1. Welcome to the Year One Phonics Workshop

2. What is phonics?
Taken from the Government ‘Learning to read through phonics’ information sheet for parents.
Phonics is a way of teaching children to read skillfully. 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’; and
blend those sounds together from left to right to make a word.
Children can then use this knowledge to ‘decode’ new words that they see or hear. This is the first important step to learning to read.

3. Why do we teach it?
Research shows that when phonics is taught in a structured way – beginning with the easiest sounds and progressing through to the most complex – it is the most effective way of teaching young children to read. It is particularly helpful for children aged 5 to 7.
We start our phonics teaching in the nursery where the children are encouraged to listen to lots of different words and hear their individual sounds. For example an adult may say “put your hands on your h ea d and the children will hear the word head. The children will also be encouraged to break words into sounds themselves, for example the child may be asked to say the word cat like a robot-the child will say c a t this is called oral blending and segmenting. No letter shapes will be taught in the early stages-it’s all about listening.
It is in the Reception and Year One classes where the children are taught to recognise the sounds that individual letters and different combinations of letters can make.

4. The first sounds we learn…

5. Moving on to….

6. And finally…

7. How are the sounds pronounced?
The following video clip will show you how the different sounds are pronounced-these sounds are called phonemes. The letters that represent the sounds are called graphemes.
Articulation of Phonemes – YouTube
Now let’s practise reading the different sound combinations.

8. THE PHONICS SCREEN CHECK The phonics screening check is a short and simple assessment of phonic decoding. It consists of a list of 40 words, half of them are real words and half are alien (nonsense) words, which Year 1 children read to a teacher. The assessment usually takes between four and nine minutes per child and it is presented to the children as a GAME (not a test!) The purpose is to identify any children who need extra help so they are given additional support by their school to improve their reading skills. If necessary the children will be able to retake the check in year 2. The phonics screen takes place in all state schools in Year 1 (usually in June) and for children in year 2 who did not meet the year 1 standard.

9. Now the children from Caterpillar Class will show you some of the ways they learn phonics in Year one…