Phonics is the step up to word recognition. Automatic reading of all words, both tricky and decodable, is the ultimate goal! We’ve begun Phase 3 of our phonics programme. The purpose of this phase is to:
- teach more graphemes, most of which are made of two letters, for example, ‘oa’ as in boat and float
- practise blending and segmenting a wider set of CVC (consonant – vowel – consonant) 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.
The following phonemes will be taught during Phase 3.
- v, w
- x, y, z, zz, qu
- sh, ch, th, ng
- ai, ee, igh, oa
- oo, oo, or, ar
- er, oi, ir, ur
- air, ear, ure
Here are some examples of words your children will be reading: tail, week, right, soap, food, park, burn, cord, town, soil.
The number of tricky words is growing. This term we will learn: he, she, we, me, be, was, my, you, her, they, all.
How you can help at home
- Sing an alphabet song together.
- Play ‘I spy’, using letter names as well as sounds.
- Continue to play with magnetic letters, using some of the two grapheme (letter) combinations:
r-ai-n = rain blending for reading | rain = r-ai-n – segmenting for spelling
b-oa-t = boat blending for reading | boat = b-oa-t – segmenting for spelling
h-ur-t = hurt blending for reading | hurt = h-ur-t – segmenting for spelling
- Praise your child for trying out words.
- Set a timer; call out one word at a time and get your child to spell it on a magic board or a small whiteboard, against the timer – remember, they can use magnetic letters.
- Play ‘Pairs’, turning over two words at a time trying to find a matching pair – this is especially helpful with the tricky words: the the, to to no no, go go. Don’t worry if they get some wrong! These are hard to remember – they need plenty of practice.