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We love phonics!

In Reception we love

phonics and we make no

apologies for this! Phonics

is a fun and successful way

of teaching young children

to read and write.

How we teach

reading in

Reception...

1. Phonics- Jolly Phonics

2. High Frequency Words(From the Letters and Sounds Document DfES)

What is Jolly Phonics?

Jolly Phonics is a scheme

that teaches children each

letter name, sound and

shape through:

stories; actions; games; and

songs.

Each letter of the alphabet

has a sound and an alphabetname. Your child will learn

both. You may hear single

letters referred to as

graphemes and sounds

referred to as phonemes. E.g. a is the grapheme

a is the phoneme

Why Phonics for reading?

Teaching the ‘pure’ letter

sounds will help your child

learn to read.

For example:

catc-a-t

If you blend the sounds together, they

make the word ‘cat’. If you try to blend

the letter names, or if the sounds are

not said correctly you can’t hear the

word.

Some children can blend quicker than others, so they may get a reading book with words sooner than others. Don’t panic! They will all be

reading by the end of Reception!

This is not a ‘suh’!!!

Unsure how to articulate the

sound?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ksblMiliA8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCjJYB07aSU

The Jolly Phonics Songs

Your child will be taught a new set of

sounds each week, starting with Phase

Two. These sounds will be sent home

each week in the ‘Letters and Sounds’

books. It is REALLY IMPORTANT that

you practise most days – it only needs to

be a quick 5 minutes! The teaching pace

is fast; regular practise will ensure your

child has the best possible chance of

learning all of the sounds.

Handwriting

Your child will also learn the letter shape

and formation of each letter as the sounds

are taught.

In Reception the children will be writing

using a pre-cursive handwriting style

which is then developed into joined cursive

in Year 1.

Pre-cursive writing looks like this

All letters start with a

whispered ‘whoosh’.

The emphasis is put on

the formation of the

actual letter, not the

‘whoosh’.

The letters are in four main families:

• Curly caterpillar letters e.g. c (curly

caterpillar crawls around)

• Long ladder letters e.g. l (from the top, all

the way to the bottom)

• One-armed robot letters e.g. h (up to his

head, down to his toes and up and over his

arm)

• Zigzag monster letters e.g. w (zig and zag

and zig and zag)

All letters end with a

‘’flick’ – this is the joining

stroke that will make it

easier for your child to

pick up cursive when they

move into Year 1.

Handwriting homework will be sent home

at the end of the week alongside the

‘Letters and Sounds’ homework. There is a

letter inside the folder to explain what to

do but PLEASE come and ask if you are

unsure.

You can also practise letter formation

using magic finger in the air, on the carpet,

or on each others backs. You can also use

things like shaving foam, flour or sand. Try

some rainbow writing too!

When your child is writing,

encourage them to talk

through the formation out

loud e.g. a“Whoosh! Curly caterpillar

crawls around, up and down

with a flick!”

What are the Phases? • In the first few weeks of school the children

have been focusing on Phase One Phonics

which teaches them listening skills. They need

to have good listening skills before starting

Phase Two – this includes mastering pre-

reading skills such as rhyming, oral blending

and indentifying initial sounds in words. Can your child do these things?

• In Reception, children will have a focused 20

minutes phonics lesson every day. They will

learn the letter sounds and then apply their

learning through reading and writing activities

throughout the day.

Phase 2• In Reception, we have now started Phase 2.

• In Phase 2, your child will learn 23 letter

sounds and some of the high frequency

words.

• Please help your child to learn them each

week because there are LOTS to learn!

• It is helpful if you can sign in your child’s

reading record to let us know that you have

practised. WE KNOW IF YOU HAVEN’T!

Phase 2 letter sounds

Set 1: s, a, t, pSet 2: i, n, m, dSet 3: g, o, c, kSet 4: ck, e, u, rSet 5: h, b, f, ff, l, ll,ss

Other ways to help at home..

We would highly recommend

that you invest in a pack of

magnetic alphabet letters – they

are around about £1 in places

like Wilkinson’s or Boyes.

Here’s why....

Magnetic letters (use the lower case

ones please!) are brilliant for word

building activities like this…

How many words can you make with these

letters in 1 minute?

s a t i p n m d g o

When we teach children to read words,

we tell them to: “Look at the letter and

make the sound.” We use Robot talk to

do this!

This is called sounding out and blending –

try this at home…

pin

tin

Have you seen my

hat?

Can you pass me my

cup?

Where is the black

pen?

At first we will

concentrate on simple

letter to sound

correspondence

(grapheme-phoneme

correspondence).

This is when a

phoneme (sound) is

represented by a

single letter as in the

word /m/ /a/ /t/.

Then we will concentrate on the more difficult codes

such as one phoneme (sound) represented by two

letters (digraphs) or three letters (trigraphs). shch qu ck ng igh

We use those phonemes in these words:

ring pick shop chop

night quiz ....and others!

Phase 3 letter sounds

Set 6: j, v, w, x

Set 7: y, z, zz, qu

Consonant digraphs: ch, sh, th, ng

Vowel digraphs: ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, ure, er

At the same time as learning to blend the

sounds to read, your child will also learn to

break down (segment) a word to write.

3 sounds (phonemes)

When writing we

count the sounds on

our fingers. We go

back to the

beginning to find the

next sound.

High Frequency Words

In phonics your child will learn high

frequency words too. Some of these

words phonetically sound out, like the

word and, but some….don’t! We call

these ‘Tricky Words’.

was said me and off

The high frequency words….

• Children need to learn these by

heart.

• Not only are they high frequency but

they are usually also difficult to

decode (sound out).

• A few of them can be sounded out

but we still want the children to

know them instantly by sight.

There’s no easy way...you just

have to learn them!

Please help your child to recognise tricky

words by showing them the word and

asking them to say it straight way.

Remember they can’t sound some of

them out! Tell them it’s a tricky word.

When your child can recognise all the tricky

words they can start learning to write/spell

them correctly.

How can you help? By pronouncing the phonemes in the correct way.

By helping your child write with the correct formation.

Go through the letters and high frequency words with your child every day if you can - help them practice saying them correctly. They need to learn to recognise them by heart. Find 5 minutes...it isn’t long but it will make a huge difference to your child’s learning.

Once they are reading, encourage them to read any books using their phonics skills - look at the letter and say the sound. If there is a tricky word in the book and it is one that they have been taught, ask them if they know it. Remind them it is a tricky word.

Reading for Pleasure

• We want your child to love and enjoy books. There is

no point them knowing how to read if they don’t want

to read. Keep on having a cosy bedtime story with

them before they go to sleep. Talk about the characters

and their favourite part of the story. Read to them,

making the characters have different and exciting

voices – be over the top and ridiculous! This will keep

your child interested in books and stories and you’ll

instil in them a joy for reading. If they can recognise

words during a bed time story, then that should be

celebrated but don’t let it stop you from enjoying the

fun and adventure of a story with your child.

• Decoding the text is not the only part of reading.

• Enjoy!

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Any questions? We’re here to

help!

•This exact PowerPoint will be on the

school website.

• You are welcome to come into your

child’s classroom to watch a phonics

lesson anytime – just speak to your

child’s teacher to arrange a day.

• If there’s anything along the way that

you’re unsure of please come and ask.