Year 1 Phonics
All about Phase 5.
Key Principles we want children to learn in
Phase 5.
• Phonemes are units of sound.
• Phonemes are represented by graphemes.
• A grapheme may consist of one (t, h), two (kn,
er) or more letters (igh, tch).
• A phoneme can be represented/spelled in
more than one way – cat, kennel, choir / rain,
may, lake.
• The same grapheme may represent more than
one phoneme – me, met.
Being secure at Phase 5.
Children need to:•
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Say the sound when shown any grapheme that has
been taught.
Write the common graphemes for any given sound.
Begin to self correct when reading.
Begin to become more fluent e.g not sounding out
most words.
Choose the correct phoneme or grapheme when
writing or be able to offer an alternative when
prompted by an adult.
What might your child find
difficult?
• Understanding the split digraph - laet (late),
tiem (time), liek (like)
• Choices for alternative spellings e.g /ai/ as in
again, today, snake, crayon, eight
• Awareness of alternative pronunciations for
specific graphemes in reading, e.g /ou/ out,
shoulder, could, you
Nonsense Words
• The children have to show their phonic
knowledge by reading words that are real and
‘nonsense’.
• Many games we play will ensure the children
are exposed to both types of words.
• We have to use nonsense words to check the
children’s ability to recognise a specific
grapheme not just sight read words. This also
shows that they can decode properly.
Year 1 Phonics Screening
• At the end of Year 1 one there is a statutory
phonics screening .
• This is compulsary for all children.
• The screening is completed on a 1 to 1 basis
with the class teacher.
• Within this screening the children must read
real and nonsense words.
Phonics homework
The phonics homework sheets provide you with an
overview of the graphemes the children have been
learning that week. Phonics homework is not
something we expect to be handed in each week.
Here are some games you can play........
• Bingo
• Snap
• Memory
• Kim’s Game
• Labelling pictures
• Writing sentences with the Phase 5 graphemes
• Don’t forget to look on the school website too!