Reading and Phonics

What is phonics? Quite simply… The sounds that make up words!

Phonics Scheme Letters and Sounds across Key Stage 1 and the EYFS. Some children may need to continue with Letters and Sounds into KS2 if they have not full grasped all the necessary sounds.

Phonics is important…but it is not the ONLY element of reading! I use the pictures to help me. I use punctuation to help me make sense of what I am reading. I go back and read a word or sentence again if I don’t understand it. I read on to see if I can work out the meaning of a word I don’t know Asking and answering questions

Find a place to sit together that suits you both Try to read for at least 5 to 10 minutes a day and once over the weekend. Encourage it as a pleasurable experience. Find some time to talk about the book as well as reading it. Start with the title, look at the cover and briefly chat about what you might find inside. At the bottom of each page, encourage your child to predict what might happen next.

If your child gets stuck, ask what word would fit best, ask them to sound it out (if appropriate), or simply supply the word yourself. What happened in the story? Does this remind them of anything in their lives or anything they have read before? Did they think the book was funny? Did they spot any interesting words and phrases? Did they en- joy the book? Encourage your child to retell the story you have just shared. This will give you an idea of how much they have understood.

PHONICS – key elements Correct pronunciation Correct vocabulary We all need to use the same language at home and at school. Little and often is the key. Does not have to be formal. Link it to your child’s interests.

PHONEME The smallest unit of sound in a word. There are 44 phonemes/sounds that we teach.

The 44 phonemes /b//d//f//g//h//j//k//l//m//n//ng/ /p//r//s//t//v//w//y//z//th/ /ch/ /sh//zh//a//e//i//o//u//ae//ee//ie//oe/ /ue//oo//ar//ur//au//er//ow//oi//air//ear//ure/

GRAPHEME Letters representing a phoneme e.g. c ai igh Children need to practise recognising the grapheme and saying the phoneme that it represents.

BLENDING Recognising the letter sounds in a written word, for example c-u-p and merging or ‘blending’ them in the order in which they are written to pronounce the word ‘cup’

SEGMENTING ‘Chopping Up’ the word to spell it out The opposite of blending Use your ‘ROBOT ARMS’

Segment and Blend these words… drep blom gris Nonsense games like this help to build up skills – and are fun!

Once children are good with single phonemes… DIGRAPHS – 2 letters that make 1 sound ll ss zz oa ai TRIGRAPHS – 3 letters that make 1 sound igh dge

Segmenting Activity Use your ‘robot arms’ to say how many phonemes in each word. shelf dress sprint string

Did you get it right? shelf = sh – e – l – f = 4 phonemes dress = d - r - e – ss = 4 phonemes sprint = s – p – r – i – n – t = 6 phonemes string = s – t – r – i – ng = 5 phonemes

TRICKY WORDS Words that are not phonically decodeable e.g. was, the, I Some are ‘tricky’ to start with but will become decodeable once we have learned the harder phonemes e.g. out, there,

Now you have the knowledge…. Play lots of sound and listening games with your child. Read as much as possible to and with your child. Encourage and praise – get them to have a ‘good guess’. Ask your child’s teacher if you want to know more.