recall, teach, practise, apply Follow structures program – Letters and Sounds Systematic order to teaching letter sounds in groups – s a t p i n Taught how to blend to read and segment to write straight away Multi-sensory approach to teaching each sound with letter songs, actions, opportunities to write the letter in the air Use of Jolly songs Opportunities to reinforce learning through related activities to practise learnt letter sounds Use of different websites and programs to support learning – Phonics play Learnt sounds sent home for parents to practise with their child Make it fun!

Let’s try some Phonics! What does daily Phonics look like in our class rooms? Discrete daily phonic sessions – recall, teach, practise, apply

Use your free resources from school to help your child hear, read and write the letter sounds (CD and sound card). You can use free resources on the internet Read to your child as much as you can Read with your child every day to help them apply their phonics and other strategies- practice makes perfect! Sing songs and rhymes with your child. Support your child to read and spell tricky words sent home- this speeds up their reading and writing. Keep it short and try to make it fun minutes a day makes a BIG difference.

Any questions? Thank you for coming and for supporting your child at home.