Phonics and Early Reading

We now use ‘Anima Phonics: Letters and Sounds Updated’. There are daily 20 minute lessons in Reception, Year One and the Year Two classes. It is taught in whole class sessions. Your child’s reading book will give them the opportunity to develop their phonics skills at home.

When your child is confident and knows all the sounds that the letters make they move onto more complex sounds for eg /j/ can be made by the letter G for giant (alternative pronunciation) and that the same sound can be made in different ways:

 eg /ee/ = eel, emu, concrete (split digraph), key, chief, sardines, eat, sunny, monkey, and movie. (alternative spellings).

How can I help my child?

• Taking time to read with your child will help them to understand that print carries meaning and they will start to see sound/letter correspondences and to recognise common words.  You can support your child’s developing sounds awareness by pointing out objects that begin with sounds they may be working on in school: ‘What sound does car begin with?’ You can make collections of objects that begin with the same sound. You can play ‘I Spy’ and rhyming games.

• Make sure your child has the opportunity to practise their school reading book regularly. ‘little and often’ is the key. It is the familiarity which develops the recognition which builds up the fluency which makes an independent reader.

• You can give them opportunities to practise their writing skills that will help them make the connection between how a sound is spoken and written.

• Practising your child’s spellings orally – How do you spell ‘church? sound it out’ ‘/ch/ur/ch’ and through writing the words.

At Glenfall your child’s phonic skills are assessed in class but also more formally in Year 1 through ‘The Phonics Screening Test’. This takes place nationally in June.

The test is a Reading test that assesses a child’s phonic skills and all Year 1 children complete it on a 1-2-1 basis with a teacher. It comprises of 20 real words and 20 pseudo (alien) words. The ‘alien’ words are included so the child can demonstrate their phonic knowledge by the reading of unfamiliar words. Eg sike /s/i/k/e

Below is a guide giving further information as to how we use AnimaPhonics at Glenfall: