Letters and SoundsPhonics information for Parents

October 2012

Phonics Consists of:

• Identifying sounds in spoken words

• Recognising the common spellings of each phoneme

• Blending phonemes into words for reading

• Segmenting words into phonemes for spelling

Key Vocabulary

• A phoneme you hear

• This is the smallest unit of sound in a word

• A grapheme you see• These are the letters that represent the phoneme

• Digraph - 2 letters making one sound (ee in need)

• Trigraph - 3 letters making one sound (igh in night)

• Split digraph - Where the two letters are not adjacent ( a-e in cake)

Blending (for reading)

• Recognising the letter sounds in a written word e.g. c-u-p sh-ee-p

• Merging them into the correct order topronounce the word cup and sheep

Segmenting (for spelling)

• Segment words into graphemes in order to write:

• E.g. sheep – sh-ee-p

looking – l-oo-k-i-ng

Letters and Sounds• Letters and Sounds is divided into six phases, with

each phase building on the skills and knowledge of previous learning. Children have time to practise and rapidly expand their ability to read and spell words

• These phases are set out in the Letters and Sounds document

• The children often work in groups within the phase that is appropriate to their level of learning

Phase 1

• To develop children’s listening skills and awareness of sounds in the environment

• To experience and develop awareness of sounds made with instruments and noise makers

• To develop awareness of sounds and rhythms• To develop awareness of rhythm and rhyme in speech• To develop understanding of alliteration• To distinguish between the differences in vocal sounds,

including oral blending and segmenting

Phase 2

• 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, ss,

• Blending for reading and segmenting forspelling simple cvc words

Reading Phase 2 words

him sock puff

sell pass dog

Phase 3• Letter Progression:

• Set 6 - j, v, w, x

• Set 7 - y, z, zz, qu

• Graphemes:

• ch, sh, th, ng, ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, ure, er

Phase 3 continued

• Reading and spelling a wide range of cvc

words

• Practising blending for reading and segmentation for spelling words containing digraphs and trigraphs

Reading Phase 3 words

shop rain boat

cow dear corner

Phase 4

• This is a consolidation unit. There are no new graphemes to learn

• Practising blending for reading and segmentation for spelling CVCC (tent) and CCVC (from) words

Phase 5• Graphemes:

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

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

• Alternative pronunciation of graphemes:

i, o, c, g, u, ow, ie, ea, er, a, y, ch, ou

For example ow in cow and blow

Phase 5 continued

• Teaching alternative spellings for phonemes

• j = dge in fudge and hedge

• n = kn in knit and knot

Pseudo words

• Pseudo words are nonsense words. We often call these ‘alien words’ in school

• We practise reading these in school to assess grapheme recognition and blending skills

• For example: pim; dar; shreb; whemp

Phase 6• Recognising phonic irregularities and

becoming more secure with less common

grapheme – phoneme correspondences

• Applying phonic skills and knowledge to recognise and spell an increasing number of complex words

Phase 6 continued

• Introducing and teaching the past tense

• Investigating and learning how to add suffixes. For example -ing, -ed, -er, -est

• Finding and learning the difficult bits in words

Tricky words and HFW

• In addition to this, each week the children learn ‘tricky’ spelling words (those that are not spelt phonetically) and high frequency words (HFW)

• Tricky words, for example he, she, we, me

• HFW, for example and, in, on

Supporting your child at home

• Enjoying a book together

• Using the sound mats in the weekly planner

• Practising spellings (KS1)

• Using magnetic letters

• Sound talking or robot talking

‘I spy a p-e-g’