So far this term, we have recapped all the Phase 3 sounds taught in Reception and moved on to teaching the Phase 5 sounds that the children need to learn. Phase 5 phonics consists of learning alternative spellings for the sounds they already know so that they can decode a wider range of words when reading. For example the children learnt that the sound /ai/ they learnt in Reception (as in train) can also be spelt /ay/ as in play and also /a-e/ as in game. The last sound a-e is what we call a split digraph - if you ask your children, I'm sure most of them will be able to explain what it is! It is called a split digraph because the sound is split apart by another letter.
This week the children worked hard revising all the sounds they have learnt so far in both reading and writing activities and games.