1. Information for Parents & Carers Foundation Stage
Letters and Sounds
Information for Parents & Carers
Foundation Stage

2. Phonics at a glance Phonics is… Skills of segmentation and blending
Knowledge of the alphabetic code.

3. Phonics Consists of: Identifying sounds in spoken words
Recognising the common spellings of each phoneme.
Blending phonemes into words for reading.
Segmenting words into phonemes for spelling.

4. Blending (for reading)
Recognising the letter sounds in a written word e.g c-u-p sh-ee-p.
Merging them into the correct order to pronounce the word cup and sheep.

5. Segmenting (for spelling)
‘Chopping Up’ the word to spell it out
The opposite of blending
Identifying the individual sounds in a spoken word (e.g. h-i-m , s-t-or-k) and writing down letters for each sound (phoneme) to form the word him and stork

6. Once children are good with single phonemes…
DIGRAPHS – 2 letters that make 1 sound
ar ss oo oa ai
TRIGRAPHS – 3 letters that make 1 sound
igh dge

7. Segmenting Activity
Using ‘sound buttons’ can you say how many phonemes are in each word.
shelf
dress
sprint
string

8. shelf = sh – e – l – f = 4 phonemes
dress = d - r - e – ss = 4 phonemes
sprint = s – p – r – i – n – t = 6 phonemes
string = s – t – r – i – ng = 5 phonemes

9. Tricky Words Words that are not phonically decodable e.g. was, the, I
Some are ‘tricky’ to start with but will become decodable once we have learned the harder phonemes
e.g. out, there,

10. How many phonemes can you hear in
To clarify…
A Phoneme
This is the smallest unit of sound in a word.
How many phonemes can you hear in
cat?

11. A Grapheme
These are the letters that represent the phoneme.
The grapheme could be 1 letter, 2 letters or more! We refer to these as sound buttons.
t ai igh

12. How to say the sounds
Saying the sounds correctly with your child is extremely important
The way we say sound may well be different from when you were at school
We say the shortest form of the sounds

13. Phase 1-6 – taught throughout FS and KS1
The ‘Letters and Sounds’ document is split into 6 distinct phases. Jolly Phonics is taught alongside Letters and Sounds.
Phase 1-6 – taught throughout FS and KS1

14. Phase 2 (Reception 6 wks)
In this phase children will continue practising what they have learned from phase 1, including ‘sound-talk’. They will also be taught the phonemes (sounds) for a number of graphemes (letters), which phoneme is represented by which grapheme and that a phoneme can be represented by more than one letter. They will be using the Jolly Phonics pictures and hand movements to help them remember these.
VC and CVC words

15. Letter sets (phase 2 up to 6wks )
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, ff, l, ll, ss,

16. Phase 3
teach more graphemes, most of which are made of two letters, for example, ‘oa’ as in boat
practise blending and segmenting a wider set of CVC words, for example, fizz, chip, sheep, light
learn all letter names and begin to form them correctly
read more tricky words and begin to spell some of them
read and write words in phrases and sentences.

17. Graphemes:
ear, air, ure, er, ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ai, ee, igh, oa, oo
Consonant digraphs:
ch, sh, th, ng.
Letter Progression:
Set 6 - j, v, w, x
Set 7 - y, z, zz, qu

18. Ongoing Learning
Blending for reading and segmenting for spelling simple and more complex words.
Understanding that words are constructed from phonemes and that phonemes are represented by graphemes.

19. Phase 4 ( Reception/Year 1 up to 6wks )
This is a consolidation unit. There are no new graphemes to learn. Reading and spelling of tricky words continues.
Segmenting sounds in words and applying this in spelling.
Blending sounds in words and applying this skill when reading unfamiliar texts.

20. Differentiation Recap over sounds previously learnt
The children always work within the phase appropriate to their level of learning.
Whole Class/Set work
Recap over sounds previously learnt
Introduce new sound
Phonic based activity (word building, segmenting words, letters and sounds game)
Group work
Appropriate to the level your child is working at

21. Grapheme Key Vocabulary
Digraph - 2 letters making one sound ( ai, ee, oo)
Trigraph - 3 letters making one sound ( igh , ear)
Split diagraph - Where the two letters are not adjacent a-e (cake) e-e (scene) i-e (like) o-e (home) u-e (cube) y-e (type)

22. How can I help? Sing the Jolly Phonics songs - youtube Play ‘I spy’
Continue to play with magnetic letters, using some two-grapheme (letter) combinations, eg: r-ai-n = rain blending for reading
rain = r-ai-n segmenting for spelling
Praise your child for trying out words
Look at tricky words
Look for phonic games
Play pairs with words and pictures

23. And most importantly ENJOY READING!
REMEMBER: Phonics is not the only thing needed to become a fluent reader.
Please continue to read with your child each night and encourage them to:
Sound out
Re-read to check it makes sense.
Use pictures for clues.
Ask questions about the book.
And most importantly ENJOY READING!

24. Useful web sites

25. Have a go!
Please feel free to have a go at some of the activities that your children enjoy in their phonic sessions.
Thank you.