Phonics

In school, we follow the Letters and Sounds programme. Letters and Sounds is a phonics resource published by the Department for Education and Skills which consists of six phases.

The Terminology

PhonemeA phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a word. It is generally accepted that most varieties of spoken English use about 44 phonemes.

GraphemesA grapheme is a symbol of a phoneme. It is a letter or group of letters representing a sound.

SegmentingChildren need to be able to hear a whole word and say every sound that they hear.

BlendingThe ability to hear the separate sounds in a word and then blend them together to say the whole word. This is the skill we need for reading.

DigraphThis is when two letters come together to make a phoneme. For example, /oa/ makes the sound in ‘boat’ and is also known as a vowel digraph. There are also consonant digraphs, for example, /sh/ and /ch/.

TrigraphThis is when three letters come together to make one phoneme, for example /igh/.

Split digraphA digraph in which the two letters are not adjacent – e.g. make

AbbreviationsVC, CVC, and CCVC are the respective abbreviations for vowel-consonant, consonant-vowel-consonant, consonant-consonant-vowel-consonant, and are used to describe the order of graphemes in words (e.g. am (VC), Sam (CVC), slam (CCVC), or each (VC), beach (CVC), bleach (CCVC).

Phase 1 (Nursery/Reception)This paves the way for systematic learning of phonics and usually starts in nursery or playgroup. Teachers plan activities that will help children to listen attentively to sounds around them, such as the sounds of their toys and to sounds in spoken language. Teachers teach a wide range of nursery rhymes and songs. They read good books to and with the children. This helps to increase the number of words they know – their vocabulary – and helps them talk confidently about books.

Phase 1 is split into 7 aspects:

Aspect 1 - General sound discrimination - environmental

The aim of this aspect is to raise children's awareness of the sounds around them and to develop their listening skills. Activities suggested in the guidance include going on a listening walk, drumming on different items outside and comparing the sounds, playing a sounds lotto game and making shakers.

Aspect 2 - General sound discrimination - instrumental sounds

This aspect aims to develop children's awareness of sounds made by various instruments and noise makers. Activities include comparing and matching sound makers, playing instruments alongside a story and making loud and quiet sounds.

Aspect 3 - General sound discrimination - body percussion

The aim of this aspect is to develop children's awareness of sounds and rhythms. Activities include singing songs and action rhymes, listening to music and developing a sounds vocabulary.

Aspect 4 - Rhythm and rhyme

This aspect aims to develop children's appreciation and experiences of rhythm and rhyme in speech. Activities include rhyming stories, rhyming bingo, clapping out the syllables in words and odd one out.

Aspect 5 - Alliteration

The focus is on initial sounds of words, with activities including I-Spy type games and matching objects which begin with the same sound.

Aspect 6 - Voice sounds

The aim is to distinguish between different vocal sounds and to begin oral blending and segmenting. Activities include Metal Mike, where children feed pictures of objects into a toy robot's mouth and the teacher sounds out the name of the object in a robot voice - /c/-/u/-/p/ cup, with the children joining in.

Aspect 7 - Oral blending and segmenting

In this aspect, the main aim is to develop oral blending and segmenting skills.

To practise oral blending, the teacher could say some sounds, such as /c/-/u/-/p/ and see whether the children can pick out a cup from a group of objects. For segmenting practise, the teacher could hold up an object such as a sock and ask the children which sounds they can hear in the word sock.

The activities introduced in Phase 1 are intended to continue throughout the following phases, as lots of practice is needed before children will become confident in their phonic knowledge and skills

Learning how to ‘sound-talk’The teacher shows children how to do this – c-a-t = cat. The separate sounds (phonemes) are spoken aloud, in order, all through the word, and are then merged together into the whole word. The merging together is called blending and is a vital skill for reading.

Children will also learn to do this the other way around – cat = c-a-t. The whole word is spoken aloud and then broken up into its sounds (phonemes) in order, all through the word.This is called segmenting and is a vital skill for spelling. This is all oral (spoken). Your child will not be expected to match the letter to the sound at this stage. The emphasis is on helping children to hear the separate sounds in words and to create spoken sounds.

Phase 2 (Reception)In Phase 2, letters and their sounds are introduced one at a time. A set of letters is taught each week, in the following sequence:

Set 1: s, a, t, pSet 2: i, n, m, dSet 3: g, o, c, kSet 4: ck, e, u, rSet 5: h, b, f, ff, l, ll, ss

The children will begin to learn to blend and segment to help begin reading and spelling. This will begin with simple words.

Words using set 1:at sat pat sat sap

Words using set 1 and 2:(+i) (+n) (+m) (+d)

itissitpitpipsiptip

aninnippanpintannaptin

ammanmatmapPamTimSam

dadsaddimdindidSidanddip

Words using set 1-3:(+g) (+o) (+c) (+k)taggaggiggapnagsaggaspigdig

gotonnotpottopdogtotpopmog

cancotcopcapcatcod

kidkit

KimKen

Words using set 1-4:(+ck) (+e) (+u) (+r)kick sock sack dock pick sick pack tuck

getpettennetpenpegmetmen

upmumrunmugcupsunmud

rimrip

ramratragrugrot

Words using set 1-5:(+h) (+b) (+f and ff) (+l and ll) (+ss)

had him his hot hut hophum hit hat has hack

butbigbackbetbadbagbedbudbegbugbun

ofifofffitfinfunfigfogpuffhuffcuff

lapletleglotlitbellfilldolltellsellBill

lesshissmassmessbossfusshisspasskissTess

Alongside this, children are introduced to tricky words. These are the words that are irregular. This means that phonics cannot be applied to the reading and spelling of these words.

The tricky words introduced in phase 2 are:to the no go I

Phase 3 (Reception) By the time children reach Phase 3, they will already be able to blend and segment words containing the 19 letters taught in Phase 2. Over the twelve weeks which Phase 3 is expected to last, twenty-five new graphemes are introduced (one at a time).

Set 6: j, v, w, xSet 7: y, z, zz, quConsonant digraphs: ch, sh, th, ngVowel digraphs: ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, ure, er

Trick words:we me be was no gomy you they her all are

Phase 4 (Reception/Year One)

Sounds Word example

sh shinth thickng songai train

igh sightoa boatoi coiloo

(long)boot

ee tree

Sounds Word example

oo (short)

cook

ow nowar starair hairear hearer termur curlor fork

ure pure

Sounds Word exampl

ej jamv vetw winx boxy yesz zipzz buzzqu quickch chop

By Phase 4, children will be able to represent each of 42 phonemes with a grapheme. They will blend phonemes to read CCVC words and segment CVCC words for spelling. They will also be able to read two syllable words that are simple. They will be able to read all the tricky words learnt so far and will be able to spell some of them. This phase consolidates all the children have learnt in the previous phases

Tricky words:said so she he have likesome come were there little onethey all are do when outwhat my her

Phase 5 (Year One) Children will be taught new graphemes and alternative pronunciations for these graphemes, as well as graphemes they already know. They will begin to learn to choose the appropriate grapheme when spelling.

New graphemes for reading:

Sound Word example

Sound Word example

Sound Word example

Sound Word example

ay day oy boy wh when a_e makeou out ir girl ph photo e_e theseie tie ue blue ew new i_e likeea eat aw saw oe toe o_e home

au Paul u_e rule

Tricky words:oh their people Mr Mrs lookedcalled asked water where who againthought through work mouse many laughedbecause different any eyes friends onceplease

Phase 6 (Year One/Year Two)In phase 6, the focus is on learning spelling rules for word endings (these are known as suffixes). The children will learn how words change when you add certain letters. There are 12 different suffixes taught:

-s -es -ing -ed

-er -est -y -en

-ful -ly -ment -ness

Phonics at HomeTips for teaching your child the sounds: It is important for a child to learn lower case or small letters rather than capital

letters at first. Most early books and games use lower case letters and your child will learn these first at school. Obviously you should use a capital letter when required, such as at the beginning of the child's name, eg. Paul.

When you talk about letters to your child, remember to use the letter sounds: a buh cuh duh e ... rather than the alphabet names of the letters: ay bee see dee ee . The reason for this is that sounding out words is practically impossible if you use the alphabet names. eg. cat, would sound like: see  ay  tee

When saying the sounds of b, d, g, j and w you will notice the 'uh' sound which follows each, for example buh, duh... You cannot say the sound without it, however, try to emphasise the main letter sound. For a reminder of how to

pronounce the sounds correctly please use this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ksblMiliA8

Useful webpageshttp://www.letters-and-sounds.com

http://www.phonicsplay.co.uk

http://www.familylearning.org.uk/phonics_games.html

http://theimaginationtree.com/category/learn/literacylearn

HandwritingAt Barley Fields we use the Penpals handwriting scheme. The letters are grouped into families that are formed in a similar way.

curly caterpillar letters

long ladder letters