How to support your child with Phonics in Reception

+ What is phonics? Phonics is skills of segmentation and blending knowledge of the alphabetic code +

6 phases Phase 1 in Nursery Phase 2 and 3 in Reception Phase 4 and 5 in Year 1 Phase 6 in Year 2 Carried on into KS2

Children need to be taught to say the sounds correctly. The following demonstration will model how to pronounce each of the sounds.

s a t p i n m d g o c k ck e u r h b f ff l ll ss j v w x y z zz qu ch sh th ng ai ee igh oa oo ar or ur ow oi ear air ure er

Phase 1 Children will usually begin this phase during pre-school. Activities are planned to help children listen attentively to the sounds around them and to distinguish sounds in spoken language. Children need time to listen to and join in with songs, rhymes and stories. During Phase 1, children will be introduced to ‘sound talk’. The separate sounds (phonemes) in a word are spoken aloud and are then merged together into the whole word (blending). Blending is a vital skill for reading. Children will also learn to do this the other way round. The whole word will be spoken, then broken up into its sounds in order e.g. the word pen will become p-e-n. This skill is vital for spelling.

Ways to support your child at home Play games which encourage children to hear sounds within the environment e.g. I hear with my little ear, something that sounds like sh sh sh and ask children to guess what might be making the sound. Play What’s in the box? Put some interesting objects into a box or a bag and pull them out one at a time. Emphasise the first sound of object by repeating it e.g. ppp parrot. Say lots of rhymes together and make up your own alliterations e.g. ‘Lots of lovely lemons’, ‘My mouth makes music’ Find objects around you home that have three sounds (phonemes) and practise ‘sound talk’ e.g. I spy a s-o-ck, I spy a p-i-g. You can practise ‘sound talk’ during your daily activities e.g. say to your child put on your c-oa-t, here is your f-or-k. You can also make it fun by playing games e.g. Simon says put your hands on you h-ea-d. Simon says touch your n-o-se.

Phase 2 Children will continue to practise what they have learned during Phase 1 and ‘sound talking’ will be reinforced daily. They need plenty of practice at doing this. During this phase children will be taught the phonemes (sounds) and the corresponding letters (graphemes). They will learn that some phonemes can be represented by more than one letter e.g. ss as is hiss. Children will be shown how to make words by using letter cards and magnetic letters and reading word cards. They will also begin breaking words into individual sounds for spelling. Children will be taught to read and spell simple VC words (consonant, vowel e.g. am, at, it) and CVC words (consonant, vowel, consonant e.g. man, dog, bell). Children will also be taught several tricky words: the, to, I, go, no

Ways to support your child at home Use magnetic letters to make words on your fridge or on a tin tray. Use some of the letters taught in school (see the Reception Home Guide for our week by week Phonics teaching) and have fun identifying the sounds they know. Begin to make little words using the sounds. As you select the letters say the them aloud e.g. ‘d-i-g – dig’. Try doing it the other way. Read the word, then break it up and move the letters away e.g. ‘dig – d-i-g’.

Phase 3 During this phase the children will be taught more graphemes, most of which are made up of two letters e.g. ‘ai’ as in rain. Using the newly taught graphemes, children will practise blending and segmenting a wider set of CVC words e.g. chip, ship, light, week, food.... Children will begin to read and write simple phrases and sentences. They will also be taught to read and spell the tricky words: he, she, we, me, be, was, my, you, her, they, all. During Phase 3, children will also learn the names of the letters through singing the alphabet song.

Ways to support your child at home Sing the alphabet song together.  Play ‘I spy’ using letter names as well as sounds.  Continue to make words using the magnetic letters, but using the new graphemes taught in school e.g. r-ai-n – rain (blending for reading), rain – r-ai-n (segmenting for spelling).  Make it fun by setting a time and challenging them to spell a word against the timer.  Play matching pairs with words. This is especially helpful when practising tricky words. Don’t worry if they get some wrong. These are hard to remember and they need plenty of practice.

Phase 4 Children will continue to practise previously learned graphemes and phonemes and will also begin reading CVCC words (consonant, vowel, consonant, consonant) e.g. tent, lamp, toast and CCVC words (swim, plum, spoon...) They will be introduced to the tricky words: said, so, do, have, like, some, come, were, there, little, one, when, out, what.

Ways to support your child at home Practise reading and spelling CVCC and CCVC words, but continue to play around with CVC words. Reading and spelling words they have already worked with helps them feel successful. Make up captions and write some simple sentences. Sentences could be left around the house for children to find.  Look out for words in the environment which your child should be able to read using the sounds they have learned in school. Work on reading words together and remember to praise their efforts.