EYFS Phonics Information Evening 13th October 2014

Tonight’s Meeting To share how phonics is taught at our school. To help you as parents feel more confident in supporting your child at home with their phonics and reading. To teach you the basics of phonics and some useful phonics terms. To give you some ideas of games and activities you can do at home.

What is phonics? Phonics is simply a way of teaching children to read quickly and skilfully. They are taught how to: Recognise the sounds that each individual letter makes and learn the difference between letter names and sounds. Identify the sounds that different combinations of letters make such as ‘sh, oo, ch’ Blend these sounds together to make a word. Children can then use this knowledge to ‘de-code’ new words that they hear and see. This is the first important step in learning to read. Children also learn that not all words can be sounded out. We call them tricky words!

Department For Education: 2013 Why do we teach it? “Research shows that when phonics is taught in a structured way – starting with the easiest sounds and progressing through to the most complex – it is the most effective way of teaching young children to read.” “Almost all children who receive good teaching of phonics will learn the skills they need to tackle new words. They can then go on to read any kind of text fluently and confidently, and to read for enjoyment.” Department For Education: 2013

Daily phonics lesson – 20 minutes At school we follow the ‘Letters and Sounds’ process of teaching phonics. Letters and Sounds breaks the teaching of phonics into 6 phases: Phase 1-3 in Nursery/Reception Phase 4 -5 in Year 1 Phase 6 in Year 2 Each Phase differs in terms of length and skills taught. In reception we focus on securing all children in phase 2 and 3 to prepare them for Year 1. Phoneme frames, sound buttons, full circle, countdown, flashcards, buried treasure

Our Phonics song!! Stand up and join in! In reception we start every phonics session with a song. The song supports the children's understanding of the alphabet. It also helps the children to quickly learn the letter names and sounds! Stand up and join in!

Phase 2 Phonics

Phase 2 Learning phonemes (sounds) to read and write simple words Children will learn the following phonemes: Set 1: s a t p Set 2: i n m d Set 3: g o c k Set 4: ck (as in duck) e u r Set 5: h b l f ff (as in puff) ll (as in hill) ss (as in hiss) They will use these phonemes to read and spell simple “consonant-vowel-consonant” (CVC) words: sat, tap, dig, duck, rug, puff, hill, hiss

Phoneme Phonemes are sounds that can be heard in words e.g. c-a-t

Grapheme A grapheme is a sound written down. The English language more than 150 ways to represent the 44 sounds using our 26 alphabet – A very complex code! The children learn the graphemes systematically and thoroughly.

Digraph This means that the phoneme (sound) includes two letters e.g. ll, ff, ck, ss See sheet on your tables!

Blending Children need to be able to hear the separate sounds in a word and then blend them together to say the whole word .

Phase 2 Blending /b/ /e/ /d/ = bed /t/ /i/ /n/ = tin /m/ /u/ /g/ = mug

Your turn. Turn on your listening ears! Using the paper and pens can you write the following words...

Phase 2 Segmenting Children need to be able to hear a whole word and say every sound that they hear .

Segmenting bed = /b/ /e/ /d/ tin= /t/ /i/ /n/ mug= /m/ /u/ /g/

Your turn. Put your thinking hats on! Peg Cat Dog Sit

Resources We supplement each lesson with a range of resources and activities to make the learning fun and appropriate for the age and abilities of all the children...

Phoneme Frames c a t . . . Sound buttons d o g . . . sh ee p

Activity Can you put the following words into a frame? log pin huff hiss

Answers r u n l o g . . . . . . h u ff h i ss . . _ . . _

Other activities (Here’s what we made earlier!) Sound bag/box Magnetic letters Puppet talk Picture cards Letter match

Phase 3 Children will enter phase 3 once they know the phase 2 sounds and can blend and segment to read and spell CVC words. They will learn additional phonemes (sounds): j, v, w, x, y, z, zz, qu ch, sh, th, ng, ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, ure, er They will use these phonemes (and the ones from Phase 2) to read and spell words.

Trigraph This means that the phoneme comprises of three letters e.g. igh , ear, ure See sheet on your table!

Have a go. Put the words below into a phoneme frame Have a go! Put the words below into a phoneme frame. Can you put in the sound buttons? Use the sheet to help (don’t forget those digraphs & trigraphs!) ring chick night

Answers r i ng ch i ck _ . _ . . _ n igh t Sound buttons . _ .

Phase 4 Introducing consonant clusters: spot, trip, clap, green, clown reading and spelling words with four or more phonemes Children move into phase 4 when they know all the phonemes from phases 2 and 3 and can use them to read and spell simple words (blending to read and segmenting to spell). Phase 4 doesn’t introduce any new phonemes. It focuses on reading and spelling longer words with the phonemes they already know.

Is there anything I can do at home?

How can I help at home? Oral blending: the robot game Children need to practise hearing a series of spoken sounds and merging them together to make a word. For example, you say ‘b-u-s’, and your child says ‘bus’. Say it quicker and quicker until it sounds like the word “What’s in the box?” is a great game for practising this skill.

“Can you feed the c-a-t/d-o-g?” How can I help at home? Sound bag Sound out words in sentences: “Go to b-e-d” “Can you h-e-l-p me?” “Can you feed the c-a-t/d-o-g?” Stick sounds on items that start with that letter sound. At home, on car journeys, outings ask children to find as many things they can that start with a sound chosen. Get ‘stuck’ on a word in a book and sound it out. Read as much as possible to and with your child. Encourage and praise – get them to have a ‘good guess’. Remember not all words can be sounded out.

Now you have the knowledge…. Have lots of fun with phonics! Stick sounds on items that start with that letter sound. At home, on car journeys, outings ask children to find as many things they can that start with a sound chosen. Let them hear sounds… sound talk to them. “Fetch me your c-oa-t”! Read as much as possible to and with your child. Encourage and praise – get them to have a ‘good guess’.

Thank you for coming Any questions? Leaflets & Evaluation forms