What is phonics? Phonics

Two main elements Blending Recognising the letter sounds in a written word, for example c-u-p, and merging or synthesising them in the order in which they are written to pronounce the word ‘cup’ Segmenting Identifying the individual sounds in a spoken word (e.g. h-i-m) and writing down or manipulating letters for each sound to form the word ‘him’

A phonetic approach to reading? Phonics places an emphasis on teaching the letter sounds first. The children are taught to listen carefully to the sounds in words, to identify them and relate them to the letters. Children learn to read faster when they know the letter sounds, and can work out words for themselves. Independent writing starts earlier and accurate spelling develops more quickly.

The advantages of using a phonetic approach It teaches the main letter sounds early on It relates the sounds to the symbols (graphemes) and so helps the children to understand the alphabetic code used for reading and writing It enables parents to be involved When the children have a way of writing each letter sound, they are able to write whatever they want early on It provides a multi sensory approach, linking sounds with movement

c Teaching phonics requires a technical skill in enunciation Phonemes should be articulated clearly and precisely https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqhXUW_v-1s c

Cat becomes ker – a - ter Enunciation Many errors spring from incorrect enunciation and it is difficult to synthesize words if this is not clear. Often, as adults we add on and ‘er’ or ‘eh’ to each phoneme. This means that the children are not able to hear the correct sounds and words and so are not able to then write and spell them correctly. An example is if we added ‘er’ to cat, the word would become ker-a-ter.

There are five basic skills covered in the teaching of Phonics: These are… Letter sounds Letter formation Blending Segmenting Tricky words The first four skills on here are taught every day from the beginning Tricky words are introduced slightly later as they can not be decoded (blended) phonetically. By the time tricky words are taught most children are able to work out simple regular words for reading and writing and are ready to learn the more difficult words.

Letter sounds s a t p i n m d g o c k ck e u r h b f ff l ll ss j v w x y z zz qu ch sh th ng There are 42 different letter sounds, but only 26 letters are used to represent them. For successful reading, children need to be fluent at recognising and saying the sounds that represent each of the letters. The sounds are divided into groups, some of which you can see here. The letter sounds are not taught in alphabetical order but from the simplest to the more complex letter sounds. The first group of letters were chosen because you can make more simple three letter words than with any combination of six letters.

Digraphs Two letters that make one sound ai oa ie ee er ng oo ch sh ar th th qu ou ue This means that some sounds have to be written in different ways. The first of these ways is to use two letters to make one sound. This is called a digraph. The children have to learn that when certain letters are next to each other they work together to say a specific sound. For example the ai works together to say ‘a’ as in rain and the ch words together to say ‘ch’ as in chain.

Split digraphs Two letters that represent one sound but that are split by another letter i-e as in like, engine, machine a-e as in make, came, same oe as in home u-e as in rude e-e as in these

Three letters that make one sound Trigraphs Three letters that make one sound igh as night and height ear as in dear air as in fair ure as in sure

Learning the letter sound S s Learning the ‘s’ phoneme Action: using your hand weave it around in a ‘s’ shape, like a snake moving. Within the EYFS there is an action linked to each letter sound. This is taught to the children and used to support their understanding.

EYFS Phonic Passports s a t p

Phonic Passport– These will contain the phonemes learnt every week. Parents can play an important role in encouraging the children to learn the letter sound by going through the phonemes and asking them to say the sounds. Some children learn the sounds very easily, while others find it much more difficult. Those who find it difficult may be the children who have a poor visual memory, so support from home can make all the difference. More complex sounds such as digraphs and trigraphs may take longer to learn as they are more difficult.

Letter formation Initially a lot of our focus is on developing the children’s physical skills for writing. These include developing their large (gross) body movements and small (fine) body movements. Dances – develop gross motor movements gradually to music. Dough Disco – develop fine motor movements with play dough Squiggling – develop fine motor skills with pens, pencils, crayons, chalk etc.

Letter formation See it: we teach them how a letter looks when we read it and how it looks when we write it using flash cards Feel it: textured letters (sandpaper, ‘squidgy’ letters, string letters) Write it: in the air, using paint, using water on the ground, in mud, snow, bath bubbles, sand… This all before we put pencil to paper.

Pencil grip Tripod grip ‘Froggy legs’ movement Correct pencil grip is important

Cursive writing This is the handwriting scheme that we are using throughout the school. All of the letters start on the line. Our focus starts with their physical motor skills and learning to form these letters will come later. We teach the children this is how we write them and they look different when we read them.

Reading tricky words At this stage the children are very familiar with working out regular words by blending, Now they have to learn that some words have tricky bits, and when they are blended they do not always give the correct pronunciation, These words are introduced in the foundation stage and continue through key stage one. It is important that the children can recognise the words quickly in and out or context without the need to break them down into individual sounds. Tricky words or high frequency words as they are commonly called, need to be learnt by sight so the children have to use strategies such as recognising the shape of the word etc. rather than the skill of blending and segmenting to read them.

What games can you play at home? Sound/action/word recognition games Show your child a sound and ask them to complete the action, say the sound, or give an object that begins with that sound Turn a set of ‘sound’ cards face up, you complete an action or say a sound and ask your child to find the correct card to match it Show an object and ask your child to find the beginning sound, or show the action Quick recall of words that they are shown Use the words in a sentence. Orally or written Lots of variety is best - Spot the sound/letter/word; Snap; Reading words; Building words and sentences; Letter/word/sentence bingo

Sharing books To support the revision and application of phonic knowledge it is also extremely important to read books to, and with, children and talk about the things read. It gives the children… A love of books/texts A much wider vocabulary And helps them to understand our language. However, it does not teach them to read book for themselves. For this, the children need to learn how the code works. This is what phonics provides.

Reading together School reading books Reading books from home Library books Newspapers Magazines Comics Cereal packets Game instructions Etc, etc, etc

Independent writing The children need to know: The 42 letter sounds How to hear the sounds in words One way of writing the letters for the sounds What they want to say

Praise and encouragement Inspire them to keep learning Keep them motivated and excited about learning Verbal praise and rewards such as stickers are excellent encouragers

Parents Support from home is invaluable in helping your child to learn to read and write. It is essential that home and school work closely together in order to provide the best support for your child.

Key points! Every child is different Children learn/progress at different rates Do not become frustrated – keep going. It will eventually pay off! We promise!!! Any questions please feel free to come and ask.