This page has been put together to provide parents with supportive videos and tips when completing the phonics activities at home. 

All children will be sent home with a phonics pack. The below videos provide children with three challenges that progress in difficulty to provide children with different levels of challenge. Not all children will be able to access all three challenges at the start, but as the year unfolds, they will develop their recognition of sounds, segmenting skills and blending skills.

Practising these skills at home regularly with the help of the videos will support children's acquisition of their phonics skills and knowledge. 

Challenge 1: Introducing the Pure Sounds

Challenge 1: 

Can children recall the sound that each letter makes? This video includes helpful tips on how to pronounce each sound. We have always included different teaching points on how to shape the mouth when saying sounds. 

Helpful Tip - Why not play a game of Splat? Spread the six cards out on a flat surface. Call out a sound and encourage children to splat the letter that makes the sound as quickly as possible. Switch the roles by asking children to say a sound (pronounced correctly) and the adult to splat the letter that makes that sound. 

Challenge 2: Hearing the Initial Sounds 

Challenge 2:

Once children can recall the sound each letter makes, you can move them on to hear the initial sounds in words. 

1) Place the last two sounds on the CVC mat

2) Say the whole word aloud

3) Encourage children to say the word and then a second time slowly. Can children hear the first sound in the word?

4) Select the letter that makes the sound and add it to the start of the word

5) Say each sound individually (known as decoding or segmenting). Glue the sounds together to say the word (blending).

Helpful Tip: Challenge children to try and find the middle sound in the word. Then challenge them to find the end sound in words. 

It is very normal for children to hear the first sound in words but struggle to hear the middle and end sound in words during the earlier stages of the year. Regular practise, modelling from an adult and repetition will help develop these skills. 

Useful Link:  Balloon Phonics: Three-Letter Words CVC Game (topmarks.co.uk)

Challenge 3: Making a Word Using Segmenting and Blending 

Challenge 3:

If children can recall the sounds each letter makes correctly and can hear the initial, middle and end sound in words, then why not challenge them to segmenting and blend their own CVC words (Consonant, Vowel, Consonant words).

1) Say a CVC word that uses the six sounds we have given you (example, sat, tip, pin etc)

2) Encourage children to break down the word into individual sounds (segmenting or decoding)

3) Encourage children to place each sound on the CVC mat in the correct order

4) Blend the sounds together to read the word.

Helpful Tip: Help children feel successful by giving them a second word that rhymes with the word they have just completed (example: pat, sat).

 

 

Phonics - Blending and Segmenting 

Blending and Segmenting are two key skills that children need to acquire when learning to read. Why not click on video and have a go yourself. You can find a written up version of a three-step guide below.

1) Ask you child to make the following words by using sound cards: m,a,d,s,t,p.

* mad, sad, pat, mat, mad, map, sap, tap.

Can your child segment and blend to read these sentences?

2) Now see if they can make the following words by using the sounds cards: c,a,p,t,s,m,r. 

* cap, cat, sat, sap, map, rat, mat. 

Can your child segment and blend to read these sentences?

* Can a rat have a cap?

* Can a rat rap?

3) Then see if they can make the following words by using the sound cards: r,a,n,m,p,c,t:

* ran, ram, pam, pan, man, can, cat, pat. 

Can your child segment and blend to read these sentences?

* Can a cat and a rat rap?         * Can a man pat a cat?

Tricky Words 

. Tricky words are words that cannot be segmented and blended because they don't follow the phonetic pattern that children will have been used to.