Kirsty Chambers (LST at SJS)Elise Draeger (Lead Teacher of Learning Access)

Phonics Fun!

WHAT IS SYNTHETIC PHONICS? Synthetic phonics is the method of

teaching reading and writing by focusing on the letter sounds (phonemes) and how these blend together.

A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound i.e. c-a-t

A grapheme is the way a sound is represented (letter)

i.e. a, b, c

SYNTHETIC PHONICS PROGRAMMES

Synthetic phonics is a popular and worldwide teaching method. There are many different synthetic phonics programmes e.g. Get Reading Right, Jolly Phonics, Letters and Sounds, Letter Land etc.

Differences and similarities are mainly based around sound progression, lesson format, terminology, tools, and games.

However, there is a core essence that is similar. Sound progression is based around how frequently each sound is used in the English language and how words are built:

VC words e.g. at CVC words e.g. fat CCVC words e.g. flat etc.

PROGRESSION OF SOUNDS AND PRONUNCIATION

Note: Exact sound progression varies according to each programme.

1. Start with a small set of initial sounds that can be used to blend and segment words:

at, on, as, sat, pan, pat, cat, cot, tap, mat

2. Other initial sounds:

s m c t g p a o

r l d b f h i uv w y z j n k e

3. DIGRAPHS/TRIGRAPHS

ll ss ff zz

ch sh th (thin) th (this) wh

A digraph is a sound made up of two letters, but makes ONE sound.

A trigraph has 3 letters.

oo(moon)

oo(book)

ar ow oi

ck ng qu x

Other commonly used digraphs:

Commonly used digraphs:

ai ee igh oa ue

ay ey ie ow ew

4. Most commonly used long vowel phonemes:

a-e e-e i-e o-e u-e

ough (o) eigh (a) aw (or) ei (i)

6. Other alternatives/different pronunciations e.g.

5. Magic e/ split e

LONG VOWEL PHONEMES

HOW MANY PHONEMES? Children need to be able to identify the

phonemes in a word in order to blend (read) and segment (write) words.

How many phonemes in these words?cat swim black ring coin

shower chest train chimpanzee

bone

Helpful Teaching

Techniques

ACTIONS AND SONGS (YOUTUBE) HELP AID CHILDREN’S MEMORY OF THE SOUNDS AND CONNECT THE SOUNDS TO WORDS

Let’s have a go!

MULTISENSORY APPROACHUse a range of multisensory materials to help children learn to recognise and form different sounds and words. Provide children with clay, salt dough, shaving

foam, sand/ kinetic sand, glue, playdough, paint etc. and form letters

Use plastic or wooden templates in feely bags for children to touch and guess the letter

Letter threading to support shape recognition Use gel letters to identify sounds, spell words

Jolly Phonics actions and songs (Youtube)

SOUND BUTTONS Sound buttons help children to identify the

sound and act as an aid when blending (examples)map

swimbrick

make

FRIENDLY SOUNDS (DIGRAPHS) A child friendly term and practical way to introduce digraphs through

actions, is by explaining the connection of 2 letters as friends. You can add a short creative story about why the letter friends create their own sound!

Bridges are used to help explain magic/split e and identify this digraph in a word. By adding an e, the vowel sound changes from a short a (mat) to a long a (cake) sound.

KEY ELEMENTS TO A LESSON Review previous sounds (Phonicsplay car race is

fun!) Introduce new sound:

Show pictures Emphasise the sound Show the grapheme Brainstorm words

Read words with focus sound Write words with focus sound Apply/Game

ch

Games, Activities and

Resources

ICT LINKS www.phonicsplay.co.uk (all levels) Phase 1 – sound discrimination games Phase 2 – mainly initial sounds Phase 3 – commonly used digraphs Phase 4 – longer words Phase 5 – alternative spellings to digraphs/ long vowel phonemes Phase 6 – spelling patterns/prefixes/suffixes www.galacticphonics.com Particularly good for games linked to long vowel phonemes – lots of them! www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/ The poem packs are great for introducing long vowel phonemes) www.phonicshero.com

1. Children need to be able to identify between different sounds in the natural environment before applying to words.

2. Distinguishing sounds in words-progression: Initial sounds Final sounds Middle sounds

Sound Discrimination

SOUND DISCRIMINATION 1 Phonics play - ICT games Environmental walk- Listening to and identifying sounds in the

environment. How many can they hear? Circle games: Where’s that sound? (use a noisy instrument such as bells) What’s that sound? Who said that? The Detective Game - using sounds

I hear with my little ear (best done outside) Sound bingo Find me. Children are given the name of an animal e.g. cat, dog, pig and asked

to run/walk around the room. When you call the word ‘animals’ they each make that animal sound and find all the other people making the same sound and form a group. Quickest group wins)

Sound Discrimination 2 I spy with my little eye I spy bottle Phoneme frames Children identify number of phonemes in a given word.

Multilink or fingers – as above. One cube/one finger = one sound Sound talk/talk like a robot – Show a range of pictures or objects –

sound talk the words and children then identify the object e.g. d-u-ck Loop cards – Each card has either 2 pictures, or a word and picture. Sound talk

the word. If a child has the matching picture they then sound talk their word. Repeat until it is back to the first person.

Odd One Out – Say 3 words with a different starting, middle or end sound (tell them what to listen for)

Which is the odd one out?

Blending is the skill of putting sounds together to read words.

Letter Recognition and

Blending

Various ICT games – Good ones: Phonics play:

Trash and Treasure/ Picnic on Pluto/ Dragon’s Den Pick a Picture Make a Match Giggling Graphemes Car Race Sentence substitution

BBC words and pictures: Poem packs introducing e.g. ai, ee, igh

Galactic phonics – (particularly for long vowel phonemes) Bingo Picture belt What’s missing Blur bonanza (Good for more able) Match Up

Phonics Hero various games selecting and picking the correct word

BLENDING GAMES CONTINUED……o Bingo with words or sounds.o Sound buttons – Get the children to place

sound buttons under words.o Cross the river – Create a river using

paper or material. Give each child a sound or word – when you say that sound/word, children cross the river. Several children can have the same sound or word.

o Stepping stones. Another version of cross the river using stepping stones. They can only step on a specified sound in order to cross.

oTreasure hunt – Place coins in a sand tray and children have to find given sounds. Alternatively, they find sounds to spell a given word.

oTrash or Treasure- Real and fake words on coins and placed in a sand tray. Children pull out, blend and sort into trash or treasure (Coins can be printed from Sparklebox)oHidden sounds – Place sounds in different parts of the classroom or playground near items that start with that sound e.g. slide. Call a sound and children find it and run to it.

o Hunt the phoneme- Children have sounds or words on their back and have to find the other class members with the same sound/word.

o What word am I? Child has a hat with a word stuck to it and has to ask questions to work out what their word is.

o Twister – Use or make a twister set with words on. Spin the spinner and children can place a body part on that colour if they can read the word –if not they stay put or hold it in the air!

o Fishing for phonics game – Use sounds or words. You can make your own version!

Inquiry sorting game (long vowel phonemes) – Give children set of cards with words on, spelt with the same sound, but in different ways. Can they read and identify a common phoneme e.g. long a? Sort into groups. Can they spot a rule e.g. ai is usually in the middle of words and ay at the end.

What’s the rule? – Children give the teacher words who sorts them into 2 groups. Children have to identify the rule e.g. magic e or 2 syllables or a particular sound.

Countdown – Speed reading against the clock or timer. How many words can they read?

Odd one out – Show 3 words at a time – blend. Children choose the odd one out (word with a different starting sound or digraph). One point for each correct word.

chip chin shop

Switcharoo (Great game for long vowel phonemes) Pairs game – Using a set of words and pictures, place face

down. Pick one word and blend. Next, try to find the matching picture. Most pairs wins.

Kim’s game. Show a set of word card, stick on board. Children close eyes and take one away – What’s the missing word?

Snakes and Ladders - sounds phonetic words camera words Children must read the word correctly or go back to 0 Roll a word – Three dice with 1. beginning sounds, 2. middle

sounds 3. ending sounds. Roll one of each to create words – is it real or not?

Segmenting is the ability to identify the sounds in words

This can be explained as STRETCHING the word out to hear the individual sounds or by CHOPPING up the word.

Segmenting

Hats – Make hats with sounds. Each child wears a hat and must stand and make the word.

Spell it -As above but with cards Hangman Shannon’s game- As hangman, but letters must

be in order. Odd One Out – Say 3 words and children write

them. Circle the one with a different starting sound or digraph.

Countdown – How many words can they spell in 3 mins?

o Anagrams – Reorder the letters to spell the word (also blending)

o Full Circle at-cat-cap, clap, flap, flip, clip, lip, lit, let, bet, bat, at

o Me first! –Two children back to back. A set word is given e.g. black. The first person who can spell it jumps around and shouts ‘Me first,’ and spells it. Opponent swaps with another challenger if they lose. Child who can spell most words wins.

o Magnetic letters-Spell words using magnetic letters on a whiteboard.

o Spelling arch - Spell words using a letter arch (also helps children learn where letters are in the alphabet)

Letter Circle - Each child has a letter. Using a ball roll to the correct person in order to spell a given word

Thumbs up, thumbs down – Write a word. Ask children if it is spelt correctly- thumb up or thumbs down.

Memory bag – Show items in bag and then hide. Write as many words from the bag as possible.

Picture this – One child reads a given word and draws a picture of it. They show the class and the class has to guess and write the word on their whiteboards.

Pak Man – Spread out around the room. Ask each child to spell a given word. If correct they move one step towards another person. If they can touch them they are out. Last one standing wins.

Sound pots – Give children 2/3 pots and sort the objects correctly and spell. (Can also be a sound discrimination game)

Three in a row – Each child chooses a tricky word and uses it to play a version of noughts and crosses.

Stepping stones – Children step on the correct letters to spell a word and cross the river.

Various ICT games – good ones (spelling link): Phonics play:

Investigating alternative spellings (Phase 5-brilliant for learning about long vowel phonemes)

BBC words and pictures: Sandcastle game (choose the correct spelling of a phoneme) The Whirlyword Machine Write a postcard (focuses on spelling of vowel phonemes)

Galactic phonics – (particularly for long vowel phonemes) Tile tap Anagrams Word attack Grapheme Cloud

Remember:

Have fun with

phonics!