While phonics phase 1 is more about listening and only introducing 6 letters sound, phonics phase 2 might sound a tiny tad scarier to teach. Phonics, like it or not, has been the way to teach our kids reading. Each phase covers different skill level, moving from more common sound-spellings to less common sound-spellings. Rest easy, we will try to uncover it the easy way.
3 Principles to Follow
I know there are many methods to learn phonics, you could use any method you’d prefer but at least it has to follow this principles :
- It moves from the simplest skills and builds to most complex skills
- It moves from the most common letter-sounds to the rarest letter-sounds
- It allows learners to decode words as soon as possible
List of Skill Levels 1 Phonics
It will look so much complicated, but believe me, it looks less scary when I break it down to a different post.
Level 1
– Consonants (phase 1 and phase 2 sound mat)
– Short Vowels
– Common Digraphs (-ck, -th, -sh, -ch, -wh)
– VC (vowel-consonant, such as is, am, at) and CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant, such as pat, mat, sit, nap and more) Words
Those list above will usually be covered when kids are around age 3-5 years old.
Hold on, there are more to Level 1 list :
– FLOSS rule (-ff, -ss, -ll)
– 2-syllable compound words (bathtub, napkin, and more)
– Beginning blends which consists of :
L-blends: bl-, cl-, fl-, gl-, pl-, sl-
R-blends: br-, cr-, dr-, fr-, gr-, pr-, tr-
S-blends: sc-, shr-, sk-, sm-, sn-, sp-, squ-, st-, sw-
– Ending blends (-lp, -st, -ct, -pt, -sk, -lk, and more)
– Welded sounds (everything ending with -nk and -ng such as -ing, -ong, -ank, and more)
– Ending Blending Words (ild, -old, -ind, -olt, -ost)
Are you still with me?
Don’t worry, I will explain everything (AND THE NEXT LEVEL) in a segmented blog post.
Yes, I know there is A TON of things to teach your kids. One thing that I promise you, kids are extremely genius human beings. Under the age of 5, their brains absorb everything tremendously fast like a sponge.
What is FLOSS Rule?
There is a rule invented by Orton Gillingham saying that “if a word has only one vowel and ends in F, L, or S, double the last letter.” and those letters are : F, FF, L, LL, SS, thus the name : FLoSS to help remember that rule. For example : stuFF, cliFF, beLL, roLL, dreSS, kiSS, and more.
What are the other letters to learn? Please see below image and you can download the flashcard for free at the bottom of this page.
How Do I Teach Phonics the Easy Way?
The long waiting tips I am going to share based on my experience with my kids :
- Visual Drill
Introduce the letter sounds using flashcards. I would suggest you to use flashcard which has ONLY LETTER, no word. Some flashcards have the letter with the word example below it.
Also, remember, do not say A B C, it would be easier to memorize for them if you spell out the sound. - Auditory Drill
Have them write in sand paper, or making letters with playdoh - Quick Awareness Test
Try different activity to test their awareness of the letters that you just introduced. Play a game “I spy”, for example “I spy Mmmmmm around the sofa” and make them find that M flashcard. - Exposure, exposure, exposure.
There is no better way that to expose them as frequent as possible to the sounds of the letters. Everytime you go out and see something,”I see Bbbbbird”, or you listen to something “I hear Hhhelicopter” - Try Introduce them to two-words tricky words
This is an additional tip that I did, to help my kids be able to read faster. The words such as : at, am, is, in, on
Phew! That’s a lot, right? I know it’s hard, Mama, but it will be worth it.
I will create some worksheets for phase 2 phonics letters soon. So stay tune to my blog. Meanwhile, you can download FREE phase 2 letters flashcards here. Or if you haven’t had the chance to see the worksheets I created for phase 1, check it out in this post. Until then!
