Phonics The link between sounds and how we write them. Phoneme = Spoken sound e.g. ‘e’ ‘j’ ‘m’ Grapheme = Written sound what the letters look like in written form e.g. (cheek)

Phonics in Reception Daily sessions (20 minutes) Assessed continuously Ability grouped (children may learn with other years later on in year) New individual sounds and actions taught daily Focus communicated weekly High frequency and tricky word lists will be sent home as children are ready

Phase 1 (Pre School) Having fun with sounds Listening carefully Developing their vocabulary Tuning into sounds Listening to and remembering sounds Talking about sounds Understanding that spoken words are made up of different sounds

Phase 1 (Seven different areas) Environmental sounds Instrumental sounds Body percussion Rhythm and rhyme including listening to and saying nursery rhymes Alliteration (words that begin with the same sound) Voice sounds Oral blending and segmenting

Phase 2 Children learn 19 letters Learning to blend and segment Reading some VC and CVC words Spelling Reading 2 syllable words and simple captions Read some high frequency “tricky” words

Soundtalk (blending) Vital skill for reading Children should already be hearing the initial sounds in words Separate sounds (phonemes) are spoken aloud, throughout each word, then they are merged together to sound the whole word. Saying the sounds clearly is important for spelling. Merging is called ‘blending’. E.g. c-a-t = cat

Soundtalk (segmenting) Vital skill for spelling Whole words are spoken aloud, then broken into sounds through the whole word E.g. Cat = c-a-t

Tricky Words Children will learn several tricky words; those that cannot be sounded out. E.g. the to I go no

Articulation of phonemes (don’t add “uh”) Avoid saying fuh, luh, muh – it makes it hard for the children to blend. Some children struggle to pronounce certain sounds correctly – w instead of r (wabbit, lowwy), f instead of th (fick, fin) – please ensure that you model the correct pronunciation and correct when they get it wrong.

Phase 3 Children should now be able to read CVC words independently Learn how to read digraphs. E.g ‘oa’ (as in boat) Begin to spell some tricky words and write phrases and sentences The end of year expectation is that all children are ready to start Phase 4

How can you support? Sing alphabet songs Play ‘I Spy’ Magnetic letters Practise word lists Verbally make up sentences (using the word lists) When writing name labels for children or writing anything for them, please use lower case letters instead of capitals.

Useful Websites Phonics Play ICT games BBC Communication 4 all – useful charts

Reading

Reading – End of year expectations Early Learning Goals Children read and understand simple sentences. They use phonic knowledge to decode regular words and read them aloud accurately e.g kick, chip, sat, thing Read some common irregular words from phase 2 and 3 e.g no, go, to, said Demonstrate understanding when talking to others about what they have read.

Reading in school Reading scheme books sent home daily Guided reading Word cards sent home daily and checked weekly Reception basket books sent home after half term to read with your child Library books in the summer term

How children read Children use various strategies to help them read 1. Using picture clues – don’t cover up the pictures! 2. Using phonic knowledge to blend sounds together. 3. Does what they are reading make sense? Share books with children and encourage them to tell a story using the pictures. Are there any words or sounds they know? Encourage them to blend simple cvc words together.

How you can help at home Regular reading/sharing books at home Visiting the library Model reading to children at story time Spotting familiar names in the environment –Boots, B and Q,, Next etc. Practise weekly phonemes from phonics sessions