PHONICS

At Hunnyhill, we believe that reading and writing skills form the foundations for much of the learning we do throughout the school.

In EYFS and KS1, the children follow the Letters & Sounds Phonics program, which teaches them to recognise sounds and to blend them together in order to read new words. Through using their 'Fred fingers' children are also taught to segment (break up) the words into sounds when they are trying to spell.

We also teach some tricky words, known as Common Exception Words like 'they' and 'were', which cannot be broken up into individual sounds and so through their English Lessons and in Letters & Sounds, children are gradually introduced to these words and given regular chances to practise reading them.

Letters and Sounds is taught every day in Reception and Year 1, and where appropriate, in year 2.

The aim is to increase children's confidence and enjoyment in reading, inspiring them to continue to practise reading outside of our Letters & Sounds sessions. In addition, children are given carefully matched reading books that provide them with opportunities to practise reading any new sounds in context.

The Letters and Sounds programme is divided into six phases, with each phase building on the skills and knowledge of previous learning. There are no big leaps in learning. Children have time to practise and rapidly expand their ability to read and spell words.

Please find below, details of what is taught in each phase of Letters & Sounds and how you could help at home.

Phase 1

This paves the way for systematic learning of phonics. Teachers plan activities that will help children to listen attentively to sounds around them, such as the sounds of their toys and to sounds in spoken language. Teachers teach a wide range of nursery rhymes and songs. They read good books to and with the children. This helps to increase the number of words they know – their vocabulary – and helps them talk confidently about books.

Ways you can support your children at home

Learning how to ‘sound-talk’

The teacher shows children how to do this – c-a-t = cat. The separate sounds (phonemes) are spoken aloud, in order, all through the word, and are then merged together into the whole word. The merging together is called blending and is a vital skill for reading.

Children will also learn to do this the other way around – cat = c-a-t. The whole word is spoken aloud and then broken up into its sounds (phonemes) in order, all through the word. This is called segmenting and is a vital skill for spelling.

This is all oral (spoken). Your child will not be expected to match the letter to the sound at this stage. The emphasis is on helping children to hear the separate sounds in words and to create spoken sounds.

Ways you can support your children at home

Phase 2

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 letters (graphemes), which phoneme is represented by which grapheme and that a phoneme can be represented by more than one letter, for example, /ll/ as in b-e-ll.

VC and CVC words

C and V are abbreviations for ‘consonant’ and ‘vowel’. VC words are words consisting of a vowel then a consonant (e.g. am, at, it) and CVC words are words consisting of a consonant then a vowel then a consonant (e.g. cat, rug, sun). Words such as tick and bell also count as CVC words – although they have four letters, they have only three sounds. For example, in the word bell, b = consonant, e = vowel, ll = consonant.

Now the children will be seeing letters and words, as well as hearing them. They will be shown how to make whole words by pushing magnetic letters together to form words, reading words on the interactive whiteboard and breaking up words into individual sounds, which will help their spelling. These will be simple words made up of two phonemes, for example, am, at, it, or three phonemes, for example, cat, rug, sun, tick, bell.

Tricky words

They will also learn several tricky words: the, to, I, go, no. Children will still be practising oral blending and segmenting skills daily. They need plenty of practice at doing this.

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Saying the sounds

Your child will be taught how to pronounce the sounds (phonemes) correctly to make blending easier. Sounds should be sustained where possible (e.g. sss, fff, mmm) and, where this is not possible, ‘uh’ sounds after consonants should be reduced as far as possible (e.g. try to avoid saying ‘buh’, ‘cuh’). Teachers help children to look at different letters and say the right sounds for them.

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Ways you can support your children at home

Getting ready for writing

At Hunnyhill School we will model how to form letters (graphemes) correctly, so that children can eventually acquire a fluent and legible handwriting style. These skills develop over a long period of time. A child’s ability to form a letter correctly is a separate skill from phonics. Holding a pen or pencil needs considerable co-ordination and practice in making small movements with hands and fingers.

In the early phonic phases children can use letter cards or magnetic letters to demonstrate their knowledge of phonics.

Writing in lower-case letters

We shall be teaching lower-case letters, as well as capital letters. As most writing will be in lowercase letters it is useful if you can use these at home. A good start is for your child to write their name correctly, starting with a capital letter followed by lower-case letters.

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Ways you can support your children at home

Using their whole body

For handwriting children need to be well co-ordinated through their whole body, not just their hands and fingers. Games that help co-ordination include throwing balls at a target, under-arm and overarm, and bouncing balls – also skipping on the spot, throwing a Frisbee, picking up pebbles from the beach and throwing them into the sea. Have fun!

Hand and finger play

Action rhymes such as ‘Incy wincy spider’, ‘One potato, two potato’ and ‘Tommy Thumb’ are great fun and get their hands and fingers moving. Playing with salt dough or clay really helps strengthen little fingers, as does cookery and using simple toolkits.

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Hand–eye co-ordination

Pouring water into jugs and cups of different sizes, sweeping up with a dustpan and brush, cutting, sticking, tracing, threading beads, completing puzzles, peeling off stickers and sticking them in the right place – these all help hand–eye co-ordination.

Pencil hold

The ‘pincer’ movement needs to be practised. This is important as it enables children to hold a pencil properly as they write. Provide them with kitchen tongs and see if they can pick up small objects. Move on to challenging them to pick up smaller things, for example, little cubes, sugar lumps, dried peas, lentils, first with chopsticks, then with tweezers.

Ask children to peg objects to a washing line.

Provide plenty or different types of pen and pencil; hold their hand to practise the correct grip

Phase 3

The purpose of this phase is to:

• 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.

CVC words containing graphemes made of two or more letters

Here are some examples of words your children will be reading: tail, week, right, soap, food, park, burn, cord, town, soil.

Their confidence from the daily experience of practising and applying their phonic knowledge to reading and writing is really paying off!

Tricky words

The number of tricky words is growing. These are so important for reading and spelling: he, she, we, me, be, was, my, you, her, they, all.

Phase 4

Children continue to practise previously learned graphemes and phonemes and learn how to read and write:

CVCC words: tent, damp, toast, chimp

For example, in the word ‘toast’, t = consonant, oa = vowel, s = consonant, t = consonant. and CCVC words: swim, plum, sport, cream, spoon For example, in the word ‘cream’, c = consonant, r = consonant, ea = vowel, m = consonant. They will be learning more tricky words and continuing to read and write sentences together. Tricky words said, so, do, have, like, some, come, were, there, little, one, when, out, what

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Ways to support your child at home:

Ways to support your child at home: Reading at home

Ways to support your child at home: Writing Together

Ways to support your child at home: what to do if your child is reluctant to read or
write at home

Phase 2

In Phase 2, letters and their sounds are introduced one at a time. A set of letters is taught each week, in the following sequence:
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
 

Tricky words

• the,

• to

• I

• go

• no

Phase 3
 

By the time they reach Phase 3, children will already be able to blend and segment words containing the 19 letters taught in Phase 2.
Set 6: j, v, w, x
Set 7: y, z, zz, qu
Consonant digraphs: ch, sh, th, ng
Vowel digraphs: ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, ure, er
 

Tricky words
During Phase 3, the following tricky words (which can't yet be decoded) are introduced:
 he
 she
 we
 me
 be
 was
 you
 they
 all
 are
 my
 her
 

Phase 4
 

In Phase 4, no new graphemes are introduced. The main aim of this phase is to consolidate the children's knowledge and to help them learn to read and spell words which have adjacent consonants, such as trap, string and milk.
 

Tricky words
During Phase 4, the following tricky words (which can't yet be decoded) are introduced:
 said
 have
 like
 so
 do
 some
 come
 were
 there
 little
 one
 when
 out
 what
With practice, speed at recognising and blending graphemes will improve. Word and spelling knowledge will be worked on extensively.
 

Phase 5
 

In Phase Five, children will learn more graphemes and phonemes. For example, they already know ai as in rain, but now they will be introduced to ay as in day and a-e as in make.
Alternative pronunciations for graphemes will also be introduced, e.g. ea in tea, head and break.
 

Tricky words
During Phase 5, the following tricky words (which can't yet be decoded) are introduced:
 oh
 their
 people
 Mr
 Mrs
 looked
 called
 asked
 could