Learning to read and write using Phonics

Link to curriculum document: In Reception we teach Phonics following the government initiative ‘Letters and Sounds.’ This is a six phase teaching programme. During Nursery/Preschool the children should have been working at Phase 1 ready to start Phase 2 in Reception. By the end of Reception we expect all children to be secure in Phase 3 with some working towards Phase 4. Link to curriculum document: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/190599/Letters_and_Sounds_-_DFES-00281-2007.pdf

Phase 1 Phase 1 is concerned with making children phonologically aware. Therefore lots of work should do done on listening to sounds in the environment, using instruments, rhyming words, alliteration, and blending and segmenting letter sounds.

Examples of Phase 1 Activities Silly Soup “I’m making lots of silly soup, I’m making soup that’s silly, I’m putting it in the fridge to make it nice and chilly.”

Sound Bag S

We teach how to segment each word to spell. E.g cat = c-a-t All the way through we teach the skills of ‘blending’ and ‘segmenting.’ Blending We teach the children how to blend or merge sounds together. To sound out each sound (phoneme) in the right order to read a word. E.g c-a-t = cat Segmenting We teach how to segment each word to spell. E.g cat = c-a-t Use ‘Sound Fingers’ – The song will help! These activities are done orally. The emphasis is on helping the children hear the separate sounds in the words with the aim to create spoken sounds in their writing and read words automatically.

Can you make the song in cat? C-a-t Can you make the sounds in cat? Sound Fingers Song Can you make the song in cat? C-a-t Can you make the sounds in cat? You can change the word cat with any CVC (Consonant Vowel Consonant) word.

Simon Says… Touch your h-ea-d Touch your t-oe-s Wave your h-a-n-d

Did you know there are 44 sounds but only 26 letters? Phase 2 When the children are phonologically aware they begin learning letter sounds. This is NOT the alphabet! Did you know there are 44 sounds but only 26 letters?

We teach the children the smallest unit of sound – called a ‘phoneme.’ Phase 2 is divided into five sets of sounds and each set is taught in order. It is vital that pronunciation of these sounds is correct!! They are either ‘bouncy’ sounds or ‘stretchy’ sounds. The bouncy sounds need to be short and sharp. n not nu t not tu s not su

There are many different programmes that practitioners use to teach ‘Letters and Sounds.’ For example ‘Jolly Phonics.’ We use ‘Read Write Inc.’ Excellent in teaching both the recognition and formation of letter sounds.

Set 1 – s, a, t, p Slither down the snake Around the apple and down the leaf Down the tower across the tower Down the pirate plait and around his face

Set 2 – I, n, m, d Around the dinosaurs body, up his tall neck, and down to his feet Down Masie mountain mountain Down the insects body and dot for the head Down Nobby and over the net

Set 3 – g, o, c, k Around the girls face, down her hair and give her a curl Down the kangaroos body, down his tail and down his leg All the around the orange Curl around the caterpillar

Set 4 – ck, e, u, r Down the umbrella, up the umbrella and draw a puddle Down the robots body and over his arm Cut off the top and scoop out the egg

Set 5 – h, b, f, ff, l, ll, ss Down the horses head, over his body, down to his hooves Down the laces to the heel and around the toes Down the long leg Down the flower and draw the leaves

“We can’t sound them out, we just have to know them!” Tricky Words As well as learning these phonemes they will be learning tricky words also. These are words that cannot be spelt using sounds. “We can’t sound them out, we just have to know them!” Children will be expected to be able to read these words.

Phase 2 Tricky Words I to go no the into I will also provide Phase 2 high frequency words, most of which will be able to be sounded out over time.

Phase 3 Children entering Phase 3 with know 19 phonemes and be able to blend phonemes to read VC words and segment VC words to spell. Many will be able to read and spell CVC words. The children will learn two more sets of sounds and two and three letter sounds (Graphemes).

Set 6 – j, v, w, x Down his body curl and dot Down the arm and leg and again the other side Down a wing and up a wing Down up down up

Set 7 – y, z, zz, qu Down a horn and up a horn and under his head Round her head, up past her earrings and down her hair Zig zag zig

Graphemes ch – chip ar - farm sh – ship or - for th – thin ur - hurt ng – ring ow - cow ai – rain oi - coin ee – feet ear - dear igh – night air - fair oa – boat ure - sure oo - boot er - corner

Phase 3 Tricky Words he you she they we all me are be my was her I will also provide Phase 3 high frequency words, most of which will be able to be sounded out over time.

Handwriting It is important that the children learn how to form these letters correctly. Under each letter sound is a patter to learn when forming the letters. The children could start by making sure the letters in their name are formed correctly. If you notice your chid writing a letter incorrectly please correct them.

Writing Please encourage the children to write independently. At this stage it is all able learning the skill to hear, segment and write the sounds they hear. The practise of the skill is more important than the final outcome at this stage. You can annotate homework and model correct formation of letters after the children have completed their work.

Reading Reading books will be sent home every Friday along with a Reading Log. Please read with your child and hand in on Wednesday. In the children’s reading folder will be their Tricky Word book and next term will be a High Frequency word book.