A Parents’ Guide to Phonics in Nursery
Overview
At Temple Grove ‘Letters & Sounds’ is the chosen accredited programme used to teach phonics, high frequency words and to support early reading development. The ‘Letters and Sounds’ Programme is split into 6 phases:
- Phase 1 is introduced in the Nursery
- Phases 2 and 3 are introduced in Reception
- Phases 4 and 5 are introduced in Year 1
- Phase 6 is introduced in Year 2.
In EYFS and KS1 your child will be taught phonics every day. Alongside the teaching of phonics, every child will be provided with daily opportunities to apply their phonic knowledge and skills in reading and spelling.
This information will give you an idea of what is expected at the phase your child is working within and how you can support their learning at home.
Phase 1
As parents and carers you are your child’s first teachers. You have a powerful influence on your child’s early learning. From an early age your child will need to experience a wide range of activities and experiences with you to develop their early reading and writing skills such as singing, saying rhymes joining in conversations, painting and pretend play.
These activities will help your child take the first important steps towards reading and writing.
Phase 1
In this phase, your child will be learning to:
- have fun with sounds
- listen carefully
- develop their vocabulary
- speak confidently to you, other adults and other children
- tune into sounds
- listen and remember sounds
- talk about sounds
- understand that spoken words are made up of different sounds.
Phase 1 consists of seven interlinking parts:
- environmental sounds
- instrumental sounds
- body percussion
- rhythm and rhyme
- alliteration (words that begin with the same sound)
- voice sounds
- oral blending and segmenting.
Phase 1 is used in nursery. This recognises the central importance of developing speaking and listening skills as a priority. After all, the more words children know and understand, the better equipped they will be to succeed as they move through the school. Phase 1 provides a broad and rich language experience for children. Children engage in worthwhile learning activities that encourage them to talk a lot, to increase their stock of words and to improve their command of dialogue.
A Parents’ Guide to Phonics in Reception
Overview
At Temple Grove School ‘Letters & Sounds’ is the chosen accredited programme used to teach phonics, high frequency words and to support early reading development. The ‘Letters and Sounds’ Programme is split into 6 phases:
- Phase 1 is introduced in the Nursery
- Phases 2 and 3 are introduced in Reception
- Phases 4 and 5 are introduced in Year 1
- Phase 6 is introduced in Year 2.
In EYFS and KS1 your child will be taught phonics every day. Alongside the teaching of phonics, every child will be provided with daily opportunities to apply their phonic knowledge and skills in reading and spelling.
This information will give you an idea of what is expected at the phase your child is working within and how you can support their learning at home.
Phase 2
By the end of Phase 2, the children should:
Know at least 19 sounds and letters (GPC – Grapheme Phoneme Correspondence) …
| s | a | t | p | i | n | m | d |
| g | o | c | k | ck | e | u | r |
| h | b | f/ff | l/ll | ss |
Be able to read 5 tricky words…
the to I no go
They should be able to:
Orally blend cvc (consonant, vowel, consonant) words e.g. when you sound out the sounds c-a-t, they can tell you the word is cat, Orally segment cvc words e.g. when you say the word cat, they can pick out the sounds c-a-t.
Phase 3
Phase 3 builds on Phase 2 and by the end of Phase 3, the children should:
Know 25 new sounds and letters (GPC – Grapheme Phoneme Correspondence)…
j v w x y z zz
qu ch sh th ng ai ee
igh oa ar or ur oi ow
er ear air ure oo (book/ boot)
Be able to read 12 more Tricky words…
he she we me be was
my you her they all are
They should now also be able to:
- Spell the 5 tricky words from phase 2. (the, to, I, no, go)
- Blend and read CVC words
Begin to segment and spell CVC words
Reading high frequency words
Phase 2 decodable words:
a
an
as
at
if
in
is
it
of
off
on
can
dad
had
back
and
get
big
him
his
not
got
up
mum
but
put (north)
Phase 3 decodable words
will
that
this
then
them
with
see
for
now
down
look
too
Useful websites
Below is a list of websites that can support you and your child with letters and sounds…
Includes further information on each phase as well as printable resources and links to online games
www.bbc.co.uk/school/wordsandpictures
Games mainly aimed at year 1 and year 2 looking at sounds and high frequency words. Some printable activities, particularly for the phase 4 blends
Wide range of games for sounds, words and rhyming
www.phonicsplay.co.uk/freeIndex
Lots of free games for each phase, especially good for reading non-words. You can also subscribe to access more games
Search engine designed for schools where you can find a wide range of resources and activities with a phonics focus
Please speak to your child’s teacher if you have any questions