Communication
Language and
Literacy
Development
Phonics Training
Phases 1 and 2
A compilation of ideas from
Practitioners
Enjoying rhyming and rhythmic activities (Yellow stepping stone
from Curriculum Guidance for the foundation stage)
 Beat Baby and Steady Beat
 Chanting rhymes; “1,2, 3, 4, I wonder who’s outside my door”
(beating parts of body, clapping)
 Nursery rhymes, singing, using action/percussion to illustrate sounds
and emphasise rhymes
 Action songs/rhymes
 Moving to music – music with different beats
 Name rhymes (see separate sheet)
 Brown Bear, Brown Bear – think of other animals (innovation), for
example, “pink pig, pink pig, what do you see”
 Singing rhymes with puppets
 Singing routines with actions e.g. ‘This is the way we…..’ to the tune
of ‘Here we go round the Mulberry Bush’
 Mini-music from Brighton and Hove music service
 Bear Hunt story, combine with steady beat
 Play music, children keep the beat with musical instruments, for
example, claves
 The Gruffalo – story/rhyme sack, laminated pictures retelling in own
words, chanting
 Jack be Nimble – children sing and clap song, take it in turns to jump
over the candle stick. Change Jack to children’s names
 Grandma, Grandma – steady beat
 Counting, marching and moving to music (Chinese New Year dance)
 Circle time activity – children take turns to clap, clap, say name, then
class then copies, clap, clap, say name and on to the next person
 Ring games e.g. Ring a Ring o’ Roses
 Repeated refrains e.g. chorus of a song
 Follow my leader clapping rhymes
 Story times with repetitive/patterned language e.g. 3 little pigs
 Music – rhythm sticks, tapping out names
 Recording each other and listening to each others’ voices, words,
songs
 Clapping out a rhythm in familiar rhymes.
 Kye Kye Kule (Che Che Kule) : Traditional West African Call and
Response Song – can be found on the internet
 Words and pictures website activities on smart board
 PWS cards on Interactive Whiteboard
 Listening to rhymes on headphones
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Distinguish one sound from another- Auditory Discrimination
The emphasis is on sounds not phonemes ( yellow stepping stone)
Croaker – puppet
‘Soundtracks’ listening game
Sound walks around school – record sounds
Music CD ROMs
Play an instrument behind a screen – children find matching
instrument
Adult make a body sound behind a screen – children to guess
Make a range of everyday sounds behind a screen 9 I.e water pouring
)
Tape child saying a message, play it to the group so they can guess
who is speaking
Sound lotto
Tapes of household sounds
Copy my sound – e.g. tongue clicks, shh, mmm, rolling rrrr, brrr etc
Listening games outdoors – sitting or lying with eyes shut – what
sounds can you hear?
Play a game with musical instruments, shut eyes, play an instrument,
children to identify which instrument
Describe sound – loud/soft, fast/slow
ICT 2Compose – make own notations and compositions
Fill bottles with different objects (for example, rice, water, peas) and
shake
Sound stories
Making animal noises
Game – decide on a focus letter, for example, T at the end of a word.
The children tap the floor every time you say a word in which this
occurs and shake heads if it doesn’t
Putting objects in sand/water trays and sorting when “fished” out and
writing phonemes on post-it notes
Children bring in objects beginning with a chosen sound
Differentiated phoneme frame
Sound lotto – play tape of sounds and match to picture
Sound buttons PiPs
Stories – Bear Hunt, can use with dance
Silent spelling – the Jolly Phonics actions only to spell a CVC word.
What am I spelling?
Record children, individually, singing a nursery rhyme. Play it back and
the children guess who is singing
Phoneme hopscotch – can extend to CVC words and HF words
 Clapping name/word patterns of syllables, walk around room and
look for people clapping the same pattern
 Phoneme count
 Nice 5 minute activity, no resources needed (or could use lots).
Make a box and lid with hand or have a real box, peep inside…
“Here is a box! I wonder whatever inside it there is? Something
beginning with …/A word with the middle sound…/A word ending
with…”. The children guess. “Why, it’s a … Without a doubt, let’s
open the box and let the … out!!”
 “Little Tommy Tittlemouse,
Lived in a little house,
Someone came knocking at the door”
(knock, knock).
“Who’s that knocking at my door?”
(Little Tommy is hidden by a screen. Tommy chooses a child to say “It’s
me” in a disguised voice. Little Tommy has to guess who it is).
Show an awareness of rhyme and alliteration
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Tongue twisters…. Traditional and modern
Tongue twisters and rhymes using different pace and voices
Rhyming the children’s names
Nonsense rhymes
Silly sentences
Alliterate names…..Jumping Jane
Find alliterative words that give animal characteristics, for example,
the curious caterpillar
Alliterative rhymes around children’s names, for example, Rosie rides
reindeers
ICT activities, for example, “Tizzy’s Toybox”, “Literacy Box”,
activities on website: www.coxhoe.durham.sch.uk
Dr Seuss books and The Gruffalo (other rhyming stories)
Drawing attention to children’s name that begin with the same initial
phoneme/rhyming end sound
Puppets that say silly things/alliterative things
Play “My mother went to market and bought a ball, bat, balloon etc”
Using the structure of brown bear but with a familiar teddy…. Teddy
Teddy who do you see? I see ……. looking at me
Children’s names with positive description, for example, Happy
Harry
Repetitive use of favourite rhymes and daily dialogue, for example,
weather
Make puppets, children retell rhymes onto Dictaphone and use with
props in the listening area Rhymes with names and “Pass the Jam
Jim” games
Fill in the last word “Paula picked pretty plums and …(peaches)”
Nick Sharrat’s Goldilocks books
Jingles game (Playing with Sounds)
Start a rhyming string … Non words can be included
Silly sentences – alliteration can be used for blends, st, fl, for
example, the flipping, flopping fish, stays still. Children create new
sentence
Highlighter pens! Spot the rhyming words
Say a list of rhyming words with one that does not rhyme. Which
one does not rhyme?
Games – slug in a jug
During shared reading, spot the rhyming words – children have a
signal instead of calling out
Using a well-known repetitive poem and adding own rhyming
words/lines
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Recognise Rhythm in spoken word
Clap/use xylophone to tap out syllables in children’s names,
unfamiliar words
Count syllables on fingers
Chanting nursery rhymes/singing rhymes
Limericks with regular pattern
Books like “Choo, Choo, Clickety Clack”
“Sing” a story as if it is a Operetta, this make you think about rhythm
of language and engages the children
Tapping sounds in names with musical instruments
Kye Kye Kule (Che Che Kule) : Traditional West African Call and
Response Song – can be found on the internet
Poetry – (noisy poems)
Body percussion while saying rhymes and phrases
Repetitive phrases in stories form a rhythm, for example, traditional
tales “I’ll huff and I’ll puff…”
The train ride by June Crebbin and Stephen Lambert
Sing and clap register
Sing routines
Children repeat refrain back to adult
Robotic words
Marching/dancing to songs
Tap out name “Someone’s knocking at the door, who is it?”
Tap out syllables in topic words
Rhythm game: clap the rhythm of a comment at appropriate times,
for example:
Clap-clap-clap, Ve-ry-good!
Using instruments when exploring words to add ‘beat’/’rhythm’ to
words.
Marching/moving to music in phonic activities
In poetry, children raise hand/stand when they hear a word that
rhymes
For rhyme, the children sit in a circle and pass Teddy round. When a
child has the Teddy they say a rhyming word
To know familiar nursery rhymes, then make up their own.
Bingo Lingo: Supporting Literacy with Songs and Rhymes by Helen
MacGregor
Three Singing Pigs by Kaye Umansky
Bobby Shafto Clap your Hands
Sort word of one, two and three syllables into hoops
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Continue a rhyming string
Rhyming stories/books
Pirate song: “When I was seven I…”
Rhyming circle…. Children can repeat an earlier given word
Pebble game PiPs
Silly sentences or rhymes using children’s names
Change/guess the word at the end of a rhyme/nursery rhyme
Make up new nursery rhyme verses; for example, Humpty Dumpty
sat on a log, Humpty Dumpty…
Using big letters, children to change first sound, for example, sat, bat
etc
Pebble Game (PIPs)
If your name rhymes with … go and put on your coat
Rhyming sentences or nonsense rhymes using children’s names
Rhyming pairs with objects and pictures, for example, cat and mat etc
– extension: objects on the floor, for example, frog, log, cat, mat etc.
Sing rhyme “The frog is on the …” and “The cat is on the …”
Rhyme hunt – look for objects, bring them back and take
photographs
Humpty Dumpty Rhyming Wall
Rhyming Kim’s game Interactive Whiteboard – look at rhymes, make
up silly rhymes by changing words, build a scene with traditional
rhyme
Bury rhyming objects in the sand to find
Missing rhyming objects: what is missing? (Kim’s game)
Rhyming objects each child has one object, to match with a partner
Parachute games
Ball of string, roll ball, jump up and say rhyming word
Large ball, passing and rolling similar to above – say rhyming word
Pass the shell
Passing e.g. pass a pig, dog or cat around the group, children think of
rhyming words and pass on
Word/letter on board with CVC or change onset and leave rime so
only changing one letter
Rhyming game, for example, “I’m thinking of a word that sounds like
bun it’s up in the sky so it must be…”
Puppet, song and rhymes, or a puppet who needs help, says incorrect
rhymes, the children correct him/her
Rhyming Line: Peg up rhyming objects/words on a washing line
Miss out rhyming words in stories/rhymes and the children can guess
“I went to the shop and I bought a dog, log, cog” etc
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Make a flip book to generate words
Rolling dice with rhyming words on
Word Wheels – make real and made up words
ICT – clicker 5 programme – find the rhyme, can listen to words and
make rhyming strings/sort rhymes
Hear and say the initial sounds in words and know which letters
represent some of the sounds
 Puppet – says the name of objects using the wrong initial/medial/final
sound, the children correct him/her
 Treasure hunt for letter sounds
 Letter cards on strips on a washing line – hand in order and match to
objects
 Use playground markings e.g. alphabet hopscotch/stepping stones
 Letter hunt
 Writing letters in sand, shaving foam, corn flour
 Phonic fishing: letters or key words in either water to be “fished”
out, or soil/sand to be dug up
 Give each child an object, one child stands up, any child whose object
has the same initial phoneme stands up
 Outside – big letter dice to make a word – sounding out different
sounds
 A bag/ tub of objects… match to children with the same phoneme a
t the beginning of their name
 Sound sack with objects in – children take an object and place in
specific sound circle
 Feely bag with objects representing the same phoneme
 Different objects on a tray, find objects that begin with a particular
sound, extension: include letters on tray to match with objects (some
could cause debate, for example, a doll could also be a baby)
 Split the group in two, some children hold letters, the other children
have objects, and find their correct “letter child”
 Letters around the room, show object or say word, children run to
the correct letter
 Sound trays: Six trays with a letter sound in each. In week one, the
objects are in place to explore. In week two, the children have to
sort the objects themselves into the correct tray
 Four hoops, four letters, children put toys/pictures in the correct
hoop
 Have focus letters in the learning environment
 Basket of objects beginning with same sounds – can they spot the
odd one out?
 Circle – swap places with a child who has an objects/picture with the
same sound
 Line up if name begins with…
 Cover up initial letters in books and predict
 Chalk letters outside
 Bowl of sounds to sort with objects
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Jump in the Hoop PIPs
ICT games on interactive whiteboard
Odd one out
Hide and seek letters in the sand/bark/rice
Match objects onto alphabet mat
Labels around classroom; table, door, chair etc
Sound books (homemade if possible) – not just alphabet, “ch”, “sh”
etc
Sound bags – mix objects – sort into hoops with grapheme in
Painting, gluing, sand trays – using fingers to draw and say initial
phonemes
Alphabet crocodile – match toy/picture to the appropriate grapheme
pocket
Word sort: children have selection of words sort using correct way
of spelling, for example, for the sound ie, i, igh and y
Listening to initial sounds on tape, cover corresponding pictures with
a counter (bingo type game)
Rub off the board game: write focus letters on the board in a random
fashion as the children watch and echo them. The teacher says a
word; the children point to the initial sound on the board and the
teacher chooses a child to rub it off. This can be made more dramatic
by having a child bash a cymbal at this point.
Initial sounds game: calling objects, sing rhyme “Who let the … out?”
children to chant the initial sound or letter
Whiteboards with photo-cards of objects – pick a photo, write the
word
Noisy letters PiPs
Using a “sound wall” with objects in boxes on wall – with letters next
to it
Letter bingo
Word bingo
Use programmable toys/bugs to find objects beginning with a specific
phoneme
Ideas To Use the Children’s Names
Using rhymes and playing name games is a good way of letting the
children experiment with sounds as they develop phonemic
awareness. The list is endless as you use rhymes that the children
are familiar with or those that you make together!
…………quite contrary
Little…..has lost his/her sheep
How does your garden grow?
And doesn’t know where to find them
With silver bells
Leave them alone
And cockle shells
And they’ll come home
And pretty maids all in a row
Dragging their tails behind them
Hickory dickory dock
……put the kettle on
…….. Ran up the clock
……put the kettle on
the clock struck one
….. put the kettle on and we’ll all have tea
……. Ran down hickory dickory dock.
……… and……. went up the hill
….. be nimble
to fetch a pail of water
….. be quick
…. Fell down and broke his/ her crown
…..jump over the candlestick
and ….. came tumbling after
Rain rain go away
I like you
Come again another day
You like me
…..wants to go and play
So good friends we will be
…..likes…..
….. likes…..
so good friends they will be
I have a friend who’s name is …..
…… (colour) is my hair
We have fun together
…… (colour) are my eyes
We laugh and play
I’m ….. years old
And sing all day
And just the right size
In any kinds of weather
My name is….. and as you can see
I’m very happy to be me
Books and Resources
Teaching books
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L is for Sheep - getting ready for phonics Edited by Sally Featherstone
Sounds interesting : creative ideas to stimulate literacy learning for
children from five to seven years ( Belair Publication )
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Helping Young Children With Steady Beat Ros Bayley & Lynn Broadbent
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Ros Bayley’s Beanbag Raps, Animal Raps, Action Raps & Noisy
Raps
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Foundations of Literacy by Sue Palmer & Ros Bayley
Alphabet Awareness Books
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A My Name is Alice …… E. Bayer and Stephen Kellogg ( rhyming book
using all the letters of the alphabet)
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Annie Bananie ……Leah komaiko
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Earl’s Too Cool For Me…..leah Tomaiko
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What’s Your Name? From Ariel to Zoe…..Eve Saunders
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The Dinosaur Alphabet book…..J.Pallota
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Alpha Bugs…..D. Carter
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Eating The Alphabet…..L.Ehlert
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D is For Dragon Dance…..Ying Chang Compestine ( A Chinese New Year
alphabet)
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I Spy an Aphabet in Art…..L. Micklelthwait
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C is For Construction: Big Trucks and Diggers from A to Z…..caterpillar
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The Alphabet Room…..S. Pinto
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Alphabet Poem…..Michael Rosen
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J is for Jamaica (world alphabet series)…..Benjamin Zephaniah
Rhyming books
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In The Days of the Dinosaurs: A Rhyming Romp through Dino
History…..Howard Temperley
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Acker Backa Boo (Games to say and play from around the world)…..Opal
Dunn
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Walking Through the Jungle….. Stella Blackstone & Debbie Harter
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Bumpus Jumpus Dinosaurumpus…..Tony Milton & Guy Parker Rees
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Bringing The Rain to Kaipiti Plain (repetitive structure of the house That
Jack Built)…..Verna Aardema
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New Shoes…..Jeanne Willis
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Dinnertime Rhyme…..June Cribbin
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The Seven Silly Eaters…..Mary Anne Hoberman
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Down By the Cool of the Pool …..Tony milton
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The Gruffalo…..Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler
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Each Peach Pear Plum…..Alan & Janet Ahlberg
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Pass The Jam Jim Jam…..Kaye Umansky & Margaret Chamberlain
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Don’t Put Your Finger in the Jelly Nelly….. Nick Sharratt
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Wriggle and Roar (Rhymes to join in with…..Julia Donaldson & Nick
Sharratt