A Guide to Phonics at

Pennyhill Primary School

Joe the Crow

What is phonics?
Phonics is simply the system of relationships between letters and
sounds in a language. When your child learns that the letter b has the
sound of /b/ or c and h together make one sound /ch/ they are
learning phonics.

Why is phonics important?
Learning phonics will help your children learn to read and spell. Written
language can be compared to a code, so knowing the sounds of letters
and letter combinations will help your child decode words as he or she
reads and writes.
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To learn to read well children must be
able to smoothly blend sounds
together. Showing your child how to
blend is important. Model how to push
sounds together without stopping at
each individual sound.

Segmenting is a skill used in spelling.
Eg. In order to spell the word c-a-t we
need to pull the word apart, sounding
each individual sound.
Letters and Sounds
Letters and Sounds is a fun and interactive way to support children in
learning how to read and write. Initially for the children to learn their
sounds we use Jolly Phonics actions. Jolly phonics represents each
sound with an action helping children to remember both more easily.

The alphabet contains only 26 letters. Spoken English uses about 42
sounds (phonemes) These sounds are represented by letters
(graphemes). For example, a sound is represented by a letter (s or g)
or a group of letters (ch sh igh)
h igh

Once children begin learning sounds, they are used quickly to read and spell words.
Children can then see the purpose of learning sounds. For this reason, the first six
letters that are taught are s, a, t, p, i, n,. These can be immediately used to make a
number of words, such as sat, pin, pat, tap, nap

As a parent, your involvement in supporting your childs learning will be a vital
factor in determining their success in learning to read.

cat

sh op

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Nursery
In Nursery the children work on Phase One of the Letters and Sounds
programme .
The aim of this phase is to foster childrens speaking and listening skills
as preparation for learning to read with phonics. They listen to sounds
all around, such as the sounds their toys make, the sound of cars
outside, the sounds that instruments make and then the sounds in
spoken language.
Parents play a vital role in helping their children develop these
skills, by encouraging them to listen carefully to sounds all around
them and talk about what they hear, see and do.

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Young children need to have an adult to talk to
them and listen to them. So everyday activities
such as preparing meals, tidying up, putting
shopping away offer you the chance to talk to
your child, explaining what you are doing.
Through these activities children hear the way
language is put together into sentences.

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Activity ideas
Play What do we have here?
Put some toys or objects in a bag and pull one out at a time.
Emphasise the first sound of the name of the toy or object by
repeating it,
for example cccc - car bbbb box, ch ch ch - cheese

Try Tongue Twisters!
Say A tall tin of tomatoes! Tommy the ticklish teddy
Milo makes music Lenny likes lollipops

Try Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

Play Sound Talk
Play games like Simon says and separate the sounds in each word
and say them aloud in order.
E.g. Simon says put your hand on your h-ea-d,
Simon says touch your ch-i-n
See if your child can guess what you have said.

Reception
In Reception, the children work on Phase Two to Phase 4 of the Letters
and Sounds programme. Children will continue to practise the skills they
have learned in Phase One and begin to learn the following:-
How to represent each of the 42 sounds by a letter or sequence of
letters.
How to blend sounds together for reading and how to segment (split)
words for spelling.
Letter names- to know the difference between letter sound and name
(using the alphabet song.)
How to read and spell some tricky words
(E.g. I, to, no, go, the- which cannot be be
sounded out.)

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The Letters and Sounds programme progresses
through the phases when each child is ready to do so.
However most children are expected to be secure
on Phase 3 and some children secure on Phase 4
by the end of Reception.
Activity Ideas
Make little words together using the sounds in the childrens word
boxes and practise sounding each letter aloud by pressing an
imaginary button underneath each letter sound. You should also
include nonsense words to blend to read .
E.g. b u p ch op th i ng

Writing activities- hand and finger play- write big letter sounds in
the air and say the sound aloud or use play dough to make letter
shapes.
Practise throwing things into a target, threading, colouring carefully
to improve hand eye co-ordination.
Look out for words on packaging and signs all around you e.g milk,
jam, fish and chips, bus stop, etc. Encourage children to look all
around for sounds or words.
Always praise children for trying even if they seem
to get it wrong FUN and CONFIDENCE is vital.

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Moving to Year 1
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In Year 1 the children work towards Phase Five of the
programme. They will continue to practise sounds and
activities from Phase Two, Three and Phase Four and will
then learn new ways of representing each sound. They will
practise blending to read and segmenting (splitting) for
spelling.
They will practise reading the tricky words from Phase Five
and spelling all of the tricky words from
Phase Two- Four.
Year 1 Reading Test
All children will take a Reading Test during the summer term.
This is a National test to check each childs phonic decoding
skills. Parents will be notified of the test results.
Children will read a selection of words to show their ability to use
the sounds they have learned when decoding words independently.
Many of the words in the test will be pseudo-words (not real
words e.g. tord, quemp, stroft) as this shows their ability to
decode the sounds they have learned.

In Year 2 and beyond the children work towards Phase Six of the
programme. During this Phase children become fluent readers and
increasingly accurate spellers.
Good phonics knowledge and skills help your child to read words
fluently and spell words, but they need to understand what they
are reading and understand the processes and purposes for
writing too.
Parents help is vital here.
Year 2
Those children who do not achieve
the required national standard in the
Reading Test at the end of Year 1
will work towards retaking the test
at the end of Year2. Parents will be
notified of these results.
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The Sounds
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Phase 2- s, a, t, p, i, n, m, d, g, o, c, k, ck, e,
u, r, h, b, f, ff, l, ll, ss
Phase 3- j, v, w, x, y, z, zz, qu, sh, ch, th, th,
ng, ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, oo, or, ar, ur, ow, oi, air,
ear, ure, er
Phase 4- begin to read words with adjacent consonants either
at the beginning or end e.g. bl, cl, pl, sl, sp, tr, st, nd, mp, nt, nk
Phase 5- ay, ou, ie, ea, oy, ir, ue, aw, wh,
ph, ew, oe, au, a-e, e-e, i-e, o-e, u-e and
other alternative pronunciations
Tricky words are words that the children cannot sound out. We focus on
the part of the word that children can decode using their sounds and
then talk about the tricky part of the word.
During Phase 2, we practise reading the words: to, the, no, go, I, into,
of We send these home to practise in a word box during the Autumn
term (They will be on red card)
During Phase 3, we practise reading the words: -he she we me be was
my you they her all are and we begin to spell the words: to, the, no,
go, I, into, of
During Phase 4 , we practise reading the words: - said, so, have, like,
some, come, were, there, little, one, do, when, out, what and spell
the words- he she we me be was my you they her all are
During Phase 5, we practise reading the words:- oh, their, people, Mr.
Mrs. looked, called, asked , water, where, who, again, thought,
through, work, mouse, many, laughed, because, different, any, eyes,
friends, once, please and spell the words- said, so, have, like, some,
come, were, there, little, one, do, when, out, what oh, their, people,
Mr. Mrs. looked, called, asked
Tricky Words-
reading and spelling

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Interactive websites to use at home to help your childs learning :-
www.phonicsplay.co.uk
www.sentenceplay.co.uk
www.bookstart.co.uk
www.early-education.org.uk
www.letters-and-sounds.com
If you require any further help with phonics please do not hesitate to
come and speak to a member of staff.
Thank you
Ways to support your child at home:-
Teach your child lots of different nursery rhymes
Enjoy and share books together- read and reread those they love best
Practise reading the childs book form school each day- encourage your
child to attempt unknown words, using their phonic skills to blend all
through the word. BUT NEVER CRITICISE- ONLY PRAISE
Talk about the meaning of the book- take time to talk about what is
happening, talk about characters and events. Ask them their opinions-
what did they like, dislike, etc. Explain the meaning of new words to
enable your child to understand the story
Read simple rhyming books together- leave out a rhyming word now and
then and see if your child can say the missing word, if not you say it.
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