what is phonics?406425]year_1_… · phase 4 (year r/1) phase 4 is consolidation of children’s...

•Children are taught to read by breaking downwords into separate sounds or ‘phonemes’. Theyare then taught how to blend these soundstogether to read the whole word.

•Children have a phonics lesson each day and they are encouraged to use these strategies to read and write in other lessons.

•There are around 44 different sounds.

What is phonics?

In phonics lessons, children learn how to identify phonemes, using sound buttons (beans and sausages)

For example, d o g th a t

How many phonemes do you think there are in

l a d d e r ?

Phase 1 There are 7 aspects

A1 – Environmental

A2 – Instrumental sounds

A3 – Body Percussion

A4 – Rhythm and rhyme

A5 – Alliteration

A6 – Voice sounds

A7 – Oral blending and segmenting.

Phase 2 (Reception)

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

Phase 3 (Reception)

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.

Phase 4 (Year R/1)

Phase 4 is consolidation of children’sknowledge.

Children also move on to blending andsegmenting using adjacentconsonants, e.g. st, sp, tr, br, spr, strin words such as string, blow, train.

Phase 5 (Year 1)

Children will be taught new graphemes

They will be taught alternative pronunciations

for some graphemes.

Digraphs (including vowel digraphs)

wh, ph, ay, ou, ie, ea, oy, ir, ue, aw, ew, oe, au

Split digraphs (formerly known as magic e)

a_e, e_e, i_e, o_e, u_e

They will learn alternative ways of spelling the phonemes they have already learnt.

They will learn strategies to help them choose the correct grapheme for spelling.

Phase 6 (Year 2)

Phase 6 is mainly taught as children progressthrough year 2 .

They learn more spelling patterns such asthe use of prefixes and suffixes, contractedforms of words (e.g. can’t, won’t) and otherwords in common usage such as days of theweek.

They can decode words quickly and silently and only need to sound out longer or more unfamiliar words.

How many phonemes?

•Every Year 1 child in the country will betaking the phonics screening check inthe same week in June.

•The check is designed to confirmwhether individual children have learntsufficient phonic decoding and blendingskills to an appropriate standard.

Why are the children being screened?

•The check is very similar to tasks thechildren already complete duringphonics lessons.

•Children will be asked to ‘sound out’and read a word and blend the soundstogether e.g. d-o-g dog

•The focus of the check is to seewhich sounds the children know andtherefore the children will be asked toread nonsense ‘alien’ words.

What will the children be expected to do?

Examples of words

•The screening will take placethroughout one week in June. Thechildren cannot retake the test at anyother time so it is very important yourchild is in school during this week.

•The check has been designed so thatchildren of all abilities will be able totake part.

When will the screening take place?

•The children will complete the checkone at a time in a quiet area of theschool.

•A teacher will conduct all of thescreening checks with the children.

•The screening will only take 5-10minutes with each child.

How will the check be carried out?

•Encourage your child to ‘sound out’ whenreading or writing unfamiliar words. Focus onspotting more unusual sound patterns. E.g.

Digraph- 2 letters making one sound

cow

Trigraphs- 3 letters making one sound

night

Split digraphs- 2 vowels with a consonant in between. (Use to be known as the magic e!)

spine - i_e

How can you help?

•Use the sound mat regularly to recap thesounds and discuss alternativepronunciations.

•Encourage your child to use their soundmat when writing at home.

•Children can practise their phonics byplaying games online.

How can you help?

Turn your child’s favourite game into an opportunity to practise phonics.

How can you help?

How can you help?

Other resources – for children

https://www.phonicsbloom.com/

https://www.purplemash.com/#tab/pm-home/literacy/phonics

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/english-games/5-7-years/letters-and-sounds

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk

Other resources – for parents

https://www.gov.uk/search/all?keywords=phonics+screening&order=relevance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PceXI-J8S2Y

Printable resources, games and ideas

Phoneme articulation for phase 5 is available on

https://www.liphookinfantschool.co.uk/curriculum/english__phonics_spelling_books_/subject_resources_and_games.html

Past screening checks are available on

Common Errors

• Confusing p, b, d, q

• Not recognising split digraphs

• Failure to blend the word after sounding out e.g. th-or-n

• Misreading longer words.

• Visually swapping the order of the letters e.g. strom not storm.

• Making alien words into real words