JOLLY PHONICS

-Jolly Phonics is a synthetic-phonics programme. It teaches children, in a simple and multi-

sensory way, how the English reading and writing system works. That is to say, it teaches
children to use the basic alphabetic code to work out unknown words before expecting them
to read books for themselves or to write independently.

-Jolly Phonics starts with single letters and the sounds that the letters represent. As soon
as the children have been taught a few letters and sounds, including one or two vowels, they
are taught to look at the words, produce a sound for each letter and then blend the sounds all
through the word into normal pronunciation. This ‘synthesising’ (blending sounds) is the
essential skill for working out unknown words.
As each new letter sound is introduced, more regular words become available for
reading and writing practice.

-The word can then be blended and read. This allows the children to see the
significance of encoding to write and decoding to read. It is this understanding that makes
the children confident and the program so successful. Later on the children learn that the
English language is not quite so simple. There are several alternative ways of writing the
letter sounds, and sometimes there are bizarre spellings. However, by going from simple
skills and gradually introducing the more complex ones, virtually all the children
become successful readers and writers.

- Children should be encouraged to start reading (blending) and writing (segmenting)

words that use letter sounds that they know as soon as those sounds have been taught.

-The Jolly Phonics program teaches five basic skills. It is important to realize that the first
four skills are taught simultaneously each day from the beginning and the fifth skill,
learning the tricky words, is introduced to the teaching after the first few weeks.

1. Learning the Letter Sounds

2. Learning Letter Formation
3. Blending (for reading)
4. Identifying the Sounds in Words (for writing)
5. Tricky Words

- It is important to note that comprehension is not one of the five skills taught explicitly
in the Jolly Phonics program. Comprehension and reading are two complementary skills,
which should not be confused. Whilst ‘reading’ involves translating text into sounds or spoken
words, ‘comprehension’ involves deriving meaning from those words. Both reading skills and
comprehension skills are essential if a child is to be able to understand a text, but the reading
must come first. A child cannot understand a text if he or she cannot identify the written
words. It is for this reason that Jolly Phonics concentrates on teaching reading.

-However, reading skills should not be learned in isolation from comprehension skills. There
is little point in being able to read a passage that one cannot understand. For this reason, the
children’s comprehension skills should be developed through stories and poems, and
through speaking and listening activities at the same time as they are being taught
decoding skills.
- Once Jolly Phonics has brought fluency to the children’s reading, comprehension
becomes the greater focus.

-In order to be able to read, the children need to be fluent at saying the sounds
represented by each letter or letter combination.

The first four skills

1.Learning the letter sounds

With Jolly Phonics, every letter sound is introduced with a story and is accompanied by a
movement and a song.
The child is expected to say the sound as soon as he/she sees the letter it represents

By doing the action and singing the song for each letter sound, the children are using body
movement, ears, eyes and speech to help them remember that sound. This multi-sensory
approach is a very effective way of teaching, as well as being exciting for the children.
Singing the songs not only acts as a reminder of the letter sounds but can also help with the
pronunciation of the sounds, which makes them particularly appropriate for non-English
speaking children.
-Children should be made aware of the letter sound correspondence in all positions .

-At the beginning all the letters should be introduced by their sounds and not by their
names.

-After the first five groups of letter sounds have been taught, the children can be introduced
to the letter names. As well as representing a sound, each letter has a name. The children
need to know both the sounds and the names

-Reinforcement of the letter sounds is very important. Flash cards showing the letters that
have been taught should be held up every lesson so that the children have a chance to practice
saying the sounds and doing the actions. The faster the children are at recognizing the
letters and saying the sounds, the easier it will be for them to read and write.

-Teachers should provide each child in their class with a Sound Book of his or her own.
A sound book is essentially a small blank book in which the letters can be stuck. Sound
Books are made from plain paper sheets cut in half. As soon as each letter is taught, it is stuck
on the next clean page.
The letters for sticking into the Sound Books can be photocopied from The Phonics Handbook

-These Sound Books should be taken home so that the parents can help their child to
learn the letter sound. Teachers should avoid the temptation to draw little pictures next to
the letters in the Sound Book; the children need to learn to recognize the shape of the letter.

-In each lesson, children should be given the opportunity to revise the letter sounds they
have learned already. (use games Running to the correct letter, Letter circles, Creative
letters, Fishing for letters, Sound Box….)
-Learning the letter sounds is not sufficient; children need to know how to apply their
letter-sound knowledge in order to be able to read words. From the beginning, children
should be taught how to blend the sounds together to identify the words

-Once the children have been introduced to a sound , they need to learn the letter formation
and begin blending and segmenting words that contain that sound.

-To see how the different sounds are articulated , visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-
ksblMiliA8

2.Letter formation

Children are introduced to the formation of each letter in the following ways:
1. The teacher shows the formation on the board.
2. The teacher shows the formation in the air, taking care that the letter is formed so that the
children see it the correct way round. ( mirror writing)The children watch the teacher and
then imitate the movement, saying the sound as they do so. This is repeated several times.
3. The children form the letters on their Sound Sheets or on the pages of their Pupil Books,
depending on the material the school is using. On both the Sound Sheets and Pupil Books
pages there is an example of the letters and digraphs, with the formation clearly indicated by a
number of arrows. A line of dotted letters is also provided for the children to write on. Watch
the children writing and check that they are forming the letters correctly. The dotted line
helps the children to recognize that all the letters are the same size, except for the tall sticks
and the tails.
4. The children can trace the formation of each letter or digraph with their fingers in the
letter-shaped grooves in the Finger Phonics Books.
5. The children can watch the letters being formed on the Jolly Phonics DVD and/or Jolly
Phonics CD-ROM. The CD-ROM also gives the children a chance to form the letters themselves

- In the beginning, the children should concentrate on forming the lower case letters;
the formation of capital letters follows on from this teaching.

Pencil hold
If young children are to achieve neat, legible handwriting, they need to be taught how to
hold their pencil, and how to form letters correctly. Early mastery of these skills is well
worth the extra effort involved.
For correct pencil hold, the pencil should rest between the thumb and the first finger; the
middle finger should be used to prevent the pencil falling down and the last two fingers
should be tucked under the middle finger.
When writing, the hand should rest on the table. The pencil should be moved by the thumb,
first finger and middle finger only. It is important that the child’s knuckles point outwards.
Young children are particularly amused when their fingers are likened to ‘froggy
legs’. They should be encouraged to make ‘froggy legs’ when they move the pencil forwards
and backwards
-Children should be told that the letters in a word are written close together, but without
bumping. They should also be told to leave a space between words. ( Putting a finger between
words )

-By concentrating on correct letter formation and pencil hold, from the outset, bad
habits can be prevented.

3. Blending

-When reading, children need to understand the meaning of the words, but before they can
do this, they have to be able to work out what the words say. The phonic skill for this is to
look at the letters, say the sounds and hear the word. This process is called blending. Note that
‘blending’ is also known as ‘synthesising’, and this is why Jolly Phonics is known as a synthetic
phonics programme.
In the beginning, most children are not able to blend. They need to be taught this skill
because, with the ability to blend, the children are able to read unknown regular words.
Once the children can blend, they are also in a far better position to master the irregular
words, as no words are completely irregular.

-When children are being introduced to the skill of blending, the teaching should, initially,
focus upon auditory blending. For auditory blending, the children have to listen to the
individual sounds spoken by their teacher and blend the sounds together in their heads to
make the word. The Finger Phonics Books are a good starting place for this kind of teaching.

/s-u-n/ we want the children to be able to hear the words

-Once the children are able to hear the word when an adult says the sounds, they are in
a position to start blending written words.
This can start as soon as the first three letter sounds have been taught.
When children approaches a written word they should sound out each letter in turn and
then synthesize the sounds together in order to generate the pronunciation of the word; in
this way children construct the pronunciation for themselves

-When beginning to teach blending, it can be helpful if the children are shown the
blending words with a small dot placed underneath each letter sound.

-More words can be blended as each letter sound is introduced. A comprehensive ‘Word Bank’
is available in both the Jolly Phonics Resources CD and in the Pupil and Teacher’s Books .

-Children who can hear the words understand how the alphabetic code works for reading.
They realize that the code is something they can work out for themselves. This knowledge
fascinates them and their confidence grows.

-Hints that help children blend :

1. They should master the letter sounds. As soon as they see a letter or a digraph, the sound
should come automatically to them. If they have to pause to think, they lose track of the word.
To correct this, it is necessary to revise the sounds regularly with flash cards, actions and
letter games.
2. To develop speedy blending, on a regular basis, snap together an initial consonant followed
by a short vowel.
3. Initially children blend words by calling out the sounds aloud, but gradually they should
be encouraged to blend silently in their head. This promotes fluency for reading.
4. One activity for developing ‘silent’ blending involves the teacher doing the actions for the
component letter sounds of a word without saying the sounds Children try and work out the
word and either write it down or call it out. Alternatively, a child can have a turn miming the
actions for the sounds in a word.
5. Another simple way to develop blending sounds in the head is to write letters randomly on
the board. Then the letters can be pointed to one after the other, to make a word. The children
watch this and try and put the sounds together in their head and identify the word.
6. The first letter sound should be emphasized, for example, on the /d / of /d-o-g/.This
helps the child to remember the sound the word starts with. The sounds that follow in the
word need to be spoken softly and quickly, and the schwa should be avoided where possible.
There are two types of sound in English. One sort makes a pure, continuous sound; examples
of this sort are the sounds,/ssssssssssssss/, /ffffffffffffffff/, /rrrrrrrrrrrrrr/, / The other
sounds are impossible to say without adding a ‘schwa’ to the end. The schwa is like an /uh/
sound. For instance, the /b/ sound cannot be said without a schwa: /buh/. The continuous
sounds can be said with, or without, the schwa. Sounds should be said with as little schwa as
possible.
7. Blending skills are improved if the initial consonant blends are said on their own examples
of common consonant blends are: /cr/, /fl/and /str/.
The children are encouraged to work the word out by saying the blend first, followed by the
individual sounds. The children should say /pl-a-n/ rather than /p-l-a-n/, for example.
8. When blending words with digraphs, the children have to remember to look at the two
letters and say just the one sound ( ch , sh, wh..). For this reason, reading words containing
digraphs is slightly more complicated to master than reading words with consonant blends.
When learning to read words with digraphs, the children need extra blending practice.

4. Identifying sounds in words

-Developing an ability to hear the sounds in words is an essential skill for writing. This skill is
known as ‘segmenting’ and is an effective route to developing phonemic awareness.
- When children can hear each sound in a simple word and know how to write the
letters that represent those sounds, they can write hundreds of words by themselves,
-Teachers should avoid becoming dogmatic about the number of sounds in words. The
number of sounds can vary according to pronunciation.
- The main aim of synthetic phonics is to develop the children's ability to identify the
sounds they hear and to relate those sounds to letters.

-An ability to hear the sounds in words does not necessarily ensure accurate spelling, but it
does prevent the children making avoidable spelling mistakes.
-The first step is to encourage the children to listen out for the sound that is currently
being taught ask the children to listen and identify all the sounds in words, holding up a
finger for each sound.
-Tiles could also be used to represent each sound

-A few examples of this activity should be done every day. At the beginning, it is
advisable to use only words containing the letter sounds that have been taught.
The fifth skill

5.Tricky words

-Tricky words are frequently used words that are either irregular , or can only be read
with phonic knowledge that has not yet been taught.
Despite their name, some part of a tricky word will always be regular.
When learning to read tricky words, the children should initially blend the letter sounds
together, before learning the correct pronunciation. The children find it interesting to look
carefully for the ‘tricky’ part in the words; by doing this they start to analyze words.
The children’s extra attention to the details helps to store the word in their memories.

-In the Jolly Phonics program, there are 72 tricky words. For ease of learning, these words
have been divided up into color-coded groups of twelve tricky words each.

-The Jolly Phonics list of tricky words has been designed so that it starts with the most
frequently used words; it is also designed so that words with the same spelling patterns are
taught in the same group. For this reason, it is advisable to teach the tricky words in order.

-The first sixty tricky words are taught with the Tricky Words Sheets, and the
remaining twelve tricky words are covered later.

Introducing the tricky words

The introduction of the tricky words should ideally start when the 6 th group of letter sounds
is being taught as children will have more knowledge to decode the regular part of the words.
But some teachers prefer to start earlier, after the 4 th group for example, especially when the
rate of sound- letter introduction is slower .
-The tricky words in English always cause problems. Learning to read these words is easier
than learning to spell them.
-The tricky words can then be taught at a pace of three new tricky words a week; although
more can be taught, if they share a similar spelling pattern (examples being: he, she, me, we
and be.) By teaching the children to observe the irregularities, and by giving them
techniques and simple rules, you are enabling them to be more accurate in their
spelling. A certain amount of rigour is needed when teaching the awkward spellings,
particularly when teaching children who do not have a good visual memory .
-The order for introducing tricky words should be according to the reading scheme(s) .
It is sensible to do scheme words first, as it makes it easier for the children to read their
books. The JP leveled readers display the tricky words children need to master for each level.

Teaching the spelling of tricky words

The children should only begin to learn how to spell tricky words when they can read the first
ones easily. Aim to teach the spellings of about two tricky words a week, making sure that the
children also revise those already taught. Some fortunate children have a sufficiently good
visual memory to master the spelling of the tricky words just by reading them. However,
most children have to be specifically taught.
Look, copy, cover, write, check
This is the principal method for teaching the spelling of tricky words. First, the children look
at the word and identify the tricky part(s).
For instance, the word said has an /e/ sound in the middle, but it is spelt with an ‹ai›. The ‹s›
and ‹d› are regular. The children then say the letter names (not the sounds) several times. The
reason for saying the names rather than the sounds is that the letter names trot off
the tongue more easily and these particular words do not sound out reliably. After that, the
children trace the word in the air or on the table, saying the letter names as they do so.
Following that, they copy the word onto some scrap paper, still saying the letter names as
they do so. The children then have to cover the word up and try writing it on their own.
Encourage the children to continue saying the letter names as they write the word. Regular
revision and dictation ensure that the spelling of these words is mastered.
Word wall
It is a good idea to make a wall display of all the tricky words the children have been
taught. When the tricky words are visible on the classroom wall, the children are able to
revise them regularly and to check on the spellings of the words as they write
Say it as it sounds
This spelling method is useful for words that have only one awkward element, which makes
the word difficult to spell. Take, for example, the word Monday. The difficult part is the ‹o›,
because instead of having an /o/ sound it has an /u/ sound. It helps the children to remember
this awkward spelling if they say the word as it should be spoken.
Another awkward aspect in spelling is the fact that we often swallow the pronunciation of the
vowels, particularly in polysyllabic words. For example, the ‹e› in children has an /uh/ sound,
which is known as a schwa. It often helps the children to spell these words if they ‘say it as it
sounds’; in this case, by emphasising the /e/.
Silent letters can also be taught in this way. By pronouncing the ‹w› at the beginning of words
like write, wrong, wrap and wring, the children find it much easier to spell the words
correctly.
Teachers might like to make a list of these words as they occur and then, in odd
moments, call out the words and expect the children to say them as they are spelt,
pronouncing the silent letters and the swallowed vowels.

Teacher says: Children respond

Mother mother (to rhyme with bother)
Doctor doctor (emphasising the ‘or’)
Wednesday Wed-nes-day
Front front (with ‘o’ sound, instead of ‘u’)
Knock k-nock
Island is-land

Mnemonics
Some words are outrageously irregular and notoriously difficult for the children to spell.
Mnemonics can be useful here. A mnemonic is a short phrase, the initial letters of which
spell out a word, or aid the recall of information.
The children recite a phrase, normally a humorous one, and use the initial letters to spell a
particularly difficult word. It helps if the same mnemonics are used throughout the school
in order to prevent confusion when the children go to new classes. Treat the mnemonics as a
bit of fun, only to be used for a minority of words. Sometimes, a class can make up their own
silly phrases, and then share it with others in the school.
Alternatively, the following phrases could be used:
Laugh laugh at ugly goat’s hair
People people eat omelettes; people like eggs
Because big elephants catch ants under small elephants
could, should, would o u lucky duck (The initial ‹c, sh and w› are regular)

Word families or patterns

-When one word is taught, it is helpful to show others with the same spelling pattern.
For example , the word like should be linked to the words bike, trike, hike, pike and Mike.
Later, more awkward patterns can be taught, including the worst letter combination of all, the
‹ough›

Does it look right?

When children are uncertain about how a word is spelt, they can write it down on scrap
of paper, trying out all the different possible spellings. This technique can be particularly
useful when tackling vowel sounds, which often have a number of alternative spellings; for
example, brown could be written brown or broun and bird could be spelt bird, berd or burd.
The children choose the spelling that looks right. The children should be encouraged to
look up the correct spelling in a dictionary as soon as their dictionary skills are good enough.

Sounds in groups and 3 teaching stages

-In Jolly Phonics, the letters sounds are divided into groups of six. They have been ordered
carefully so as to aid learning. The first six letters can be used to make many simple words.
This means that it is possible for the children to make words at an early stage in their
learning. Furthermore, the letters that are often confused, such as ‹b› and ‹d›, are in separate
groups. The ‹c› is introduced early on, because it forms a template for writing the letters ‹a›,
‹d›, ‹o›, ‹g›, ‹q›.

Letter Groups
1. s, a, t, i, p, n
2. c k, e, h, r, m, d
3. g, o, u, l, f, b
4. ai, j, oa, ie, ee, or
5. z, w, ng, v, oo, oo
6. y, x, ch, sh, th, th
7. qu, ou, oi, ue, er, ar

Stage 1 :
- In Stage 1 one one way of spelling each sound is taught .

-The teacher will need to decide the appropriate pace for his or her own class, being one
letter sound per day the pace recommended for 5 year old native speakers.
If a slower pace is adopted, then it is important to avoid asking children to read words
with letter sounds that have not yet been taught or books with such words,

-All the letters are introduced in a similar fashion. When /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/ and /u/ are
taught, the children need to know that these are ‘special letters’ and are called vowels.
And they can be introduced to the vowel hand and the song with short vowels.

-Later on, children will be told the useful rules relating to the vowels, which will help them
with spelling. At this point, the children can be taught that the other letters are consonants.

-When most of the children can call out the sounds in CVC words, longer words can be
tackled. This often involves hearing the single sounds in consonant blends. Frequently,
the children fail to hear one of the consonants, and might write fog instead of frog or wet
instead of went.
Initial consonants blends
bl, cl, fl, pl, sl, br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr, st, sc, sm, sn, tw, shr, thr, scr, spr, and str.
Final consonant blends
lb, ld, lf, lk, lm, ln, lp, lt, ct, ft, nt, pt, xt, mp, and nd.

-In order to help the children hear all the sounds in consonant and final blends, call out the
blends and ask the children to say the individual sounds, holding up a finger for each one
Then, on a regular basis, call out a few words containing consonant blends, so that the
children can count the sounds.

-After identifying the sounds in words with consonant blends, virtually any word can be
segmented. However, it is important that the children are able to identify every sound in the
words, so words with a schwa sound should be avoided.

-In Jolly Phonics, any silent letters are shown in faint type.

-As with all teaching, revision is needed before the children can progress to the next
teaching points.

-If a child is found to be struggling, it is vital that their parents are informed, so that they
can understand their child’s problem, and give their time to helping him or her.

-In English there are 42 main sounds but only 26 letters to represent those sounds , that is
why sometimes two letters are put together to make a new sound ( sh , ng), these are called
diagraphs .
-With the 4th group of sounds, the first digraphs are introduced, the children need to
understand that sometimes they have to write two letters for a sound. The first digraph
is the /ai/ sound, which is at the same time long vowel a. The first long vowel we teach. The
children listen for the sounds in a word containing /ai/, for example nail, and call out,
/n/-/ai/-/l/, holding up a finger for each of the three sounds. As the sounds are spoken the
letters can be written on the board. When the ‹ai› is written on the board, it reinforces the
idea that this single sound is written with two letters.

-Between the teaching of the 4th or the 6th group , as recommended, we should start teaching
the first tricky words .

-Once all the long vowel sounds, /ai/, /ee/, /ie/, /oa/ and /ue/, have been introduced, the
children can be reminded of the vowel hand. This time, the vowel hand should show the long
vowels as well as the short vowels. The children should be encouraged to point to the tips of
their fingers and say the short vowels, and then point to the place where the fingers join the
hand, and say the long vowels. If the Jolly Songs are being used in class, the children might like
to listen to the 'Vowel Song', as they point to the vowel sounds on their hands.
-At this point, children should be introduced to the saying: ‘If the short vowel doesn’t
work, try the long vowel’. The vowel rule can then be used to help children to work out the
tricky words, he, me, she, we and be, which also need to be taught at this stage.

- Children should always be encouraged to read at home to their parents. In the very
early stages, before the children are ready to take storybooks home to read, they should be
provided with a number of words to read to their parents instead.
When children can hear words they have sounded out by themselves, which generally is after
the 6th group of letters,/y, x, ch, sh, th, th/, has been taught, the Word Boxes can be given out
to be taken home . The main function of Word boxes is to achieve greater fluency before the
introduction of reading books . They provide the stepping stones between letters, words and
books .
Perhaps not all of the children will be ready to read words at this stage, but those children
who are best at blending should be given a Word Box to take home. The first Word Box
given to a child should contain only the very simplest reading words (the ‘Box 1’ words, if The
Phonics Handbook is used). When a child returns to school with their Word Box, they should
read the words to a teacher, before they are given the next box to take home.

-Once the 7 groups of sounds have been covered and the first 10 tricky words taught,
and children know capital letters, they should be able to read the Red Leveled Readers by
themselves. (or other decodable books). At this moment we have completed the teaching of
Stage 1.

- Red Leveled Readers

Letter sounds all 42 letter sounds and how to blend them
Tricky words I, the, he, she, me, we, be, was, to, do, of

-Before going to the next stage make sure that children can:
-Read and write the 42 letter sounds
- Form the letters correctly, holding the pencil in the tripod grip
-Blend regular words fluently, for ex. “leg” , “flag”, “shoot” , “bringing”
-Write simple, regular words by listening for the sounds ex: “bed”, ”flat”, ”band”, ”ship”,
”spoon”.

- Timetable for Stage 1 ( see Appendix)

The following is a chart for the first stage of teaching with Jolly Phonics . The rate of
introduction suggested is two sound a week. After each group is taught, a week can be
devoted to review the whole group. The remaining weeks at the end can be used for reading
decodable readers.
Teaching with Jolly Phonics

It is advisable to let children know that they are going to learn to read and write and ,that , in
order to do this they must learn the letter sounds.

Four of the five basic skills are introduced in the first lesson. It is important not to spend too
long teaching each of the skills. The most effective way to teach the skills is with a little
practice of each skill every day.

Always follow the teaching sequence: review , introduce , practice , apply and consolidate .

Throughout their phonics teaching, the children should be encouraged to look at books and to
listen to stories being read to them. This helps children to develop their vocabulary and
comprehension skills, which are necessary if the children are to understand the books they
read for themselves.

Introducing the first letter sound: /s/

Story: Tell children that the story is about the /sssss/ sound and, if they listen carefully, they
will be able to hear the /s/ sound in some of the words of the story. ( Big Book). Ask if they
noticed any /s / sound in the story
Movement: The first story introduces the letter sound /s/ and the action associated with it.
Teachers should aim to elaborate on the stories provided. For example, the stories could be
adapted so as to include members of the class, or recent events at the school.

As our children do not have English as their first language, they may need the extra emphasis
on developing vocabulary, although this is not the aim of the program , some time could be
devoted to this purpose , but regarding the program , as long as the sound(s) of the day occur
in the story, and the children learn the letter sound(s), then the purpose is fulfilled.

Song: play the song. Encourage children to sing and make the s movement

Once the children have heard the story, they need to be shown the letter ‹s› and told to say
/sss/ when they see it. Flash cards can be introduced at this point Show the children the
letter flash card, explaining the sound that this letter makes. When you hold up the letter ‹s›
flash card, the children should say the /sssss/ sound and do the action, wiggling their hand
like a snake.

Activities to recognize the letter ‹s›. Plan games where children should identify the letter ‹s›
. For example encourage them to play ‘hunt the letter’; they should go looking for the letter ‹s›
in books, or on posters around the classroom. At this stage the focus is on the shape of the
letter, so it is perfectly acceptable if a child finds the ‹s› in a word where the ‹s› does not make
a /s/ sound, such as the ‹s› in fish.
Forming the letter ‹s›: show how to write the letter ‹s› correctly on the board and in the air (
mirror writing ) It helps if you describe the formation as you are doing it: ‘We start near the
top and go back up and over, down the snake’s body and then back and around.’
Help children “feel” ,the shape of the letter before they do it with pencils . Finger Phonics
Book 1 is useful for this purpose as well as writing on sand , using dough … plan different
activities in the classroom to reinforce the children’s letter-sound knowledge.
Explain to the children that it is very important to hold a pencil correctly when writing.
Demonstrate the tripod grip and the ‘froggy legs’.

Beginning to teach blending The children are introduced to the skill of blending in their first
lesson. It is, of course, impossible to blend (read) a written word with the knowledge of only
one letter sound, but auditory blending can start at this point. For auditory blending, the
children have to be able to listen to the individual sounds in a word and blend those
sounds in their heads to ‘hear’ the whole word.

Auditory blending activities should be carried out every day in order to help develop the
children’s auditory blending skills. Once the children are able to blend individual letter sounds
together and ‘hear’ the word, they are in a far better position to approach reading written
words. The only difference when reading written words, is that the children have to recognize
the letters and say the sounds themselves before blending them together.

Gradually, as the children learn to blend written words easily, the auditory blending activities
will become superfluous, and will be removed from the main lesson. Once this stage is
reached, auditory blending activities should only be used when teaching the small group of
struggling children.

Identifying the /s/ sound in spoken words:, In their first lesson, the children are simply
expected to listen for the /s/sound in words. Encourage the children to listen for the sound in
the words you call out. When the children are able to identify the /s/ sound in a word reliably,
they should be asked whether the /sss/ sound comes at the beginning, or at the end of the
word.

At the end of the session each child should be given the sound book with letter s stuck into it
to be taken home so that the parents can help their child to learn the letter sound. ( see how to
make the sound books in the Phonics Handbook)
Teachers should avoid the temptation to draw little pictures next to the letters in the Sound
Book; the children need to learn to recognize the shape of the letter.

In the last part of the lesson, you might like to read a short story to the children. This
encourages their desire to read books, and improves their vocabulary and comprehension.

Introducing the second letter sound: /a/

Always start the lesson by revising the letter sounds taught so far. Use the wall frieze.

Then proceed as with the previous letter sound . ( Story, movement, song ,activities to
recognize he letter , forming the letter, blending , identifying the letter in spoken words, sound
books )

In this case , explain that /a/ is a special letter sound, which is called a vowel. At this stage, the
children will not understand what this means, but as time goes on, they learn much more
about vowels.

Introducing the third letter sound: /t/

Start the lesson by revising the letter sounds previously taught and continue introducing and
practicing as with previous letter sounds. ( Story, movement, song ,activities to recognize he
letter , forming the letter, blending , identifying the letter in spoken words, sound books )

After the auditory blending activity, explain to the children that that day is a special one,
because they are now able to read (blend) two real words.
Write the word sat on the board, asking the children to call out the sounds as you write each
letter. Then, point to each letter in turn and, with the children, say the sounds and blend them
into the word sat. Repeat this exercise with the word at. Once the children have blended both
words a few times, put the two words into a spoken sentence, for example, The boy sat at the
table. This gives meaning to the words and shows the children that they have started to read.
This, in turn, gives the children a huge amount of confidence. They begin to understand that
there is a code to reading and that written words can be worked out.

From this point on, each blending session should involve blending some written words
from the board or cards .
In the beginning, most of the blending is done by the teacher, but gradually, the children
develop the ability to blend by themselves.

At this point you can call out (dictate) the letter sounds /a/, /t/ and /s/ for the children to
write. After dictating each letter sound, show the children how to write the letters correctly
on the board. If the children think their letter shape looks the same, praise them and
encourage them

Introduce /i/ , /p/ and /n/ in the same way then the previous letter sounds

After teaching the /p/ sound, ask children if the /p/ comes at the beginning, in the middle or
at the end. The challenge is to hear both /p/ sounds in the word popcorn.

This is a good time to start encouraging the children to listen for all the sounds in a word. At
this stage, it is better to use words containing only those letter sounds that have already been
introduced;

When first group of letter sounds has been taught , there can be a time to review the whole
group , use the sound books to check if they can say all 6 letter sounds and play games and
prepare activities to help children recognize the letter / sounds instantly , form the letters
correctly , blend and identify sounds in words.
A Useful activity for revision and extra practice after the whole group was taught is the
three-square grid created by Anne McKeefrey,

Each child is provided with a three-square grid, which has a star in the corner of the first
square and small cards showing the letters ‹s›, ‹a›, ‹t›, ‹i›, ‹p›, ‹n› which are placed in a row
above the grid.
The aim of the activity is to get the children to make three-letter words on their grid using
only the letters provided in different ways .
For example, the teacher might say, “Now I want you to pick up the /t/ and put it on the square
with the star on it. Now pick up the /a/ and put it next to the /t/. Last of all, pick up the /p/ and
put it on the end. Now blend the letter sounds and put up your hand to tell me what the word is.”
An activity like this reinforces blending skills and helps the children to learn the letter
sounds. This activity also trains the children to go from left to right when blending the
letter sounds.
Alternatively, the grid can be used for making words called out by the teacher. For example,
the teacher might call out the word pin. The children should listen for the sounds, pick out the
letters corresponding to those sounds and put them in the correct order on their grid, starting
at the star and going from left to right.

Introducing the second group of letter sounds: c k, e, h, r, m, d

The lessons introducing the second group of letter sounds follow a similar pattern to the
lessons used to introduce the first group of letter sounds.

Essentially, the phonics lessons for this group of letter sounds consist of::
A revision session: letter-sound (with and without actions), flash cards
A story , song and an action plus letter formation
Blending activities, activities involving identifying the sounds in words, Sound books
A Sound Sheet,or worksheet

It is important to provide words for blending every day. It is crucial that the words chosen
for blending activities contain only those letter sounds that have been taught.
At this point, it is useful to show the children how whole words should be written. Call out
a word containing only the letter sounds that have been taught. As the children respond by
saying the individual letter sounds, write the letters on the board. Tell the children that the
letters in a word sit close together, but without bumping! Then, together with the children,
blend the letter sounds together and read the word. This exercise shows the children how the
writing (encoding) and reading (decoding) systems work. Once the children understand this
process, they might like to try building short words with magnetic letters.
‹c› and ‹k› When the letters ‹c› and ‹k› are introduced, explain to the children that the two
letters have the same sound. At this point, it should also be explained that when ‹c› and ‹k› are
together in a word like sack, it is only necessary to say the sound once when blending the
word.
This means that the children should say /s-a-ck/and not /s-a-c-k/. This same rule applies
when blending words that have a double letter.
Consequently, the children should say /m-e-ss/ and not /m-e-s-s/ when reading the word
mess.

By now, it will be clear how well each child in the class is learning. There will be a top group of
children, who have found it easy to learn the letter sounds and can blend words already. A
larger middle group will be confident and learning steadily. However, the remaining few
children, the bottom group, will still be struggling to remember the letter sounds. These
children might also find it difficult to blend and to identify the sounds in words. These
children will benefit from extra practice of auditory blending and blending skills with written
words

Introducing the third group of letter sounds: g, o, u, l, f, b

The lessons introducing the third group of letter sounds follow a similar pattern to the lessons
used to introduce the first and second groups.
A revision session: letter-sound (with and without actions), flash cards
A story , song and an action plus letter formation
Blending activities, activities involving identifying the sounds in words, Sound books
A Sound Sheet,or worksheet

At this stage, children have learned sufficient letter sounds to be introduced to consonant
blends (=consonant pairs in which each consonant makes its own sound, ex. cr, dr, pr, tr, st
and sn.) Some children find it difficult to blend words that have a consonant blend and also to
write them , so they should be taught explicitly.

Blends should be written on the board, or made into flash cards. When the children are shown
these consonant blends, teacher should explain that they have to snap the two letter sounds
together, saying for ex /cr/ rather than /c-r/. Provide the children with words that use these
consonant blends and encourage them to blend the words by snapping together the blend
before saying the rest of the letter sounds. For example, when blending a word like stick,, the
children should say /st-i-ck/ and not /s-t-i-c-k/. Always ensure that the words are regular and
use only those letter sounds that have been taught; words such as drip, press, tramp, step and
snap are good examples.

Initial consonant blends can also prove problematic when the children come to write words.
In particular, some children are inclined to miss out the second letter sound. For example, a
word like crab might be written as cab. To avoid this problem developing, it helps to call out a
consonant blend by itself and ask the children to say the sounds, holding up a finger for each
sound. For example, the teacher could call out cr and the children respond with /c-r/, or the
teacher could say, bl, and the children reply, /b-l/.

At this stage try also to incorporate one or two longer words into the daily session of
blending words; the words dentist, cricket and tennis are good examples.

When the third group of letter sounds is being taught, the children can start writing short
words from dictation. The dictation of letter sounds should continue. If possible, the teacher
should dictate a few letter sounds, and a regular word or two, at each session. Ensure that the
words chosen for dictation use only the letter sounds that were taught in Groups 1 & 2; good
examples of such words are: rat, hen and dip. Try to avoid using words containing a ‹k›, a ‹ck›
or double letters.
Now that all the short vowels have been taught, the children can be introduced to the vowel
hand. They should be encouraged to point to the tips of their fingers and say the short
vowels /a, e, i, o, u/.

Introducing the fourth group of letter sounds: ai, j, oa, ie, ee, or

The phonics lessons for this group of letter sounds are comprised of:
A revision session: letter-sound flash cards (with and without actions)
A story, song and an action, letter formation
Blending activities, activities involving identifying the sounds in words
Dictation activities: dictating letter sounds and words, Sound Books
A Sound Sheet, or worksheet
At this stage, children need to be taught about digraphs.(= a group of two successive letters
that represent a single sound )
So far, they know that the letter ‹a› has an /a/ sound and the letter ‹i› has an /i/ sound. Now
the y will learn that, when the letters ‹a› and ‹i› are together, they have a different sound, /ai/

When providing blending words for the children, it is a good idea to place a dot underneath
each individual sound in the word. This helps children to recognize when two letters are part
of a digraph, and make one sound. Under a word like hail, for example, there should be three
dots: one under the ‹h›, one under the ‹ai› and one under the ‹l›.

When writing words containing diagraphs from dictation, children have to remember to
write the two letters for one sound , ex ‹a› and ‹i›, ‹o› and ‹a› , ‹i› and ‹e›, ‹e› and ‹e› ‹o› and ‹r›

Now children are prepared to learn how to read phrases.

Introducing the fifth group of letter sounds: z, w, ng, v, oo, oo

As with previous groups, the phonics lessons for this group of letter sounds are comprised of:
A revision session: letter-sound flash cards (with and without actions)
A story and an action, letter formation
Blending words and phrases, activities involving identifying the sounds in words
Dictation activities: dictating letter sounds and words, Sound Books
A Sound Sheet or worksheet,

Explain to the children that /oo/ and /oo/ are initially introduced in two sizes because the
‹oo› digraph represents two different sounds, Each digraph can make one of two different
sounds. For example, the ‹oo› digraph makes both the short /oo/ in book and the long /oo/ in
moon.. Once the children have been made aware of the ‘little’ and ‘long’ /oo/ sounds, they
must learn to apply this knowledge for reading words. In reading books, the ‹oo› digraph will
always be the same size, regardless of the sound it represents, so the children have to learn to
try both ways of saying ‹oo› to find out which pronunciation produces a word. The children
can be taught the saying: If one way doesn’t work, try the other way.

Until now, the teaching has been focused upon the letter sounds and the children have not
been taught the letter names. On the whole, children who are taught letter sounds and letter
names at the same time tend to confuse the two. Often, they will say a letter name when
blending, and this can prevent them identifying the word. However, after several weeks of
teaching, the habit of using letter sounds for
blending is so well entrenched that the letter names can be introduced gradually. A good
way to start teaching the alphabet is too get children to sing the alphabet song.

Initially, the children are encouraged to blend all words out aloud. Now is a good time to
start teaching them to blend silently in their heads. This will improve the children’s
fluency and prepare them for reading books. A number of activities will help the children to
develop this skill. The children could be encouraged to work out words in their heads from
the actions only. Alternatively, letters could be written randomly on the board and the
children could silently blend words as their letters are pointed to.
.
In The Phonics Handbook, there are a number of ‘Homework Writing Sheets’; these contain
lists of words for dictation that are intended to be used as homework exercises. Simply
photocopy these sheets, cut off a strip of words and put it into an exercise book for the child to
take home. Parents should be asked to call out the dictation words so that their children write
them or words could be recorded for children to listen and write .

Introducing the sixth group of letter sounds : y, x, ch, sh, th, th

Essentially, the phonics lessons for this group of letter sounds are comprised of:
A revision session: letter-sound flash cards (with and without actions)
A story, song and an action, letter formation
Blending activities, activities involving identifying the sounds in words
Dictation activities: dictating letter sounds and words, Sound Books
A Sound Sheet,and worksheet

Like the ‹oo› digraph, the ‹th› digraph has two sounds, the voiced /th/, in the words this, that,
then and the unvoiced /th/ in the words thin, thick, three.
Children should try saying the two sounds whilst laying their hands over their throats; in this
way, they can feel the difference between the voiced and unvoiced sounds. The voiced /th/
sound vibrates and the children will enjoy recognizing this. As with the ‹oo› digraph, when
blending words containing the ‹th› digraph, the children need to remember to use the hint: 'If
one way doesn’t work, try the other way.

When the sixth group of letter sounds has been taught, start sending the more able children
home with Word Boxes In each box (or strip, if preferred) there are ten words for the
children to blend and read to their parents. Only those children who can blend words in class
should be given Word Boxes to take home. Keep in mind that the children are meant to blend
the words. They are not expected to learn these words as sight words. ( see how to make the
sound boxes in the Phonics Handbook)

By now, the children should be able to sing the alphabet song by themselves. Although the
Jolly Phonics letter sounds are not taught in alphabetical order, it is important that the
children learn the alphabet before they are expected to use a dictionary.

In the early stages, Jolly Phonics lessons focus upon teaching the children to recognize the
lower-case letters and their letter-sound correspondences. However, in order to be able to
read storybooks, the children must also learn to recognize the capital letters.
A number of capital letters look the same as their lower-case letters, though the capital letters
are larger. The remaining capital letters have different shapes. For reading, the children will
need to know the sound each capital letter represents. Although the children will have seen
the capital letters before on posters or on worksheets, the focus of the lesson will have been
on the lower-case letter and they are unlikely to have learned the capitals. Now, the children's
attention needs to be drawn to the capital letters, in preparation for reading whole sentences
(with capital letters) in storybooks.

Introducing tricky words

In Jolly Phonics, children are taught to use their blending skills for reading any new words
they come across. However, when reading storybooks, the children are likely to come across a
small number of words with awkward spellings, which cannot be blended easily.
These tricky words must also be learned.
Tricky words are keywords that are irregular, or have phonic spelling patterns that have not
yet been taught. .The tricky words are introduced in a very structured way. Eleven tricky
words will need to be taught before the children start reading the first level of Jolly Readers
(the red level). Helpfully, at the back of each Jolly Reader, there is a list of the tricky words it
contains. The first tricky word taught is the word I. It is a good idea if this tricky word is
taught alongside the introduction of the capital letters. The next tricky word taught is the. It is
best to introduce the after the digraph ‹th› has been taught.. This makes the word less tricky!

Encourage the children to blend the tricky words and then work out which part of the word
makes it tricky. In this case, the ‹e› in the is tricky because it does not make an /e/ sound.

Introducing the last group of letter sounds :qu, ou, oi, ue, er, ar

The lessons introducing the seventh group of letter sounds follow a similar pattern to the
lessons used to introduce the first six groups
Essentially, the phonics lessons for this group of letter sounds are comprised of:
A revision session: letter-sound flash cards (with and without actions)
A story, song and an action, letter formation
Blending activities, activities involving identifying the sounds in words
Dictation activities: dictating letter sounds and words
A Sound Sheet, and worksheet,
Listening to as many children as possible reading (blending) their Word Boxes and changing
them
A revision session: letter names, tricky words, capital letters and their corresponding sounds

At this stage, the important thing is that the children recognize the sounds when they hear
them; it does not matter whether the /er/ sound is spelt ‹er› as in 'ginger', ‹ir› as in 'bird', ‹ur›
as in 'turn', or ‹ar›, as in ‘sugar’.
For writing we will only use those words where the /er/ sound is spelt ‹er› as in 'ginger'.

When introducing the /ue/ letter sound, bear in mind that the ‹ue› digraph is pronounced like
an / oo/ sound in some words, for example in the words, clue, glue, and blue. It will be tackled
as an alternative spelling later.

Once all the long vowel sounds, /ai/, /ee/, /ie/, /oa/ and /ue/, have been introduced, the
children can be reminded of the vowel hand.
This time, the vowel hand should show the long vowels as well as the short vowels. The
children should be encouraged to point to the tips of their fingers and say the short vowels,
and then point to the place where the fingers join the hand, and say the long vowels. Children
might like to listen to the 'Vowel Song', from Jolly Songs the as they point to the vowel sounds
on their hands.
At this point, the children should be introduced to the saying: ‘If the short vowel doesn’t work,
try the long vowel’. The vowel rule can then be used to help the children to work out the tricky
words, he, me, she, we and be, which also need to be taught at this stage.

The tricky words was, to and do need to be taught alongside the seventh group of letter
sounds. The children should be encouraged to blend each tricky word before being given the
correct pronunciation. In this way, the children are more able to identify the tricky part of the
word. Once the tricky words have been introduced, they should be revised until the children
can read them easily.

When the first ten tricky words have been introduced, make up some sentences to show the
tricky words in context. The sentences should be made up from regular words, which use the
42 letter sounds, and the tricky words that have been taught; the sentences should not include
words that the children will not be able to read.

In order to prepare the children for writing sentences, it is useful to begin by explaining the
basic structure of a sentence. Tell the children that every sentence starts with a capital letter
and ends with a period. The children should also be reminded to leave a small space between
the words. It is useful to revise the capital letters before teaching the children how to write
them. When the children are
able to write all the capital letters, make up some model sentences for writing. As with the
reading sentences, try to make up sentences that use only regular words and the tricky words
that have been taught. Avoid using words with alternative spellings.

Reading the Jolly Readers

The Red Jolly Readers

Before children can be expected to read storybooks, they should have learned the 42 letter
sounds and the first tricky words. Crucially, they must also have developed good blending
skills.

A small group of children may not have learned all 42 letter sounds and will still be struggling
to blend short words. These children will need a good deal more blending practice and more
letter sound revision before they are given storybooks to read.
The top group of children, those who are already blending fluently, will be able to read the red
Jolly
Readers with little or no help at all from their parents or teacher

In order to read the red Jolly Readers, the children need to know all 42 letter sounds and how
to blend them and the following tricky words: I, the, he, she, me, we, be, was, to, do, of