Phonics at Warren Park Primary School
Phonics is recommended as the first strategy that children are taught to help them learn to read and write. Phonics runs alongside other teaching methods such as shared or guided reading to help children become fluent at reading and writing.
At Warren Park Primary School we follow the governments Letters and Sounds Programme, using LCP plans to support teaching. We have created a multisensory approach by using the actions from Jolly phonics.
Letters and Sounds is divided into six phases, with each phase building on the skills and knowledge of previous learning.
Phase 1: Children learn rhymes, keep rhythms and start to relate letter sounds to words. E.g. p for pig. Phase 1 is usually taught in nursery.
Phase 2: Children learn initial sounds and build 3 letter words.
Phase 3: Children learn all 44 phonemes and blend sounds to read and write words.
Phase 4: Children blend consonants together to read difficult words e.g. blue, grab.
Phase 5: Children learn how to spell letter sounds in more than one way e.g. rain.
Phase 6: Children learn how to spell word specific spellings, e.g. turned, beautiful, shopping.
Glossary
Here is some of the technical vocabulary explained.
Blend(ing)- to draw individual sounds together to pronounce a word, e.g. s-n-a-p.
CVC- consonant-vowel-consonant (cat)
CCVC- consonant- consonant-vowel-consonant (pram)
Grapheme- written representation of the sound
Phoneme- smallest unit of speech sounds sh/i/p
Segment(ing)- to split up a word into its individual phonemes in order to spell it.
Suffix(es)- a unit of letters such as, ‘ed’ ‘ing’ that are added to a word to change its meaning e.g. play ’ed’
Digraph- two letters working together to make one sound (sh as in shop)
Split digraph- two letters working together but split by a consonant (cave, like)
Trigraph- three letters working together to make one sound (igh-high)
Blend- two consonants together but two separate sounds (br- brush)
Cluster- two consonants together but two separate sounds (br- brush)
Useful websites
Phase 1
Phase 1 usually starts in nursery, although it is continually taught as part of provision in the reception classroom. Teachers plan activities that will help children to listen to sounds around them, such as the sounds of their toys and to 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.
Things to try at home
- Play games like ‘I’ spy
- Sing songs and rhymes together
- Make a ‘junk band’ with pots and pans
- Share lots of books together
Phase 2
In phase 2 children continue to practise what they learned from phase 1. 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.
| s | a | t | p | i |
| n | m | d | g | o |
| c | k | ck | e | u |
| r | h | b | f | ff |
| l | ll | ss |
Tricky words
They will also learn several tricky words: the, to, I, go, no, into.
Children will still be practising oral blending and segmenting skills daily. They need plenty of practice at doing this.
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 (known as a digraph)
- 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.
| J
(jug) |
v
(van) |
w
(wig) |
x
(box) |
y
(yes) |
z
(zip) |
| zz
(buzz) |
qu
(quilt) |
ch
(rich) |
Sh
(shop) |
th
(moth) |
ng
(king) |
| ai
(rain) |
igh
(high) |
oa
(loaf) |
oo
(look) |
Oo
(moon) |
ar
(park) |
| or
(port) |
ur
(burn) |
ow
(town) |
oi
(boil) |
ear
(hear) |
air
(pair) |
| ure
(pure) |
er
(hotter) |
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. Children are introduced to vowels and consonants. They learn that a blend a 2 consonants together (b-r as in brush) and a cluster is 3 consonants together (s-t-r as in straw).
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
Phase 5
The purpose of this phase is for children to broaden their knowledge of graphemes and phonemes for use in reading and spelling.
New graphemes for reading |
|||||
| ay
(play) |
ou
(cloud) |
ie
(pie) |
ea
(seat) |
oy
(toy) |
ir
(girl) |
| ue
(blue) |
ue
(venue) |
aw
(claw) |
wh
(which) |
wh
(who) |
ph
(dolphin) |
| ew
(flew) |
ew
(nephew) |
oe
(toe) |
au
(launch) |
ey
(turkey) |
a_e
(take) |
| e_e
(theme) |
i_e
(like) |
o_e
(stone) |
u_e
(prune) |
u_e
(use) |
|
Alternative pronunciations for known graphemes |
||
| a
(hat, acorn, fast, was) |
e
(bed, he) |
i
(tin, mind) |
| o
(hot, no) |
u
(but, unit, put) |
y
(yes, fry, gym, very) |
| c
(cat, cell) |
g
(got, gent) |
ch
(chin, Christmas, chalet) |
| ea
(sea, head) |
er
(farmer, her) |
ey
(money, grey) |
| ie
(pie, brief) |
ow
(down, low) |
ou
(out, you, could, mould) |
New phoneme |
| /zh/
treasure |
Alternative spellings for each phoneme |
||
| /j/
fudge |
/i/
gym monkey |
/ai/
day came |
| /n/
gnash |
/s/
bustle house |
/ar/
father half |
| /m/
lamb |
/air/
there pear bare |
/ear/
here deer |
| /r/
wrap |
/ee/
sea even only shield key |
/ch/
(picture, catch) |
| /u/
some |
/oe/
glow toe stone |
/oo/
should push |
| /z/
please |
/or/
talk court taught |
/igh/
pie try shine |
| /ur/
earn worm |
/(y) oo/
venue tube know |
/oo/
glue fluke screw |
| /sh/
special station sugar chef |
||
Tricky words
oh, their, people, Mr, Mrs, looked, called, asked, could
Phase 6
In Phase 6 the focus is on learning spelling rules for word endings or suffixes. These include- -ing, -ed, -ful, -ly, -est, -er, -ment, -ness and -en. Children learn how words change when you add these suffixes.
In Phase 6 children are reading longer and less familiar texts independently and with increasing fluency. They develop a greater reading for pleasure attitude.
Below are some words containing some of the suffixes taught in Phase 6.
ing |
ed |
ful |
ly |
| rising
obeying sending |
played
stayed liked |
spiteful
useful helpful |
safely
merrily badly |
|
er |
ment |
ness |
| darkest
tamest finest |
whiter
baker hiker |
amusement
employment enjoyment |
lameness
silliness sadness |