Reception Phonics Phases 1-4

Throughout the year- Phase 1

Phase One of Letters and Sounds concentrates on developing children's speaking and listening skills and lays the foundations for the phonic work which starts in Phase 2. The emphasis during Phase 1 is to get children attuned to the sounds around them and ready to begin developing oral blending and segmenting skills.

Phase 1 is divided into seven aspects. Each aspect contains three strands: Tuning in to sounds (auditory discrimination), Listening and remembering sounds (auditory memory and sequencing) and Talking about sounds (developing vocabulary and language comprehension).

Useful website for phase 1 games: 

http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/phase-1-games.html

Autumn Term- Phase 2

In Phase 2, letters and their sounds are introduced one at a time. A set of letters is taught each week, in the following sequence:

Set 1: s, a, t, p
Set 2: i, n, m, d
Set 3: g, o, c, k
Set 4: ck, e, u, r
Set 5: h, b, f, ff, l, ll, ss

The children will begin to learn to blend and segment to begin reading and spelling.  This will begin with simple words.

Words using set 1

at

sat

pat

tap

sap

Words using set 1 and 2

(+i)	(+n)	(+m)	(+d)
it	an	am	dad
is	in	man	sad
sit	nip	mat	dim
sat	pan	map	din
pit	pin	Pam	did
pip	tan	Tim	Sid
sip	nap	Sam	and
tip	tin		dip

Words using sets 1-3

(+g)	(+o)	(+c)	(+k)
tag	got	can	kid
gag	on	cot	kit
gig	not	cop	Kim
gap	pot	cap	Ken
nag	top	cat
sag	dog	cod
gas	pop
pig	God
dig	Mog

 Words using set 1-4

(+ck)	(+e)	(+u)	(+r)
kick	get	up	rim
sock	pet	mum	rip
sack	ten	run	ram
dock	net	mug	rat
pick	pen	cup	rag
sick	peg	sun	rug
pack	met	tuck	rot
ticket	men	mud	rocket
pocket	neck	sunset	carrot

Words using set 1-5

 

(+h)	(+b)	(+f and ff)	(+l and ll)	(+ss)
had	but	of	lap	ass
him	big	if	let	less
his	back	off	leg	hiss
hot	bet	fit	lot	mass
hut	bad	fin	lit	mess
hop	bag	fun	bell	boss
hum	bed	fig	fill	fuss
hit	bud	fog	doll	hiss
hat	beg	puff	tell	pass
has	bug	huff	sell	kiss
hack	bun	cuff	Bill	Tess
hug	bus	fan	Nell	fusspot
	Ben	fat	dull
	bat		laptop
	bit
	bucket
	beckon
	rabbit

Alongside this children are introduced to tricky words.  These are the words that are irregular words.  That means that phonics cannot be applied to the reading and spelling of these words.

The tricky words introduced in phase 2 are: 

to

the

no

go

I

Useful websites for phase 2 onwards: 

http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/phase-2.html

http://www.nessy.com/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/

Useful app for phase 2:

http://www.nessy.com/hairyletters/

Spring Term- Phase 3

By the time they reach Phase 3, children will already be able to blend and segment words containing the 19 letters taught in Phase 2.

Over the twelve weeks which Phase 3 is expected to last, twenty-five new graphemes are introduced (one at a time).

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

Tricky words: 

we	me	be	was	no	go
my	you	they	her	all	are

Summer Term- Phase 4

By Phase 4 children will be able to represent each of 42 phonemes with a grapheme.  They will blend phonemes to read CVC words and segment CVC words for spelling.  They will also be able to read two syllable words that are simple.  They will be able to read all the tricky words learnt so far and will be able to spell some of them.

This phase consolidates all the children have learnt in the previous phases.

Tricky words:

said	so	she	he	have	like
some	come	were	there	little	one
they	all	are	do	when	out
what	my	her

 By this point children would be expected to be reading CVC words at speed along with the tricky words from the previous phases.  It is important that children are taught that blending is only used when a word is unfamiliar.

There are no new sounds to learn in the summer term during Reception. However, we begin to teach the children how to read words with more sounds in them. Previously, we have mainly been reading and writing words with three sounds, such as c-a-t, f-i-sh, g-oa-t and n-igh-t. In the summer term we will begin reading and writing words with four or more sounds in them.

In order to read these words, we teach the children strategies in order to break the words down.

• Where the vowel is the second sound, we teach the first three sounds and then put the final sound on the end, e.g. for tent, we would read t-e-n (ten) and then put the ‘t’ on the end to make tent; “ten-t”.
• Where the vowel is the third sound, we teach the children to blend the first two sounds together and then add the next sounds. e.g. for swim, we would blend s and w (sw) and then add the i-m; “sw-i-m”.

Please remember that all of the children learn to read at different rates, and whilst some children may be ready to move on, other children will still be reading and writing words with three sounds.

There is a list of example words on the back.

We will also continue to teach the ‘Tricky Words’ which are those words that cannot be sounded out.

Tricky Words: said have like so do some come were there little one when out what

Using single letter sounds (where the vowel is the second sound)
band bank camp damp fact hand lamp land	belt best dent felt help kept melt nest next tent went	gift lift limp link milk sink tilt wind	cost fond golf lost pond soft	bump bunk gulp gust hump hunt husk jump just tuft tusk

 

Using single letter sounds (where the vowel is the third sound)
clap glad grab gran flag plan	step	grip spin swim trip twin	drop frog from spot stop	drum plum

 

Using multiple-letter sounds
champ thank bench chest shelf tenth theft Welsh	chimp shift sixth think chunk punch thump	joint boost paint roast toast beast burnt	green fresh steep tree spear smell spoil train	spoon sport trash start trail clown creep brown

 

Words with more than 4 sounds
blank brand cramp drank stamp stand tramp	blend crept slept spend trend	blink crisp drift glint twist	frost	crust plump skunk stunt trunk trust