DO’S/DON’T’S OF TEACHING/LESSON PLANS’

1. The first letter sound can be introduced on the children’s first day. Their enthusiasm for
learning is high and this provides a meaningful start for them.

2. It is recommended that the letter sounds be introduced at the rate of one letter sound per
day. Although this may seem a lot at first, most children are able to cope with it and look
forward to their new letter sound every day. All the 42 letter sounds are introduced at this
rate; this means that they can be covered in approximately nine weeks. As a result of this,
children become competent readers much sooner, and can use all the letter sounds to
produce more expressive independent writing at a much earlier than average stage.

3. If the children are younger than five, if they do not have a lesson every day, or if there are
other special factors, then the rate of teaching the letter sounds is likely to be slower. The
teacher will need to decide the appropriate pace for his or her own class. If a slower pace is
adopted, then it is important to avoid asking the children to read books that contain words
that they cannot yet decode (work out) because the relevant letter sounds have not yet
been taught

4. Once the children have been introduced to a sound through the story, they need to learn the
letter formation and begin blending and segmenting words that contain that sound.

5. Once the children have been introduced to a letter sound through the story and the sound
sheet (or sound page) they can be shown the letter or digraph on a flash card or on the
whiteboard. When they see the letter(s), the children should be encouraged to say the sound
and do the action.. Regular reinforcement of the children's letter sound knowledge is very
important.

6. In addition to the main teaching, the children’s letter-sound knowledge can be reinforced
through the Jolly Songs and Jolly Jingles. Most children love singing and these songs not only
act as a reminder of the letter sounds but can also help with the pronunciation of the
sounds, which makes them particularly appropriate for non-English speaking children.

7. In the beginning, concentration should be on the lower case letters. The capital letters,
which are shown on the Sound Sheets and Pupil Book pages, need only be referred to
incidentally. At this early stage, it is important that all the letters should be introduced by
their sounds and not by their names. For example, when introducing the letter ‹s›, you
should say /sssss/ and not /ess/.

8. All the letters are introduced in a similar fashion. When /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/ and /u/ are
taught, the children need to know that these are ‘special letters’ and are called vowels.
Later on, the children will be told the useful rules relating to the vowels, which will help
them with spelling. At this point, the children can be taught that the other letters are
consonants.

9. Reinforcement of the letter sounds is very important. Flash cards showing the letters that
have been taught should be held up every lesson so that the children have a chance to
practice saying the sounds and doing the actions. The faster the children are at recognising
the letters and saying the sounds, the easier it will be for them to read and write.
10. After the first six letter sounds have been taught, the children can be shown the first part of
the Jolly Phonics DVD. This will help to reinforce the sounds that the children have learned,
but also acts as a reward for their hard work

11. When the digraphs are taught, the children have to remember that the two letters
together represent a single sound. Note that a digraph is different from a consonant
blend. Whilst a digraph represents just one sound, such as the sh in ship, a consonant
blend has two or more sounds blended together, such as the st in stop.

12. The ‹oo› and ‹th› digraphs are initially introduced in two sizes. This helps the children to
understand that each digraph could make one of two different sounds. For example, the
‹oo› digraph makes both the short /oo/ in book and the long /oo/ in moon. Similarly, the
digraph ‹th› makes the voiced sound at the beginning of this and the unvoiced sound at the
beginning of thin.

a. oo book th this (voiced)

b. moon thin (unvoiced)

13. When preparing the children for cursive (joined-up) writing, a helpful start is to show them
how the two letters in a digraph join. This activity also develops the understanding that
sometimes two letters are needed to make one sound. Forming the two letters in the air
enables the children to feel how they go together.
14. In each lesson, the children should be given the opportunity to revise the letter sounds they
have learned already. A good way of doing this is to hold up flash cards, one at a time and in
quick succession, so that the children can do the actions and say the sounds as they see each
letter. Later on, the children should be encouraged to say the sounds without doing the
actions.

15. Research indicates that children are more likely to remember something if they do it three
times. Therefore, it is sensible to hold up a flash card showing a newly learned letter two or
three times during the day, so that the children can call out the sound and do the action.
16. After the first five groups of letter sounds have been taught, the children can be introduced
to the letter names. As well as representing a sound, each letter has a name
17. Initially, only one way of writing each sound is taught. For example, in the beginning, the
/ai/ sound is taught with the ‹ai› spelling, as found in rain.

18. Once the children have learnt the main way of writing each of the 42 sounds, they need to
be taught that some of the sounds can be written in a number of ways. For example,
common alternative spellings for the /ai/ sound include ‹ay›, as in day, and ‹a_e›, as in
came.
19. Initially, the main 42 sounds are taught with the following spellings:
Group 1. s, a, t, i, p, n
Group 2. c k, e, h, r, m, d
Group 3. g, o, u, l, f, b
Group 4. ai, j, oa, ie, ee, or
Group 5. z, w, ng, v, oo, oo
Group 6. y, x, ch, sh, th, th
Group 7. qu, ou, oi, ue, er, ar
Later on, once these have been mastered by most of the children, the following alternative spellings
are gradually introduced.

20. When children are being introduced to the skill of blending, the teaching should, initially,
focus upon auditory blending. For auditory blending, the children have to listen to the
individual sounds spoken by their teacher and blend the sounds together in their heads to
make the word
21. Once the children are able to hear the word when an adult says the sounds, they are in a
position to start blending written words. This can start as soon as the first three letter
sounds have been taught
 There are two types of sound in English. One sort makes a pure, continuous
sound; examples of this sort are the sounds, /ssssssssssssss/,
/ffffffffffffffff/, /rrrrrrrrrrrrrr/, /mmmmmmmmm/, /nnnnnnnnnn/ and
/vvvvvvvvvvv/.

 The other sounds are impossible to say without adding a ‘schwa’ to the end.
The schwa is like an /uh/ sound. For instance, the /b/ sound cannot be said
without a schwa: /buh/. The continuous sounds can be said with, or without,
the schwa. Sounds should be said with as little schwa as possible.

 With blending, the first sound needs to be louder than the others. This helps
the child to remember the sound the word starts with. The sounds that follow
in the word need to be spoken softly and quickly, and the schwa should be
avoided where possible. This technique has been found to be effective, and
about three quarters of the children master it quite quickly. Although blending
is more difficult for the other quarter of the class, all they need is more
practice. Frequently, in a whole-class situation, the children who are good at
blending call out the answer too quickly and the less able copy them. To
remedy this situation you should provide an extra blending session for the
weaker children.

 When beginning to teach blending, it can be helpful if the children are shown
the blending words with a small dot placed underneath each letter sound. For
example, the word ‘shell’ would have three dots underneath: one under the ‹sh›,
one under the ‹e› and one under the two ‹l›s at the end. The dots help the
children to recognise when, for example, the letter ‹s› says /sss/ and when it is
part of the ‹sh› digraph.
 Blending skills are improved if the initial consonant blends are said on their own;
examples of common consonant blends are: /cr/, /fl/ and /str/. It is important
to make sure that the children have been taught the individual letter sounds and
are just learning to blend separate sounds together.

 Therefore, if the /w/ letter sound has not yet been introduced, then teaching
the /sw/ blend should be avoided. Focusing on the blend makes it easier to read
the words that have initial consonant blends.

 The children are encouraged to work the word out by saying the blend first,
followed by the individual sounds. The children should say /pl-a-n/ rather than
/p-l-a-n/, for example. A list of consonant blends and regular words using those
blends can be found opposite.

 When blending words with digraphs, the children have to remember to look
at the two letters and say just the one sound. For this reason, reading words
containing digraphs is slightly more complicated to master than reading words
with consonant blends.

 When learning to read words with digraphs, the children need extra blending
practice. Flash cards can be made of regular /ai/ words, such as, pain, rain,
train, Spain, hail, and snail, so that when the /ai/ sound has been taught they
can be held up for the children to sound out aloud and blend. Alternatively,
these words can be written on the board for blending practice.

 Another way to develop speedy blending is to snap together the initial

consonant(s) and a short vowel. You should, on a regular basis, write a few of
these consonant-vowel combinations on the board and encourage the children,
who are weaker at blending, to read them.
ba be bi
bo
fra fre fri fro fru
cha che chi cho chu

 Initially, the children blend words by calling out the sounds aloud, but gradually,
they should be encouraged to blend silently in their head. This promotes
fluency for reading.

 One activity for developing ‘silent’ blending involves the teacher doing
the actions for a word without saying the sounds. For example, with the
word pin, the teacher does the actions for the component letter sounds, in
this case puffing on the finger for the /p/, wiggling fingers on the nose for the
/i/ and the arms out for the /n/ sound. The children try and work out the
word and either write it down or call it out. Alternatively, a child can pretend
to be the teacher and have a turn miming the actions for the sounds in a
word, or three children could do one lettersound action each.

 Another simple way to develop blending sounds in the head is to write letters
randomly on the board. Then the letters can be pointed to, one after the other,
to make a word. The children watch this and try and put the sounds together in
their head and identify the word.
22. The following hints enable the children to blend more words. The extra knowledge helps to
develop their understanding and confidence.

 When two vowel letters appear together in a word, the sound made is often the
long vowel sound of the first letter. The second vowel says nothing. The following type
of words can be worked out with this understanding: dream and people.

 The saying: ‘When two vowels go walking, the first does the talking’ amuses the
children and helps to remind them that usually the first vowel is spoken and the second
vowel is silent. Occasionally, it is the second vowel that gives the sound, as in young and
field, and the children delight in finding the ‘naughty’ second vowel!

 A good hint to know for blending is: ‘If the short vowel doesn’t work, try the long
one’. This saying helps with awkward words like he, no, blind, acorn, union, able, emu,
potato, o’clock. The above saying also helps the children to cope with the split digraphs,
which are often called ‘magic e’ words. The following words have a ‘magic e’ in them:
late, theme, pipe, home, cube. The ‹e› on the end of the word does not say a sound
itself, but the so-called ‘magic’ hops over the consonant and changes the first vowel
from a short vowel to a long one.

 It is important to recognize that the ‘magic’ letter doesn’t have to be an ‹e›. Later
on, the children can learn that ‘magic’ can hop from any vowel; the ‹o› in acorn, the ‹i› in
unicorn and the ‹u› in emu all turn the first vowels into long vowels. Note that, in these
cases, the second vowel influences the first one, but also says its own sound.

23. SOME HELPFUL HINTS

HELPFUL HINTS FOR TEACHING THE VOWELS

1. The way in which the vowels work is arguably the most complex part of the English
alphabetic code. However, it is helpful if the children develop an understanding of the
vowels. For this reason, it is important to teach the rules relating to the vowels in an
entertaining and memorable way. The following activity is a fun way to illustrate how
two vowel letters can make one sound.

2. Class activity 1:- 1:- Provide some of the children with large cardboard letters. The
letters need to go together to make a short word, for example the letters ‹t›, ‹e›, ‹a›
and ‹m› in team. The children holding letters stand, in order, in front of the class. The
children holding the vowels ‹e› and ‹a› should hold hands. The children can be told
that these vowels are ‘friends’ and are both needed to make the vowel sound in
team. The handholding allows the second vowel to pass its magic to the first vowel,
which changes the /e/ to an /ee/ sound. The second vowel keeps quiet. The class now
says the sounds /t-ee-m/, blending them together to get the word team.

3. Class activity 2:- This lesson can also be used to illustrate words with split digraphs,
such as hope. As with the lesson above, cardboard letters can be given to four children,
 so that they spell hope. Tell the children that although the vowels ‹o› and ‹e› are not
next to each other, they are still good friends. The children holding the ‹o› and ‹e›
hold hands round the back of the ‹p›. Explain to the class that the ‹e› says nothing, but
changes the /o/ into an /oa/ sound. The class says the sounds /h-oa-p/, blending them
to get the word hope. By playing with the vowels in this way, the children find it much
easier to work out other words with these vowel patterns.

THE VOWEL HAND RULE OF LONG AND SHORT VOWELS

The vowel hand is another fun way to teach the children about the vowels. The children are
encouraged to use the rule: ‘if the short vowel doesn’t work, try the long vowel’.

The children touch the tips of their fingers, saying the short vowels /a, e, i, o, u/. Then they
touch the points at which the fingers join the hands and say the long vowels /ai, ee, ie, oa,
ue/. Encourage the children to recite the rule, ‘If the /a/ sound (touching the top of the
thumb) doesn’t work, try the /ai/ sound (touching the point where the thumb joins the
hand).’ This rule can be adjusted to all the vowels: ‘if the /e/ doesn’t work try the /ee/’; ‘if
the /i/ doesn’t work try the /ie/’ and so on.

FURTHER HINTS: SHY I AND TOUGHY Y

 In certain words, the letter ‹y› replaces the letter ‹i›. For young children, it is best
to offer an amusing explanation for this pattern.

 In Jolly Phonics, children are taught that the letter ‹i› is very shy and so its cousin,
‘toughy y’, takes its place in some words.

 The children are told that the words day and boy are not written dai and boi as they
might have expected, because ‹i› is too shy to go at the end, so its cousin ‘toughy y’
has to take its place.

 At a later stage, this explanation can also be used to simplify other spelling
patterns. For example, in a word like happy, the ‹y› is at the end, but if the word is
extended to form happily or happiness, the shy ‹i› returns, because it does not mind
being in the middle of the word.

 When a ‹y› is not at the front of a word, it sometimes takes the place of a vowel
and makes a vowel sound. The letter ‹y› may make the /i/ sound, as in system, the
/ie/ sound, as in /try/, or the /ee/ sound, as in /funny/*. To keep things simple for the
children, encourage them to say /i/, /ie/ or /ee/ when they are trying to read a word
that has a ‹y› in the middle or at the end.

 *Note that the ‹y› in funny can have an /i/ sound or an /ee/ sound, depending on the
accent of the children. The pronunciation has changed in some accents over the years.
 FURTHER HINTS: SOFT C AND SOFT G

1. If the letter ‹c› is followed by the vowels ‹e›, ‹i›, or ‹y›, the sound is
usually softened to a /s/, as happens in the words: ice, race, city, circle and cycle.

2. Similarly, if the ‹g› is followed by the same vowels ‹e›, ‹i›, or ‹y›, the
sound is usually softened to a /j/, as in the words, gently, giant, gymnastics and
vegetable. Flash cards showing these types of words could be used to help to reinforce
the rule.

24.
 25. Pencil hold
If young children are to achieve neat, legible handwriting, they need to be taught how to
hold their pencil, and how to form letters correctly. Early mastery of these skills is well
worth the extra effort involved. Anyone who has tried to correct an older child’s bad
pencil hold, or incorrect formation, knows how difficult, if not impossible, it can be.

For correct pencil hold, the pencil should rest between the thumb and the first finger; the
middle finger should be used to prevent the pencil falling down and the last two fingers
should be tucked under the middle finger.

When writing, the hand should rest on the table. The pencil should be moved by the
thumb, first finger and middle finger only. It is important that the child’s knuckles point
outwards. Young children are particularly amused when their fingers are likened to
‘froggy legs’. They should be encouraged to make ‘froggy legs’ when they move the
pencil forwards and backwards.

26. Letter formation

The children are introduced to the formation of each letter in the following ways:

1. The teacher shows the formation on the board.

2. The teacher shows the formation in the air, taking care that the letter is formed so that
the children see it the correct way round (more guidance about this is given on the
following page). The children watch the teacher and then imitate the movement, saying
the sound as they do so. This is repeated several times.
3. The children form the letters on their Sound Sheets or on the pages of their Pupil Books.
On both the Sound Sheets and Pupil Books pages there is an example of the letters and
digraphs, with the formation clearly indicated by a number of arrows. A line of dotted
letters is also provided for the children to write on. It is a good idea to watch the children
writing and check that they are forming the letters correctly. The dotted line helps the
children to recognise that all the letters are the same size, except for the tall sticks and
the tails.

4. The children can trace the formation of each letter or digraph with their fingers in the
lettershaped grooves in the Finger Phonics Books.
5. The children can watch the letters being formed on the Jolly Phonics DVD and/or Jolly
Phonics CD-ROM. The CD-ROM also gives the children a chance to form the letters
themselves.

27. Writing in the air

Some teachers can find mirror writing in the air difficult. The following guidance can be helpful.
There are, essentially, only two things to remember:

1. The caterpillar ‹c›: this forms the basis for the formation of the letters ‹s, a, d, o, g
and q›. Whenfacing the children, remember to form a caterpillar ‹c› in a clockwise
direction.

2. The right-to-left movement: this helps with forming all letters, especially ‹e and z›.
When writingon a page, the letters are generally formed with a left-to-right movement, but
when forming letters in the air (in mirror writing) the reverse is true; letters are formed
 with a right-to-left movement. For example, when forming the ‹e›, trace a line from right
to left completing the ‹e› with a circular movement in a clockwise direction. Similarly,
start the ‘zig zag’ of the ‹z› by tracing a line from right to left.

The down strokes are never a problem. When forming the letters ‹b, f, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, p,
r, t, u, v, w, x and y›, start with the down stroke and continue forming the letter in a right-
to-left direction.

Always ensure that the tails of the letters ‹g›, ‹j› and ‹y› point to the right. (If the school
favours precursive handwriting, the tail of the ‹f› will also need to point to the right.)

The advantage of forming the letters in mirror writing is that the children can be watched
as they copy the example.

28. Magic pointing fingers

The teacher in this video clip uses the Jolly Phonics for the Whiteboard software to
demonstrate letter formation. She encourages the children to follow the letter formation
animation on screen with their ‘magic pointing fingers’ in the air.

*Note that this clip shows the precursive letters version of the Jolly Phonics for the
Whiteboard software, which illustrates the joined formation of the ‹er› digraph.

24. Basic knowledge needed for good handwriting

The following list covers the basic letter knowledge needed for good handwriting:

1. All the letters are the same size apart from:

The letters that have sticks above the body of the letter: ‹b, d, f, h, k, l and t›. Note that
‹t› is not as tall as the other tall letters.

The letters that have tails that go below the line: ‹g, j, p, q and y›. (If teaching precursive
style handwriting, then ‹f› would also come into this category.)

2. Most letters go down towards the line first: ‹b, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, t, u, v, w, x, y

and f ›. Notethat ‹f › arcs backwards a little before it goes down.

3. The following letters start like a ‹c›: ‹a, d, o, g, q›. In Jolly Phonics, these are
referred to as the‘caterpillar c’ letters. The ‹s› also starts like a ‹c›, but curves around like a
snake.

4. The formation of the letters ‹z› and ‹e› starts with a horizontal left-to-right line. Note
that the ‹e›starts lower than the other letters and comes back over like a ‹c›.

Parents can be of invaluable help here. They are in a good position to encourage correct
formation and a good pencil hold. These can be explained at the parents’ meeting.
 The children should be told that the letters in a word are written close together, but without
bumping. Children should also be told to leave a space between words.

It is important to revise the formation of each letter regularly. When the children are writing,
it is a good idea to check the pencil hold and make sure the letter formation is correct. The
formation of the 'caterpillar c'

In this short video clip Marj Newbury, an experienced teacher of Jolly Phonics, introduces the
formation of the 'caterpillar c' to children in her class.

29. Capital letters

In the beginning, the children should concentrate on forming the lower case letters; the
formation of capital letters follows on from this teaching.

Capital letters are the same size as the tall letters. Almost all capital letters go down to the
line first, apart from: ‹C, G, O, S and Q›, which go round anticlockwise first, and ‹Z›, which
starts with a horizontal stroke. Capital letters do not join.

30. Joined-up writing

In Jolly Phonics, the children are encouraged to use joined handwriting at an early stage.
There is evidence to suggest that joined handwriting helps children to develop greater
fluency in their writing and encourages better spelling. The children feel how the letters go
together by writing the word in one continuous movement and this reminds them to put the
letters in the correct order.

It is for this reason that Jolly Phonics uses the Sassoon Infant typeface. Many of the letters in
this font, such as ‹m›, ‹h› and ‹a›, have a joining tail at the end (an ‘exit’ stroke). If the
children learn to form letters with the joining tails first, they progress more naturally to
joined-up writing. If the children are taught print-letter formation (without the joining tails),
a greater adjustment is required when they come to learning joined-up writing.

If joined handwriting is preferred, a good time to introduce it is when the digraphs are being
taught. The children can be shown how the letters join together and reminded that sometimes
two letters are needed to make one sound. At a later stage, the children could be encouraged
to join the letters in tricky words.

That said, joined handwriting is not necessarily better than print handwriting. Indeed, it has
been argued that children should learn to use print letters first, because these more closely
resemble the letters they will come across in books. It is for this reason that Jolly Phonics
products are also available in print letters.

The reality is that the style of handwriting taught makes little difference to the children's
phonic understanding. Teachers around the world find that they can get wonderful writing from
 their children in both precursive and print script. Ultimately, the teacher should be guided by
their school’s handwriting policy when deciding whether he or she should teach joined
handwriting. Conclusions

Some children have poor motor control. These children need more practice if they are to be
able to form the letters correctly and neatly. Tracing letters or pictures and using the
handwriting practice pages from the Pupil and Teacher’s Books and Jolly Phonics Workbooks
will help. Using lined paper can also help the children to limit the size of their letters meaning
that greater accuracy can be expected.

By concentrating on correct letter formation and pencil hold, from the outset, bad habits can
be prevented. The extra focus on these skills also makes it easier for the children to develop
neat, fluent, joined handwriting; this in turn means that they take pride in their work.

Why might some children find blending difficult?

For most children, learning to blend is relatively easy. However, some children find it difficult and
need to be taught exactly what to do. There are two main reasons for children not being able to
hear the word when they have said the sounds:

1. They do not know the letter sounds well enough. As soon as they see a letter or a digraph,
thesound should come automatically to them. If they have to pause to think, they lose track of the
word. To correct this, it is necessary to revise the sounds regularly with flash cards, actions and
letter games.

2. The wrong sounds are being emphasised. The emphasis should be on the first letter sound,
forexample, on the /d/ of /d-o-g/. If the children put the emphasis on the last letter sounds, they
may try to start the word with those sounds and fail to hear the word.
Chapter 2 :

1. It is, necessary that the children be provided with reading books to look at for pleasure and to
develop their reading skills. Initially, the books for reading should be decodable, so that the children
can put into practice the phonic knowledge they have been taught. It is recommended that the
children should not be given reading books to take home to read to their parents until the 42 letter
sounds have been taught and the children can blend these letter sounds. However, if a child comes to
school already able to read, this rule does not apply.
2.