Letters and Sounds:

Principles and Practice of High Quality Phonics

Phase One Teaching Programme

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Ref: 00113-2008BKT-EN
LettersandSounds:
PrinciplesandPracticeofHighQualityPhonics

LettersandSounds:PhaseOne
PhaseOneTeachingProgramme
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Firstpublishedin2007

Secondedition2008
ThispublicationwasoriginallyproducedasRef:00281-2007BKT-EN
Thiseditioncomprisesthephaseoneteachingprogrammeonly

Ref:00113-2008BKT-EN

00113-2008BKT-EN LettersandSounds:Phas eOneTeachingProgramme

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©Crowncopyright2008 TheNationalStrategies|Primary
 Introduction
Letters and Sounds is a six-phase teaching programme designed to help practitioners
and teachers teach children how the alphabet works for reading and spelling. It was
Letters and Sounds: PhaseOne

published in April 2007 and has been widely distributed to local authorities, schools and
settings. Since its publication there has been widespread recognition that it would be
useful to have a separate and more compact publication that comprised just the rst
phase of the programme (Phase One). This publication ful lls that need and is intended
particularly
cularly
ularly for
f use by childminders, those working in private, voluntary and independent
settings
ttings
ngs and other
ot early years provision.

Phase
hase One activities concentrate on developing children’s speaking and listening skills,
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phonological
honological awareness
awarenes and oral blending and segmenting. These activities are intended
to bee used
sed as part of a broad
bro and rich language curriculum that has speaking and listening
at its centre,
ntre, links language with
w physical and practical experiences, and provides an
environment nt rich in print and abu
abundant in opportunities to engage with books. Phase One
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activities pave the way ay for children tto make a good start in reading and writing.

The materials presented

ented here comprise the Phase One programme, a DVD showing clips
of effective Phase Onee practice and a short
sho booklet of overall guidance.
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2 The National Strategies | Primary © Crown copyright 2008
PhaseOne

LettersandSounds:PhaseOne
Notesforpractitionersandteachers
PhaseOnefallslargelywithintheCommunication,LanguageandLiteracyareaoflearning
intheEarlyYearsFoundationStage.Inparticular,itwillsupportlinkingsoundsandletters
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intheorderinwhichtheyoccurinwords,andnamingandsoundingthelettersofthe
alphabet.ItalsodrawsonandpromotesotherareasoflearningdescribedintheEarly
YearsFoundationStage(EYFS),particularlyPersonal,SocialandEmotionalDevelopment
andCreativeDevelopment,where,forexample,musicplaysakeypartindeveloping
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children’slanguage.PhaseOnecontributestotheprovisionforCommunication,
LanguageandLiteracy;itdoesnotconstitutethewholelanguageprovision.

TheactivitiesinPhaseOnearemainlyadult-ledwiththeintentionofteachingyoung
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childrenimportantbasicelementsoftheLettersandSoundsprogrammesuchasoral
segmentingandblendingoffamiliarwords.However,itisequallyimportanttosustain
anddrawuponworthwhile,freelychosenactivitiesthatareprovidedforchildreningood
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earlyyearssettingsandReceptionclasses.TheaimistoembedthePhaseOneadult-led
activitiesinalanguage-richprovisionthatservesthebestinterestsofthechildrenbyfully
recognisingtheirpropensityforplayanditsimportanceintheirdevelopment.
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Itfollowsthatthehighqualityplayactivitieswhichtypifygoodprovisionwillofferlotsof
opportunitiestoenrichchildren’slanguageacrossthesixareasoflearning:
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■ Personal,SocialandEmotionalDevelopment
■ Communication,LanguageandLiteracy
■ ProblemSolving,ReasoningandNumeracy
■ KnowledgeandUnderstandingoftheWorld
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■ PhysicalDevelopment

■ CreativeDevelopment.
Practitionersandteacherswillneedtobealerttotheopportunitiesaffordedforlanguage
developmentthroughchildren’splay,andlinklearningfromtheLettersandSounds
programmewithallsixareas.

00113-2008BKT-EN LettersandSounds:PhaseOneTeachingProgramme
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©Crowncopyright2008 TheNationalStrategies|Primary
 Enjoying and sharing books
Experience shows that children bene t hugely by exposure to books from an early age.

Right from the start, lots of opportunities should be provided for children to engage
Letters and Sounds: PhaseOne

with books that re their imagination and interest. They should be encouraged to
choose and peruse books freely as well as sharing them when read by an adult.

Enjoying and sharing books leads to children seeing them as a source of pleasure
and
d interest
intere
inte and motivates them to value reading.
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Planning
lanning
nning and progression
Practitioners
ers and teachers should
sho provide daily speaking and listening activities that are
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well matched d to children’s developing

develop abilities and interests, drawing upon observations
and assessments ts to plan for progression
progres
prog and to identify children who need additional
support, for example
ple to discriminate and
an produce the sounds of speech.
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A rich and varied environment

nment will support children’s
ch language learning through Phase
One and beyond. Indoor and nd outdoor spaces should
s be well planned so that they can
be used exibly. For each aspect ect in Phase One, there
th are photographs and captions
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that illustrate the ways in which the

he learning environment
environm can be designed to encourage
children to explore and apply the knowledge
nowledge and skills to which they have been
introduced through the activities.
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Oral blending and segmenting the sounds in n words

ds are an integral
integr part of the later stages
of Phase One. Whilst recognising alliteration (words
words
rds that begin with
w the same sound) is
important as children develop their ability to tune into speech sounds, the main objective
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should be segmenting words into their component sounds, ounds,

s, and especially
especiall
espe blending the
component sounds all through a word.

Exploring the sounds in words should occur as opportunitiess arise throughout the th
course of the day’s activities, as well as in planned adult-led sessions
ssionss with groups and
an
individual children. Children’s curiosity in letter shapes and written wo
words should be
fostered throughout Phase One to help them make a smooth transition on too Phase Two,
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when grapheme–phoneme correspondences are introduced. There is no o requirement

that children should have mastered all the skills in Phase One (e.g. the ability ty to
o supply
sup a
rhyming word) before beginning Phase Two.

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4 The National Strategies | Primary © Crown copyright 2008
Modelling listening and speaking
The ways in which practitioners and teachers model speaking and listening, interact and
talk with children are critical to the success of Phase One activities and to promoting

Letters and Sounds: PhaseOne

children’s speaking and listening skills more widely. The key adult behaviours can be
summarised as follows.

■ Listen to encourage talking – time spent listening to children talk to each other, and
listening
ning
ng to individuals without too frequent interruption, helps them to use more,
and
nd more rele
relevant, language. This provides practitioners with insights into children’s
learning
arning in order
ord to plan further learning, that is make assessments for learning.
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Practitioners should recognise that waiting time is constructive. It allows children to

think
ink about
bout what has been
b said, gather their thoughts and frame their replies.

■ Model good listening. This includes

i making eye contact with speakers, asking the sort
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of questions
nss attentive listeners ask and commenting on what has been said. Effective
practitioners adaptt their spoken interventions
in
i to give children ample opportunities to
extend their spoken
ken communication.
communic

■ Provide good models of spoken English to help young children enlarge their
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vocabulary and learn, forr example,

mple, how to structure
str comprehensible sentences, speak
con dently and clearly, and sustain dialogue. Phase
Pha One activities are designed to
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foster these attributes.

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Look, listen and note: making assessments

asse
for learning
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Effective assessment involves careful observation, analysiss andd review by practi

pract
practitioners of
each child’s knowledge, skills and understanding in order to track
rack their progress
progres andan make
informed decisions about planning for the next steps of learning. This assessment for fo
learning ((Early Years Foundation Stage paras 2.6–2.10, Ref: 00012-2007PCK-EN)
-2007PCK-EN)
7PCK-EN) is key ke to
the success of Phase One and for enabling practitioners to make princip cipled,
ipled, professio
professional
judgments about when children should begin a systematic phonics program amme.
me. For tthis
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reason, examples of what practitioners should focus their observations on are re included after
aft
each set of the Phase One activities under the subheading ‘Look, listen and note’. te’. These
Thes
examples are designed to help practitioners keep a careful eye on children’s progress es and
will help to identify those who may need further practice and support before moving on, as
well as supporting those who are capable of making rapid progress. By observing children,
listening to them and noting their achievements, practitioners will be well placed to judge
how well children are doing and plan next steps.

At the end of each aspect, the ‘Considerations’ section provides some indications of what
practitioners need to re ect on to develop their practice and to ensure that the needs
of all the children are met. For example, these sections suggest how activities may be
extended where appropriate to provide greater challenge and encourage children to apply
their developing language knowledge and skills more widely.

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 Seven aspects and three strands

■ Aspect 1: General sound discrimination – environmental sounds

Letters and Sounds: PhaseOne

■ Aspect 2: General sound discrimination – instrumental sounds

■ Aspect 3: General sound discrimination – body percussion
■ Aspect
spect 4: Rhythm and rhyme

■ Aspect 5: A
Allite
teration
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■ Aspect
ect 6: Voice sou
sounds

■ Aspect
ect 7: Oral blending and
a segmenting
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While there iss considerable overlap

overla between these aspects, the overarching aim is for
children to experience
rience
ence regular, planned
planne opportunities to listen carefully and talk extensively
pla
about what they hear,ear, see and do. The boundaries between each strand are exible and
not xed: practitionerss should plan to integrate
integ the activities according to the developing
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abilities and interests of the

he children
dren in the setting.
set

Each aspect is divided into three

ree stran
strands.
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■ Tuning into sounds (auditory discr

scrimination
scrimination)

■ Listening and remembering sounds (auditory

uditory memory and
an sequencing)
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■ Talking about sounds (developing vocabulary

ulary and language comprehension).
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Activities within the seven aspects are designed to

ohhelp childre
children:
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1. listen attentively;

2. enlarge their vocabulary;

3. speak con dently to adults and other children;

4. discriminate phonemes;
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5. reproduce audibly the phonemes they hear, in order, all through the word
ord;

6. use sound-talk to segment words into phonemes.

The ways in which practitioners and teachers interact and talk with children are critical to
developing children’s speaking and listening. This needs to be kept in mind throughout all
phase one activities.

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List of activities
Aspect 1: General sound discrimination – environmental sounds
■ Listening walks

Letters and Sounds: PhaseOne

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■ A listening moment 12

■ Drum outdoors 12

■ Teddy
ddy
dy is lost in the jungle 13

■ Sound
ound lotto 1 13
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■ Sou
ound stories 13

■ Mrs Brow
rowning has a box 13
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■ Describe and
nd nd it 14

■ Socks and shakers

ers 14

■ Favourite sounds
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■ Enlivening stories 15
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Aspect 2: General sound discrimination

crimination – inst
instrumental sounds
■ New words to old songs 18
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■ Which instrument? 18

■ Adjust the volume 18

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■ Grandmother’s footsteps 18

■ Matching sound makers 19

■ Matching sounds 19

■ Story sounds 20
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■ Hidden instruments 20

■ Musical show and tell 20

■ Animal sounds 20

Aspect 3: General sound discrimination – body percussion

■ Action songs 24

■ Listen to the music 24

■ Roly poly 24

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 ■■ Followthesound 25

■■ Noisyneighbour1 25

■■ Noisyneighbour2 26
LettersandSounds:PhaseOne

■■ Wordsaboutsounds 26

■■ ThePiedPiper 27

Aspect4:Rhythmandrhyme
■■ Rhymingbooks 30
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■■ Learningsongsandrhymes 30

■■ Listentothebeat 30
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■■ Ourfavouriterhymes 30

■■ Rhymingsoup 31
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■■ Rhymingbingo 31

■■ Playingwithwords 31
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■■ Rhymingpairs 32

■■ Songsandrhymes 32
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■■ Finishtherhyme 32

■■ Rhymingpuppets 33
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■■ Oddoneout 33

■■ Iknowaword 33

Aspect5:Alliteration
■■ Ispynames 36
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■■ Soundsaround 36

■■ Makingaliens 36

■■ Diggingfortreasure 37

■■ Berthagoestothezoo 37

■■ Tonythetrain’sbusyday 37

■■ Musicalcorners 38

LettersandSounds:PhaseOneTeachingProgramme 00113-2008BKT-EN
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■ Our sound box/bag 38

■ Mirror play 39

Letters and Sounds: Phase One

■ Silly soup 39

Aspect 6: Voice sounds

■ Mouth movements 42

■ Voice sounds 42

■ s 42
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■ Meta 43

■ Chain gam 43
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■ Target sounds 43

■ Whose voice? 43
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■ Sound lotto 2 44

■ Give me a sound 44
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■ Sound story time 44

■ Watch my sounds 44
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■ Animal noises 45

■ Singing songs 45
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Aspect 7: Oral blending and segmenting

■ Toy talk 48

■ Clapping sounds 48

■ Which one? 49
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■ Cross the river 49

■ I spy 49

■ Segmenting 49

■ Say the sounds 50

Key

This icon indicates that the activity

can be viewed on the DVD.

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Letters and Sounds: Phase One

Aspect 1: Environmental sounds

Making large movements

with swirling ribbons helps
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to develop physical skills

Encourage children to use
necessary for writing.
language for thinking by asking
open questions such as What
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does it feel like to be in the

tunnel?

Join children in their play to

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extend their talk and enrich

their vocabulary.
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Using
U i a more unusuall role-l
play area inspires children to
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use language for a range of

purposes.
Children
Child enjoy
j experimenting
i ti
with the sounds different
objects can make.

Explore
E l with
ith children
hild the
th
sounds different animals make,
including imaginary ones such
as dragons.

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 Aspect 1: General sound discrimination –
environmental sounds
Letters and Sounds: Phase One

Tuning into sounds

Main purpose
■ To develop children’s listening skills and awareness of sounds in the environment
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Listening walks
This is a listening activity that can take place indoors or outdoors.

Remind the children about the things that good listeners do (e.g. keep quiet, have ears
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and eyes ready). Invite the children to show you how good they are at listening and talk
about why listening carefully is important. Encourage the children to listen attentively to
the sounds around them. Talk about the different sounds they can hear. The children
could use ‘cupped ears’ or make big ears on headbands to wear as they go on the
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listening walk. After the children have enjoyed a listening walk indoors or outdoors,
make a list of all the sounds they can remember. The list can be in words or pictures and
prompted by replaying sounds recorded on the walk.
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A listening moment
This is another activity that can take place indoors or outdoors.
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Remind the children how to be good listeners and invite them to show how good they
are at listening by remembering all the sounds they hear when they listen for a moment.
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It may be useful to use a sand timer to illustrate, for example, the passing of half a
minute. Ask them what made each sound and encourage them to try to make the sound
themselves.

Drum outdoors
Give each child a beater or make drumsticks, for example from short pieces of dowel.
Encourage the children to explore the outdoor area and discover how different sounds
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are made by tapping or stroking, with their beaters, a wooden door, a wire fence, a metal
slide, and a few items such as pipes and upturned pots you have ‘planted’.

The activity could be recorded and/or photographed.

Ask each child to demonstrate their favourite sound for the rest of the group. The whole
group can join in and copy.

Ask each child to take up position ready to make their favourite sound. An adult or a child
acts as conductor and raises a beater high in the air to signal the children to play loudly
and lowers it to signal playing softly.

Letters and Sounds: Phase One Teaching Programme 00113-2008BKT-EN

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Teddy is lost in the jungle
One child (the rescuer) is taken aside while a teddy bear is hidden somewhere in the
room. Tell the other children they are going to guide the rescuer to the teddy by singing
louder as the rescuer gets closer to, or quietly as the rescuer moves further away from the

Letters and Sounds: Phase One

teddy. Alternatively lead the children in singing a familiar song, rhyme or jingle, speeding
up and slowing down to guide the rescuer.

Sound lotto
There are many commercially produced sound lotto games that involve children matching
pictures to a taped sound. This can be an adult-led small group activity or can be
provided within the setting as a freely chosen activity.
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Look, listen and note

Look, listen and note how well children:
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■ recall sounds they have heard;

■ discriminate between the sounds;
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■ describe the sounds they hear.

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Listening and remembering sounds

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Main purpose
■ Further development of vocabulary and children’s identification and recollection of the
difference between sounds
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Sound stories
There are many commercially available resources with prerecorded sounds to illustrate a
simple sequence of events (e.g. a thunderstorm). Each child selects two or three picture
cards that match the sounds, places the cards in the same order in which the sounds are
heard and explains the sequence of events.
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Mrs Browning has a box

Turn a box on its side with the opening facing away from the children. One by one place
between four and six familiar noisy items (e.g. a set of keys, crisp packet, squeaky toy)
into the box, pausing to name them and demonstrate the sound each one makes.

Sing to the tune of ‘Old MacDonald’ but using your own name or one of the children’s:

Mrs…has a box ee i ee i o

And in that box she has a…

Stop. Gesture and ask the children to listen.

00113-2008BKT-EN Letters and Sounds: Phase One Teaching Programme

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 Handle one of the objects in the box, out of sight, to make a noise. The children take it in
turns to guess what is making the sound. Continue the song but imitating the sound using
your voice.
With a zzz zzz here and a zzz zzz there…
Letters and Sounds: PhaseOne

Allow the children to take a turn at making a noise from inside the box and use their
names as you sing.

Describe
ribe
ib and nd it
Sett up
p a model
mode farmyard. Describe one of the animals but do not tell the children its
name.
me. Say, for exexample: This animal has horns, four legs and a tail. Ask them to say which
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nimal it is. Ask them to make the noise the animal might make. When they are familiar
animal
th the game let individual
with indivi children take the part of the adult and describe the animal for
the others
ers to name.
thers
ity can be repeated with
This activity w other sets of objects such as zoo animals, toy sets
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ansport (e.g. aeroplane,

based on transport aeroplan car, train, bus, boat) and musical instruments. It can
be made more challenging
allenging by introd
intro
introducing sets of random objects to describe and name.

Look,listenandnote
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w well children:
Look, listen and note how
■ describe what they see;
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■ identify the animals and imitatee the sounds;

sounds
■ add new words to their vocabulary.
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Talkingaboutsounds
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Mainpurpose
■ To make up simple sentences and talk in greater detail about
out sounds

Socks and shakers

Partially ll either opaque plastic bottles or the toes of socks with noisy
sy materials (e.g. rice,
ric
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peas, pebbles, marbles, shells, coins). Ask the children to shake the bottles
tles or socks and
a
identify what is inside from the sound the items make. From the feel and the e sound
ound of the
noisy materials encourage the children to talk about them. Ask questions such h as:
a Where
might we nd shells and pebbles?

Favourite sounds
Make a poster or use a whiteboard for the children to record their favourite sounds
pictorially. Invite them to put their sounds in order of popularity and talk about the ones
they like the best. Ask the children to think about sounds that they do not like (e.g. stormy
weather, barking dogs, car horns, crying babies) and to say why.

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Enlivening stories
Involve the children in songs and stories, enlivened by role-play, props and repeated
sounds, for example acting out:

Letters and Sounds: Phase One

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall (bump, crash, bang!)

All the King’s horses and all the King’s men (gallop, gallop, gallop)

Couldn’t put Humpty together again (boo, hoo, boo, hoo, boo, hoo).

Look, listen and note

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Look, listen and note how well children:

■ identify different sounds and place them in a context;

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■ identify similar sounds;

■ make up sentences to talk about sounds;
■ join in the activities and take turns to participate.
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D

Considerations for practitioners

working with Aspect 1
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■ Use picture or symbol prompts to remind the children how to be a good listener.
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These could be displayed on the wall, on a soft toy or in a quiet listening den.

■ As with all listening and attention activities, it is important to be aware that a busy
environment can really hinder a child’s ability to tune in. Keep a listening area free
from overly distracting wall displays, posters and resources in order to support
very young children or those who find it hard to focus on listening.

■ A small group size is preferable, to allow all of the children to have sufficient time
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to participate in and respond to the activity.

■ Using gestures such as a finger to the lips alongside ‘shhh’ and a hand to the ear
alongside listen will give vital clues to children who have difficulty with understanding
or those who find it difficult to listen to the spoken instruction alone.

■ Scan the group before giving any sound cue. Use a child’s name if necessary
then make the sound immediately that you have their attention.

■ If parents or carers speak languages other than English, find out the word for
‘listen’ in the school community languages and use it when appropriate.

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 ■ If the children seem to recognise an object, but can’t recall its name, help them
by prompting with questions, such as: What would you do with it? Where would
you nd it?
Letters and Sounds: PhaseOne

■ As you lead the singing, take care to slow the song down. Slowing the pace can
make a huge difference, helping children to understand the language used as
well as giving them time to prepare and join in with the words or sounds.

■ Forge
Forget conventional sound effects. For example, dogs don’t always bark woof.
For
Big dogsgs can sound like WUW WUW WUW and little ones give a squeaky Rap
rap.. Vary the voice to add interest. These sounds are often more fun and even
rap
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easier
sier for the ch
child to attempt to copy. Be daring. Include some less conventional
animals
nimals (e.g. a par
parrot, a wolf) and see what sounds you come up with. You might
include
nclude dinosaurs – many
m children love them and no one knows what noises they
made e so children can be as inventive as they like.
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■ Where parents
arents
nts or carers sp
speak
spea languages other than English, nd out how they
represent animal
imal noises. Are woof,
woo meow and quack universal? Which examples
from other languages
uages
ages are the most like
li the real sounds?
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D
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Letters and Sounds: Phase One

Aspect 2: Instrumental sounds

Observe how well the children

listen to each other as they play
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in the band.

Note which children can make

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up simple rhythms.

Children use home-made

shakers to explore and learn
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how sounds can be changed.

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AW
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In their free play, children enjoy

revisiting an adult-led activity.

Playing with musical instruments

outdoors encourages children
to experiment with the sounds
they can hear.

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 Aspect 2: General sound discrimination –
instrumental sounds
Letters and Sounds: Phase One

These activities promote speaking and listening through the use of musical instruments
(either purchased or made by the children). They do not replace the rich music provision
necessary for creative development in the wider educational programme.

Tuning into sounds

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Main purpose
■ To experience and develop awareness of sounds made with instruments and noise
makers
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New words to old songs

Take a song or rhyme the children know well and invent new words to suit the purpose
and the children’s interests. Use percussion instruments to accompany the new lyrics.
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Which instrument?
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This activity uses two identical sets of instruments. Give the children the opportunity to
play one set to introduce the sounds each instrument makes and name them all. Then
one child hides behind a screen and chooses one instrument from the identical set to
play. The other children have to identify which instrument has been played.
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Develop the activity by playing a simple rhythm or by adding a song to accompany the
instrument (e.g. There is a music man. Clap your hands) while the hidden instrument is
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played. This time the listening children have to concentrate very carefully, discriminating
between their own singing and the instrument being played.

Adjust the volume

Two children sit opposite each other with identical instruments. Ask them to copy each
other making loud sounds and quiet sounds. It may be necessary to demonstrate with
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two adults copying each other first. Then try the activity with an adult with one child.

Use cards giving picture or symbol cues to represent loud or quiet (e.g. a megaphone,
puppet of a lion; a finger on the lips, puppet of a mouse).1

Grandmother’s footsteps
‘Grandmother’ has a range of instruments and the children decide what movement goes
with which sound (e.g. shakers for running on tip-toe, triangle for fairy steps).

First an adult will need to model being Grandmother. Then a child takes the role.

1
Activity based on Looking and Listening Pack ©Heywood Middleton & Rochdale Primary Care Trust. Used with kind
permission.

Letters and Sounds: Phase One Teaching Programme 00113-2008BKT-EN

18 The National Strategies | Primary © Crown copyright 2008
Grandmother stands with her back to the others and plays an instrument. The other
children move towards Grandmother in the manner of the instrument while it is playing.
They stop when it stops. The first person to reach Grandmother takes over that role and
the game starts again.

Letters and Sounds: Phase One

Look, listen and note
Look, listen and note how well children:

■ identify and name the instruments being played;

■ listen and respond as the instrument is being played.
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Listening and remembering sounds

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Main purpose
■ To listen to and appreciate the difference between sounds made with instruments
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Matching sound makers

Show pairs of sound makers (e.g. maracas, triangles) to a small group of children. Place
one set of the sound makers in a feely bag.
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The children take turns to select a sound maker from the feely bag. Once all the children
have selected a sound maker, remind them to listen carefully. Play a matching sound
maker. The child with that sound maker stands up and plays it.
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This activity can be adapted by playing the sound maker behind a screen so that the
children have to identify it by the sound alone1.
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Matching sounds
Invite a small group of children to sit in a circle. Provide a selection of percussion
instruments. One child starts the game by playing an instrument. The instrument is then
passed round the circle and each child must use it to make the same sound or pattern
of sounds as the leader. Start with a single sound to pass round the circle, and then
gradually increase the difficulty by having a more complex sequence of sounds or different
N

rhythms.

Look, listen and note

Look, listen and note how well children:

■ are able to remember and repeat a rhythm;

■ discriminate and reproduce loud and quiet sounds;
■ are able to start and stop playing at the signal.
1
Activity based on Looking and Listening Pack ©Heywood Middleton & Rochdale Primary Care Trust. Used with kind
permission.

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 Talking about sounds

Main purpose
Letters and Sounds: Phase One

■ To use a wide vocabulary to talk about the sounds instruments make.

Story sounds
As you read or tell stories, encourage the children to play their instruments in different
ways (e.g. Make this instrument sound like giant’s footsteps, … a fairy fluttering, … a
cat pouncing, … an elephant stamping). Invite them to make their own suggestions for
W

different characters (e.g. How might Jack’s feet sound as he tiptoes by the sleeping
giant? And what about when he runs fast to escape down the beanstalk?). As the children
become familiar with the pattern of the story, each child could be responsible for a
different sound.
IT

Hidden instruments
Hide the instruments around the setting, indoors or outdoors, before the children arrive.
H

Ask the children to look for the instruments. As each instrument is discovered the finder
plays it and the rest of the group run to join the finder. Continue until all the instruments
are found to make an orchestra.
D

Musical show and tell

Invite groups of children to perform short instrumental music for others. The others are
R

asked to say what they liked about the music. (They will need a selection of instruments
or sound makers and some rehearsal time.)
AW

Animal sounds
Provide a variety of animal puppets or toys and a range of instruments. Encourage the
children to play with the instruments and the animals. Discuss matching sounds to the
animals. Give a choice of two instruments to represent a child’s chosen animal and ask
the children to choose which sound is the better fit: Which one sounds most like the
mouse? What do you think, David?
N

Look, listen and note

Look, listen and note how well children:

■ choose appropriate words to describe sounds they hear (e.g. loud, fierce, rough,
squeaky, smooth, bumpy, high, low, wobbly);

■ match sounds to their sources;

■ use sounds imaginatively to represent a story character;
■ express an opinion about what they have heard.

Letters and Sounds: Phase One Teaching Programme 00113-2008BKT-EN

20 The National Strategies | Primary © Crown copyright 2008
 Considerations for practitioners
working with Aspect 2

Letters and Sounds: PhaseOne

■ If a child is reluctant to attempt to copy actions with an instrument, spend a little
time building con dence and interest in copying games. Present the child with a
set of instruments. Have an identical set to hand. Allow the child to explore and
copy back what the child does. Copying children’s actions can build con dence
opy bac
and make tththem feel their contribution is valued. If the activity results in an
copying game, the adult can subtly attempt to switch roles by taking
enjoyable copyi
W

instrument and making a new sound for the child to copy.

up a different instru

■ It will take a little while for

f some children to make a link between an animal and a
ponding
onding instrument sound.
corresponding s Where necessary to support this, allow plenty
IT

of time forr the children to play with the animal puppets or toys and talk about the
nimals make.
sounds the animals

■ Provide a variety of animal puppets or toys and a range of instruments. Sit

H

alongside the children

n to play the instruments
instrum and encourage discussion about
choices of instruments appropriate
ppropriate for the sounds
sso the animals make.
D

■ Encourage discussion with the

he children about why they have chosen the
instrument to represent their particular
rticular animal.

portunities
ortunities to explore
The activities in Aspect 2 also provide opportunities expl w the children their
with
R

experience of music at home. Ask parents or carers rs whether they have any instruments
they can bring in, either to play for the children or for the children to
t look
lo at.
AW
N

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 N
AW
R
D
H
IT
W
Letters and Sounds: Phase One

Aspect 3: Body percussion

Listen to the children as they

re-enact familiar stories.
W

Observe how well the children

march, stamp and splash to a
Using the outdoor area as beat.
much as possible encourages
IT

children to explore different

ways of making sounds with
their bodies.
H
D
R
AW
N

Stress simple
St i l soundd patterns
tt to
t
accompany children’s
mark-making.

Talk
T lk with
ith children
hild as th
they
paint and comment on the
movements and shapes they
are making.

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 Aspect 3: General sound discrimination –
body percussion
Letters and Sounds: Phase One

Tuning into sounds

Main purpose
■ To develop awareness of sounds and rhythms
W

Action songs
Singing songs and action rhymes is a vital part of Phase One activities and should be an
everyday event. Children need to develop a wide repertoire of songs and rhymes. Be sure
to include multi-sensory experiences such as action songs in which the children have to
IT

add claps, knee pats and foot stamps or move in a particular way. Add body percussion
sounds to nursery rhymes, performing the sounds in time to the beat. Change the body
sound with each musical phrase or sentence. Encourage the children to be attentive and
to know when to add sounds, when to move, and when to be still.
H

Listen to the music

D

Introduce one musical instrument and allow each child in the small group to try playing
it. Ask the children to perform an action when the instrument is played (e.g. clap, jump,
wave). The children can take turns at being leader. Ask the child who is leading to
R

produce different movements for others to copy. As the children become more confident,
initiate simple repeated sequences of movement (e.g. clap, clap, jump). Suggest to the
children that they could make up simple patterns of sounds for others to copy. Ask the
AW

children to think about how the music makes them feel and let them move to the music.1

Roly poly
Rehearse the rhyme with the actions (rotating hand over hand as in the song ‘Wind the
bobbin up’).
Ro … ly … po … ly … ever … so … slowly
N

Ro … ly … poly faster.
(Increase the speed of the action as you increase the speed of the rhyme.)
Now add in new verses, such as:
Stamp … your … feet … ever … so … slowly
Stamp … your feet faster.
Ask the children to suggest sounds and movements to be incorporated into the song.
Say hello ever so quietly
Say HELLO LOUDER!
1
Activity based on Looking and Listening Pack ©Heywood Middleton & Rochdale Primary Care Trust. Used with kind
permission.

Letters and Sounds: Phase One Teaching Programme 00113-2008BKT-EN

24 The National Strategies | Primary © Crown copyright 2008
Look,listenandnote
Look, listen and note how well children:

■ produce contrasts in rhythm, speed and loudness;

Letters and Sounds: PhaseOne

■ join in with words and actions to familiar songs;
■ articulate words clearly;
■ keep inn time
tim
t with the beat;

■ copy
py the soun
sounds and actions;
W

■ make up patterns o
of sounds.

Listeningandrememberingsounds
IT

Mainpurpose
■ To distinguish between
een sounds and to remember
re patterns of sound
H

Follow the sound

Invite a small group of children to sitt in a circle. The adult
ad begins by producing a body
D

percussion sound which is then ‘passed’ssed’ to the child sitting

sitti next to them such as clap,
clap, clap. The sound is to be passed around the circle until unti it returns to the adult. Ask:
Do you think that the sound stayed the same me e all the way round?
rou
round What changed? Did it
R

get faster or slower? Make the activity more dif cult by introducing a simple sequence of
sounds for the children to pass on (e.g. clap, stamp, amp,p, clap).
AW

Noisy neighbour 1
This game needs two adults to lead it.

Tell a simple story about a noisy neighbour and invite the children
en to join in. Begin with:
wi
Early one morning, the children were all fast sleep – (ask the children
en to
o close their eyes
ey
and pretend to sleep) – when all of a sudden they heard a sound from m the house next
nex
door.
N

At this point the second adult makes a sound from behind the screen.

The story teller continues: Wake up children. What’s that noise?

The children take it in turns to identify the sound and then the whole group are
encouraged to join in with: Noisy neighbour, please be quiet. We are trying to sleep.

Repeat the simple story line with another sound (e.g. snoring, brushing teeth, munching
corn akes, yawning, stamping feet, washing).

Encourage the children to add their own ideas to the story about the noisy neighbour.

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 Look,listenandnote
Look,listenandnotehowwellchildren:

■■ copyabodypercussionsoundorpatternofsounds;
■■ identifyhiddensounds;
LettersandSounds:PhaseOne

■■ suggestideasandcreatenewsoundsforthestory.

Talkingaboutsounds
W

Mainpurpose
■■ Totalkaboutsoundswemakewithourbodiesandwhatthesoundsmean
IT

Noisyneighbour2
(See‘Noisyneighbour1’above.)

Askthechildrentosuggestasuitableendingtothestory.Discussnoisestheylike,noises
H

thatmakethemexcitedandnoisesthatmakethemfeelcrossorsad.Askwhenitisa
goodtimetobenoisy,andwhenitisbesttobequietorspeaksoftly(e.g.whenweneed
tolisten).Listthesuggestions.
D

AskIsthisatimetobenoisyorquiet?asyoupresentscenariossuchaswhenchildren
are:
R

■■ attheswimmingpool;
■■ inthelibrary;
AW

■■ ataparty;
■■ withsomeonewhoisasleep;
■■ inthepark;
■■ atafriend’shousewhenthefriendispoorly;
N

■■ playinghideandseek.

Wordsaboutsounds
Itisimportantthatadultsengagewithchildrenintheirfreelychosenactivitiesand
introducevocabularythathelpsthemtodiscriminateandcontrastsounds,forexample:

■■ slow,fast;
■■ quiet,loud;
■■ long,short;

LettersandSounds:PhaseOneTeachingProgramme 00113-2008BKT-EN
26 TheNationalStrategies|Primary ©Crowncopyright2008
■ type of sound (click, stamp, etc.);
■ type of movement (rock, march, skip, etc.).
Start with simple opposites that are obviously different (e.g. loud, quiet).

Letters and Sounds: PhaseOne

Listen to what the children have to say about the sounds they hear and then build on and
expand their contributions and ideas.

The Pied
ed P
Piper
Tell the
he story of th
the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Use different instruments for the Piper to play,
ith children moving
with mov in different ways in response. The child at the front decides on
W

the
e movement and the rest of the group move in the same way. They follow the leader
around d the indoor or outdoor
outdo
outd space, marching, skipping and hopping – vary the pace and
Fas , faster,
Fast
describe the action: Fast, fas slow, slower.

Introduce andd model new words by b acting them out (e.g. briskly, rapidly, lazily, sluggishly,
IT

energetically) for the children

hildren to copy and explore by acting them out in different ways.

Look,listenandnote
H

Look, listen and note how well children:

■ use language to make different

ent endings to the story;
st
D

■ use a wide vocabulary to talk about

out the sounds they hear;
h

■ group sounds according to different criteria

riteria
ia (e.g. loud
loud,, quiet,
lo qu
quie slow, fast).
R
AW

Considerations for practit

practitioners
working
ng with Aspect
Asp 3

■ Remind the children to look and listen to the adult and also to
o each other.

■ It might be necessary to demonstrate the sounds to the children before

N

efore
fore each
cribe
e the
activity starts in order to ‘tune them in’ and to encourage them to describe
sounds they hear.

■ Be aware that some children may have dif culty coordinating the movements or
actions to accompany songs and games. Give children plenty of time and space
to practise large-scale movements every day.

■ Some children may nd it dif cult to monitor their own volume without adult
support.

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 N
AW
R
D
H
IT
W
Letters and Sounds: Phase One

Aspect 4: Rhythm and rhyme

Children enjoy listening to

rhymes and inventing their own.
Enjoying and sharing books
W

leads to children seeing them

as a source of pleasure and
interest.
IT

Children need to build a stock

of rhymes through hearing them
repeated over and over again.
H
D
R
AW

Remind children of rhymes they

know when you join them in the
role play area Miss Polly had a
dolly ...!
N

Encourage children’s word play

by inventing new rhymes with
them such as Hickory, Dickory
Dable, the mouse ran up the .....
For children learning English as
an additional language (EAL),
songs and rhymes help them to
tune into the rhythm and sound
of English.

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 Aspect 4: Rhythm and rhyme

Tuning into sounds

Letters and Sounds: Phase One

Main purpose
■ To experience and appreciate rhythm and rhyme and to develop awareness of rhythm
and rhyme in speech

Rhyming books
W

Regularly include rhyming books as part of the daily book-sharing session. Read these
books with plenty of intonation and expression so that the children tune into the rhythm
of the language and the rhyming words. Encourage the children to join in with repetitive
IT

phrases such as Run, run, as fast as you can, You can’t catch me, I’m the Gingerbread
Man. Wherever possible make the activity multi-sensory to intensify learning and
enjoyment.
H

Learning songs and rhymes

Make sure that singing and rhyming activities are part of the daily routine in small-group
time and that extracts are repeated incidentally as events occur (e.g. It’s raining, it’s
D

pouring as the children get ready to go outdoors in wet weather). Play with rhyming words
throughout the course of the day and have fun with them. Sing or chant nursery rhymes
and encourage the children to move in an appropriate way (e.g. rock gently to the beat of
R

‘See Saw Marjorie Daw’, march to the beat of ‘Tom, Tom the Piper’s Son’ and ‘The Grand
Old Duke of York’, skip to the beat of ‘Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush’).
AW

Listen to the beat

Use a variety of percussion instruments to play different rhythms. Remind the children to
use their listening ears and to move in time to the beat – fast, slow, skipping, marching,
etc. Keep the beat simple at first (e.g. suitable for marching) then move on to more
complex rhythms for the children to skip or gallop to.
N

Our favourite rhymes

Support a group of children to compile a book of their favourite rhymes and songs. They
could represent the rhymes in any way they choose. The book can be used to make
choices about which rhyme to say during singing time, or used for making independent
choices in the book corner. Children may choose to act as teacher selecting rhymes for
others to perform, individually or as a group.

Have a bag of objects which represent rhymes (e.g. a toy spider to represent ‘Incy Wincy
Spider’, a toy bus for ‘The Wheels on the Bus’) and invite the children to choose their
favourite.

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30 The National Strategies | Primary © Crown copyright 2008
Rhyming soup
Ask a small group to sit in a circle so they can see a selection of rhyming objects (e.g.
rat, hat, cat) placed on the floor. Use a bowl and spoon as props to act out the song.
Invite the children, in turn, to choose an object to put into the soup and place it in the

Letters and Sounds: Phase One

bowl. After each turn, stir the soup and sing the following song to recite the growing list of
things that end up in the soup.

Sing the first part of the song to the tune of ‘Pop Goes the Weasel’:

I’m making lots of silly soup

I’m making soup that’s silly

W

I’m going to cook it in the fridge

To make it

In goes… a fox… a box… some socks…

IT

Rhyming bingo
Give each child in a small group a set of three pictures of objects with rhyming names.
H

(Such pictures are readily available commercially.) Hide in a bag a set of pictures or
objects matching the pictures you have given to the children.
D

The children take turns to draw out of the bag one object or picture at a time. Invite the
children to call out when they see an object or picture that rhymes with theirs and to
collect it from the child who has drawn it fro
R

After each rhyming set is completed chant together and list the rhyming names. As you
name objects give emphasis to the rhyming patter
AW

Playing with words

Gather together a set of familiar objects with names that have varying syllable patterns
(e.g. pencil, umbrella, camera, xylophone). Show the objects to the children, name
them and talk about what they are used for. Wait for the children to share some of their
experiences of the objects; for instance, some of them will have used
encourage them to think about how the name of the object sounds and f
N

say it. Think about the syllables and clap them out as you say each word. Then clap the
syllables for a word without saying it and ask: What object could that be?

As children gain confidence try some long words like binoculars, telephone, dinosaur.

Look, listen and note

Look, listen and note how well children:

■ understand the pattern of syllables in the words presented to them;

■ sing or chant the rhyming string along with the adult;
■ recognise that the words rhyme;

00113-2008BKT-EN Letters and Sounds: Phase One Teaching Programme

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© Crown copyright 2008 The National Strategies | Primary
 ■ join in with simple or complex rhythms;
■ copy the rhythm;
■ keep to the beat.
Letters and Sounds: PhaseOne

Listeningandrememberingsounds

Main
inpurpose
■ To increase aw
awareness of words that rhyme and to develop knowledge about rhyme

Rhyming
yming
ng pairs
In a pairs
rs game, use pictures of objects with names that rhyme. The children take it in
rn two cards over and
turns to turn an keep them if the pictures are a rhyming pair. If they are
not a rhyming g pair, the cards are turned
tu face down again and the other person has a turn.
Start with a smallll core set of words
word that
t can then be extended.

rh
The children need to be familiar with the rhyming word families before they can use them
in a game – spend time looking at the pictures
picture and talking about the pairs.

Songs and rhymes

Include a selection of songs within the daily singing session
ses which involve children in
experimenting with their voices. Simplele
e nursery rhymes, such
su
s as ‘Hickory, Dickory, Dock’
n in
provide an opportunity for children to join n with
wi wheeee as the t mouse falls down. Use
this to nd related words that rhyme: dock, clock,, tick-tock.
tick-t
tick-tock . Substitute
Sub alternative rhyming
yment.
men
sounds to maintain children’s interest and enjoyment.

Finish the rhyme

Use books with predictable rhymes that children are familiar
liar
iar with and then stop
sto as you
ete
come to the nal word in the rhyme. Invite children to completete it. Use plenty of intonation
i
and expression as the story or rhyme is recounted.

Look,listenandnote
Look, listen and note how well children:

■ recognise rhyming words;

■ listen and attend to the rhyming strings.

Letters and Sounds: Phase One Teaching Programme 00113-2008BKT-EN

32 The National Strategies | Primary © Crown copyright 2008
 Talking about sounds

Main purpose

Letters and Sounds: Phase One

■ To talk about words that rhyme and to produce rhyming words

Rhyming puppets
Make up silly rhyming names for a pair of puppets (e.g. Fizzy Wizzy Lizzy and Hob Tob
Bob). Introduce the puppets to a small group and invite them to join in story telling, leaving
gaps for the children to fill in rhyming words, for example:
W

Are you poorly Lizzy? Oh dear.

Fizzy Wizzy Lizzy is feeling sick and…dizzy.

Bob is very excited. Today he is going to be a builder.

IT

Hob Tob Bob has got a new…job.

Odd one out

Put out three objects or pictures, two with names that rhyme and one with a name that
H

does not. Ask the child to identify the ‘odd one out’: the name that does not rhyme. Start
with a small set of words that can then be extended. The children need to be familiar with
the rhyming word families before they can use them in a game – spend time looking at the
D

pictures and talking about the pairs.

I know a word
R

Throughout the course of daily activities, encourage the children to think about and play
with rhyming words. The adult begins with the prompt I know a word that rhymes with
cat, you need to put one on your head and the word is...hat. This can be used for all sorts
AW

of situations and also with some children’s names: I know a girl who is holding a dolly, she
is in the book corner and her name is...Molly. As children become familiar with rhyme, they
will supply the missing word themselves.

Look, listen and note

Look, listen and note how well children:
N

■ generate their own rhymes;

■ complete sentences using appropriate rhyming words;
■ make a series of words that rhyme.

00113-2008BKT-EN Letters and Sounds: Phase One Teaching Programme

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© Crown copyright 2008 The National Strategies | Primary
 Considerations for practitioners
working with Aspect 4
Letters and Sounds: PhaseOne

■ It is important for children to experience a rich repertoire of poems, rhymes and

songs. They need to build a stock of rhymes through hearing them repeated
different contexts. Parents and carers can play a valuable role in developing
in d
children’s repertoires of rhymes. Keep parents and carers informed of any new
ch
childre
rhymes
hymes yyoyou are learning with the children so that the adults can join in when the
W

children start to sing them at home.

■ For children learn
learning EAL, songs and rhymes are a particularly effective way
to remember whole sentences and phrases by tuning into the rhythm that
companies
mpanies them. This
accompanies Thi in itself is good practice for developing the speech
IT

patterns
ns of the language; it is also important to attach meaning and ensure that
re understood.
contexts are
■ Encouraging nonsense
nsense rhymes is a good way for children to begin to generate
H

and produce rhyme.me. While a child is developing

d speech sounds the normal
immaturities in their speech
peech may mean their th
t version of a word is different from
that of the adults in the setting (e.g. the adult
adu prompts with You shall have a
a
D

sh on a little…and the child ld joins in with

wit dit).
ditt). The
T adult then repeats back the
correct articulation, ‘dish’.
■ When children experiment with nonsense
R

sense rhymes they

th are not con ned by their
pro
own learned versions of words and so can tune into and produce rhyming patterns.
■ Keep the songs slow so you can emphasise
ise the rhyming patterns.
patte
AW

■ Collecting a set of objects or producing pictures

es of objects with rhyming
rhy names
ntial
can be time-consuming but this resource is essentialtial to build experience
experien
experi of
rhyme into children’s play. A set of cards from a commercially
mercially available rhyming
rh
lotto set can prove to be a versatile resource for many differentnt activities.
■ Generating rhymes is a dif cult skill to master. Accept all the children’s
get
et rhyming word,
suggestions. Where the children do manage to ll in with the target
N

ming pattern.
congratulate them on having done so and draw attention to the rhyming pattern
■ Children learning EAL often internalise chunks of language and may not
ot hear
h
where one word starts and another ends. They may continue to use many of
these chunks of language for some time before they begin to segment the
speech stream in order to use the constituent words in new contexts.
■ When children can supply a list of rhyming words and non-words, after being given
a start, they can be considered to be well on the way to grasping rhyme (e.g. adult
says cat, mat, sat…and the child continues fat, pat, mat, rat). However, children
may well be at a later phase of this programme before they can do this. There is no
need to delay starting Phase Two until children have mastered rhyming.

Letters and Sounds: Phase One Teaching Programme 00113-2008BKT-EN

34 The National Strategies | Primary © Crown copyright 2008
Letters and Sounds: Phase One

Aspect 5: Alliteration

Make sure the book collection

After children have enjoyed includes books with lots of
their singing games, make alliterative rhymes and jingles.
W

the resources freely available

to them to explore for
themselves and to act out
Play alongside children in
IT

‘being the teacher’.

a café and place an order:
‘Please may I have some juicy
jelly’ or ‘sizzling sausages’ or
H

‘chunky chips’.
D
R
AW

Join children at the water tray

and introduce alliterative tongue
twisters such as
She sells seashells.
N

00113-2008BKT-EN Letters and Sounds: Phase One Teaching Programme

35
© Crown copyright 2008 The National Strategies | Primary
 Aspect 5: Alliteration
Tuningintosounds
Letters and Sounds: PhaseOne

Mainpurpose
■ To develop understanding of alliteration

I spy
y names
With
th a small gr
group of children sitting in a circle, start the game by saying I spy someone
W

whose
hose name begins w with… and give the sound of the rst letter, for example ‘s’ for Satish.
Then n ask:
k: Who can it bbe? Satish stands up, everyone says his name and he carries on
be
the game,
me, saying I spy som
someone whose name begins with…, and so on. If any children
call out the
e name
ame before the child
ch with that name, still let the child whose name it is take
IT

the next turn.

If the children nd separating outou the rst sound too hard in the early stages, the adult can
continue to be the caller
aller until they get the
th hang of it.
H

Sounds around
Make sure that word play with initial
tial sounds is commonplace.
comm Include lots of simple
D

dren enjoy experimenting

tongue twisters to ensure that children experimen with words that are alliterative.
dentally to make up tongue
Use opportunities as they occur incidentally tto twisters by using
articular personal
children’s names, or objects that are of particular persona interest
in to them (e.g. David’s
R

agic mittens).
dangerous dinosaur, Millie’s marvellous, magic mittens)

Making aliens
AW

Before the activity begins, think of some strange names

es forr alien creatures.
creatures The alien
names must be strings of non-words with the same initial
al sound, for example:
example
examp

Ping pang poo pop,

Mig mog mully mo,
Fo fandle fee.
N

Write them down as a reminder.

Talk to the children about the names and help them to imagine what the strange ge creatures
nge c
might look like. Provide creative or construction materials for the children to make their
own alien.

Comment as the children go about shaping the aliens and use the aliens’ strange names.
Invite the children to display their aliens along with the aliens’ names.

Make the pattern clearer by emphasising the initial sound of an alien’s name. Draw the
children’s attention to the way you start each word with the shape of your lips, teeth
and tongue.

Letters and Sounds: Phase One Teaching Programme 00113-2008BKT-EN

36 The National Strategies | Primary © Crown copyright 2008
Digging for treasure
Collect two sets of objects suitable for use in the sand tray. Each set of objects must
have names beginning with the same initial sound. Choose initial sounds for each set that
sound very different from one another. Bury the objects in preparation for the session.

Letters and Sounds: PhaseOne

As the children uncover the treasure, group the objects by initial sound and each time
another is added recite the content of that set: Wow! You’ve found a car. Now we have a
cup, a cow, a candle and a car.

Bertha
a go
goes to the zoo
Set up a small toy zoo and join the children as they play with it. Use a toy bus and a bag
off animal
nimal toys with
wi nanames starting with the same sound (e.g. a lion, a lizard, a leopard, a
W

llamaa and a lobster) to act

ac out this story. Chant the following rhyme and allow each child
ou of the bag and add an animal name to the list of animals
in turn to draw an animal out
spotted att the zoo.
IT

Bertha the buss is going to the zoo,

zoo
Who does she see e ass she passes through?
thro
thr
p
… a pig, a panda, a parrot and a polar be
bear.
H

Look,listenandnote
Look, listen and note how well children:
D

■ identify initial sounds of words;

■ reproduce the initial sounds clearly and
nd recognisably;
cognisa
R

■ make up their own alliterative phrases.

AW

Listeningandremembering
emberingsounds
so

Mainpurpose
■ To listen to sounds at the beginning of words and hear the differences
ences
nces between them
t
N

Tony the Train’s busy day

Use a toy train and selection of objects starting with the same sound. A small group
oup of
children sits in a circle or facing the front so they can see objects placed on the oor. Use
the props to act out a story with the train.

It was going to be a busy day for Tony. He had lots to do before bedtime. So many
packages to deliver and so many passengers to carry. He set out very early, leaving all
the other engines at the station, and hurried off down the track, clackedy clack down the
track, clackedy clack down the track…

But he hadn’t gone very far when…!!! He saw something up ahead lying on the tracks.
‘Oh no!’ yelled Tony. ‘I must s – t – o – p.’ And he did stop, just in time. To Tony’s surprise
there on the track lay a big brown bear, fast asleep.

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© Crown copyright 2008 The National Strategies | Primary
 ‘I had better warn the others,’ thought Tony and so he hurried back to the station,
clackedy clack going back, clackedy clack going back. Tony arrived at the station quite
out of puff. ‘Whatever is the matter?’ said the other engines. ‘Toot, toot, mind the…
big, brown bear’ panted Thomas. ‘He’s fast asleep on the track.’ ‘Thank you,’ said the
Letters and Sounds: Phase One

others, ‘We certainly will.’

Continue with the whole object set and encourage the children to join in with saying the
growing list of objects. Remember to give emphasis to the initial sound.

The aim is to have the group chant along with you as you recite the growing list of objects
that Tony finds lying on the track. Make up your own story using the props and ask: What
do you think happens next?
W

Mus
Put a chair in each corner of the room, or outdoors. Collect four sets of objects, each set
containing objects with names that start with the same sound. (Four different initial sounds
IT

are represented.) Keep back one object from each set and place the remaining sets on
each of the four ch

At first, the children sit in a circle or facing you. Name each of the four sets of objects,
H

giving emphasis to the init

Explain that now there will be music to move around or dance to and that when the music
stops the children are to listen. You will show them an object and they should go to the
D

corner where they think it belongs.

R

Our sound box/bag

Make collections of objects with names beginning with the same sound. Create a song,
such as ‘What have we got in our sound box today?’ and then show the objects one at a
AW

time. Emphasise the initial sound (e.g. s-s-s-snake, s-s-s-sock, s-s-s-sausage)

Look, listen and note

Look, listen and note how well children:

■ can recall the list of objects beginning with the same sound;
■ can offer their own sets of objects and ideas to end the story;
N

■ discriminate between the sounds and match to the objects correctly.

Letters and Sounds: Phase One Teaching Programme 00113-2008BKT-EN

38 The National Strategies | Primary © Crown copyright 2008
 Talking about sounds

Letters and Sounds: Phase One

Main purpose
■ To explore how different sounds are articulated, and to extend understanding of
alliteration

Name play
Call out a child’s name and make up a fun sentence starting with the name (e.g. Ben has
a big, bouncy ball, Kulvinder keeps kippers in the kitchen, Tim has ten, tickly toes, Fiona
W

found a fine, fat frog). Ask the children to think up similar sentences for their own names
to share with others.

Mirror play
IT

Provide a mirror for each child or one large enough for the group to gather in front of. Play
at making faces and copying movements of the lips and tongue. Introduce sound making
in the mirror and discuss the way lips move, for example, when sounding out ‘p’ and ‘b’,
H

the way that tongues poke out for ‘th’, the way teeth and lips touch for ‘f’ and the way lips
shape the sounds ‘sh’ and ‘m’.
D

Silly soup
Provide the children with a selection of items with names that begin with the same sound.
Show them how you can make some ‘silly soup’ by putting ‘ingredients’ (e.g. a banana,
R

bumble bee and bug) into a pan in the role-play area.

Allow the children to play and concoct their own recipes. Play alongside them without
AW

influencing their choices. Commentate and congratulate the children on their silly recipes.
Recite each child’s list of chosen ingredients. Make the pattern clear by emphasising the
initial sound. By observing mouth movements draw the children’s attention to the way we
start each word and form sounds.

Look, listen and note

Look, listen and note how well children:
N

■ can articulate speech sounds clearly;

■ select an extended range of words that start with the same sound.

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© Crown copyright 2008 The National Strategies | Primary
 Considerations for practitioners
working with Aspect 5
Letters and Sounds: PhaseOne

■ Singing rhymes and songs with alliterative lines such as ‘Sing a Song of Sixpence’
and playing with jingles such as ‘Can you count the candles on the cake?’ helps
to tune
o tu
t children’s ears to the relationships between the sound structures of words.
Ultimately children need to be able to isolate the initial phoneme from the rest
Ultimate
(e.g. to be able to say that ‘nose’ begins with the sound ‘n’). Children
of word (e
(e.g
W

need to have a wealth of experience of hearing words that begin with the same
sound important to keep practising familiar tongue twisters and also to be
ound so it is imp
inventive
nventive with new onones to model alliterative possibilities to the children.
■ Do nott expect all the children
chil to be able to produce a full range of initial sounds
IT

or be able
ble to produce the initial
in clusters such as ‘sp’ for spoon. Just make sure
hild’s attention is gained
that each child’s gai before reciting the string of sounds so that
erience
they can experience ce the initial sound
soun
sou pattern as it is modelled for them.
H

■ These activities may

ay reveal speech dif culties that may require investigation by a
ocal speech and language
specialist such as the local lan
la therapist.
■ Not all children will be happy
D

ppy
py to participate in copying
c games. Some may
ous about getting the game wrong. One way to
feel self-conscious or be anxious
encourage copying is to lead thee wayy by copying what
wh
w the children do in the
R

mirror and encouraging them to copypy one another before

befor asking them to copy
your sounds and movements.
■ Take care to whisper when modelling quiet sounds. Do not add an ‘uh’ to the
AW

end of sounds:
○ ‘ssss’ not ‘suh’
○ ‘mmm’ not ‘muh’
○ ‘t’ not ‘tuh’
○ ‘sh’ not ‘shuh’.
N

■ Some children may be aware of the letter shapes that represent some
me sounds.
sound
While grapheme–phoneme correspondences are not introduced until Phase has
Two, it is important to be observant of those children who can identify letter
shapes and sounds and to encourage their curiosity and interest.
■ Be prepared to accept suggestions from children learning EAL who have a well-
developed vocabulary in their home language, but be aware that words in home
languages will not always conveniently start with the same sound as the English
translation. Children very soon distinguish between vocabulary in their home
language and English.

Letters and Sounds: Phase One Teaching Programme 00113-2008BKT-EN

40 The National Strategies | Primary © Crown copyright 2008
Letters and Sounds: Phase One

Aspect 6: Voice sounds

Encourage children to replicate

water noises with sounds
W

such as drip, bubble bubble,

As children explore the texture
swoosh.
of shaving foam, pasta shapes
or foamy water, introduce
IT

words that may be new to them

such as smooth frothy crunchy.

As you watch children on the

H

climbing frame, encourage

them to vocalise ‘Weeee!’.
D
R
AW

When children act out familiar

stories, encourage them to use
sound effects like swish swish
N

through the grass, squelch

squelch in the mud, splishy
sploshy through the rain.

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© Crown copyright 2008 The National Strategies | Primary
 Aspect 6: Voice sounds
Tuning into sounds
Letters and Sounds: Phase One

Main purpose
■ To distinguish between the differences in vocal sounds, including oral blending and
segmenting

Mouth movements
W

Explore different mouth movements with children – blowing, sucking, tongue stretching
and wiggling. Practising these movements regularly to music can be fun and helps
children with their articulation.
IT

Voice sounds
Show children how they can make sounds with their voices, for example:

■ Make your voice go down a slide – wheee!

H

■ Make your voice bounce like a ball – boing, boing

D

■ Sound really disappointed – oh

■ Hiss like a snake – ssssss
R

■ Keep everyone quiet – shshshsh

■ Gently moo like a cow – mmmoooo
AW

■ Look astonished – oooooo!

■ Be a steam train – chchchchch
■ Buzz like a bumble bee – zzzzzzz
■ Be a clock – tick tock.
N

This can be extended by joining single speech sounds into pairs (e.g. ee-aw like a
donkey).

Making trumpets
Make amplifiers (trumpet shapes) from simple cones of paper or lightweight card and
experiment by making different noises through the cones. Model sounds for the children:
the up and down wail of a siren, the honk of a fog horn, a peep, peep, peep of a bird.
Contrast loud and soft sounds. Invite the children to share their favourite sound for the
rest of the group to copy. Use the trumpets to sound out phonemes that begin each
child’s name.

Letters and Sounds: Phase One Teaching Programme 00113-2008BKT-EN

42 The National Strategies | Primary © Crown copyright 2008
Metal Mike
Encourage a small group of children to sit in a circle or facing the front so they can see
you and Metal Mike (a toy robot computer). Have ready a bag of pictures of objects (e.g.
cat, dog, mug, sock) and sound out and blend the phonemes in their names. Ask each

Letters and Sounds: PhaseOne

child in turn to take out a picture or an object from a bag. Hold it up and tell the group
that Metal Mike is a computer and so he talks with a robot voice. Ask the children to
name the object as Metal Mike would and demonstrate it for them in a robotic voice (e.g.
‘c-a-t’). Feed the object or picture into Metal Mike and encourage the group rst to listen
to you andnd then
tthe join in as you say the word exaggerating the sound of each phoneme,
wed
followedd by blending
blend the phonemes to make the word.
W

ok,
k,listenandnote
Look,
isten
n and note how well
Look, listen w children:

■ distinguish
sh between the differences
diffe in vocal sounds.
IT

Listeningandrememberingsounds
Listeni
H

Mainpurpose
■ To explore speech sounds
D

Chain games
R

Working with a small group of children, an adult

dult makes a long
lo sound
so with their voice,
on repeats
varying the pitch (e.g. eeeeeee). The next person peats the sound and continues as the
sed
ed as far round the circle
next joins in, to form a chain. The sound gets passed c as possible.
AW

Start again when the chain is broken.

Target sounds
Give each child a target sound to put into a story when they hear
ar a particular word or
o
character (e.g. make a ‘ch’ sound when they hear the word ‘train’).

ether
er when they
Start with a single sound that the small group of children can make together t
N

ur reading to
hear a target word. Be prepared to prompt initially and leave pauses in your
make it obvious where the sounds are required.

Whose voice?
Record some children talking while they are busy with a freely chosen activity and play the
recording to a larger group. Can the children identify each other’s voices? Create a ‘talking
book’ for the group or class with photographs of each child and help them to record their
own voice message – My name is…, I like singing, etc.

00113-2008BKT-EN Letters and Sounds: Phase One Teaching Programme

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© Crown copyright 2008 The National Strategies | Primary
 Sound lotto 2
Record the children using their voices to make suitable sounds for simple pictures (e.g. of
animals, a steam train, a doorbell, a clock). Ask them to listen to the recording later and
match each sound to a picture.
Letters and Sounds: Phase One

Look, listen and note

Look, listen and note how well children:

■ sustain their listening throughout a story;

■ listen for a target word or character and respond with an appropriate associated
W

speech sound;

■ remember the sound sequence and produce it when required;

■ recognise their own and each other’s voices, including a recorded voice.
IT

Talking about sounds

H

Main purpose
■ To talk about the different sounds that we can make with our voices
D

Give me a sound
R

After making a sound with your voice, talk about the ‘features’ of the sound with the
children – was it a long sound, a loud sound, did it change from high to low, etc.?
Introduce vocabulary gradually with examples and visual cues (e.g. symbols and pictures)
AW

to help the children who have difficulty understanding. Then introduce new vocabulary to
the children to help them describe the sound (e.g. to talk about high and low pitch).

Sound story time

Discuss with the children how they can use their voices to add sounds to stories such as
Bear Hunt, Chicken Licken or The Three Billy Goats Gruff.
N

Repeat favourite rhymes and poems in different voices together (e.g. whispering, growling,
shouting, squeaking) and discuss the differences.

Watch my sounds
Provide small mirrors for the children to observe their faces, lips, teeth and tongue as they
make different speech sounds and experiment with their voices.

Provide home-made megaphones in the outside area so the children can experiment with
different speech sounds and their volume.

Letters and Sounds: Phase One Teaching Programme 00113-2008BKT-EN

44 The National Strategies | Primary © Crown copyright 2008
Animal noises
Provide simple animal masks, and tails if possible, to encourage the children to dramatise
animal movements and sounds.

Letters and Sounds: PhaseOne

Singing songs
Provide a wide selection of rhymes and songs on CD or tape so that the children can
choose to listen to and join in with their favourites, and can extend their repertoire.

Look,
k, listen a
and note
Look,
ook, listen and not
note
n how well children:
W

■ use appropriate voca

vocabulary to talk about different voice and speech sounds.
IT

Considerations for practitioners

C
working with Aspect 6
H

■ Changes in voice and exaggerated

ggerated facial expressions
ex help to support listening
nterest and anticipation.
and attention by building interest anticipatio For some children, these clues
anticip
D

eir understanding of the

are also vital to supporting their t story.

■ Tuning in to what the child is doing and joining in with them

th tells the child you are
R

listening to them.

■ Children in the early stages of learning EALL may need time to observe
ob others and
rehearse the spoken challenge; as in any turn-taking
-taking activities they should not be
AW

asked to take the rst turn.

■ For extension, linguistic diversity and fun, where parents

ts and carers speak
sp
languages other than English, nd out how they represent,
t, for example, animal
anima
noises. Are woof, meow and quack universal? Which examples les from other
languages are the most like the real sounds?
N

00113-2008BKT-EN Letters and Sounds: Phase One Teaching Programme

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© Crown copyright 2008 The National Strategies | Primary
 N
AW
R
D
H
IT
W
Letters and Sounds: Phase One

Aspect 7: Oral blending and segmenting

As children play with the balls,

W

bounce a ball alongside them

When children choose to making the sound ‘b’ b’ b’
play with the sound talk toys,
IT

listen out to how well they are

trying to segment words into
phonemes.
H

Encourage the children to

vocalise as they play on the
hoppers ‘h’ ‘h’ ‘h’ ‘h’
D
R
AW

When children are in the

writing area, note whether
N

they are beginning to say their

messages aloud as they write,
as they have seen adults do.

00113-2008BKT-EN Letters and Sounds: Phase One Teaching Programme

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© Crown copyright 2008 The National Strategies | Primary
 Aspect 7: Oral blending and segmenting
Tuning into sounds
Letters and Sounds: Phase One

Main purpose
■ To develop oral blending and segmenting of sounds in words

Oral blending
It is important that the children have plenty of experience of listening to adults modelling
W

oral blending before they are introduced to grapheme–phoneme correspondences. For

example, when giving children instructions or asking questions the adult can segment the
last word into separate phonemes and then immediately blend the sounds together to
say the word (e.g. It’s time to get your c-oa-t, coat! or Touch your t-oe-s, toes! Who can
IT

touch their f-ee-t, feet?) Use only single-syllable words for oral blending.

Oral blending can also be modelled from time to time when books are being shared,
particularly rhyming books where the last word in a rhyming couplet could be segmented
H

into separate sounds and then blended by the adult.

Toy talk
D

Introduce to the children a soft toy that can only speak in ‘sound-talk’. The children see
the toy whispering in the adult’s ear. To add to the activity, as the toy whispers the adult
R

repeats the sounds, looks puzzled and then says the word straight afterwards. For example:
What would Charlie like for tea today? The toy speaks silently in the adult’s ear and the
adult repeats ‘ch-ee-se’ looking puzzled and then, says with relief ‘cheese!’ Now invite the
children to see if they can speak like the toy: Do you think you could try to toy talk? Say
AW

ch-ee-se: (the children repeat ‘ch-ee-se’). Ask the toy again What else would you like? Be
careful to think of items with names of only single syllables (e.g. fish, cake, pie, soup).

Use different scenarios: What does the toy like to do in the playground? (hop, skip, jump,
run, etc.). As the children become more confident, make some errors – blend ‘skim’ for
‘skip’, for example, and ask them to catch you out by giving the correct blend.
N

Encourage the children to ask the toy questions with yes/no answers (e.g. Can you sing?
Y-e-s/N-o). Or ask the toy the colour of his bike, his bedroom walls, his jumper, etc. and
the toy will answer r-e-d, b-l-ue, g-r-ee-n, m-au-ve.

Clapping sounds
Think of words using the letters ‘s, a, t, p, i, n’ (e.g. sat, pin, nip, pat, tap, pit, pip) and
sound them out, clapping each phoneme with the children in unison, then blend the
phonemes to make the whole word orally.

As children’s confidence develops, ask individuals to demonstrate this activity to others.

Letters and Sounds: Phase One Teaching Programme 00113-2008BKT-EN

48 The National Strategies | Primary © Crown copyright 2008
Which one?
Lay out a selection of familiar objects with names that contain three phonemes (e.g. leaf, sheep,
soap, sh, sock, bus). Check that all the children can recognise each object. Bring out the
sound-talking toy and ask the children to listen carefully while it says the names of one of the

Letters and Sounds: PhaseOne

objects in sound-talk so they can help it to put the sounds together and say the word. The toy
then sound-talks the word, leaving a short gap between each sound. Encourage the children
to say the word and identify the object. All the children can then repeat the sounds and blend
them together – it is important that they do this and don’t simply listen to the adult doing so.

Cross
ss the rive
river
Choose
hoose
ose a selection
selectio of objects with two or three phonemes as above. There can be more
thann one of the same object.
o
ob Make a river across the oor or ground outside with chalk or
ropes. Givee each child or pa
pair of children an object and check that all the children know the
names of the objects. The toy calls out the name of an object in sound-talk (e.g. p-e-g). The
children whoo have
ave that object blend
blen the sounds to make the word and cross the river.

I spy
Place on the oor or on a table
able a selection of objects with names containing two or three
phonemes (e.g. zip, hat, comb, cup, chain, boat,bo tap, ball). Check that all the children
know the names of the objects.
cts. The
he toy says I spysp with my little eye a z-i-p. Then invite
bject and hold it up.
a child to say the name of the object u All the children can then say the
individual phonemes and blend them em
m together ‘z-i-p, zip’.
zi When the children have become
ith names that start with
familiar with this game use objects with w the same initial phoneme
(e.g. cat, cap, cup, cot, comb, kite). Thiss will really encourage
encourag the children to listen and
han
then blend right through the word, rather than an relying on the initial
init sound.

Look,listenandnote
Look, listen and note how well children:
■ blend phonemes and recognise the whole word;
■ say the word and identify the object;
W

■ blend words that begin with the same initial phoneme.

N

Listeningandrememberingsounds

Mainpurpose
■ To listen to phonemes within words and to remember them in the order in which they occur

Segmenting
Invite a small group of children to come and talk to the toy in sound-talk, for example just
before dinner time: Let’s tell the toy what we eat our dinner with. Discuss with the children
and agree that we use a knife and fork. Then tell the toy in sound-talk which the children
repeat. Continue with: Let’s tell the toy what we drink out of. Confer and agree on ‘cup’.
Repeat in sound-talk for the toy to listen and then invite the children to do the same.

00113-2008BKT-EN Letters and Sounds: Phase One Teaching Programme

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© Crown copyright 2008 The National Strategies | Primary
 Ask the children to think of other scenarios which they could tell the toy or let them give
him instructions. Then model the sound-talk for the children to repeat. This is teaching the
children to segment words into their separate sounds or phonemes and is the reverse of
blending. The children will soon begin to start the segmenting themselves.
Letters and Sounds: Phase One

Leave the sound-talk toy freely available to the children for them to practise and
experiment with sound-talk. On special occasions, weekends or holidays, the toy may go
on adventures or go to stay at the children’s homes. When he returns he will have lots to
tell the children about his escapades – in sound-talk.

Say the sounds

W

When the children are used to hearing the toy say words in sound-talk and blending the
individual sounds to make words, you may be able to ask some children to see whether
they can speak in sound-talk. Choose some objects with three-phoneme names that you
are sure the children know and hide them in a box or bag. Allow one of the children to see
IT

an object, and then ask them to try to say the separate sounds in the name of the object,
just like the toy does (e.g. d-u-ck). The other children then blend the sounds together to
make the word. The child can then reveal the object to show whether the other children
are right.
H

Look, listen and note

Look, listen and note how well children:
D

■ segment words into phonemes.

R

Talking about sounds

AW

Main purpose
■ To talk about the different phonemes that make up words
When children are used to oral blending, and can readily blend two and three phonemes
to make words, introduce the idea of counting how many phonemes they can hear. For
example: p-i-g, pig. If we say the phonemes in that word one by one, how many phonemes
N

can we hear? Let’s use our fingers to help us: p-i-g, one, two, three phonemes.

Look, listen and note

Look, listen and note how well children:

■ identify the number of phonemes that make up a given word.

Letters and Sounds: Phase One Teaching Programme 00113-2008BKT-EN

50 The National Strategies | Primary © Crown copyright 2008
 Considerations for practitioners
working with Aspect 7

Letters and Sounds: PhaseOne

■ During Phase One, there is no expectation that children are introduced to letters
(graphemes). Of course some children may bring knowledge of letters from
ome,
me and be interested in letters they see around them on signs, displays
home,
and
nd in boo
books. Practitioners and teachers should certainly respond to children’s
comments anand queries about letters and words in print.
W

■ Children who can hear phonemes in words and sound them out accurately are
generally
nerally well placed tto make a good start in reading and writing.

■ Children
en learning EAL gene
generally learn to hear sounds in words very easily.
IT

■ Children need
eed to hear the sounds
sound
soun in the word spoken in sound-talk immediately
e whole word.
followed by the word Avoid being tempted to ask any questions in
tha word
between such as I wonder what that w can be? or Do you know what that
H

se is to model oral blending

word is? The purpose ble and immediately give the whole
word.
D

■ It is important only to segment

nt and blend the last word in a sentence or phrase
and not words that occur at the beginning or middle of the sentence. Over time
ren will get to know the
and with lots of repetition, the children t routine and as they
R

lended word before

gain con dence they will provide the blended b t adult.
the

■ Using a toy is preferable to a puppet because

se
e it is important that
tha children watch
AW

clea rather
cle
the adult’s face and mouth to see the sounds being articulated clearly,
than focusing on the imitated movements of the puppet.
et.

■ It is very important to enunciate the phonemes very clearly

early and not to add an
a
‘uh’ to some (e.g.‘ssssssss’ and not ‘suh’, ‘mmmmmmmm’ m’ and not ‘muh’).
panying
anying DVD.
Examples of correct enunciation can be found on the accompanying

■ Avoid using words with adjacent consonants (e.g. ‘sp’ as in ‘spoon’)

n’)) as these will
N

lending
ng and
probably be too dif cult for children at the early stages of practising blending
segmenting.

■ Once children have been introduced to blending and segmenting they should be
practised hand in hand as they are reversible processes.

00113-2008BKT-EN Letters and Sounds: Phase One Teaching Programme

51
© Crown copyright 2008 The National Strategies | Primary
 Acknowledgements
ActivitiesbaseddirectlyonLookingandListeningPack.©HeywoodMiddleton&
RochdalePrimaryCareTrust.Usedwithkindpermission.Fullcopiesofthepackcanbe
LettersandSounds:PhaseOne

purchasedfromHeywoodMiddleton&RochdalePCTSpeechandlanguageTherapy
Department,TelegraphHouse,BaillieStreet,Rochdale,OL161JA.

SpecialthanksareduetoICANfortheircontributiontoPhaseOne.
W
IT
H
D
R
AW
N

LettersandSounds:PhaseOneTeachingProgramme 00113-2008BKT-EN
52 TheNationalStrategies|Primary ©Crowncopyright2008
W
IT
H
D
R
AW

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