Millbrook Infant School

March 2017

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Contents

Page 2 –3 Terminology

Page 5-8 The 44 Phonemes

Page 9-17 Sound Families

Page 18 Phases of Phonics

Page 19 Sound Buttons

Page 20 Prefixes

Page 21-24 Suffixes

Page 25 Plural words

Page 26 Compound words

Page 27-28 Homophones

Page 29 Homographs

Page 30 Contractions

Page 31 High Frequency Words

Page 32 Common Exception Words

Page 33-40 Ways to help children learn

spelling

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Terminology Phoneme A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in

speech. When we teach reading, we teach children which letters represent those sounds. For example – the word ‘hat’ has 3 phonemes – ‘h’ ‘a’ and ‘t’.

Grapheme A letter or group of letters representing one sound, e.g. sh, ch, igh.

GPC Grapheme Phoneme Correspondence—the relationship between sounds and the letters which represent those sounds; also known as letter– sound correspondences.

Digraph A digraph is a 2 letter grapheme (the clue is in ‘di’) e.g. ‘ch’ in ‘chip’.

Consonant digraphs

Consonant digraphs are 2 letters that are consonants that spell 1 sound e.g.: ‘s’ and ‘h’ together spell ‘sh’.

Vowel digraphs Vowel digraphs are vowel sounds spelled by more than 1 letter e.g: ‘oo’ or ‘ai’.

Split digraphs Two letters, that are split, making one sound, e.g. a-e as in make or i-e as in site.

Trigraph A trigraph is a 3 letter grapheme (the clue is in ‘tri’) e.g. ‘igh’ in ‘high’.

Consonant Trigraph or cluster

Consonant digraphs are 3 letters that are consonants that spell 1 sound e.g: scr or str.

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Terminology

Vowel trigraph Vowel trigraphs are vowel sounds spelled by more than 1 letter e.g: ‘igh’.

Blending To draw individual sounds together to pronounce a word, e.g. s-n-a-p, blended together, reads snap.

Segmenting To split up a word into its individual phonemes in order to spell it.

Pure sound Pronouncing each letter sound clearly and distinctly without adding additional sounds to the end e.g. ‘f’ not ‘fuh.’

Vowel The letters a, e, i, o and u.

Consonant Most letters of the alphabet (excluding the vowels: a,e,i,o,u)

VC, CVC, CVCC, CCVC The abbreviations for vowel-consonant, consonant-vowel-consonant, consonant-vowel-consonant-consonant, consonant-consonant-vowel-consonant, which are used to describe the order of letters in words.

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The 44 Phonemes

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7

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Sound Families

Long

vowel a

Rule Examples

ai The ai digraph is normally used in

the middle and is rarely used at the

end.

rain, wait, train, paid, afraid

oil, join, coin, point, soil

ay The ay digraph is used at the end of

words and at the end of syllables.

day, play, say, way, stay

a-e This is called a split digraph. This is

one of the more common split

digraphs.

made, came, same, take, safe

a In some words of more than one

syllable, you just need the letter a.

acorn, agent, data, basin

ei Only a few words use this sound.

They normally go in the middle of a

word.

reindeer, vein, veil,

eigh Only a few words use this sound. It

can go at the beginning, middle or at

the end.

eight, weight, sleigh,

ey This is normally used at the end of a

word.

grey, prey, they, obey

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Sound Families

Long

vowel e

Rule Examples

ee Use ee in the middle and sometimes

at the end.

see, green, speech, seed,

weed, leek, feel, week,

sheep

ea The next most common spelling of ea.

It can be used at the start, in the

middle and at the end.

each, eat, peach, lead, sea,

pea

e-e This is called a split digraph. There

are not many words that use this

sound. Most words have more than

one syllable in.

these, theme, Pete, com-

plete, delete

e This is occasionally used at the end of

words.

he, be, me, she, we

y This sound only appears at the end of

the word. Most times it makes a long

e sound.

Happy, sunny, copy, lady

y Sometimes the y can be a suffix. sleep – sleepy

shine- shiny

ie This is only used for some words. Chief, believe, field

ey This is normally used at the end of a

word.

Monkey, donkey, key, mon-

ey

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Sound Families

Long

vowel i

Rule Examples

igh This is the most common spelling

for this sound. It is used in the

middle or at the end.

high, night, light, bright,

right

ie Only four words use this sound. lie, tie, pie, die

ie The ie words are made by adding

suffix to words ending in y. cries, tries, fried,

dried i In some words of more than one

syllable, you just need the letter i.

item, idea, pilot, final

i-e This is called a split digraph. five, ride, like, time,

side y This is by far the most common

spelling for this sound at the end

of words.

cry, fly, dry, try, reply,

July

y Sometimes a y is used in the

middle of words.

rhyme, cycle, pylon

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Sound Families

Long

vowel o

Rule Examples

oa This is the most common spelling

for this sound. It is used in the

middle and is rarely used at the

end.

boat, coat, road, coach

ow This digraph is most commonly

used at the end of a word. own, blow, snow, show

oe A few words end with oe. Joe, toe, hoe, woe,

oboe o In some words of more than one

syllable, you just need the letter o.

bonus, hotel total, robot,

only

o Some short words have just o at

the end.

go, no, so, ago

o-e This is called a split digraph. home, those woke, hope

ough Sometimes this sound is used at

the end of a word.

dough, though, although

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Sound Families

Long

vowel u

Rule Examples

ue At the end of some words we use

ue.

cue, due, argue, tissue

ew At

the end of some words we use ew

but occasionally it is used at the

start.

flew, blew, chew, drew,

ewe

oo This sound is used in the middle or

at the end. It is rarely used at the

start.

Choose, doodle, loose,

room, ooze

ui This vowel digraph is used

infrequently.

fruit, suit, juice

u In some words of more than one

syllable, you just need the letter u.

duty, fuel, music, uni-

form, flu

u-e This is called a split digraph. June, rule, rude, use,

tube, tune

ou This sound is rarely used. you

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Sound Families

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Sound Families

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Sound Families

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Sound Families

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Phases of Phonics Phase 1

Discriminating between sounds, rhyme, alliteration.

Phase 2

vc and cvc words using the following letter

sounds:

s a t p i n m d g o c k ck e u r h b f ff l ll ss

Phase 3

Letter sounds:

j v w x y z zz qu

Graphemes:

ch sh th ng ai ee igh oa oo ar or ur ow oi ear

air ure er

Phase 4

ccvc and cvcc words and some ccvvc words

using sounds learnt in phase 3.

Phase 5

Graphemes:

ay, ou, ie, ea, oy, ir, ue, aw, wh, ph, ew, oe,

au, a-e, e-e, o-e, i-e, u-e.

Also teaches alternative pronunciation of

phonemes.

Phase 6

Suffixes: ing, ed, er, est. ful, ly, y, ment, ness,

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Sound Buttons

Sound buttons are dots or lines that are drawn underneath the

letter/s to represent phonemes. A phoneme is represented with

a dot. A blend, digraph or trigraph is represented with a line.

Split digraphs are represented by a curved line joining the

vowel sound.

time

same

Pete

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Prefixes

Prefixes are letters that go in front of a root word and change its

meaning. The root word is the basic word before it is changed.

In Key Stage 1, the only prefix we need to know if the prefix un.

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Suffixes Suffixes are a string of letters that go at the end of a root

word. It changes or adds to its meaning. The root word is the

basic word before it is changed. Suffixes can show whether a

word is a noun, verb, adjective or adverb.

In Key Stage 1, the children need to learn the rules for ed, ing,

er, est, y, ful, ment, ness, less, and ly.

Often we just add the suffix. tall – taller walk -walked long- longest jump- jumping

Words ending in e. Drop the e and add the suffix.

safe-safer rude- rudest love - loved hike-hiking

shine-shiny

Words ending in y. Change the y for an i and add the suffix.

funny- funnier messy- messiest

cry-cried

Words ending in short vowel and one

consonant. Double the last letter and add the suffix.

big- bigger fat- fattest pat- patted

hum- humming

run– runny

Exception:

When Words end in a y and you add ing, you keep the y.

copy-copying cry– crying

The letter x is never doubled: mixing, mixed, boxer, sixes.

Being– we keep the e.

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Suffixes

Often we just add the

suffix.

Move hands up and down.

Words ending in e. Drop the e and add the

suffix.

Hand moves down in a diagonal action to

show the e is being dropped. Then repeat

the above action.

Words ending in y. Change the y for an i and

add the suffix.

Make a y shape with your hands and then

bring your hands together to make an i

shape. Then repeat the suffix action.

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Suffixes

Words ending in short

vowel and one consonant. Double the last letter and

add the suffix.

Spin hands around to double the consonant

and then repeat the suffix action.

Words ending in a y, you

keep the y and add ing.

Make a y shape and bring hands down to

your chest to pretend to keep it. Then

repeat the suffix action.

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Suffixes

-ment, -ness, -ful, -less and –ly

If a suffix starts with a consonant letter, it is added straight

on to the end of most root words .

Exceptions

1. argue– we drop the e to write argument

2. Root words ending in –y with a consonant before it but only if

the root word has more than one syllable

merry– merriment happy-happiness

plenty-plentiful penny-penniless

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Plural words Plural words tell us there are more than one of something. Using

plurals can affect the nouns or verbs in sentences.

In Key Stage 1, the children need to learn the rules for s, es and

ies.

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Compound words

A combination of two or more individual root words that have a

single meaning.

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Homophones Homophones are words that sound the same but have different

meanings.

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Homophones Homophones are words that sound the same but have different

meanings.

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Homographs

Homographs are words that are spelt the same but have

different meanings.

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Contractions They are short words made by putting two words together and

omitting some letters, which are replaced by an apostrophe.

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High Frequency Words

In Foundation Stage, the children learn to read and spell high

frequency words that link to their phonics phase.

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Common Exceptions Words

In Key Stage 1, the children learn to read and spell common

exception words. The children have access to these words on a

word mat and they are encouraged to use them in their writing.

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Ways to help children

learn spelling 1. Find words within words

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Ways to help children

learn spelling 1. Find words within words

Parents

Parents are not to shout

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Ways to help children

learn spelling 2. Mnemonics– Mnemonics are memory tools to help people recall

information.

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Ways to help children

learn spelling

sad

apples

in

drawers

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Ways to help children

learn spelling 3. Rhyming words—Children will be encouraged to look for rhyming

words to help them spell unknown words.

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Ways to help children

learn spelling 4. Syllables—A sequence of speech sounds in a word.

The number of syllables in a word sounds like the ‘beats’ in the

word, and breaking a word into syllables can help with spelling.

There are 3 rules:

Every syllable has a vowel sound

The number of vowel sounds equals the number of syllables

A one syllable word is never divided

Syllables Words

1

cat

no

ant

fish

2

pencil

chicken

super

rainbow

3

computer

bakery

newspaper

potato

4

February

helicopter

delivery

Cinderella

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Ways to help children

learn spelling 5. Highlighting silent letters-Sometimes words have a silent

letter in them. When this happens, use a highlighter to show it.

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Ways to help children

learn spelling 6. Look, Cover, Say, Write and Check