education

Letter & Sound Relationships That Break the #Phonics Rules

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Back in September we explained that Phonics is very useful as a decoding tool used for developing reading skills and an encoding tool for spelling. It is the simple process of linking sounds to letters, its complexity comes from how many sounds (phonemes) to letter combinations (graphemes) there are.

Some letter and sound associations just don’t follow the normal phonics rule of a single sound being associated to a letter or letter combination. A few letters represent two sounds, such as the letter ‘u’ which in the word ‘cupid’ represents the two sounds /y,(j)/ and /oo,(uː)/.

A more common one letter two sound relation is that of the letter ‘x’ representing the two sounds /k,(k)/ and /s,(s)/ as in thewords: six and box.

Here are some other examples of single letters and split digraphs making two sounds instead of the usual phonics rule of only making one sound:

The Consonant Sounds with their Most Common Letter and Letter Combinations

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There are 24 consonant sounds in the English language. A consonant sound is made (produced) when the air flow is being restricted in some way, which means that the mouth doesn’t open as wide and so the jaw doesn’t drop noticeably, which is different from vowel sounds.

Here is a list of just some of the most commonly seen letter and letter combinations used to represent the 24 consonant sounds. For a more comprehensive lists check out our English Phoneme Chart or Alphabet Keyboard which can be found on our ‘Phonemes’ page: https://www.teachphonics.co.uk/phonics.html            

  • /b,(b)/      bin, rabbit
  • /k,(k)/      cat, key, duck, queen, anchor, broccoli
  • /ch,(ʧ)/    church, watch
  • /d,(d)/      dog, ladder, towed
  • /f,(f)/        fish, puffin, phone, laugh
  • /g,(g)/     girl, digger, ghost
  • /h,(h)/     hen, who
  • /j,(ʤ)/      jigsaw, giant, bridge
  • /l,(l)/        lion, llama
  • /m,(m)/   man, hammer, lamb
  • /n,(n)/     nest, penny, knife, gnome
  • /ng,(ŋ)/   king, sink
  • /p,(p)/     panda, hippo
  • /r,(r)/      robin, lorry, wrist
  • /s,(s)/    sun, dress, city, geese, castle
  • /sh,(ʃ)/   ship, chef, delicious, initials, sugar
  • /t,(t)/      tent, butterfly, jumped
  • /th,(θ)/   thumb
  • /th,(ð)/  feather, breathe
  • /v,(v)/   van, sleeve, of
  • /w,(w)/  well, whale, penguin
  • /y,(j)/    yo-yo, euro
  • /z,(z)/    zero, puzzle, sneeze, cheese, is
  • /zh,(Ʒ)/  measure, television

Art Activities to support the Understanding of Pressure – Half Term Fun

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Crayoning and printing activities are great ways for a child to experience and experiment with pressure and the amount needed to create different effects. These activities will also encourage and support a child in helping them to understand, and for you to model, the language associated with pressure and how the pressure used feels. By linking the words used to the feelings and the outcome of using the pressure they can start to understand what is needed when asked to press gently or to press harder. 

When supporting a child to understand what we want when we ask them to press harder, we need to model how our body reacts to make this happen. You may need to exaggerate the actions but as you do this you also need to talk about what your body is doing and how it feels. Then point out the effect that this has had on the crayoning for instance.

When we press hard, we tend to lean our body forward over the table slightly as this allows us to put more force down on to the paper through the crayon. We may feel our arm and hand tense and often the movements made are slower and in small strokes. If it is something we are not used to doing it can make our hand and fingers ache and it will feel like hard work. The crayon marks will be thick and dark.

When we want to be gentler with the crayon, so that the crayoning is lighter in texture and colour, we tend to sit back away from the table. This way the hand moves across the paper more easily and often the strokes are longer and quicker, which sometimes feels as if we have less control over the colouring. This is why young children tend to be a bit heavy handed initially with colouring because their fine motor control skills have not reached a point that enables them to have control.

There are many creative ideas to be found on the internet and in books published by companies such as Usborne.

This crayon technique can be used to create a vast range of pictures. Here are just a couple of ideas to get you started: Spider Party Time:

The same technique can also be used to create great firework pictures:

It is also worth remembering that drawing also helps to develop a range of different line formations, also needed for developing a good handwriting style.

Have FUN!

What are CVC Words in #Phonics?

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With many parents sadly having to tackle home learning again; we thought it would be useful to re-run this blog from last year explaining CVC words in phonics.

The letter C means a consonant letter is required.

The letter V means that a vowel letter is required.

So, a CVC word is one that has a consonant letter followed by a vowel and then a consonant as in the following examples:

cat    dog    mat

There are 26 letters in the English alphabet and these can be split in to two categories:

Vowels – ‘a’, ‘e’, ‘i’, ‘o’, ‘u’ and the letter ‘y’, when it is used as a semi-vowel, in words such as by, my and fly.

Consonants – ‘b’, ‘c’, ‘d’, ‘f’, ‘g’, ‘h’, ‘j’, ‘k’, ‘l’, ‘m’, ‘n’, ‘p’, ‘q’, ‘r’, ‘s’, ‘t’, ‘v’, ‘w’, ‘x’, ‘z’ and the letter ‘y’ when it is being used as a consonant, in words such as yak, yam and yellow.

Schools will often use the abbreviation CV, CVC, CVCC words when sending home phonics work or suggestions for phonics games. It is also used by many phonics computer games, activity programs and schemes.

Here are some examples for:

What are Vowels and Consonants?

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The English Language is created through the different combinations of 44 sounds (phonemes), 20 vowels and 24 consonants. In our written language we refer to the 26 letters of the alphabet as being consonant or vowel letters depending on which type of sound they are representing.

Vowel sounds allow the air to flow freely, causing the chin to drop noticeably, whilst consonant sounds are produced by restricting the air flow.

Vowel sounds are usually (in the UK Education System) split into two main categories based on sound quality:

  • ‘Short’ vowel sounds, due to the short duration of the sound being made. The sound cannot be held onto without becoming distorted
  • ‘Long’ vowel sounds, due to the length of their pronunciation. These can often be held without distorting their sound.

The letters of the alphabet that we normally associate as being the vowel letters are: a, e, i, o and u. The letter ‘y’ is sometimes referred to as an honorary or semi vowel as it is used to replace one of the other vowel letters in words such as: fly, shy, why or my.

All words in the English language have at least one vowel sound in them so the written version must have at least one vowel letter in it.

Consonant sounds are made (produced) when the air flow is being restricted in some way, for example, changes in tongue position resulting in the mouth not opening as wide. This means that the jaw doesn’t drop noticeably, which is different to vowel sounds.

The letters of the alphabet that usually represent the consonant sounds are: b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z. 

What is the difference between #phonics and #phonemic awareness?

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With the new school year well under way many new parents are being introduced to the world of phonics and all the technical language associated with it. So, we thought we would take this opportunity to demystify some of that technical language.

Phonics is the association of sounds (phonemes) to written alphabet letters (graphemes). For reading (decoding) the phonics coding system is used to convert the written word into sounds. For spelling (encoding) the same phonics coding system is used to covert sounds heard into letters to form written words.

Phonemic awareness is our ability to split words into their smallest sound units (individual phonemes) and to manipulate these sounds through segmentation, blending, substitution, re-ordering and deletion. This is based on what we hear and say, not the written word.

Good phonemic awareness is the vital skill required before phonics can be introduced successfully as a tool for learning to read and spell.

  • Segmentation – being able to split words into their individual sounds, for example ‘cat’ into c-a-t.
  • Blending – being able to blend individual sounds together to say a word, for example d-o-g into dog.
  • Substitution – being able to swap one sound for another in a word, for example swapping the /k,(k)/ sound in the word ‘cat’ with a /h,(h)/ sound to say the word ‘hat’.
  • Reordering – being able to swap the sounds around to create a new word, for example changing the order of the letters in the word ‘cat’ to form the new word ‘act’.
  • Deletion (omission) – being able to remove a sound from a word to create a new word, for example removing the /t,(t)/ sound from the word ‘cart’ to say the new word ‘car’.

These are developed further when phonics is introduced, sound to letter association.

Watch our ‘Single Word Reading’ animation to see these manipulation skills in action: https://www.teachphonics.co.uk/phonics-reading-lesson-plans.html

Why Vocabulary Building with your Child is so Important!  

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Building your child’s vocabulary is a vital pre-reading skill. This is because schools teach what is referred to as the ‘The Simple View of Reading’(explained on our blog on 28/08/25).

This means that a child decodes the words using their phonics skills and their own vocabulary knowledge to help them understand the text they are reading.

So, for a child to have good reading skills they need to be able to speedily decode unknown words and recognize familiar printed words. And, understand the meaning and grammatical structure of the spoken language and then use this knowledge to understand the printed text.

This means that a child:

• Who does not fully understand the meaning of all the words and/or the grammatical structure of the spoken language (age appropriate) will also be unable to fully understand the printed text; even if they decoded it correctly.

• Whose ability to understand the spoken word is poor will also be unable to understand the printed text; even if they have managed to decode a few words.

Helping your child build their vocabulary is also vital, if they are to continue to develop good communication skills. Talking, explaining, sharing and playing are all important in developing your child’s vocabulary, their understanding of the words meaning in the context of the conversation and the grammatical conventions of our spoken language.

Developing #Listening & #Speaking Skills week 6 – Sound Screen/Barrier Games

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Last week we explained the three things required for good listening skills:

  • To pay attention – being able to focus on a particular voice or sound by filtering out other voices and ambient noises.
  • To concentrate on the voice or sounds to take in the information, building the stamina needed to listen for extended periods of time.
  • To interpret that information to gain meaning – comprehension.

Here are some games to help build these skills.

These games are designed to help a child learn how to block out ambient noises so that they focus and concentrate on one particular sound.

Create a barrier between you and your child so that they cannot see the object you are going to use to make noises with and see if they can guess the object. Try to use objects that make sounds that occur around them a lot of the time, for example keys rattling together or wooden blocks being knocked together. There are many variations of the game that can be played but you need to make sure your child has the opportunity to experience the sounds with the relevant object beforehand so they don’t get frustrated by the game.

  • Mrs Blog has a box… To the tune of Old Macdonald changing the name as best fits the situation. Place a box, on its side with a number of objects inside that make a noise (choose items your child is familiar with the sound of), between you and your child so they can’t see what is in the box. Start singing “My mummy has a box ee, i, ee, i, o and in that box she has…” Stop and gesture to encourage your child to listen (maybe a cupped hand to your ear) then pick one of the objects and make a sound; your child then tries to guess what it is. Continue to sing but imitating the sound of the object you played, which your child can now see. If it was a bunch of keys for example; “with a jingle, jangle here and a jingle jangle there, my mummy has a box ee, i, ee, i, o.” Swap places so your child can choose an object in the box, change the song so you are using their name, for example “My James has a box…”
  • Same or Different?  Place a barrier between you and your child so they cannot see which object you will use to make a sound and that you duck behind so they cannot see your face when you make vocal sounds.  This can be played at different levels. At the basic level using animal noises such as baa, moo, woof etc. A more complex level would be to use shakers with different size things inside to make different shaking sounds. Plastic containers or bags of the same size and type can be used to make the shakers with different small items in such as dried pea, rice, sand or small coins, pebbles or small Lego bricks. Make the noise once and then repeat either with the same noise or a different one. The child then says if they were the same or different.
  • Copy Cat!  Place a barrier between you and your child so they cannot see which object you will use to make a sound and that you duck behind so they cannot see your face when you make vocal sounds.  You will need two set of the same objects, a set for you and one for your child. The aim of the game is for you to make a noise with either an object or your voice and for your child to copy that sound choosing the correct object in front of them or using their voice as you did. The game can become more complicated as you mix a number of sounds using objects and your voice. Swap roles so that your child becomes the leader of the game and you have to copy them.

Have Fun! N.B. Be careful of small objects, especially those escaping from shakers, as these can be a choke hazard.

Developing #Listening & Speaking Skills Week 2 – Different Types of Talk

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There are different types of talk:

  • Business Talk – this is when we use more everyday instructional and informational kinds of vocabulary and sentence structures.
  • Play Talk/Rich Talk – this is more conversational, informal and descriptive.
  • Small Talk – this is everyday chatter or conversations, informal and often less descriptive and more factual.
  • Parentese – this research has shown is how babies prefer you to talk to them using regular words (normal adult vocabulary) in a slightly higher pitched and more sing-song way.

It is important that a child is exposed to the different types of talk as it helps them to build their vocabulary (word awareness – receptive & expressive language) this is vital if they are to continue to develop good communication skills.

The Difference Between Receptive and Expressive Language

Receptive language is how we take in and understand language; it is what we hear, see and read. This also includes body language and environmental clues. All these elements help us to interpret a situation and give it its meaning, so that we can understand what is being communicated. We do not need to be able to produce language to receive and understand it, so infants and toddlers understand far more than they can express (expressive language).

Expressive language is our ability to put our thoughts, needs and wants into words and sentences in a way that makes sense and is grammatically correct. A baby’s expressive language to begin with is based on cries and gestures and then moves to sound making, gestures and body language signals. We use this expressive language when we speak and write. When babies and toddlers move to speaking words, they have a limited vocabulary which is why they can get frustrated when we do not understand them.

Good word awareness (receptive and expressive language) is a key pre- phonics skill.

Click the link for ‘Tips to Help Develop Word Awareness (Receptive & Expressive Language)’: https://www.teachphonics.co.uk/word-awareness.html

How the Body’s Sensory Systems affect Academic Success

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Sometime ago, I posted a blog with a link to an article which we felt highlighted, and backed, our own thoughts of why we need to look at the whole child and their physical and sensory development alongside their intellectual development.

It made very interesting reading then but having talked with different therapists, SENCos and teachers over the past year it seems that it has become very relevant. This is because it appears that more and more children are struggling in school and displaying learning difficulty traits that relate to sensory system difficulties.

This article explains how sensory systems impact on and affect a child’s ability to learn and are essential developmental building blocks to a child’s academic future. It also provides some practical advise.

The article ‘Sensory Systems that Make up the Learning Hierarchy of a Strong Academic Foundation’ was written and released by Integrated Learning Strategies Learning Corner on 24/02/16 http://ilslearningcorner.com/2016-02-sensory-systems-that-make-up-the-learning-hierarchy-of-a-strong-academic-foundation/

The Pre-phonics section of our website (http://www.teachphonics.co.uk/phonological-development.html ) explains how to support and develop all the visual and auditory sensory systems highlighted in the article for a strong foundation for learning.

The activity ideas work on providing a range of stimulus for a child to experience, supporting their visual and auditory development. These activity ideas can be played at home and easily built into or adapted in a school as cross curricular activity experiences.