In phase 2 children are introduced to the first 19 sounds and the corresponding grapheme (written form of the sound). The sounds the grapheme makes is known as a phoneme, the letter, the way it looks is known as a grapheme.
Sounds are not taught in alphabetical order they are instead taught in an order that helps children to start making words more quickly so the sounds are taught using the most commonly used sounds first. Depending on the scheme children will learn these in a slightly different way but usually the first sounds they will learn are: s, a, t, p, i, n. (our order of sounds is cleverly colour mapped across the phases and can be seen on our best selling wristbands below. Some schools, start off with: s, a, t, m. It just depends on the scheme. After the most commonly used: s, a, t, p, i, n. Children then learn: m, d, g, o, c, k, e, u, r, h, b, f and l. When children have learnt some of these sounds they will start learning how to segment (break up) and blend together the different sounds to read and spell different words.
Children will focus first on CV (Consonant Vowel) and CVC (Consonant Vowel Consonant) words. Examples for these would be: a, t(at) – for a CV word and c, a, t (cat) for a CVC word. At this point children are also introduced to some non-decodable words so words that can’t be sounded out phonetically such as: I, go and no. Again depending on the school scheme being used children will learn these in a slightly different order.
Our Fun Phonics Phase 2 Ping Pong Balls are a great way of introducing this phase in a fun way. Children can enjoy endless hours of fun by playing catch with them or developing gross motor coordination and muscle strength with the catchers or shooters in our shop.
