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Phonics in the First Year
Phonics in the First Year
Ilam School uses the Better Start Literacy Approach to teach phonics. This includes teaching Phonemic awareness, which focuses on the sounds that letters make, and morphology, the structure and formation of words. These key skills are fundamental in supporting tamariki with their reading and writing development.
Better Start Literacy Approach
Parent Website - https://betterstartapproach.com/resources/for-families
Pronunciation guide - Vowel and Consonant Sounds in New Zealand English
Vowel Audio and Consonant Audio Sounds in New Zealand English.
Heart Words
Heart Words are words that children need to learn by heart because they can’t be easily sounded out or decoded. ‘Heart Words’ contain one or more letters that are tricky for your child to read at their current stage, as these letters don’t make the usual phonetic sounds they’ve learned.
For example, the letter o in the words to and do doesn’t make the typical short o sound (as in dog) or the long o sound (as in go).
A heart symbol is placed over the part of the word your child needs to remember by heart. The rest of the word can usually still be decoded using their phonics knowledge.
At first, your child might need help with the ‘heart’ part of the word. Encourage them to sound out the other letters they know.
Heart Words - All Sets.pdfHeart Words Flash Cards
Please feel free to use these flashcards with your child to practice Heart Words.
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