Phonics and Early Reading
Phonics and Early Reading
Use the link to the Little Wandle Website for videos and resources on how to support you child with phonics: https://www.littlewandle.org.uk/resources/for-parents/#tabnametabSupportForPhonics
EYFS: Phase 2 – Phase 4
Year 1: Phase 3 and 4 recap, Phase 5
https://vimeo.com/742982775?fl=pl&fe=sh
Phonics Screening Check Year 1
Alien Words: https://youtu.be/VtoJZMVgy1I
Year 2: Phase 5 recap
(see Year 1)
Links to Phonics Games
https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/ Free games: Dragon’s Den, Buried Treasure and Picnic on Pluto – select a phase (see above) for your child to practise
Phonics Vocabulary
Sound → the noise a letter makes rather than the letter name e.g. s = sss not ‘es’
Phoneme → The smallest unit of sound in a word e.g. cat has 3 phonemes c-a-t, ship has 3 phonemes sh-i-p
Grapheme → The letter or letters used to write a sound e.g. the sound ai can be written as: ai (rain), ay (play), a-e (cake)
Blending → Pushing sounds together to read a word e.g. m–a–t → mat, sh–o–p → shop. This is used mainly for reading. See more here: https://youtu.be/IL5YUCPyC5I
Segmenting → Breaking a word into sounds to spell it e.g. dog → d–o–g, fish → f–i–sh. This is used mainly for spelling.
Tricky Words→ Words that cannot be sounded out easily and need to be remembered e.g. the, said, was, you, my (some parts may be decodable, but not all). See more here: https://youtu.be/NTC0PbtmeUA
Digraph →Two letters that make one sound e.g. sh, ch, th, ee, oa
Trigraph → Three letters that make one sound e.g. igh, ear, air
Split Digraph →Two letters that work together but are split by another letter e.g. make (a–e), bike (i–e)
Supporting at Home
Learning Sounds
- Practise letter sounds regularly (not letter names)
- Say the sound and match it to the letter (e.g. “s says sss”)
- Use magnetic letters, foam letters or flashcards
- Spot letters and sounds in names, books, signs and packaging
Blending (Putting Sounds Together)
- Say sounds slowly: c-a-t → cat
- Play “robot talk” and ask children to blend e.g. “Can you find the p-e-g?” or “Can you put your hands on your h-i-p, h-ea-d, l-e-g?”
- Encourage pointing to each sound as they blend.
Segmenting (Breaking Words Apart)
- Say a word and ask children to tell you the sounds e.g. “What sounds can you hear in shop→ sh-o-p?”
- Use fingers or counters for each sound
- Spot sounds
- Build words with letter tiles
Reading Together
- Read little and often
- Encourage children to sound out unknown words
- Re-read familiar books for confidence
- Talk about the story and pictures
Games and Other Ideas
- Word searches
- Spelling bingo
- Hangman
- Write shopping lists together
- Label objects around the house.
- Play “I spy” using sounds e.g. “I spy something beginning with t→ tree, ch→ church”
- Play initial sound games e.g. “I went to the zoo and saw a→ anteater, b→ bear, c→ camel…” “I went to the shop and bought a→ apple, b→ baked beans, c→ carrot…”
- Encourage writing cards, notes or messages