Literacy: Listening, Talking, Reading and Writing: initial sounds
Your child has now been taught the correct sounds for the following letters:
s
e
u
ie
a
h
l
ee
oo oo
th qu
t
r
f
or
y
ou
i
m
b
z
x
oi
p
d
ai
w
ch
ue
n
g
j
ng
sh
er
ck
o
oa
y
th
ar
These can be printed and cut out to be used as flash cards or for blending activities. Alternatively, they
can be handwritten onto card or paper.
Please also notice that oo and th have more than one sound and therefore sound different in different
words.
For the correct pronunciations please click this link:
http://jollylearning.co.uk/gallery/audio-2/
*NOTE: Ignore the You Tube video at the top of the page and click on the ‘British English’ links.
Supporting Your Child
Here are some ways you can help your child with their listening, talking reading and writing. Please
remember, when helping your child with their literacy, it is important not to rush into the reading and writing of
words. The importance of developing their confidence and flexibility in listening to and using sounds cannot
be understated.
Rapid Recall (reading)
 Use the letter sounds as flash cards.
 If there are certain letters they are finding more difficult to recognise or remember practice only one or
two of these at a time mixed in with others they are more confident with. This will help them complete
this activity more fluently, which builds confidence.
 As they begin to recognise the letters they were previously having difficulty with, add new ones to the
familiar pile gradually over time until they are confident with them all.
 Later you can time them to see if they can beat their personal best
 ‘Cambugs’ is an excellent app for using this approach and can be used wherever you are for some
quick practice. It also has built in rewards and pronunciations. Unfortunately, the Cambugs apps are
only available on apple store and not yet for android.
 Cambugs2 works the same way but focuses on the ‘chummies’ (two or more letters that make one
sound) and some initial blends. This is a paid for app however.
Blending (reading)
 Spell out one of the words using cards, scrabble tiles (or similar – please use lower case)
 Space them out a little from each other and encourage your child to say each individual sound.
 Move the cards closer together and repeat
 As your child repeats this again and again, encourage them to blend the different sounds together until
they can say the word.
 If they are finding this difficult, demonstrate for them so they can see and hear and then copy you.
Odd one out or find the rhyme (oral – listening and talking)
 Pick three of the words above ensuring that two of them rhyme and one of them does not
 Ask your child to identify the odd one out or the rhyming pair.
 Remember to shuffle the order you say them in – if you always make the last word the one that does
not rhyme they will learn this pattern but may not be able to discriminate the different sounds.
 This is a great game foe any words that rhyme.
Odd one out or find the rhyme (visual - reading)
 This activity is similar to the one above but instead of listening to the words, your child will try to spot
the odd one out or pair of words with the matching letter pattern.
P.T.O.
Where am I? (letter-sound discrimination – listening)
 To help your child hear the different sounds in the words they hear, select a word from the list above.
 When you say the word, ask them to say if a sound is at the start, middle or end of the word.
 For example: say “tap”, then ask you child to say if the p sound is at the start, middle or end of the
word. Remember to use the letter sound and not the letter name – in the example above, don’t ask
them to find where the letter P (“pee”) is as this is not the sound the letter makes in the word.
 Repeat the word if necessary.
 You can ask your child to show you by placing a counter, coin, small toy, etc on a grid like the one
below:
Word Building (writing)
 Select a word from the CVC list (available to download from the class webpage) and say it slowly to
your child
 Ask them what sound they can hear at the start
 Using the letter sounds written onto cards or similar (please use lower case), ask your child to select
the correct sound they can hear.
 Repeat this for the sound they can hear in the middle and at the end.
 Encourage them to begin building these words from what they hear.
Writing
Encourage your child to write can be difficult and it is all too easy to put them off. Here are some tips to avoid
this.
 It is always better if you link writing activities to a real purpose or through an activity that interests your
child.
 Ask them to write a sentence about a picture they have drawn
 After reading, watching a film or listening to a story, ask them if they would like to write a sentence
about what happened, their favourite part, the characters, etc.
 Incorporate it in their play: making letters for a post office or for family members; posters for a lost pet
or a baddie wanted sign; signs for their bedroom, shopping lists, etc.
 Write messages on post-it notes. Clues for a treasure hunt are always fun.
 Please do not correct their writing and only offer spelling input if they ask for it. When you stop them
correct them or (worst of all) write underneath their writing to show them ‘how it should be done’ , you
devalue their efforts and they will lose confidence.
 When they ask you how to spell encourage them to sound out the word or say any of the sounds they
can hear.
P.T.O.
 If they ask you to write something so that they can copy it, try to encourage them to write independently
– it is better that a child can read independently something they have ‘spelled badly’ than to write
something that is spelled correctly but cannot read.
 Always celebrate any writing by sharing it with family members or showcasing it in the house.
 When your child has produced some writing, try to avoid phrases like, “what does it say?” It is better to
uses phrases like” That’s brilliant, can I hear you read it as well?” or “Tell me about your writing”.
Handwriting
Your child has been shown how to correctly form all of the letters (please use the handwriting letter formation
download links on the class web pages to support your child with this). In particular, encourage them to form
the letters in their name correctly. When they are doing free writing, do not interrupt or accidentally devalue
their efforts by highlighting all their letter formation errors. Instead, create opportunities to practice the
letters they are not yet forming properly through the range of other fun activities. This link has some examples:
http://www.momto2poshlildivas.com/2013/07/55-ways-to-make-handwriting-practice.html
Apps
There are lots of apps that will claim to help your child learn but not all are helpful. The most common
problem with a large number of these apps is their focus on the letter names and learning the ABC alphabet in
order. This is of course important but alphabetical order does not really have any value until children can
hear, read and blend letter sounds. If possible, it is also usually better to use apps that have British
pronunciations as opposed to American as this will be closer to what they are learning in class and reduced
confusing or mixed messages.
The jolly phonics app has a number of the activities I have described here to support your child’s development
but is a paid for app. Here is a link to a preview video of the app if you would like to see what it is about before
deciding whether or not to download it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGU2MTFXx-o
Finally…
Every week your child will come home with suggested learning activities that link to the work they have been
doing that week. There is also information on the class webpages with suggested activities, downloads and
links. Please look at these regularly as old posts are still relevant to support current learning. Above all, if you
have any questions about your child’s learning or would like further advice on how you can support learning at
home, please contact your child’s class teacher or the Depute.