Letters and Sounds Workshop for parents a b c d e f g h I j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z qu ch sh th ue ng ai ee ie oa oo ar or er ou oi ear air ure

What is Letters and Sounds? Letters and Sounds is the way we teach phonics skills at Walter Evans as recommended by the Rose Report - a government report on the teaching and learning of children in primary. All children have a daily 15-20 minutes session of phonics teaching to enable them to learn to read and spell words for themselves. It is a six phase programme.

We begin teaching Letters and Sounds in nursery (FS1) – Phase 1 We begin teaching Letters and Sounds in nursery (FS1) – Phase 1. This may involves joining in with rhymes, songs, stories by clapping, stamping etc. Over time, children develop an understanding that words are made up of different sounds (phonemes) and they learn to hear different sounds. Gradually, they will learn to match sounds to letters (graphemes). This is phonic knowledge – they use this when they are reading and writing. In phase 2 and 3 (FS2) children learn to blend and segment different sounds. They learn the letter name and the sound it makes and its formation. By the time they are in year 1 and 2, the children are expected to know by heart all the 44 phonemes (sounds) and to spell them with increasing accuracy. (phases 4-6)

Some examples: Phonics is….. Identifying phonemes as the smallest unit of sound in a word, being able to articulate each one correctly and then learning the corresponding grapheme for each of them! A phoneme is spoken. A grapheme is written.

Blending phonemes Blending phonemes into words for reading Recognising the letter sounds in a written word e.g. c-u-p, sh-ee-p and merging them into the correct order to pronounce the word “cup” and “sheep”

Segmenting Phonemes Segmenting phonemes into words for spelling by identifying the individual sounds in a spoken word, starting with simple CVC words (eg c a t) and writing down letters for each sound (phoneme) to form the word.

Other terminology we use with the children Digraph – where 2 letters make one sound eg aw, or, ch, sh Trigraph – 3 letters make one sound eg igh, air. Split-digraph – two letters that make a sound are split up by another sound eg ate, polite.

Year 1 and 2 revision of phase 3-4 and the introduction of phases 5 to 6. Consolidation of graphemes to represent each phoneme (unit of sound). Using Frequency Words and Tricky Words Introducing alternative graphemes for spellings i.e. may, make, pain, grey, neigh Introduces alternate pronunciations for reading – i.e. mean, bread, break Past and present tense Introduction of prefixes and suffixes – this continues into phase 6 (year 3)

Typical activities Identify (show me on your fingers) how many phonemes in these words: bleed flop cow jumper chair pencil

Buried Treasure There are many online games that your children can play at home. There is a list of useful websites on one of the handouts. This is one of them. buried treasure

Phonics is the step up to word recognition. Automatic reading and spelling of ALL words is the ULTIMATE GOAL!

Useful websites: www.lettersandsounds.com www.getreadingright.com www.bigbrownbear.co.uk www.starfall.com www.yourchildlearns.com www.ictgames.com/literacy.html www.coxhoe.durham.sch.uk/curriculum/literacy.htm www.foniks.org www.phonicsplay.co.uk