This week, we’ll begin Phase 2 of Letters and Sounds. In this phase, children will continue practising what they have learned from phase 1, including ‘sound-talk’. They will also be taught:
- the phonemes (sounds) for a number of letters (graphemes),
- which phoneme is represented by which grapheme, and
- that a single phoneme can be represented by more than one letter, for example, /ll/ as in b-e-ll.
They will be using pictures and hand movements to help them remember these.
VC and CVC words
C and V are abbreviations for ‘consonant’ and ‘vowel’. VC words are words consisting of a vowel then a consonant (e.g. am, at, it) and CVC words are words consisting of a consonant then a vowel then a consonant (e.g. cat, rug, sun). Words such as tick and bell also count as CVC words – although they have four letters, they have only three sounds. For example, in the word bell, b = consonant, e = vowel, ll = consonant.
Now the children will be seeing letters and words, as well as hearing them. They will be shown how to make words using magnetic letters, how to read (blend) little words and how to segment words into individual sounds.
These will be simple words made up of two phonemes, for example, am, at, it, or three phonemes, for example, cat, run.
Tricky words
They will also learn several tricky words: the, to, I, go, no. Children will still be practising oral blending and segmenting skills daily. They need plenty of practice at doing this.
Saying the sounds
Your child will be taught how to pronounce the sounds (phonemes) correctly to make blending easier. Sounds should be sustained where possible (e.g. sss, fff, mmm) and, where this is not possible, ‘uh’ sounds after consonants should be reduced as far as possible. Try to avoid saying ‘buh’, ‘cuh’ etc.
Ways you can support your children at home
- Magnetic letters Buy magnetic letters for your fridge. Find out which letters have been taught – have fun finding these with your child and place them on the magnetic surface.
- Making little words together Make little words together, for example, it, up, am, and, top, dig, run, met, pick. As you select the letters, say them aloud: ‘a-m – am’, ‘m-e-t – met’.
- Make or buy an alphabet poster
- Buy whiteboards and pen These are a good way for children to try out spellings and practise their handwriting.
- Remember to have fun!