Letters and Sounds

Phase 1

Six phase teaching programme.

Phase 1Seven aspects

1 Environmental sounds

2 Instrumental sounds

3 Body percussion

4 Rhythm and rhyme

5 Alliteration

6 Voice sounds

7 Oral blending and segmenting

Aspects 1 to 3

General sound discrimination

1 Environmental sounds

2 Instrumental sounds

3 Body percussion

• Tuning into sounds• Listening and remembering sounds

• Learn to tune into and discriminate between familiar, everyday sounds e.g. In the environment, made by instruments, made using body percussion. (concrete)

• Before can be expected to associate sounds with letters. (abstract)

Environmental sounds

General sound discrimination

• Listening to sounds indoors and outdoors.

• Tuning into and identifying sounds.• Remembering sounds.

Instrumental sounds

General sound discrimination

• Play a hidden instrument.• Identifying instrument making the

sound.• Remember sounds made by

instruments. E.g. Loud, quiet, ringing etc

Body percussion

General sound discrimination

• Make sounds with body.• E.g. Clapping, stamping, tapping knees• Remember sounds can make with body.• Make a pattern of sounds e.g. Clap, stamp,

clap, stamp etc.• Match sounds to instruments e.g. Stamp

(drum), clap (castanet) tap knees (maraca).

Aspects 1 to 3

Developing skills of general sound discrimination

• Tuning into sounds• Listening and remembering sounds

Talking about sounds

• Describing sounds• Loud or quiet sounds• Ringing, rattling, banging, booming,

clicking, jingling, scraping etc• Tuning into the sounds but also

developing language.

Aspects 4 to 7

4 Rhythm and rhyme

5 Alliteration

6 Voice sounds

7 Oral blending and segmenting

Valuable pre reading and writing skills.

Aspects 4 to 7

• Children cover all 7 aspects and repeat cycle until secure.

• Once secure with aspects 1 to 3 then focus on 4 to 7.

• 4 to 7 involve more challenging skills.

Rhythm and rhyme

• Skill of recognising when pairs of words rhyme.• Continue a rhyming string.• Fun games• Reading rhyming stories and chanting rhyming

pairs. E.g. The Gruffalo, The duck in the truck• Substituting rhyming words in nursery rhymes.• Rhyming lotto and pairs card games.• Rhyming games on Cbeebies etc.• Clapping rhythms to copy.

Alliteration

Words that begin with the same sound.• Identifying initial sounds in names and

identifying names with the same sound e.g. Family, friends, teddies etc.

• Making up silly alliterative sentences with names e.g. Happy Helen hugs hippos.

• ‘I spy’. List other words beginning with same sound.

• Games e.g. Lotto, pairs, sorting pictures etc.

Oral blending & segmentingImportant that children have plenty of

experience of listening to adults modelling oral blending of cvc words before they are introduced to written words. E.g. ‘Get your c-oa-t.’

Say sounds in cvc words for children to blend and say the word. Use a teddy.

Fun games such as ‘I spy’ and using cvc objects/pictures. ‘Can you find the p-i-g?’

Oral blending & segmentingWhen children are used to hearing words said

in sound talk c-a-t and when they can blend the sounds together and say the word, they can begin to speak in sound talk themselves. Model this as appropriate.

The children can take the lead in the games and practise segmenting. E.g. ‘I spy a h-a-t.’ You take on the role of blending the sounds and saying the word ‘hat’. Use robot arms.

Pre reading and spelling skills.

Voice SoundsDistinguish between the differences in vocal sounds.Explore mouth movements e.g. blowing, sucking,

tongue stretching and wiggling.Make different voice sounds e.g. Wheee! (down a slide),

boing, boing (ball bouncing), ssssss (snake hissing) etc.Explore speech sounds.Making high, low, loud, quiet sounds etc.Talk about sounds we can make with voices.Speaking in different voices e.g. Whispering, growling,

shouting, squeaking etc. Link to stories e.g. Bear Hunt, Billy Goats Gruff etc.

Phase 2Once children are secure at tuning into

and remembering sounds e.g. environmental, instrumental sounds and once they can identify rhyming pairs we begin to teach Phase 2.

Alliteration and oral blending and segmenting can continue to be taught and consolidated as part of Phase 2 teaching.

Phase 2 Letter progression (one set per week)

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

Tricky words to read: I, to, the, no, go, into

Children will learn to read and write cvc words.

Once children can blend sounds to read cvc words, and once they can identify most of the above letter sounds, they will be given a reading book.

Phase 2 There is no expectation that children should

begin Phase 2 in Lower Foundation.

Most children will begin Phase 2 in Upper Foundation.

Children will be introduced to Phase 2 only when they are ready.

Once they can securely tune into and remember everyday sounds and when they can identify words that rhyme.

Phase 2

• Children will be taught the letter name and

sound for each letter.• They will be taught to form each letter

using the cursive script.• Handwriting policy is available on the

website, containing the cursive script.

Mark making

• Children are encouraged to make marks and ascribe meaning to their marks before they learn to write words.

• Throughout Lower Foundation children will be encouraged to make marks and ascribe meaning to their marks.

• Opportunities include cards, shopping lists, messages, labelling their pictures etc

• Children may make lines and squiggles, circles and lines, strings of recognisable letters etc

• It is important that we value their marks and the meaning they ascribe to their marks.

• The purpose of mark making is to give children the confidence to write, and to understand that print conveys meaning, which will support them when they begin to learn to write words, captions and sentences.

Ideas for activities

• The ‘Letters and Sounds’ document can be

accessed online as a PDF document.• It contains lots of activities for each aspect

of Phase 1.• Have fun!!

•Handwriting script available on school website.

•Select Curriculum, English, Handwriting Policy.•Pages 6 and 7.