Kate Robinson - Phonics at Home: Help your child with letters and sounds

BLOOMSBURY EDUCATION

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

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This electronic edition published in 2019 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

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First published in Great Britain, 2020 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Text copyright Kate Robinson, 2020

Illustrations copyright Sarah Hoyle, 2020

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ISBN: 978-1-4729-5515-9 (HB)
ISBN: 978-1-4729-5516-6 (eBook)
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Contents

Introduction

Hello and well done!

You want to help your child with phonics, youve got the book and youve made it to the first chapter: youre on track!

Now, youre probably keen to know whether this book will answer some key questions.

What is phonics and how does it work?

The word phonics is used a lot in schools and books and on websites about reading and spelling. But what does the word actually mean? In this book youll find clear and straightforward explanations of what phonics is, how phonics works and how children are taught phonics.

How can I help with phonics at home and can I make it fun?

Youll find lots of games and activities that will help children to develop their pre-reading, reading and spelling skills using phonics. All the games are fun and easy to play at home.

Why is phonics so important?

Phonics is the main approach used in schools for helping children to read words. It is also a key approach in teaching children how to spell.

Theres lots of evidence that phonics is the best approach for almost every child, giving them a really good understanding of how sounds and letters build words. In 2006, the UK government carried out a review of all of the research into how children are taught to read and spell. This review, known as the Rose Review, found that most children learn to read and spell words best if phonics is the main method used for teaching and learning (Rose, 2006).

So, helping with phonics at home can make a big difference to your childs confidence and progress with reading and writing. And that can make a big difference to their confidence and progress in all areas of their life.

How to use this book

For an introduction to phonics and how it works , start at the next section:

If you have a general understanding of phonics, but want to grasp it in more depth , turn to the section .

For help selecting the right games and activities for your child, or choosing the right letters or words to focus on, turn to the section .

If you just want to browse through the games , choose from the different sections of games on the page and then look for a game thats right for your child.

Once you have chosen a game to play, think about when and how to introduce it to your child . Try to keep it fun and relaxed: choose a time when your child is not tired, hungry or grumpy. Go for short, regular bursts, such as ten minutes a day, a few days a week, rather than long stretches. Its better to stop when your child still wants to play more that way they will be extra keen next time you play!

We build spoken words by blending together individual sounds. We write words by using individual letters, or small groups of letters, to represent each sound.

TERMINOLOGY

Blending sounds:

joining sounds together to build whole words

Phonics is a method of learning to read and spell that focuses on these individual sounds and the letters that represent them.

Phonics for reading

When reading an unfamiliar word, children see the individual letters, or groups of letters, in the word, and remember the sounds that they each represent.

So, if your child wants to read the word ship, they first need to identify the familiar letters or letter groups in the word one by one: sh, then i, then p.

As they do this, they need to remember the sounds that each of those letters, or letter groups, represent. Finally, they can blend the sounds together and listen to the word that the sounds make: sh i p : ship .

Phonics for spelling

When spelling an unfamiliar word, children hear the individual sounds in the spoken word and remember the letters, or groups of letters, that represent those sounds.

So, if your child wants to write the word ship , they first need to split the spoken word ship into all the different sounds that it contains: sh i and p .

They then need to remember which letters, or letter groups, are used to represent those sounds: sh , i and p , and then write those letters down in order.

What are phonemes and graphemes?

Understanding some key words

To understand phonics, it helps to understand a few key words. The most important of these are the words phoneme and grapheme :

A phoneme is a single sound.