An Introduction to Phase 2 Phonics and

Reading Books at St Mary’s

Phase two phonics is taught in reception, beginning in autumn two. The children will then progress to phase three in the spring term, more information about this phase will come out

closer to the time.

Phonics at St Mary’sAt St Mary’s, we follow the Letters and Sounds phonics scheme, this was published by the Department for Education.

Letters and Sounds aims to build children's speaking and listening skills and to then prepare children for learning to read by developing their phonic knowledge and skills.

The following slides summarise Phase two, this is what the children in reception will be starting this half-term. We will send out more information for phases three and four later in the year.

What is Phonics?Phonics is a way of teaching children to read and write quickly and skilfully. They are taught how to:

u recognise the sounds that each individual letter makes;

u identify the sounds that different combinations of letters make - such as 'sh' or 'oo'; and

u blend these sounds together from left to right to make a word

u segment the sounds to write words

“It must always be remembered that phonics is the step up to fluent word recognition. Automatic and effortless reading of all words – decodable and tricky – is the ultimate goal.” – Department for Education

Phase One:Letters and Sounds teaches phonics in six phases. Phase one is taught in nursery and recapped in autumn one in reception. Phase one covers seven aspects:

u Aspect 1: General sound discrimination – environmental sounds

u Aspect 2: General sound discrimination – instrumental sounds

u Aspect 3: General sound discrimination – body percussion

u Aspect 4: Rhythm and rhyme

u Aspect 5: Alliteration

u Aspect 6: Voice sounds

u Aspect 7: Oral blending and segmenting

These aspects are continually reinforced through the rest of the phases. Ideas to reinforce phase one can be found here:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/190537/Letters_and_Sounds_-_Phase_One.pdf

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/190537/Letters_and_Sounds_-_Phase_One.pdf

Phase Two:

The Purpose of phase 2:

u Teach 19 letter sounds

u Move children from oral blending and segmenting to blending and segmenting with letters

u Be able to read some VC (vowel consonant. Eg at) and CVC words (sat, pig, hot)

u Spell them using magnetic letters or by writing

u Introduction to two syllable words and simple captions

u HF Tricky words – the, to, go, no

The Sounds:

Below are the sounds taught in phase two, in the order they’re introduced. Each week in the home learning you will see which sounds we are doing at school. Please stick with us and don’t go ahead!

Pure Sounds:

It is important that the sounds are said clearly and distinctly. Especially the consonant sounds, for example:

b c d f g h j k l m n o p r s t

A video link will be given on the helpful links page with correct pronunciation of all sounds.

Cued Articulation: We also used cued articulation to help with learning the sounds. Cued articulation is:

u A signing system for the sounds used in English

u All sounds have their own hand sign, showing where in the mouth the sound is made and how.

u Voice – The sign shows if the sound is voiced or voiceless – p and b

u Place – The sign shows where in the mouth the sound comes from

-t is behind the teeth

-c is the back of the mouth

u Manner - The sound shows if the sound is a long or short sound

-Short – p,t

-Long – s, f

A video showing all the signs can be found here:

signs take into account voice, place, and manner

Practising letter recognition (for reading) and recall (for spelling):

As soon as the first three letters (s, a, t) are learned, play games to give your child lots of practice in recognising and recalling the letters quickly. Fast recognition of letters is very important for reading, and recall for spelling.

To do this, you could use:

u Flashcards – you could print out the sounds we send home each week

u Sound mats – This is a piece of paper with all the sounds on it. The one we use at school for phase 2 is on the next page, let us know if you would like a printed copy

Blending for Reading – Sound Buttons:

We use sound buttons to support blending sounds to read words.

A ‘button’ is placed under each sound

We then push the buttons and say the sounds

Then we say the word

p - a - t - pat

Segmenting for Writing – Phoneme Frames:

We use phoneme frames to support with segmenting for writing. One sound goes in each box.

b u s

1. Say the word

2. Soundtalk the word

3. Find the letter to put in the frame

High Frequency Words – Including Tricky Words:

There are 100 common words that recur frequently in much of the written material young children read and that they need when they write.

Most of these are decodable, by sounding and blending,

but only 26 of the high-frequency words are decodable by the end of Phase Two.

However, it is necessary also to know some words that have unusual or untaught GPCs (‘tricky’ words) and these need to be learned.

We still use sound buttons but discuss the tricky parts of the words. Below are the six tricky words taught in phase two. They should be practiced regularly for instant recall just like the sounds.

Letter Formation:

u If your child wants to practice letter formation at home, please make sure you follow the nelson handwriting scheme that the school uses.

u Each week in the home learning, we upload the sounds we have been learning and include the correct formation.

u Lowercase letters first!

u Letters can be practiced with a finger in the air or in sand etc – pen on paper might not be right for your child yet!

Phonetic Writing:

This means, children may spell words phonetically but not necessarily correctly. This is fine and actually increases their confidence and independence! For example cat may be spelt kat.

At this level, we encourage the children to write using the sounds that they know.

Reading Books:

u Your child will bring home a new reading book, once a week, starting this half term.

u At first, this will most likely be a book with no words in it.

u Once they know a few sounds and are starting to blend, they will bring home books with words.

u This will be different for each child, just as every other part of their development is. Please don’t push it!

Wordless Books:

Wordless stories allow children to learn how stories work including the order and direction in which they are read.

u Look at the front cover together – What do you think they’re doing?

u Look at the back and read the blurb to your child

u Return to the front cover and read the title

u Ask your child to turn the pages of the book and describe what they see in the pictures, telling the story together.

u Before turning the page, predict what might happen

u Ask questions throughout to check your child understands what is happening

Books with Words:

u Look at the front cover and predict what might happen in the story

u Do a book walk – look through the first few pages together and tell your child what is happening – keep the vocab simple and incorporate words they will encounter in the book – don’t go to the end as it will take away the surprise when reading!

u Support your child with pointing to each letter and saying the sounds to then blend the word

u Ask a few questions along the way to check their understanding

u Reading the whole book in one sitting might be a bit much, especially at first!

Always remember it is a love for reading we want, don’t over do it!

Anything more:

There is also a document saved with helpful links for phonics. This can be found in the reception home learning folder.

If you have any questions about any of this please do get in touch via the school office!

Sound pronouncation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBJ9-SBe2eI&t=2s&ab_channel=janepassy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBJ9-SBe2eI&t=2s&ab_channel=janepassyhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBJ9-SBe2eI&t=2s&ab_channel=janepassy