Listening to you, working for you London Borough of Bexley Taking delight in words and sounds: Phase 1 of Letters and Sounds Programme

Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you 2 Aims for this session Review early phonics subject knowledge and skills Introduce the Letters and Sounds Programme Phase 1 Highlight the role of the adult in modelling and promoting good speaking and listening; underlining its importance in language and literacy development. Think about next steps to ensure implementation of Phase 1 in your setting

Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you 3 The role of phonics in children’s early literacy Children who know lots of nursery rhymes and songs generally read well Children who are learning English as an additional language generally learn to hear sounds in words very easily Children can learn to hear individual sounds very easily through play Play writing is an important stage in children’s development Children who know lots of letters have a good start in reading and writing Children can learn to recognise shapes of letters through play Children with hearing, speech and language difficulties benefit from playing with sounds

Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you 4 ICAN survey ‘50% of children entering school this year have transient language or communication difficulties and with the right support are likely to catch up’ ‘For children with impoverished language, creating a communication support environment in the early years at home and in school is critical’ (ICAN The Cost to the Nation of Children’s Poor Communication 2006)

Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you 5 What would you expect to see in a broad and rich language environment?

Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you 6 Phonics subject knowledge

Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you 7 “Linking sounds and letters is about how children develop the ability to distinguish between sounds and become familiar with rhyme, rhythm and alliteration. They develop understanding of the correspondence between spoken and written sounds and learn to link sounds and letters and use their knowledge to read and write simple words by sounding out and blending” Taken from EYFS CLL Card

Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you 8 Enunciation Teaching phonics requires a technical skill in articulation. Phonemes should be articulated clearly and precisely by adults and children.

Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Pure sounds Pronunciation of sounds should be ‘pure’ Does anyone know how we pronounce the following letters as sounds? m, n, h, s, t, b, d, l, r Mr Thorne does phonics – how to learn the letters of the alphabet

Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you 10 Phonics consists of: knowledge of letters the two skills of blending and segmentation

Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you 11 Some definitions A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a word.

Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you 12 Some definitions Grapheme: Letter(s) representing a phoneme. taiigh

Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you 13 Some definitions Blending: –Recognising the letter-sounds in a word, for example c-u-p, sh-ee-p –merging or synthesising them in the order in which they are written to pronounce the word ‘cup’, ‘sheep.’ No text is used in Phase 1 Blending should be taught within Phase 1 before blending and reading printed words.

Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you 14 Some definitions Segmenting: Identifying the individual sounds in a spoken word (eg h-i-m, s-t-or-k) and writing down or manipulating letters for each sound (phoneme) to form the word ‘him’ or ‘stork’.

Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you 15 Concept Sounds/phonemes are represented by letters/graphemes English is an alphabetic language. All the sounds (phonemes) in each word are represented by letters (graphemes). Young children need to know that written words are not arbitrary sets of squiggles.

Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you 16 Blending and Segmentation Blending Merging the individual phonemes together to pronounce a word. To read unfamiliar words a child must recognise (sound out) each grapheme, not each letter, then merge the phonemes together to make a word Segmentation Hear and say the individual phonemes within words In order to spell, children need to segment a word into its component phonemes and choose a grapheme to represent each phoneme

Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you 17 Oral segmenting and blending: let’s practise! bus pot chair coat slide bell feet jump

Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you 18 How many sounds? peg chair coat puff sock mess hill pick hair row sheep for farm shock fox off if sing night how year

Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you 19 “ Letters and Sounds” What is Phase 1? “The activities are intended to be used as part of a broad and rich language curriculum that has speaking and listening at its centre, links language with physical and practical experiences, and provides an environment rich in print and abundant in opportunities to engage with books.” “Phase 1 activities pave the way for children to make a good start in reading and writing” Page 2. Introduction Letters and Sounds teaching programme

Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you 20 What Phase 1 has to offer Aspect 1: General Sound discrimination: environmental sounds Aspect 3: General Sound discrimination: body percussion Aspect 2: General Sound discrimination: instrumental sounds Aspect 4: Rhythm and rhyme Aspect 5: Alliteration Aspect 6:Voice sounds Aspect 7: Oral blending and segmenting Broad and balanced diet 1-6 Practitioners and teachers should provide daily speaking and listening activities that are well matched to children’s developing abilities and interests, drawing upon observations and assessments to plan for progression and to identify children who need additional support, for example to discriminate and produce the sounds of speech. Pg.2 ‘L&S’

Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you 21 Phase 1 continuous provision of Phase 1 through Phases 2 to 6 Working on: Showing awareness of rhyme and alliteration, distinguishing between different sounds in the environment and phonemes, exploring and experimenting with sounds and words and discriminating speech sounds in words. Beginning to orally blend and segment phonemes

Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you 22 Letters and Sounds – Phase 1 Aspect 7: Oral blending and segmenting Oral segmenting and blending Start with last word in sentence or phrase No expectation that children are introduced to letter/sound correspondences during Phase 1 Importance of clear enunciation Blending and segmenting – reversible processes

Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you 23 Letters and Sounds Phase 1: seven aspects Environmental Instrumental Body percussion Rhythm & Rhyme Alliteration Voice Oral Blending and Segmenting

Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Aspect 1 – Environmental sounds General sound discrimination – environmental The aim of this aspect is to raise children's awareness of the sounds around them and to develop their listening skills. Activities suggested in the guidance include going on a listening walk, drumming on different items outside and comparing the sounds, playing a sounds lotto game and making shakers.

Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Aspect 2 – instrumental sounds Aspect 2 - General sound discrimination - instrumental sounds This aspect aims to develop children's awareness of sounds made by various instruments and noise makers. Activities include comparing and matching sound makers, playing instruments alongside a story and making loud and quiet sounds.

Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Aspect 3 – Body percussion Aspect 3 - General sound discrimination - body percussion The aim of this aspect is to develop children's awareness of sounds and rhythms. Activities include singing songs and action rhymes, listening to music and developing a sounds vocabulary.

Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Aspect 4 – Rhythm and rhyme Aspect 4 - Rhythm and rhyme This aspect aims to develop children's appreciation and experiences of rhythm and rhyme in speech. Activities include rhyming stories, rhyming bingo, clapping out the syllables in words and odd one out.

Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Aspect 5 – Alliteration Aspect 5 - Alliteration The focus is on initial sounds of words, with activities including I-Spy type games and matching objects which begin with the same sound.

Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Aspect 6 - voice sounds Aspect 6 - Voice sounds The aim is to distinguish between different vocal sounds and to begin oral blending and segmenting. Activities include Metal Mike, where children feed pictures of objects into a toy robot's mouth and the teacher sounds out the name of the object in a robot voice - /c/-/u/-/p/ cup, with the children joining in.

Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Aspect 7 – oral blending In this aspect, the main aim is to develop oral blending and segmenting skills. To practise oral blending, the teacher could say some sounds, such as /c/-/u/-/p/ and see whether the children can pick out a cup from a group of objects. For segmenting practise, the teacher could hold up an object such as a sock and ask the children which sounds they can hear in the word sock. The activities introduced in Phase 1 are intended to continue throughout the following phases, as lots of practice is needed before children will become confident in their phonic knowledge and skills.

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Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you 32 Implications for current practice & next steps Review your current planning: How do you check that the all aspects and strands are covered through current activities? How do you observe and assess children in these activities – and share this information with colleagues and parents? Are there follow-up activities with opportunities for children to explore and apply their knowledge and skills in the learning environment? How do you involve parents in children’s learning? What will you need to share with your colleagues in the setting?

Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you Listening to you, working for you 33 Whatever you do … have fun with the activity and have fun with the children BUT… Know why you are doing it!