Phonics

Phase 1

 

In Nursery we start with Phase 1 phonics. This is the foundation for the rest of your child's journey through phonics and contains all the skills they will need to grasps the following phases. Phase 1 is not thought of as the first step that is then replaced by Phase 2. It is constantly taught throughout the phases!

Note: At this stage we are not expecting children to recognize the letters themselves, we focus on the sound. When playing games that don't tell them the sound, you may need to tell them the sound the letter makes to help them. Some games you find online may be harder for them for this reason. They will learn to recognize and write the letters in Reception 

There are 7 Aspects that are considered important in helping children become confident in their phonic knowledge and skills. 
I will include some games you can play to help boost these  Busy Things is our favourite resource to get all of these Aspects in one place. If you don't have your login please see the office. You can get it as an app on your phone/Ipad as well!

Aspect 1 - Environmental sounds

https://www.phonicsbloom.com/uk/game/match-sounds?phase=1
https://www.phonicsbloom.com/uk/game/whats-behind-the-door?phase=1

Aspect 2 - Instrumental sounds

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/curations/radio-ispy
https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/curations/raa-raa-the-noisy-lion-on-cbeebies-radio

Aspect 3 - Body Percussion
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/blog/10-ways-to-practise-phase-1-phonics-body-percussion-at-home

Aspect 4 - Rhythm and Rhyme
http://www.literactive.com/Download/live.asp?swf=story_files/washing_line_rhyme_US.swf

Aspect 5 - Alliteration 
https://www.phonicsbloom.com/uk/game/odd-sound-out?phase=2

Aspect 6/Aspect 7 - Voice sounds and Oral blending and Segmenting
See Alphablocks post 

For more information: http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/phase-1.html

Alphablocks

 

We love watching Alphablocks - it helps us hear the sounds in words. In Nursery we focus on trying to hear the first sound (hold up 1 finger and then pull on ear) in words and then play games, such as, I Spy something starting with 'ssss' to challenge us. 
This collection of videos is great for that! The sounds we focus on first are: S A T P I N
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSW2D61TnopShcnN0HifhpuhV0lIo_ks0

An even harder challenge is to pause alphablocks right before they tell you the word and see if you can guess what it is. Remember to wait until they sound it out ('p - e - n') first and then pause it. Try copying what they say quickly if you need some help. This is called blending.

Once you feel more confident with the first sound in words try saying CVC words (3 letter words e.g. cat) very slowly, elongating it and see if that helps you identify any of the other sounds in the word. This is called segmenting and it's one of the trickier skills to learn, we keep working on this even in Year 1! Even if you only hear 1 sound out of 3 that's great work 
"Cat...caaaaattt....c - a - t"