Phonics for Parents Thursday 15th October

Objective To explain our approach to teaching children early reading and writing skills. To help you support your children at home.

Phases of Letters and Sounds Children are entitled to a 20 minute phonics session everyday. We follow a government publication called Letters and sounds. We use Jolly Phonics to support this. There are 6 phases in Letters and Sounds. The aim is for children to be fluent readers by the time they have completed the program.

Phase 1 Children should really come into reception with a secure knowledge of Phase 1 – This is being able to tune into sounds, listen and remember sounds and to be able to talk about sounds. (Environmental, instrumental, body percussion and rhythm and rhyme.)

Phase 2 Learning 19 letters of the alphabet with one sound for each. Set 1 s a t p Set 2 i n m d Set 3 g o c k Set 4 ck e u r Set 5 h b f,ff l,ll s,ss

Introducing a new sound When introducing a new sound, we talk about the name, the sound and what it looks like. We brainstorm words that begin with this sound. We also have an action for each individual sound.

Blending http://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/PictureMatch.html At the same time as teaching letter sounds we also teach the children how to blend sequences of sounds in order to say or read a simple word. Children do not need to recognise letter sounds in order to blend. http://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/PictureMatch.html

Blending We use ‘sound talk’ to blend simple words. mum can box nap

Segmenting Segmenting is the reverse of blending and is used to support spelling. The children listen to the word they want to spell and break it sound into individual sounds. Children do not need to record the letters in order to segment.

What sounds can you hear?

Tricky Words There are many words that we can not sound out, we call these tricky words. E.g. the, to , I , no, go, into

Phase 3 We teach the rest of the 44 sounds. Many of these have 2 or more letters. 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

Blending Can you blend the sounds together to read these words? shop chip sail queen boat fight

Segmenting When spelling phase 3 words we count the sounds, not the letters.

Phase 3 Tricky words my he she we me be was you they all are her

Phase 4 No new sounds. Longer words with adjacent consonants tr, sn, sm, pl, mp, st, nt spl, scr, nch

Blending Phase 4 words snail flight crunch tree crash splash spoon float help flight tree splash crunch bunch spent

Segmenting Phase 4 Words

Phase 4 Tricky words said have like so do some come were there little one when out what

Phase 5 We aim for the children to be starting phase 5 by the start of year 1. In phase 5 children are introduced to alternative representations for different sounds. E.g. ai, ay, a-e

Reading Books We start children off with phonic readers that have a few tricky or sight words.

Other Strategies When confident blending we look at other ways of decoding words. Initial sound Context Pictures

Useful Websites http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/ http://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/Phase2Menu.htm http://ictgames.com/literacy.html http://www.sparklebox.co.uk/cll/letters-and-sounds/ http://www.twinkl.co.uk/ http://www.topmarks.co.uk/Interactive.aspx?cat=40