Phonics in EYFS

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Phonics in EYFS

In Nursery children take part in a range of activities which are mainly adult led and listening skills are embedded so that pupils move confidently through the next 5 phases.

Phase 1

Phase 1 supports children’s developing speaking and listening skills and linking of sounds and letters. Activities are divided into seven groups:

• Environmental sounds.
• Instrumental sounds.
• Body percussion.
• Rhythm and rhyme.
• Alliteration.
• Voice sounds.
• Oral blending and segmenting.

Children should be encouraged to enjoy books from as early an age as possible. However, the focus of this phase is on listening to and repeating sounds, rather than on directly reading words.

Phase 1 Knowledge Organiser

Phase 2

In Reception children are introduced to simple letter-sound correspondences. As each set of letters is introduced, children are encouraged to use their new knowledge to sound out and blend words. For example, they will learn to blend the sounds s–a–t to make the word sat.

s, a, t, p
at, a, sat, pat, tap, sap, as

i – it, is, sit, pit, tip
n – an, in, nip, pan, nap
m – am, man, mat, map, Tim
d – dad, and, sad, dim, Sid

g – tag, gag, sag, gas, pig
o – got, on, not, top, dog
c – can, cot, cop, cap, cod
k – kid, kit, Kim, Ken
ck – kick, sack, dock, sick, pocket
e – get, pet, ten, net, pen
u – up, mum, run, mug, cup
r – rip, ram, rat, rocket, carrot

h – had, him, his, hot, hut
b – but, big, back, bed, bus
f, ff – of, if, off, fit, fog, puff
l, ll – let, leg, lot, bell, doll
ss – less, hiss, mass, mess, boss

Phase 2 tricky words:
the, to, no, go, I, into

Phase 2 Knowledge Organiser

Here are some helpful video clips to help at home with Phonics:

Phase 3 / 4

In Phase 3/ 4, children build on the letter-sound correspondences learned in Phase 2. They learn consonant digraphs (sounds made up of two letters together such as ‘ch’ or ‘ll’) and long vowel sounds (such as ‘igh’ or ‘ai’). Children will also learn to read and spell words which have adjacent consonants (for example, trap, strong, milk and crept).

j – jet, jam, jog, Jan
v – van, vet, velvet
w – wig, will, web
x – fox, box, six
y – yes, yet, yell
z – zip, zig-zag
zz – buzz, jazz
qu – quit, quick, liquid

Consonant digraphs:
ch – chip, chat, rich
sh – shop, shed, fish
th – thin, moth, that
ng – ring, thing, song

Vowel digraphs and trigraphs:
ai – rain, tail, aim
ee – bee, leek, see
igh – high, sigh, might
oa – boat, toad, foal
oo – boot, food, moon
oo – book, wood, foot
ar – park, art, car
or – for, torn, fork
ur – hurt, fur, surf
ow – cow, owl, town
oi – coin, boil, oil
ear – dear, shear, year
air – fair, pair, hair
ure – sure, pure, manure
er – dinner, summer, letter

Tricky words:
he, she, we, me, be, was, you, they, all, are, my, her / said, have, like, so, do, some, come, were, there, little, one, when, out, what

Phase 3 Knowledge Organiser

Phase 4 Knowledge Organiser