Having Fun With Phonics

From an early age As parents and carers, you are your child’s first teachers. You have a powerful influence on your child’s early learning. Children develop an awareness of the different sounds in our spoken language(s) as they learn how to use their voices. Over time, your child will begin to distinguish between different speech sounds (phonemes), and they will match sounds to letters (graphemes). This is called phonic knowledge.

Daily Phonic lessons Sessions are about 15-20 minutes long. They are fun and the pace is quick. Each session will introduce a new sound (or new activity in nursery) We segment lots of words by saying each phoneme (sound) and blend these back together. We do this through either robot or rainbow talk. Children start learning VC and CVC words such as at, in, cat, dog, and move onto CCVC and CVCC words such as pram, drop, bank, nest. C = consonant, V = vowel

Phase 1 Nursery

It is made up of 7 different areas: Environmental sounds Instrumental sounds Body percussion Rhythm and rhyme Alliteration (words that begin with the same sound) Voice sounds Oral blending and segmenting Where they will learn to: Have fun with sounds and listen carefully Develop their vocabulary Speak confidently to you, other adults and children Understand that spoken words are made up of different sounds

Phase 2 Nursery and Reception

Tricky words – the, I, no, go, into, to They will also learn that some phonemes are made up of more than one letter, eg: /ll/ as in b-e-ll Tricky words – the, I, no, go, into, to

Reception Phase 3

Tricky words – you, he, they, she, all, we, are, me, my, be, her, was. Phase 3 teaches children to learn the graphemes (written sounds), made up of more than one letter, eg: ‘oa’ as in boat. Your child will also learn all the letter names in the alphabet and how to form them correctly. Tricky words – you, he, they, she, all, we, are, me, my, be, her, was.

Phase 4 Reception / Year 1

The purpose of this phase is to consolidate children’s knowledge of graphemes in reading and spelling words. Tricky words – said, have, like, so, do, some, come, were, there, one, little, when, out, what

Phase 5 Year 1

Part 1 - they will learn new graphemes Part 2 – alternative pronunciations of sounds they already know e.g. Cat, School, Chef Part 3 – alternative spelling of sounds they know. Tricky words – oh, could, their, people, Mr, Mrs, looked, called, asked.

Year 1 phonics screening

Phonics after year 1 . In years 2 - 6 they have SPaG lessons – spelling, punctuation and grammar.

How can I help? Sing an alphabet song together Make reading time fun Choose books together including Bug Club Let them see you read as often as possible Don’t make your child read if they really don’t want to- reading to them is just as important and often much more productive at the end of a day Play ‘I spy’ Praise your child for trying out words Ask your child’s teacher any questions you have about their reading.