Phonics - Early Years
In our early years children begin to learn about sounds, letters and how they are used to read and write. Phase 1 is covered mostly in Nursery and into Reception. Phase 1 is continuous and is covered all of the time. Once children have a good understanding of phase 1 phonics they progress onto Reception sounds.
Phase 1
So, in phase 1 phonics, your child will learn seven important skills, often referred to as the ‘aspects’ of phase 1. These are:
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Environmental Sounds
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Instrumental and Animal Sounds
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Body Percussion
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Rhythm and Rhyme
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Alliteration
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Voice Sounds
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Oral Blending and Segmenting
Below you can see some activities you can do with you child through Nursery and Reception to help your child develop these skills. Once children move into Reception children will onto phase / stage 2 onwards. There are many videos etc below that can be used at home to help.
Phase 1 activities:
Click on the headings to see clips of sessions for each skill.
1: To discriminate sound – environmental sounds
To develop awareness of sounds and rhythms
To distinguish between sounds and to remember patterns of sound
To talk about sounds we make with our bodies and what the sounds mean
2: To discriminate sound – instrumental sounds
To experience and develop awareness of sounds made with instruments and noise
makers
To listen to and appreciate the difference between sounds made with instruments
To use a wide vocabulary to talk about the sounds instruments make
3. To discriminate sound – body percussion
To develop awareness of sounds and rhythms
To distinguish between sounds and to remember patterns of sound
To talk about sounds we make with our bodies and what the sounds mean
To experience and appreciate rhythm and rhyme and to develop awareness of rhythm
and rhyme in speech
To increase awareness of words that rhyme and to develop knowledge about rhyme
To talk about words that rhyme and to produce rhyming words
To develop understanding of alliteration
To explore how different sounds are articulated, and to extend understanding of
alliteration
To listen to sounds at the beginning of words and hear the differences between them
To distinguish between the differences in vocal sounds, including oral blending and
segmenting
To explore speech sounds
To talk about the different sounds that we can make with our voices
7: Oral blending and segmenting
To develop oral blending and segmenting of sounds in words
To listen to phonemes within words and to remember them in the order in which they occur
To talk about the different phonemes that make up words
Websites:
http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/phase-1-games.html
Phase 2
The Black Cats
The black cats make the phonetic sounds. These are the 26 letters of the alphabetic, 9 consonant digraphs and or and ur. They do not need as sound cue as they are phonetic.
The black cats are happy and playful. They like to line up in a row to make phonetic words. The cats don’t understand Tricky Witch’s magic or how the ghosts can disappear but they are learning how to read simple words using their letter sounds.
Click the letters below for individual letter clips
| s | a | t | p | i | n | m | d | g |
| c | o | u | e | r | h | b | f | ss |
| l | ll | ff | v | x | w | j | z | qu |
| y | th | ch | ph | st | sh | ng | or | ur |
| k | ck |
Other phonic websites and apps...
Click here to see school resources on English, reading and writing:
https://www.teachyourmonstertoread.com/
https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/
