Phonics
In Year 1 we learn phonics using Phonics Bug. We have lots of different games, reading activities and challenges to support our phonics learning in class.
Definitions
A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a word.
A grapheme is the letter or letters representing a phoneme.
A digraph is two letters that make one sound.
A trigraph is three letters that make one sound.
A split digraph is when the two letters making the sound are not adjacent.
Blending is recognising the letter sounds in a written word and merging them in order in which they are written to pronounce
Segmenting is identifying the individual sounds in a spoken word and writing down letters for each sound to form the word.
Supporting your child at home
There are a number of things that parents can do to support phonics and early reading development:
Make time for your child to read their school book to you
With all books, encourage your child to ‘sound out’ unfamiliar words and then blend from left to right rather than looking at pictures to guess
Immerse your child in a love of reading by promoting
Home Reading Books
Children will be sent home with reading books which have been carefully matched to the phonics phase your child is on to help them practice letters learnt in class.
Pronunciation
We have recorded the pronunciation of graphemes for parents to watch to support reading a home. These can be found on the links below;
Phase 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_56DK-4evh8
Phase 3 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di2MXxnYaAM