Phonics is the method of teaching that is used to show children how to read by connecting sounds with letters, or groups of letters. For example, Phonics teaches us, what the letter ‘c’ sounds like in a word, or that ‘tion’ in a word, should be pronounced [shun]. This knowledge of how to connect letters with sounds is called phonemic awareness.

Phonics is the method of teaching that is used to show children how to read by connecting sounds with letters, or groups of letters. For example, Phonics teaches us, what the letter ‘c’ sounds like in a word, or that ‘tion’ in a word, should be pronounced [shun]. This knowledge of how to connect letters with sounds is called phonemic awareness.

Most schools require first graders to have a working knowledge of letter sounds by the end of the year. However, the earlier you can make your child aware of the connection between letters and sounds, the better. It helps him become an early reader and gives him confidence when sounding out new words.

I'm going to go through some of the key concepts that Phonics relies on. At the end i will show you a bunch of games you can use to teach your child Phonemic Awareness at home.

Phonemes

English has 26 letters and 44 different sounds, could be slightly less or more, depending on dialect. A Phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in speech and is what distinguishes one word from another. For example, the words hill and hiss are identical with the exception of the Phonemes of /l/ in hill and /s/ in hiss. By the way, whenever you see anything between the symbols // you know its a Phoneme or sound. e.g. /c/.

Click on anything with next to it to hear the sound it makes

Phonemic awareness

Making the right connections and learning how to manipulate the Phonemes in a word, are the pillars of good reading skills at an early age. Phonemic awareness is the ability to break words up into their sounds, and play around with those sounds by rearranging them. Rearranging these sounds is what makes different words. In young children, Phonemic awareness naturally occurs anywhere between the ages of 4 to 6.

Blending

Blending involves taking a combination of Phonemes and blending them together to make a word. For example,/b/ + /a/ + /t/ = bat.

Splitting

Splitting is the opposite of blending, and involves splitting a word apart into individual Phonemes. For example, bat = /b/ + /a/ + /t/.

Substituting

Substituting is the trickiest skill to learn. Substituting involves changing one Phoneme in a word with another Phoneme, to make a new word. For example, if you substitute the /t/ in bat with a /d/, you get bad.

Graphemes

Graphemes are the way Phonemes are represented in text i.e. letters or combinations of letters. For example, the sound or the Phoneme /g/ is represented by the graphemes g, gg, gh, gu, gue e.g. beg, egg, ghost and catalogue.

44 Phonemes of the English language

Here is a list of the 44 sounds that make every word in English for reference. Each Phoneme has its Graphemes next to it in italics. The format is / phoneme / - graphemes - example words. Click on the Phonemes to hear the sound they make. Go through them and you will get a better understanding of what i have been talking about.

    Consonant Sounds

  • / b / - b, bb - ball, ribbons
  • / d / - d, dd, ed, - dog, add, puddle, filled
  • / f / - f, ph, ff, gh, lf, - ft fish, fan, phone, cliff, laugh, calf, often
  • / g / - g, gg, gh, gu, gue - guitar, go, grapes, egg, goggles, ghost, guest, catalogue
  • / h / - h, wh - hot, hat, helicopter, who
  • / j / - j, g, ge, gg, dge, di - jet, jellyfish, giraffe, cage, barge, exaggerate, fridge, edge, judge, soldier
  • / k / - c, k, ck, ch, cc, que - cat, kitten, duck, school, occur, antique, cheque
  • / l / - l, ll, le - leg, bell, spell, leaf
  • / m / - m, mm, mb, mn, lm - mad, mop, monkey, hammer, summer, lamb, climb, autumn, palm
  • / n / - n, nn, kn, gn, pn - nail, nest, funny, knot, knight, gnat, pneumonia
  • / p / - p, pp - pump, pig, pie, puppets, happy, apple
  • / r / - r, rr, wr, rh, - run, rain, robot, marry, carrot, write, wrong, rhyme
  • / s / - s, ss, se, ce, c, sc, - sun, dress, mouse, ice, city, circus, science, psychology, listen
  • / t / - t, tt, th, ed, - turtle, tap, batter, letter, little, Thomas, tapped, stopped
  • / v / - v, ve, f, ph, - vet, volcano, van, give, five, halved, of, Stephen
  • / w / - w, wh, u, o - wet, win, swim, why, quick, queen, choir
  • / y / - y, i, j - yo-yo, yes, onion, opinion, hallelujah
  • / z / - z, zz, ze, s, ss, se, x - zip, fizz, sneeze, is, was, laser, scissors, please, xylophone

Consonant Digraphs

  • / sh / - sh, ch, si, ti, ce, sci - ship, mission, chef, motion, special, ocean, conscience, s, ci, ss tension
  • / ch / - ch, tch, tu, ti, te - chip, match, future, question, righteous
  • / th / - th (not voiced) - thumb, thin, thing, thongs
  • / th / - th (voiced) - the, mother, feather, this, then
  • / ng / - ng, n, ngue - sing, monkey, sink, tongue
  • / zh / - ge, s - garage, measure, division
  • / wh / (with breath) – wh - what, when, where, why

Short Vowel Sounds

  • / a / - a, ai, au - hat, plaid, laugh
  • / e / - e, ea, u, ie, ai, a - egg, bread, bury, friend, said, many, leopard, heifer, aesthetic, eo, ei, ae, ay says
  • / i / - i, e, o, u, ui, y, ie - if, england, women, busy, build, hymn, sieve
  • / o / - o, a, au, aw, ough, ho - hot, want, haul, draw, bought, honest
  • / u / - u, o, oo, ou, - up, ton, flood, trouble

Long Vowel Sounds

  • / ā / - a, a_e, ay, ai, ey, ei - bacon, baby, cake, late, day, hay, train, snail, they, eight, vein weigh, straight, croquet, break, gauge
  • / ē / - ee, e, ea, y, ey, oe, ie - bee, me, seat, lady, key, phoenix, brief, ski, receive, people
  • / ī / - i, i_e, igh, y, ie, uy - find, ride, light, fly, pie, buy, aisle, island, height
  • / ō / - oa, o_e, o, oe, ow, b - oat, bone, open, toe, low, though, beau, brooch, sew, soul
  • / ū / - u, u_e, ew, oo, ue, oe, ui - human, use, few, chew, moon, blue, shoe, through, croup, fruit

Other Vowel Sounds

  • / oo / - oo, u, oul - book, put, could
  • / ōō / - oo, u, u_e - moon, truth, rule
  • Vowel Diphthongs

  • / ow / - ow, ou, ou_e - cow, out, mouse, house, bough
  • / oy / - oi, oy - coin, toy

Vowel Sounds Influenced by r

  • /a(r)/ - ar - car, far
  • /ā(r)/ - air, ear, are - air, chair, fair, hair, bear, care
  • /i(r)/ - irr, ere, eer - mirror, here, cheer
  • /o(r)/ - or, ore, oor - for, core, door
  • /u(r)/ - ur, ir, er, ear, or, ar - burn, first, fern, heard, work, dollar

Phonics Games

While there are a lot of books and complicated theories that you can explore, basically teaching phonics is teaching your child what individual letters and letter groups sound like. There are three natural steps to teaching phonics. Step one: teach your child the sounds of the consonants. Step two: help your child understand short and long vowel sounds. Finally, when your child has mastered the first two steps, introduce him to diphthongs, letter groupings with unique sounds.

The best way for your child to explore these vital letter sounds is to play with them. Try some of these games to help your first grader enter the world of reading.

Matching Sounds

This is a fun beginner game to play with your young reader. Write a letter or letter combination on the left side of a 3 x 5 card. Cut out a picture that starts with the same letter sound, and glue it to the right side of the card. For example, you might write the letters “st” on one end of the card and glue a picture of a star to the other side. Continue to make cards until you have all the consonants, long and short vowels and diphthongs. Then cut each card down the middle in a different way. You might cut one card diagonally and another with a zigzag pattern. Use your imagination. You can cut different sized zig zags, wavy patterns, or scallops. The important thing is to make each cut different.

Spread the cards out on the table with your child and encourage her to match the letter with the sounds. The different types of cuts will help her make the matches. As she makes each match, say both the sound and the word and ask her to repeat after you. As she becomes more familiar with the game, she will say the sounds and words herself. Store all of the cards into a shoebox, plastic container or an envelope.

Newspaper Search

Before tossing your old newspapers or magazines into the recycling bin, use them to teach your child phonics. Simply pull out a single sheet and arm your child with a crayon. Give him a single sound such as /ch/. Begin by asking him what letters make the /ch/ sound. Help him to reach the correct conclusion, then ask him to find the letter combination in the words on the page. Let him circle the words that have the letters in them. After he has circled all of the letters on the page, go over the words with him.

This is a good time to introduce him to irregular words. Explain that most words follow the same rules, but some are different. For example, while most words that have a “ch” say /ch/, some words don’t, such as “school.” You may want to keep a list of irregular words. This will help him learn these special words. However, be sure to always end on praise for the correct words he has found.

Stomp a Sound

Place foam letters around on the floor of the room. Start with five or six consonants and then move on to all of the consonants in the alphabet. Ask your child what letter makes the /s/ sound. When the child says the letter “s,” ask her to “stomp that sound!” Very quickly, your child will learn to run and stomp on the correct letter for each sound. If she gets a letter wrong, just repeat the sound and ask her to try again. After she has mastered the consonants move on to vowel sounds and diphthongs.

Do You Hear What I Hear

Do You Hear What I Hear? It is vital that your child understand that most words have beginning, middle and ending sounds. To help, you can play a game that teaches him to listen for different parts of a word. What makes this even easier is the fact that this game has no parts and you can play it anywhere. Take turns saying single syllable word, such as the word “cat.” First ask your child what sound begins the word. He may make the sound. If so, ask him what letter makes the sound. Move on to another words, such as “mat.” Ask him to say the last sound of this word. If he makes the “m” sound, redirect him, until he makes the sound for the letter “t.” As he becomes more familiar with the game, add diphthongs. Continue to switch up between the first and last letter sounds until he has mastered these positions. Finally, try asking him what sounds he hears in the middle of the word. This can be hard many children. You can help by reminding him that he will be looking for a long or short vowel. Stick with single syllable words throughout, just to make things clearer for him.

Letter Hop Scotch

Draw a simple hopscotch track on a driveway or sidewalk. But instead of numbers, write letters in the squares. The child speaks the sound of each letter as he jumps on it. You can add to the difficulty by adding diphthongs such as “sh,” “ch,” and others.

Word Ball

Exercise your child’s mind along with her body. Simply write letters on three by five cards and place them around a basketball hoop. Place them in areas the child can easily make a basket. When the child takes her turn, she must step on the letter. She must name the letter and make the sound, then shoot the ball. If she gets the letter and souond correct and makes the basket, she gets to keep the card. If she misses, the card stays on the ground for the next player. If you do not have a basketball hoop, try this game with beanbags and a basket.

Fruit Salad

This is a fun game to encourage phonics and memory. Simply start by saying: “I have a fruit salad and I made it with. . .” Then say something that starts with an “A” sound such as apples. The next person says: “I have a fruit salad and I made it with apples and blueberries.” Keep going until someone forgets a word or you get to the end of the alphabet. Don’t forget, even though it is a fruit salad, you do not have to stick with fruit. Try putting outrageous things in your salad. For example, you might say you have apples and boomerangs in your fruit salad.

Don’t forget, giggling is an important part of language development.

If you have a minute, you have time to help your child learn letter sounds. All you need are average, household items that can open up reading for your preschooler.

Sound Hunt

Make letters on your driveway or sidewalk. Make a sound and ask your child to jump on the correct letter. For example write the first five letters of the alphabet. Say “buh.” If your child runs over and stands on the letter “B” praise him. If he steps on another letter, repeat the sound and give him another chance. Continue to add letters until you have the entire alphabet. As your child becomes more adept at his letters, mix in upper and lower case letters.

Letter Journal

Find a small notebook and print an upper and lower case letter at the top of a page. Give your child an old magazine or ad circular and ask her to find pictures of items that start with the sound of that letter. For example, if the letter is “G,” ask her to find pictures of things that start with a “guh” sound. This might be grapes or ghosts. Let the child cut the picture out of the magazine and glue it onto the page. You can circle back and repeat letters that the child struggles with.

Phonic Snacks

Purchase a box of letter cookies or make a batch with alphabet cookie cutters. As you give the child a cookie, ask her to tell you what sound the letter makes. When she gets it right, she gets to eat the cookie.

I Spy

You can work on phonics any time, even while driving, riding or waiting in line. If your child looks bored, just say: “I spy with my little eye something that starts with the sound /t/.” Give her some time to look around. In many areas, she might be able to answer with many different options such as a tree, a truck or a train. In other areas, you may have to be very specific. Never just throw out a letter sound that you can’t see. As she becomes better at listening to the initial sounds of words, move to final sounds, then middle sounds. To make the game even more difficult, move from letter sounds to letter names. When you can say something like: “I spy something that ends with a ‘t’” and your child responds with the word “light,” you know that she is ready to start sounding out words, the next step to reading.

In first grade, phonics sounds are a giant stepping stone to becoming an independent reader. Working with your child daily will help develop these critical skills.

Conclusion

Learning is child’s play when you work letters and phonics into your child’s everyday fun. These games are designed to help acquaint your child with letter sounds. These building blocks of reading give your child a firm foundation for school.

Taking a few minutes every day to play with letter sounds, helps you and your child see the value of learning and makes learning fun.

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