Letters and Sounds: Phase 2

The purpose of this phase...
"During the phase they will be introduced to reading two-syllable words and simple captions. They will also learn to read some high-frequency 'tricky' words the, to, go, no..."

Letter progression
(one set per week)
Week 1 - Set 1: s, a, t, p
Week 2 - Set 2: i, n, d and m
Week 3 - Set 3: c, o, g and k
Week 4 - Set 4: e, r, u and ck
Week 5 - Set 5: h, b, f and ff, l and ll, ss

Poster for classroom display (pdf)

Week 1

• Teach Set 1 letters: s, a, t, p.

Week 2

• Teach Set 2 letters: i, n, d and m.
• Teach blending with letters (blending for reading).
• Practise blending for reading.
• Practise blending and reading the high-frequency words is, it, in, at.

Week 3

• Teach Set 3 letters: c, o, g and k.
• Teach segmentation for spelling.
• Teach blending and reading the high-frequency word and.
• Demonstrate reading captions using words with Set 1 and Set 2 letters and and.

Print the four sets of flashcards and make up captions using and:

(+i) -  it, is, sit, sat, pit, tip, pip, sip (pdf)
(+n) - an, in, nip, pan, pin, tin, tan, nap (pdf)
(+m) - am, man, mam, mat, map, Pam, Tim, Sam (pdf)
(+d) - dad, sad, dim, dip, din, did, Sid, and (pdf)

Week 4

• Teach ck, explain its use at the end of words and practise reading words ending in ck
•  Teach the three other Set 4 letters: e, r, u
• Practise segmentation to spell words - print worksheets: ck, e, r, u
• Teach reading the tricky words to and the
• Support children in reading captions using Sets 1–4 letters and the, to and and
• Demonstrate spelling captions using Sets 1–4 letters and and

Week 5

• Teach Set 5 letters and sounds: h, b, f and ff, l and ll, ss
• Explain  ff, ll and ss at the end of words
• Practise segmentation to spell words - print worksheets: h, b, f and ff, l and ll, ss (pdfs)
• Teach reading tricky words no, go, I
• Support children in reading captions using Set 1, Set 2, Set 3, Set 4 and Set 5 letters and no, go, I, the, to
• Demonstrate spelling captions using Sets 1–5 letters and and, to and the

Week 6

1. Revise all the letters and sounds taught so far.
2. Continue to support children in reading words and captions.

Why not set Spellzone units or word lists as homework tasks?

Teaching a letter
Mnemonics:

Spellzone blog:
10 Mnemonics to Help with Spelling Tricky Words
Eight Tips For Creating Mnemonic

Practising oral segmentation
Resources:
List of words, pictures or objects.

Create your own word lists or use those already on Spellzone.
Use the Search Word Lists facility to find words.

Practising oral segmentation
Procedure:
Suitable and unsuitable items sample word list

Create your own word lists or use those already on Spellzone.
Use the Search Word Lists facility to find words.

Teaching blending for reading
Resources:
VC and CVC words on cards. Print flash cards and ask students to draw sound buttons:

Set 1: at, sat, pat, tap, sap, a, as (pdf)

Set 2:
(+i) -  it, is, sit, sat, pit, tip, pip, sip (pdf)
(+n) - an, in, nip, pan, pin, tin, tan, nap (pdf)
(+m) - am, man, mam, mat, map, Pam, Tim, Sam (pdf)
(+d) - dad, sad, dim, dip, din, did, Sid, and (pdf)

VC and CVC words on cards with sound buttons included:

Set 1: at, sat, pat, tap, sap, a, as (pdf)

Set 2:
(+i) -  it, is, sit, sat, pit, tip, pip, sip (pdf)
(+n) - an, in, nip, pan, pin, tin, tan, nap (pdf)
(+m) - am, man, mam, mat, map, Pam, Tim, Sam (pdf)
(+d) - dad, sad, dim, dip, din, did, Sid, and (pdf)

Practising blending for reading
Resources:
Print the words as sets of word cards e.g. words containing Sets 1 and 2 letters (pdf)

Practising blending for reading
Resources:
Words on coins and picture of treasure chest and dustbin (pdf)

Teaching segmentation: Phoneme frame
Resources:
 List of words - VC with Phoneme frames included (pdf)

Practising segmentation: Phoneme frame
Resources:
List of words VC, and CVCwith Phoneme frames included:

(+i) -  it, sit, sat, pit, tip, pip, sip (pdf)
(+n) - an, nip, pan, pin, tin, tan, nap (pdf)
(+m) - am, man, mam, mat, map, Pam, Tim, Sam (pdf)
(+d) - dad, sad, dim, dip, din, did, Sid, and (pdf)

Practising segmentation: Full circle
Resources:

Print one per pair of children.

List of words and letters - sat, sit, sip, tip, tap, sap, sat, s, a, t, p, i (pdf)
List of words and letters - pin, pit, sit, sat, pat, pan, pin, s, a, t, p, i, n (pdf)
List of words and letters - pot, pod, pad, sad, mad, mat, pat, pot, p, t, d, m, s, o, a (pdf)
List of words and letters - cat, can, man, map, mop, cop, cap, cat, c, t, n, m, p, a, o (pdf)
List of words and letters - leg, peg, pet, pat, rat, ran, rag, lag, leg, l, g, p, t, r, n, e, a (pdf)
List of words and letters - run, bun, but, bit, hit, him, dim, din, sin, sun, run, r, n, b, t, h, m, s, d, i, u (pdf)

There are 100 common words that recur frequently in much of the written material young children read and that they need when they write. Most of these are decodable, by sounding and blending, assuming the grapheme–phoneme correspondences are known, but only 26 of the high-frequency words are decodable by the end of Phase Two. List 1, List 2.

Teaching 'tricky' high-frequency words
In order to read simple captions it is necessary also to know some words that have unusual or untaught GPCs ('tricky' words) and these need to be learned.

Resources:
Caption containing the tricky word to be learned:

Captions with Sets 1–4 words - flash cards (pdf) or flash cards with sound buttons (pdf)
Captions with Sets 1–4 words + to, the - flash cards (pdf) or flash cards with sound buttons (pdf)
Captions, instructions and signs with Sets 1–5 words + to, the, no, go - flash cards (pdf) or flash cards with sound buttons (pdf)

See also: High frequency words, in phases and High frequency words, in order.

Children should be given lots of practice with sounding and blending the 26 decodable high-frequency words so that they will be able to read them 'automatically' as soon as possible. They also need practice with reading the five tricky words, paying attention to any known letter–sound correspondences.

Resources:
Between five and eight high-frequency words, including decodable and tricky words, written on individual cards.

Decodable words - List 1 (pdf)
Decodable words - List 2 (pdf)
Phase Two Tricky words (pdf)

See also: High frequency words, in phases and High frequency words, in order.

Give the children a caption incorporating the high-frequency words to read at home.
Why not set Spellzone word lists as homework tasks?

Resources:
Short list of two-syllable words.

Two-syllable word list

By the end of Phase Two children should:

1. be able to blend and segment in order to read and spell (using magnetic letters) VC words if, am, on, up, at, it, is, an, in.
2. and 'silly names' such as ip, ug and ock;
3. be able to read the five tricky words the, to, I, no, go

For revision, why not set the Spellzone Starter Course Unit 7 - Tricky Words or any word list from Phase 2 using Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check or any Spellzone game as a homework task?

For assessment set any word list from Phase 2 as a homework task using Listen and Spell.

The words in this section are made up from the letters taught for use in blending for reading and segmentation for spelling. These lists are not for working through slavishly but to be selected from as needed for an activity (words in italics are from the list of 100 high frequency words).

Words using set 1 GPC
at, sat, pat, tap, sap, [a*, as]

* The indefinite article 'a' is normally pronounced as a schwa, but this is close enough to the /a/ sound to be manageable. The Spellzone Main Course Unit 24 covers the 'schwa' sound.

Words using sets 1 and 2 GPCs
(+i) -  it, is, sit, sat, pit, tip, pip, sip
(+n) - an, in, nip, pan, pin, tin, tan, nap
(+m) - am, man, mam, mat, map, Pam, Tim, Sam
(+d) - dad, sad, dim, dip, din, did, Sid, and

Words using sets 1 – 4 GPCs
(+ck) - kick, sock, sack, dock, pick, sick, pack, ticket, pocket
(+e) - get, pet, ten, net, pen, peg, met, men, neck
(+u) - up, mum, run, mug, cup, sun, tuck, mud, sunset
(+r) - rim, rip, ram, rat, rag, rug, rot, rocket, carrot

Teach that 'ck' together stands for the same sound as 'c' and 'k' separately – ck never comes at the beginning of a word, but often comes at the end or near the end.
See ck word list.

Words using sets 1 – 5 letters
(+h) - had, him, his, hot, hut, hop, hum, hit, hat, has, hack, hug
(+b) - but, big, back, bet, bad, bag, bed, bud, beg, bug, bun, bus, Ben, bat, bit, bucket, beckon, rabbit
(+f and ff) - of, if, off, fit, fin, fun, fig, fog, puff, huff, cuff, fan, fat
(+l and ll) - lap, let, leg, lot, lit, bell, fill, doll, tell, sell, Bill, Nell, dull, laptop
(+ss) - ass, less, hiss, mass, mess, boss, fuss, hiss, pass, kiss, Tess, fusspot

Captions with Sets 1–4 words
Captions with Sets 1–4 words + to, the
Captions, instructions and signs with Sets 1–5 words + to, the, no, go