Weekly Phonics Tasks

CURRENT SPEAKING + LISTENING ASPECT:  ORAL BLENDING

Oral blending It is important that the children have plenty of experience of listening to adults modelling oral blending. For example, when giving children instructions or asking questions the adult can segment the last word into separate phonemes and then immediately blend the sounds together to say the word (e.g. It’s time to get your c-oa-t, coat! or Touch your t-oe-s, toes! Who can touch their f-ee-t, feet?) Use only single-syllable words for oral blending. Oral blending can also be modelled from time to time when books are being shared, particularly rhyming books where the last word in a rhyming couplet could be segmented into separate sounds and then blended by the adult.

Monday- ORAL BLENDING AND SEGMENTING CHALLENGE: Toy talk (watch video from start to 3.09 for an example of Toy Talk) - Introduce to the children a soft toy that can only speak in ‘sound-talk’. The children see the toy whispering in the adult’s ear. To add to the activity, as the toy whispers the adult repeats the sounds, looks puzzled and then says the word straight afterwards. For example: What would Charlie like for tea today? The toy speaks silently in the adult’s ear and the adult repeats ‘ch-ee-se’ looking puzzled and then, says with relief ‘cheese!’ Now invite the children to see if they can speak like the toy: Do you think you could try to toy talk? Say ch-ee-se: (the children repeat ‘ch-ee-se’). Ask the toy again What else would you like? Be careful to think of items with names of only single syllables (e.g. fish, cake, pie, soup). Use different scenarios: What does the toy like to do in the playground? (hop, skip, jump, run, etc.). As the children become more confident, make some errors – blend ‘skim’ for ‘skip’, for example, and ask them to catch you out by giving the correct blend. Encourage the children to ask the toy questions with yes/no answers (e.g. Can you sing? Y-e-s/N-o). Or ask the toy the colour of his bike, his bedroom walls, his jumper, etc. and the toy will answer r-e-d, b-l-ue, g-r-ee-n, m-au-ve.

EXTRA CHALLENGE: Play the online game ‘​Picnic on Pluto’​. If your child is not at the stage of reading independently, you could sound the words out for them to blend together. 

Tuesday- ​ ORAL BLENDING AND SEGMENTING CHALLENGE: Clapping sounds  - Think of words using the letters ‘s, a, t, p, i, n’ (e.g. sat, pin, nip, pat, tap, pit, pip) and sound them out, clapping each phoneme with the children in unison, then blend the phonemes to make the whole word orally. As children’s confidence develops, ask individuals to demonstrate this activity to others

EXTRA CHALLENGE​: Play ‘I Spy in Space’. ‘​I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with t​’. ​You can include these sounds ​s, a, t, p, i, n   

Wednesday- ORAL BLENDING AND SEGMENTING CHALLENGE: Which one? Lay out a selection of familiar objects with names that contain three phonemes (e.g. leaf, sheep, soap, fish, sock, bus). Check that all the children can recognise each object. Bring out the sound-talking toy and ask the children to listen carefully while it says the names of one of the objects in sound-talk so they can help it to put the sounds together and say the word. The toy then sound-talks the word, leaving a short gap between each sound. Encourage the children to say the word and identify the object. All the children can then repeat the sounds and blend them together – it is important that they do this and don’t simply listen to the adult doing so.

EXTRA CHALLENGE: Write different sounds on paper. Put the sounds together to make different words only changing the initial sound e.g. t-i-n (tin), b-i-n (bin)

Thursday- ORAL BLENDING AND SEGMENTING CHALLENGE: Cross the river - Choose a selection of objects with two or three phonemes as above. There can be more than one of the same object. Make a river across the floor or ground outside with chalk or ropes. Give each child or pair of children an object and check that all the children know the names of the objects. The toy calls out the name of an object in sound-talk (e.g. p-e-g). The children who have that object blend the sounds to make the word and cross the river

EXTRA CHALLENGE: Your child can list things they would see in space that begin with the​         letters S, P, A,C & E. Then your child can practice writing these letters in space (in the air) using their finger or a pencil. 

Friday- ORAL BLENDING AND SEGMENTING CHALLENGE: I spy Place on the floor or on a table a selection of objects with names containing two or three phonemes (e.g. zip, hat, comb, cup, chain, boat, tap, ball). Check that all the children know the names of the objects. The toy says I spy with my little eye a z-i-p. Then invite a child to say the name of the object and hold it up. All the children can then say the individual phonemes and blend them together ‘z-i-p, zip’. When the children have become familiar with this game use objects with names that start with the same initial phoneme (e.g. cat, cap, cup, cot, comb, kite). This will really encourage the children to listen and then blend right through the word, rather than relying on the initial sound.

EXTRA CHALLENGE: ​Play, ​‘Pick a Picture’. ​ You can orally sound out the word for your child for them to blend together if they are not yet at the stage of reading independently. 

LETTER SOUNDS

We also recommend doing Read Write Inc Set 1 sounds sessions (if your child is ready). Please take a look at our Read Write Inc Phonics page for more information.

We think Mr Thorne’s alphabet series is a fun way to introduce letter sounds (phonemes) too.