Reception Phonics Meeting

What is phonics? Children are taught to read by breaking down words into separate sounds or ‘phonemes’. They are then taught how to blend these sounds together to read the whole word. Children have a 20mins phonics lesson each day and they are encouraged to use these strategies to read and write in other lessons. There are around 40 different sounds.

Names or sounds? We teach letter names at the same time as phonemes. Letter names = spelling tricky words (words that can’t be sound talked) Phonemes = sound talking words

Phonic Phases We follow the ‘Letters and Sounds’ programme for phonics at Luton. The phonics we teach in school is separated into 6 phases. Phases 5 and 6 are taught in years 1 and 2. The following phases are taught in your child’s reception year. They should achieve Phase 4 by the summer term. Your children have already been taught phases 1 and 2.

Phase one comprises of seven aspects. Aspect One: Environmental Sounds Aspect Two: Instrumental Sounds Aspect Three: Body Percussion Aspect Four: Rhythm and Rhyme Aspect Five: Alliteration Aspect Six: Voice Sounds Aspect Seven: Oral Blending and segmenting

Phase Two Up to 6 weeks By the end of phase two children should be able to read some vc and cvc words. Children will also learn to read the words ‘the, to, go, I and no.’ 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 Five sets of letters are introduced – one set per week.

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

Making words Once children know these sounds we can start making words. sat pin nip sit pit pat pip sip

Phase Three 12 weeks Children are taught another 25 graphemes. Children continue to blend and segment CVC words for reading and spelling. Children will then use this knowledge to blend and segment two syllable words. They will continue to learn tricky words. Set 6: j, v, w, x Set 7: y, z, zz, qu Consonant digraphs: ch, sh, th, ng Vowel digraphs: ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, ure, er

Set 6: j, v, w, x Set 7: y, z, zz, qu Consonant digraphs: ch, sh, th, ng Vowel digraphs: ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, ure, er

Sound Buttons boat far meet fair

Phase Four 4 – 6 weeks By Phase 4 children are able to represent each of 42 phonemes by a grapheme. Phase 4 is consolidation of children’s knowledge. Children are encouraged to practice blending for reading and segmenting for spelling of adjacent consonants. They will continue to learn tricky words.

Phoneme Frames drink, stamp, forget, strand, strength, sprint, splint.

How can you help? Talk! The number of words in a child’s vocabulary can be an important indicator of later academic success. Children’s vocabulary use at age three is a strong predictor of language skill and reading comprehension at age 9-10.

How can you help? Bed time stories every night! Have fun with poems!

How can you help? Oral Blending games Robotic talking - Words are made up from sounds and children need to be able to hear these sounds individually. Sometimes when you are playing you can say words as if you were a robot (saying the sounds separately) and see if your child can work out what you are saying. Stick to short simple words that only have a few sounds in them. Make sure you are saying the letter sounds (p-i-g) not the letter names (pee-eye-gee). E.g. Pass that p-i-g to me. Sit d-ow-n. Point to your t-ee-th. Hop like a f-r-o-g. As your child becomes familiar with this robot talking, see if they can say words in robot talk themselves?  

How can you help? Play I spy – “I spy with my little eye, a p-i-g.”

How can you help? Point out print everywhere - Talk about the written words you see in the world around you. Ask your child to find familiar words on each outing such as ‘McDonald’s’, ‘Coke’ or ‘Asda’.

How can you help? Digraph- 2 letters making one sound cow Encourage your child to ‘sound out’ when reading or writing. Focusing particularly on spotting more unusual sound patterns. Eg Digraph- 2 letters making one sound cow Trigraphs- 3 letters making one sound night

How can you help? Encourage your child to use their sound mat when writing. Help your child to learn their tricky words. Children can practise their phonics by playing games online. The children particularly like ‘Buried Treasure’ www.phonicsplay.co.uk/BuriedTreasure2 Watch Alphablocks http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/alphablocks/watch/

How can you help? REMEMBER: Phonics is not the only thing needed to become a fluent reader. Please continue to read with your child each night and encourage them to: Sound out Re-read to check it makes sense. Use pictures for clues. Once is never enough! - Encourage your child to re-read favorite books and poems as well as their school reading scheme book. Re-reading helps children read more quickly and accurately. Ask questions about the book. And most importantly ENJOY READING!

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

Phase 3 Tricky Words Phase 4 Tricky Words