Phonics and reading at Lovington C of E Primary School

1. Phonics and reading at Lovington C of E Primary School

2. Most important thing – from a very early age… • Talking and Listening • Reading with and to your child • Playing listening games • Singing songs and rhymes • Simple movement games • Without background noise All these things will help to build up connections in the brain, an enjoyment of language and confidence to try things out.

3. PHASE 1 • General sound discrimination • Environmental sounds • Instrumental sounds • Body percussion Listening walks, drumming outdoors, matching sounds, action songs, “Noisy Neighbours”

4. Rhythm and rhyme Rhyming books, “Silly Soup”, rhyming bingo, rhyming pairs, songs and rhymes, odd one out. • Alliteration I spy names, making and naming aliens, Bertie the Bus. • Voice sounds Mouth movements, Metal Mike, Whose voice?, sound lotto, animal sounds, singing songs. • Oral blending and segmenting Toy talk, clapping sounds, “Cross the River”, I spy,

5. PHASE 2 PHONICS • Correct pronunciation – ‘t’ not ‘tuh’ • Correct vocabulary • We all need to use the same language at home and at school. • Little and often is the key. Does not have to be formal. • Link it to your child’s interests.

6. PHONEME • We concentrate on the sound a letter makes not the letter name. This sound is the phoneme. • The smallest unit of sound in a word. • There are 44 phonemes that we teach.

7. Order of the phonemes in Phase 2 • s a t p • i n m d • g o c k • ck e u r • h b f l • ffllss

8. GRAPHEME • Letters representing a phoneme e.g. c ai igh Children need to practise recognising the grapheme and saying the phoneme that it represents.

9. BLENDING • Recognising the letter sounds in a written word, for example c-u-p and merging or ‘blending’ them in the order in which they are written to pronounce the word ‘cup’

10. SEGMENTING • ‘Chopping Up’ the word to spell it out • The opposite of blending • Use your fingers for each phoneme

11. Segment and Blend these words… • drep • blom • gris Nonsense games like this help to build up skills – and are fun!

12. Once children are good with single phonemes… • DIGRAPHS – 2 letters that make 1 sound ll ss zz oa ai • TRIGRAPHS – 3 letters that make 1 sound igh air

13. Segmenting Activity • Use your fingers to say how many phonemes in each word. • shelf • dress • sprint • string

14. Did you get it right? • 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

15. TRICKY WORDS • Words that are not phonically decodeable • e.g. was, the, I • Some are ‘tricky’ to start with but will become decodeable once we have learned the harder phonemes later on • e.g. out, there,

16. Letter formation • As the phonemes are introduced we talk about the shapes of the letters. • We also look at the letter formation and use mnemonics to help us remember. • Writing at this stage is in the air, on our bodies, in the mud, the shaving foam and sometimes on paper.

17. Phase 3 • Once the children are secure with their phonic knowledge of Phase 2 – assessment • More digraphs/trigraphsegur, ai, ear,igh • More challenging tricky words.

18. Word Pyramids • Key words found in front of reading books in Phases for you to help your child practice- a sight vocabulary • Regular reading- in different orders. • Turn into games- snap, pairs, find it

19. Reading • Play lots of sound and listening games with your child. • Read as much as possible with your child. • Encourage and praise – get them to have a ‘good guess’. • Does it sound right? Does it look right? Does that make sense?

20. Reading …continued • Read to your child - a more difficult/variety of texts and talk about the new vocabulary, characters, storyline, information etc • Look at different punctuation • Make it fun! Readers are writers!

21. Useful websites • www.letters-and-sounds.com • www.phonicsplay.co.uk • See handout