In the Classroom… How to Help Younger Students Learn Phonics

Learning phonics is really important for younger students – it’s great for helping them learn all about the sounds that make up words and to assist students in spelling and decoding them too.

We’ve been speaking to Miss Cook, a Year 2 teacher from Greyfriars Primary School in Norfolk, about the phonics area on EducationCity, and how it can help students’ learning of phonics.

Here’s what she said: “We use the phonics area a lot, in daily phonics sessions as a whole class, and also as catch-up material in small groups with a teaching assistant, or as individual practice work. The children are able to use MyCity to find the work that they have to do.”

Following in Miss Cook’s footsteps, we wanted to tell you about the phonics content that’s available in the English/Literacy modules that can help teachers. So that students are learning all the areas of phonics they need to, the phonics content on EducationCity is available via three programmes to suit your teaching: Letters and Sounds, Jolly Phonics and Read Write.

So… Where Can I Find the Phonics Content?

You can find the phonics content by just going to the English/Literacy module and selecting the relevant level for your region:

  • England: F2 & Year 1
  • Scotland: Early *, Early ** & Early ***
  • Wales: Nursery & Reception
  • N. Ireland: Pre-School & P1

The Top 5: Phonics Activities

With the help of our Lead Producer for English, Heather, we’ve come up with a list of the top 5 phonics Activities on EducationCity for you to try. Let’s check them out – don’t forget you can just find them by using the Search bar on EducationCity.

Activities

Consolidation Activity for spelling and word reading:

Manu’s Music Machine (Phase 4) – Use phonological knowledge to match sounds to letters to construct known words.

  • England: Year 1
  • Scotland: Early ***
  • Wales: Year 1
  • N. Ireland: P2

Activity for tricky words:

Toy Museum (Phase 4) – Reading tricky words (said, have, like, so, do, some, come, were, there, little, one, when, out, what).

  • England: Year 1
  • Scotland: Early ***
  • Wales: Year 1
  • N. Ireland: P2

One of the latest additions to Phase 5:

Mitch and Patch (‘tch’ words) – Recognise the sound/grapheme and spelling rule for ‘tch’ words.

  • England: Year 1
  • Scotland: Early ***
  • Wales: Year 1
  • N. Ireland: P2

A split vowel digraph Activity:

Steve’s Theme Park (e-e) – Reading and sounding out words with the split digraph: e-e

  • England: Year 1
  • Scotland: Early ***Phonics Resources
  • Wales: Year 1
  • N. Ireland: P2

Learn Screens

A fantastic sing-along for CCVCC words!

Stamp and Grunt – Read and spell CCVCC words for Phase 4

  • England: Year 1
  • Scotland: Early ***
  • Wales: Year 1
  • N. Ireland: P2

Spotlight On… Phonics Screening Check Topic Tool

Great for giving students the practice they need to prepare for their test in June, the fantastic Phonics Screening Check Topic Tool is a super way of getting students used to the test format.

Check it out! Schools in England can find the Phonics Screening Check Topic Tool here:

  • England: Year 1 and 2

To see the phonics content for yourself, log in. If your school doesn’t subscribe to EducationCity, make sure you sign up for a free trial.