Looking at phonics in the Early Years (Nursery,Reception) and Phonics is fun! Looking at phonics in the Early Years (Nursery,Reception) and Key Stage 1

So what is phonics? ay as in tray grapheme – how we write the sounds phoneme – the sound letters make ay as in tray a as in baby ai as in train ea as in great a-e as in fate ey as in grey eigh as in eight ei as in reindeer eig as in reign There may be many different ways of writing the same sound! This is the sound “ay” as in day or tray. It can be written as

What about digraphs, trigraphs and split digraphs? Remember a grapheme is how we write the sound …. tray high eight note

Why is it all so complicated? Some of the highlights! Anglo-Saxon/ Old English (Germanic base - mixture of Latin and Scandinavian) The Norman Conquest (introduction of French words) Old English: street, sky, white, red, etc; Norman Conquest: changes pig – pork; deer – venison; brings us all of our legal terms – justice, lawyer; gives us fancy names: instead of Helgar, Osbert we have David, Stephen, Dictionary – even shakespear spelt his name several different ways; Back to the French – the swapping of final letters (RSVP; became stylish to write centre) Invention of the dictionary (Samuel Johnson: 1775)! Early fashions and trends

How do we teach phonics? Lessons – 20 mins every day We teach Letters and Sounds Lessons – 20 mins every day Wall displays are used as reminders Flash cards are used for quick recognition Games in early years – e.g. find letters in the sand

Let’s explore the different Phases Phase 1 = Rhymes and songs …. Nursery Phase 2 = s a t p i n ….. Reception, Yr 1 Phase 3 = basic (most common) Phase 4-5 = increasingly complex patterns Phase 6 = recap of all sounds plus other patterns … Year 2

Segmenting and blending c a t sh o p s l igh t

Let’s have a go at listening for the sounds and writing them! We are going to explore the “ay” sound. We will look at 3 different ways of spelling this sound. On your whiteboards write ay ai a-e Use these words: day, tray, train, plane, afraid, game, can you think of others?

and what about syllables ….? Hold up fingers to show the syllables in these words : dandelion (4), shoe (1), cardigan (3), lego (2) hippopotamus (5)

Alien words Using

The year 1 phonics test Takes place during 1 week in June Children are tested individually by class teacher Includes real and alien words Children are well prepared! It’s not scary!! 40 questions. Children need to score around 32 or more to pass

Helping your child at home Read with them and to them (you are the Reading Expert) Help with anything tricky (it’s not a test!) Talk about the story, the pictures, what might happen next Games …. Such as Phonics Play which is free