Phonics
- We follow the Letters and Sounds scheme
- The words that your child speaks and reads are made up of seperate sounds, (phonemes). Your child will learn these sounds in Reception and Key Stage One. S/he will learn to blend the seperate sounds together to read a word. This is what your child might call ‘sounding out’.
- You can help your child to blend sounds by making sure that they recognise the sound that the letter/s make and say the sounds correctly. The separate sounds in words are very short and crisp. There should be no ‘er’ sound at the end. So, t is ‘t’ not ‘ter’. m is ‘mmm’ not ‘mer’. ‘c a t’ not ‘cur arh tur’. If the sounds are too long, the word will not make any sense to the reader.
- Play oral blending games at home and when out and about. ‘Please could you bring me the c u p. Let’s go to the sh o p s.
- Use phoneme fingers – say each sound crisply and point to the tip of each finger; thumb first. Fold down any unused fingers. Run your finger across the tips and blend the sounds to read the word.
When phonics are not enough
- Sometimes ‘sounding out’ is not enough. Some words don’t fit the rules so other strategies are needed.
- If your child cannot read a word suggest that they miss it out and read to the end of the sentence. What word would make sense?
- What sound does it begin with?
- Does it sound right? Ran not runned; gave not gived.
- Does it look a bit like other words you know? e.g. if your child knows ‘could’ they might be able to read ‘should’ and ‘would’.
- What word would make sense in this story or subject?
- Does the picture give you a clue?
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