Phonics

[ItsJustMe2019]

Was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on how to help my dd6 grasp phonics. She can do it fine when it’s just one letter but when it’s more than one she cannot get it. It is really starting to affect her reading and she is getting less confident with it.

Do you mean she can’t blend them together like c-a-t =cat or with sounds such as ee, or, ai etc??

We have a game called pop for blends its very good

Please don't teach blends

It’s the ai, ee, or, etc. She struggles with. Even ck she says c-k.
Sorry if this is a stupid question why shouldn’t you teach blends?

I think it's a case of lots and lots of practise. Tell her to not shout out until she has blended in her mind.

@Norestformrz why not??

@ItsJustMe2019 I presume she had seen the jolly phonics songs and actions to go with those sounds??

*has

Make it fun! There’s a good app called ‘teach my monster to read’ or ‘reading eggs’. Also watch mr Thorne on YouTube, kids love Geraldine the giraffe and it’s useful for adults who perhaps weren’t taught using a phonics approach. Good luck x

Youmadorwhat because if a child can blend they don't need to learn blends which adds hundreds of extra pieces of unnecessary knowledge to be memorised. Blend is a verb

Thanks everyone.
Yeah she has seen the jolly phonics songs and she did enjoy them will try going back over them.
She loves teach your monster to read it just seems to go out her head the minute she comes off the app. Will give the YouTube videos a try.
Will just keep practising with her and hopefully it will stick in her head soon.

@Norestformrz yes I am aware that ‘blend’ is a verb. I am a teacher, I also know what a verb is! However, we do teach ours some of the ‘S’ blends and ‘L’ blends. We find it helps at times.

DS liked the Hairy Phonics apps - we got 3 in the end:
Hairy Phonics 1: sh, ch, th, ck, ff, ll, ss, zz, ng.
2: ai, ay, ee, ea, ie, oa, oi, oy, oo
3: ar, or, er, ir, ur, a-e, o-e, i-e, o-e, u-e.

They have little animations using the sound, then you draw the letters with your finger, then a game that practices words with that phoneme, so it rehearses each one a bit more than TYMTR (which DS also played and liked).

Youmadorwhat why? Teach them to blend (verb) then they don't need to memorise additional information. English is complex enough without adding more to the load.
Out of interest which " l blends"?

I’ve been doing exercises with dd on the days she doesn’t want to practice reading. Pick ck for example and offer her suggestions of words with this in, then write them down. Get her to suggest some and either she writes them or you do, then get her to circle all the ck in them. Then get her to write ck a few times saying what the sound is. Then find a book with ck words and ask her to search for them when you’re reading or she is. Write out a ck word with the ck in a different colour and put it somewhere prominent, then over the next few days randomly ask “dd what sound does ck make?”

@Norestformrz bl, fl, cl, sl etc we don’t expect the children to learn them off, we just find it helps to go through them.

Why if they can blend

@Norestformrz I work as a resource teacher (not uk) I work with those who are struggling and also EAL groups so some of them can’t blend very well.

Then teach them to blend and don't add to working memory by adding in blends .
The evidence is that some children will begin to struggle when they are faced with adjacent consonant and require more time. Teach them blends can be hugely detrimental to later spelling

You could also add some working memory games if she struggles to remember and recall. This can be a simple as a game of matching pairs or lotto - there are lots of ideas online. Try clapping out words together to see how the letters are blended to make the word so that she understands that words are made up of sounds. Look at text everywhere, you could go on a phonics forage walk and see what sounds you can see.

Can you download an app called aspirate Phonics or Hairy Letters, assuming they are still around? Also put the double letters on flashcards and when sounding out words highlight the double letters in a different colour

Sorry should say Pirate Phonics

Thanks everyone hopefully it will all click soon. Had a meeting with the school today so they are going to extra work in the class as she hasn’t moved reading levels all year.