Foundations for Phonics develops children’s phonological and phonemic awareness through fun, engaging games and nursery rhymes. Developing these skills in Nursery lays the best possible foundations for learning phonics in Reception. There are two aspects to Foundations for Phonics: Rhyme time and Tuning into sounds. Rhyme time explores rhyme to build up a bank of shared language, develop children’s understanding of the world and familiarity with the sounds in words. Tuning into sounds teaches phonological and phonemic awareness through games.
Autumn 1: No sounds – focus on Rhyme time and settling children into your setting’s routines.
Autumn 2: s a t p i n m
Spring 1: d g o c k e
Spring 2: u r h b f l
Summer 1: j v w y z qu ch
Summer 2: ck x sh th ng nk
Sound Focus
Teach one sound each week.
In each session, play:
• What’s in the box? (Learn the sound)
• One of these sound games: Voice sounds, Name play, Bertha the bus, Play with sounds (Practise the sound).
• The sound games focus on awareness of sounds in general, and words do not need to include the focus sound from the day’s session.
Oral blending focus
In each session, play:
• Blend from the box (Blend with the sound)
• One of these oral blending games: Can you do the actions? Can you touch your … ? What’s that noise? (Practise blending)
• The oral blending games focus on awareness of sounds in general, and oral blending words do not need to include the focus sound from the day’s session.