The 5 Part Phonics Lesson

Teaching the initial 26 letter sounds

As you teach each sound you will use a variety of strategies and methodologies to help the children remember. As you teach the sound you should always teach 5 parts:

(The action, sentence/song, sound, picture and example words are all given in the sound files on The 15 Minute Phonics Lesson and Sounds, Song, Sentences etc pages)

ACTION:

Teaching the action along with the sound will help the children remember better, as many children learn better by doing things rather than just listening or being told by the teacher.

SENTENCE/SONG:

The sentence/song helps the children to put the sound into context. It will also help them with their English vocabulary and reading common words such as the, in, your, my etc. The sentence and the song are described in the sound files. You can make up a story based on the sentence. For example, One day Sandra was walking through the woods when all of a sudden she heard sssssssssssssss. It was a snake in the grass!

PICTURE:

If a child has a visual stimulus, they will also associate the picture with the specific sound and it will help them to recall it more easily. If there is no other picture available, at least draw one on the board.

WORDS:

Finding words beginning with each sound will help the pupils to hear it at the beginning of words. A few suggestions are given in the sound files, the children will come up with many more. Also, there are some words that should NOT be used as examples – for example when teach /s/ words that begin with the /sh/ sound should be corrected – the misconception is that we are looking at words that begin with the letter ‘s’ but really we are focusing on the sound /s/.

LETTER FORMATION: When teaching a new letter explicitly tell children how it’s formed and get them to practise in lots of ways e.g. with their finger on their hand or a friend’s back, with chalk etc.