1. Phonics: what’s it all about?
Supporting your child’s reading skills

2. What is phonics?
Phonics is children learning to differentiate sounds and understanding that those sounds can be recorded by writing letters in a specific order.
To be ready to learn which letters make which sounds, children need to be able to:
Hear sounds in words and segment them
Put sounds together to say a word
Discriminate between different sounds
Play with rhyme and alliteration

3. Terminology Grapheme- the written letters which make a phoneme
Phoneme- a sound
Letter name- the way a letter is named (as in the ABC song)
Syllables- a unit of pronunciation
Digraph- when 2 letters make 1 sound
Trigraph- when 3 letters make 1 sound
Segment- breaking a word into it’s phonemes
Blend- put the phonemes together to say the whole word

4. How do we teach all of this?
The teaching is broken down into phases: Phase 1- sound play and discrimination Phase 2-linking single letters to sounds (strong reading focus) to read 2 and 3 letter words and learning some common tricky words that will not ‘sound out’ Phase 3- linking digraphs to sounds to read words with 3 phonemes and learning more tricky words Phase 4- learning to read words with 4 phonemes and spelling with increased independence

5. The emphasis is on letter recognition to support reading
Phase 2
Reception starts with Phase 2. Children are taught that each letter has a phoneme and that when phonemes are together they make a word. This year we are using ‘cued articulation’ to support pronunciation.
Children also learn to read tricky words: I, to, no, go, the
The emphasis is on letter recognition to support reading

6. Phase 3
When the children are secure with the majority of Phase 2, they start Phase 3.
They begin to learn digraphs to support reading and should be encouraged to correctly spell simple words with increasing accuracy, using a phoneme mat to support.
Children also learn to read more tricky words: he, she, we, me, be, you, are, all, her, was, they, my and spell those from phase 2
The emphasis is on extending letter recognition to support reading and to spell simple words with increasing accuracy

7. Phase 3
During phase 3, children are taught that a word may have a different number of phonemes than letters.
For example- burger
How many letters?
How many phonemes?
Children also learn to read more tricky words: he, she, we, me, be, you, are, all, her, was, they, my

8. Parent power! How can you help at home?
Practise the phonemes your child is learning (Can they find the grapheme when you say the phoneme? Can they say the phoneme when shown the grapheme?)
Use the graphemes to make simple words, both ‘real’ and ‘alien/made up’ words (words with 2 or 3 phonemes)
Practise reading the tricky words on sight (say it quickly as it will not ‘sound out’)
Reading regularly (school books, personal books, comics, magazines- anything!) to show the importance of becoming a reader
Orally practise segmenting and blending words just for fun- It’s time for b-e-d! Get your h-a-t.

9. Parent power!
Most importantly- HAVE FUN! If your child enjoys learning it will be easier to learn all of the graphemes and phonemes. REMEMBER: all children learn at different rates so this is supported in school through differentiated groups which are helping children to learn at different paces. DO: Play games and use the internet wisely! Check the school’s website for ideas and remember to show us what your child can do at home via the learning book. Thank you for coming and please speak to us if you have any other questions.