1. What is phonics?
Phonics is a systematic and synthetic approach that supports children to read and write quickly and skilfully. They are taught how to:
recognise the sounds that each individual letter makes
identify the sounds that different combinations of letters make - such as ‘sh’ or ‘oo’
blend these sounds together from left to right to make a word
segment the sounds in a word e.g dog d-o-g

2. Phonics Screening Test
All children at the end of Year 1
Tested by class teacher
40 words
Real and nonsense words (indicated with an alien). Children practise reading these often- they know if there is no alien it needs to make sense!
Last year 32 words to pass
Retested in Year 2 if not passed in Year 1
Decoding words that contain sounds and strategies learned NOT understanding

3. Why do we use phonics to teach reading and writing?
Research shows that when phonics is taught in a structured way – starting with the easiest sounds and progressing through to the most complex – it is the most effective way of teaching young children to read and write.

4. Graphemes= written sound (graph)
Phoneme= spoken sound (phone)
Segment= breaking up words into their individual sounds so that we can spell a word
Blend = putting individual sounds together so that we can read a word
We will look at all the sounds we teach- many have more than one pronunciation!

5. Digraph = two letters that make one sound
Trigraph = three letters that make one sound
Tricky words
Sound buttons

6. Showing an awareness of rhyme and alliteration.
Distinguishing between sounds in the environment.
Exploring and experimenting with sounds and words.
Beginning to orally blend and segment phonemes.

7. Phase 2
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, l
Set 6: ff, ll, ss
Phase 2 tricky words: I, no, go, to, the

8. Phase 3 Set 7: j, v, w, x Set 8: y, z, zz, qu
Consonant digraphs: ch, sh, th, ng
Vowel digraphs: ai, ee, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, ow, oi, er
Trigraph: igh, ear, air, ure
Phase 3 tricky words: he, she, we, be, was, you , they, all, are, my, her

9. Phase 4
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 and two syllable words.
Phase 4 tricky words: have, like, so, do, some, come, were, there, little, one, when, out, what.

10. A lesson is about 20 minutes in length.
Phonics in School!
Revisit
Teach
Apply
Practise
A lesson is about 20 minutes in length.

11. Revisit
The children will play a quick fire game to practise something they have learned before and help build their confidence.

12. Teach
The children will be taught a new phoneme/grapheme or a new skill - this will be taught in a fun multisensory way and may well involve: songs, actions, pictures, puppets, writing giant letters in the air.

13. Practise
The children play fast, fun games to practise the new thing they have just learned. This might be splat, bingo, sorting words in a variety of ways to give just a few examples.

14. Apply
The children will have a quick go at reading or writing sentences that involve the new thing they have just learned.

15. Mr Thorne

16. a a

17. s

18. t

19. p

20. i

21. n

22. m

23. d

24. g

25. o

26. c

27. k

28. ck

29. e

30. u

31. r

32. h

33. b

34. f

35. ff

36. l

37. ll

38. ss

39. ch

40. sh

41. th

42. ng

43. ai

44. ee

45. igh

46. oa

47. oo

48. ar

49. or

50. ur

51. ow

52. oi

53. ear

54. air

55. ure

56. er

57. ay

58. oy

59. wh

60. ou

61. ir

62. ph

63. ie

64. ue

65. ew

66. ea

67. aw

68. oe

69. au

70. a-e

71. i-e

72. e-e

73. o-e

74. u-e

75. Strategies for reading
Sound buttons
Robot arms
shop

76. cloud

77. fight

78. cake

79. Consonants
a, e, i, o, u – every other letter in the alphabet is a consonant
When words contain two or more of these letters next to one another they need to be squeezed together
fright

80. stink

81. strip

82. Polysyllabic words
Words with more than one syllable eg happy (clapping can help!)
Encourage the children to split the words into two parts (segment and blend, then combine)
Look for words within words eg tonight

83. blender

84. children

85. helpdesk

86. How can I support blending skills?
Try breaking down simple words when you are giving instructions or asking questions, such as
“Can you find your h-a-t (hat)?”
“Where is the c-a-t (cat)?”
“Sit on the s-ea-t (seat).”
Find real objects around your home and practise ‘sound talk’. First, just let them listen, then see if they will join in, for example, saying:
“I spy a p-e-g – peg.”
“I spy a c-u-p – cup.”
When reading, encourage children to say each phoneme and begin to say them more quickly. If they are finding it tricky, model blending the word.

87. Strategies for spelling
Segment the sounds and count.
Write the sounds into a phoneme frame eg cat, frog

88. Using phonic knowledge to write…
Children will use their segmenting skills to break a word down into the phonemes they can hear
e.g c-a-t, s-o-ck
Robot arms can be useful!

89. Tricky words Some words cannot be sounded out
These words must be learned by sight
You can take home a copy of these.

90. How many phonemes are in the word cat?
How many phonemes in the word sock?
How many graphemes in the word sock?
Can you write a word with one digraph in?
Can you write a word with a trigraph in?

91. Activities to try at home!
Splat the letter!
Box of sounds
Sound sorting
Bucket of sounds
What’s in the box?
Tricky word bingo
Run to the word
Silly sentences
Quick write
Countdown
Splat the letter! Write graphemes on individual pieces of paper/post its, you say a letter sound and your child splats the correct grapheme with a fly swat!
Box of sounds- place cards with letters on in to a box. Children choose a letter and say the sound it makes.
Sound sorting- gather a selection of objects from around the house and sort them in to tubs labelled with the letter sound that the object begins with.
Bucket of sounds – Label 3 or 4 buckets or ice cream tubs with a grapheme on each, say a sound and your child throws a ball in to the matching bucket and says the sound
What’s in the box? Place ‘post its’ with simple words on, in to a box or bag. Children choose a word, sound talk it and blend the sounds to read the word. They could then match this to a picture or an object. Children choose a picture from the box, sound talk it, they could match it to a word, or have a go at writing the word.
Common word bingo- write 4 common words on a piece of paper, then write them and a few more on to ‘post its’, place in to a bag. The bingo caller says a word then your child crosses it off, if they have a matching one, on their bingo board. Start off with the bingo caller showing them the word, then see if they can identify the word without it being shown.
Run to the word- write 4 words on separate pieces of paper, or write them in chalk outside. You ‘sound talk’ a word and your child runs to the word and reads the word by blending the sounds together.
Silly sentences – Choose a word or picture and make up a silly sentence using that word.
Quick write- say a letter sound and your child has a go at writing the letters that make the sound.
Countdown- make a list of words. See if your child can sound talk, blend and read them before the time runs out on an egg timer.

92. Useful Websites Oxford phonics screening www.phonicsplay.co.uk
literacy based games