1. Bears and Books An introduction to reading and phonics.
By Miss Clarkson and Mrs Radford

2. Tonight we will…
Consider how to ‘light a fire in (a child’s) belly and ignite a passion for story that makes them want to read’. - Bruce Potts Develop an understanding of Phonics as a skill to support the development of your child’s reading.
Laura

3. Children and their books…
A shower or a bath?

4. How can we support children’s reading development?
Listen to stories together
Share story books, comment on the pictures, join in with repetition, use expression!
Change stories and tell your own
Small world role play with figures
Acting
Sing nursery rhymes (and make up your own)

5. … Discuss vocabulary, alliteration, rhyming words Be a role model
Provide a variety of reading materials- magazines, leaflets, maps, fiction and non- fiction
Give reading a purpose whether it be for enjoyment or reading the shopping list
Read and same story over and over and over and over and over again!

6. Using Phonics to support reading development
Teaching children phonics is not teaching children to read. It is teaching them the skills to decode words in order to read text.
Can you crack the code?

7. What does this say?
ΦΟ∐ 𝛻∿⊍ Ο ⋁ЅϨ⩀∇Ϩ⩊ џΦ⊳⊳Φ
Laura

8. What actually is phonics?
Knowledge of the alphabetic code
Skills of segmentation and blending
Sarah

9. The language of phonics
Phonics is a way of teaching the skills to read, write and spell words based on hearing the sounds in words and matching them to letters and letter patterns.
We use ‘posh’ words such as:
Phoneme (sound)
Grapheme (letter or sequence of letters)
Digraph (2 letters that make 1 sound)
Trigraph (3 letters that make 1 sound)
Segmenting (splitting the word into sounds)
Blending (putting the sounds together to make the word)
Sarah

10. Phoneme A phoneme is the posh word we use for a ‘sound. ‘
The phonemes are the spoken sounds that you can hear within a word.
It is really important that the children are using their phonemes for reading and writing and not the letter names.
e.g. there are three phonemes in the word cat
c – a – t
Sarah

11. Grapheme
A grapheme is the letter or sequence of letters that represent the phoneme (sound).
Sometimes a phoneme can be represented in more than one way.
For example reading or writing the sound for ai could be shown using these graphemes
ai rain
ay day
a_e cake
Sarah

12. Digraphs and Trigraphs
A digraph is a sound that is made up of two letters
e.g. sh as in ship
ch as in chop
or as in thorn
A trigraph is a sound that is made of three letters
e.g. igh as in night
ear as in beard
Sarah

13. Enunciation of the phonemes
In recent years the way that we say some of the sounds has changed.
Some of you may remember the days when the letter ‘m’ was pronounced ‘muh’. Research has shown, however, that this impacts children’s writing and spelling.
When children tried to write the word ‘mat’ they wrote ‘muatu’. This is because they heard the ‘uh’ sound at the end.
Laura

14. Enunciation of the phonemes
Time to sit back and relax for a minute whilst you see a demonstration of how the phonemes are said.
Enunciation of Phonemes Video
Laura

15. Enunciation of the phonemes
Long continuous sounds:
f l m n r s sh v th z
Short sharp unvoiced sounds:
c p t ch h
The hardest to pronounce clearly! Try to keep them short…
b d g w qu y
Laura

16. Phase One – continued throughout Reception
During Phase One practitioners plan activities that will help children to listen attentively to sounds around them, such as the sounds of their toys and to sounds in spoken language. Phase One begins in nursery and continues throughout the six phases.
Environmental sounds – what can you hear? What sound is it like? Let’s make that sound together.
Body percussion
Rhythm and Rhyme
Alliteration
Voice sounds – We’re Going on a Bear Hunt!
Oral blending and segmenting – this is one of the most important skills involved in reading and writing c-u-p cup!
Sarah

17. s a t p i n m d g o c k ck e u r h b f ff l ll ss…
Phase Two
Phonemes are taught in this order
s a t p i n m d g o c k ck e u r h b f ff l ll ss…
Sarah

18. Phase Two
Why do we teach the sounds in this order and not in the order of the alphabet?
Activity time!
Try to make as many vc and cvc words as you can using these sounds:
a b c d e f g h
Sarah

19. Phase Two Share the words.
Now try the same activity using these phonemes:
s a t p i n m d
Sarah

20. Phase Two
Using just these 8 phonemes they can read and write the following words: at
sat
pat
tap it an am
dad is in
man
sad
sit
nip
mat
dim
pan
map
din
pit
pin
Pam
did
pip
tan
Tim
Sid
sip
nap
Sam
and
tip
tin
dip
Sarah

21. Phase Two
Once you teach the next set of phonemes (and after just three weeks) they should be able to read and write the following additional words:
(+g)
(+o)
(+c)
(+k)
tag
got
can
kid
gag on
cot
kit
gig
not
cop
Kim
gap
pot
cap
Ken
nag
top
cat
sag
dog
cod
gas
pop
pig
God
dig
Mog
Sarah

22. Robot Arms
Time to join in…participation is compulsory…your children will love that you know how to do this! It will also help you both when it comes to them spelling words.
hat
bin
fun
ship
chip
goat
nest
jump
Sarah

23. Segmenting
What we have just been doing is something called ‘segmenting’.
This means that we broke down each of the words into their phonemes.
This helps your child when they are trying to write the words they need.
Sarah

24. High Frequency and Tricky Words
There are exceptions to the rules!
There are 300 high frequency (common) words that recur frequently in much of the written material young children read and that they need when they write.
High frequency words have often been regarded in the past as needing to be taught as sight words – to be learnt as visual wholes. The vast majority of these words are, however, decodable once letter sounds have been taught.
Laura

25. High Frequency and Tricky Words
Tricky words are words that have unusual spellings and need to be learned from memory.
It should be noted that when teaching these words, it is important to always start with sounds already known in the word, then focus on the 'tricky' part.
Laura

26. High Frequency and Tricky Words
So why learn them if they are not decodable?
Research has shows that learning just 13 of the most frequently used words will enable children to read 25% of any text.
Learning 100 high frequency words gives a beginner reader access to 50% of virtually any text, whether a children's book or a newspaper report.
When you couple sight recognition of common and tricky words with knowledge of phonics, that's when a child's reading can really take off…
Laura

27. High Frequency and Tricky Words
Phase 2
Decodable words
Tricky words a
had
the an
back to as
and I at
get no if
big go in
him
into is
his it
not of
got
off up on
mum
can
but
dad
put
Laura

28. Nonsense Words (Pseudo Words)
In order to ensure that the children are decoding using their phonics knowledge we introduce nonsense words early on.
The children take part in a Government ‘Phonics Check’ at the end of Year One. This checks their decoding abilities when reading real and nonsense words.
Children who do not pass at the end of Year One retake the check in Year Two.

29. Phase Three Phoneme progression and graphemes continued Set 6: j v w x
Set 7: y z zz qu
We then start teaching the digraphs and trigraphs
Set 8: ch sh th ng
Teach: ai ee igh oa oo ar or ur ow oi ear air ure er
Laura

30. Dots and Dashes speed crayon slight toast broom foil
One of the games that we teach the children during phase 3 is called Dots and Dashes.
When we teach reading during the phonics lesson the children are encouraged to underline the phonemes then blend them together.
speed
crayon
slight
toast
broom
foil
Laura

31. Blending
Congratulations! You now know how to blend the phonemes together to read words.
This is our main strategy when supporting reading and encourage the children to use their finger to point to the phonemes as they read.
We tell the children to read the sounds in the order that they appear rather than by looking for words within words (like we were taught).
When your child reads with you at home, please encourage them to do this in the same way.
Laura

32. Phoneme Frames
Another game we play during phase 3 is called phoneme frames.
The children are encouraged to segment the words (remember your robot arms!) and place them into the correct boxes for writing.
Sarah

33. Phoneme Frames bleed night train sport shout greed
It’s activity time again!
Word
Phonemes
bleed b l ee d
night n
igh t
train r ai
sport s p or
shout sh ou
greed g
Sarah

34. High Frequency and Tricky Words
 Phase 3
Decodable words
Tricky words
will
see
you he
that
for
they
she
this
now
all we
then
down
are me
them
look my be
with
too
her
was
Sarah

35. Phase Four In Phase 4, no new graphemes are introduced.
The main aim of this phase is to consolidate the children's knowledge and to help them learn to read and spell words which have adjacent consonants, such as trap, string and milk.
Phase Four is continued throughout reception.
Sarah

36. High Frequency and Tricky Words
Phase 4
Decodable words
Tricky words
went
said so
she
it’s
some
come
were
from
they
all
are
children
what my
her
just
help
Sarah

37. Summed up Phonics
That’s a glimpse of Phonics from September to Reception Spring Term.
But remember, children will learn to love to read through interaction, experiences, excitement, awe and wonder, expression…
Remember – you use a shower for it’s functional purposes, you bathe for luxury and nurture.

38. “Children who are regularly bathed in the language of carefully crafted stories written by authors who want to move, entertain and inspire are likely to find it easier to create imaginary worlds themselves.”

39. Thank you for coming. If you have any questions, please ask.
Sarah