Phase 1 Phonics

Phase 1 phonics resources and phase 1 phonics play activities for Early Years!

What is phase 1 phonics?

Phase 1 phonics is the first step in teaching children to read and write using synthetic phonics. It is typically taught to young children in the early years of primary school or nursery and focuses on developing their listening and speaking skills. This includes activities such as listening to and repeating sounds, learning to rhyme, and learning to segment words into individual sounds (phonemes).

What is taught in phase 1 phonics?

During Phase 1 phonics, children learn to develop their listening and speaking skills. This includes activities such as:

  1. Listening to and repeating sounds: Children learn to discriminate between different sounds in their environment, such as the sound of a car or the sound of a bird.
  2. Learning to rhyme: Children learn to identify words that rhyme, such as cat and hat using our silly soup rhyming phase 1 lesson plan
  3. Learning to segment words into individual sounds (phonemes) using our phase 1 oral blending and segmenting cards: Children learn to break words down into their individual sounds, for example, c-a-t for cat.
  4. Learning to blend sounds: Children learn to blend individual sounds together to form words, for example, c-a-t for cat.
  5. Developing vocabulary and oral language: Children learn new words and phrases through daily activities and conversations.
  6. Environmental sounds: Children learn to identify and match sounds associated with their environment such as animal, musical instrument and transport sounds.

The goal of Phase 1 phonics is to give children a good foundation in listening and speaking skills so that they are ready to begin learning to read and write using synthetic phonics in Phase 2.

What is covered in Phase 1 aspect 1 phonics?

Aspect 1 Environmental Sounds focuses on helping children to identify and match sounds in their environment. Including:

  1. Listening to and identifying different environmental sounds: Children learn to listen attentively and to discriminate between different sounds in their environment, such as the sound of a car, a bird, a dog barking, a train, etc.
  2. Matching environmental sounds to real-life objects or pictures: Children learn to match sounds to pictures of the object or real-life object making the sound.
  3. Exploring the sounds around them: Children learn to explore the sounds around them by going on listening walks, listening to different sounds and trying to identify them.
  4. Recognizing the difference between loud and soft sounds: Children learn to recognize the difference between loud and soft sounds, and the effect of distance on sound.
  5. Recognizing the difference between high and low pitched sounds: Children learn to recognize the difference between high and low pitched sounds and how it affects the sound.

Activities such as listening games, matching sounds and pictures, and listening walks are often used to teach children about environmental sounds. These activities are designed to be fun and engaging for young children and helps to build their listening and attention skills which are essential for their development of reading and writing skills.

Phase is covered in aspect 2 in phase 1 phonics?

Aspect 2 Instrumental Sounds is a specific part of phonics that focuses on helping children to identify and match sounds of musical instruments. Some of the specific skills and knowledge that may be covered in this aspect include:

  1. Listening to and identifying different instrumental sounds: Children learn to listen attentively and to discriminate between different sounds of musical instruments such as a piano, a guitar, a trumpet, etc.
  2. Matching instrumental sounds to real-life objects or pictures: Children learn to match sounds of musical instruments to pictures of the instruments or real-life instruments.
  3. Exploring different instruments: Children learn to explore different instruments by listening to them and trying to identify them.
  4. Recognizing the difference between the different instruments: Children learn to recognize the difference between the different instruments and their sounds.
  5. Recognizing the difference between loud and soft sounds produced by instruments: Children learn to recognise the difference between loud and soft sounds produced by musical instruments, and how it affects the sound.

Activities such as listening games, matching sounds and pictures, and listening to recordings of different instruments are often used to teach children about instrumental sounds. These activities are designed to be fun and engaging for young children and helps to build their listening and attention skills which are essential for their development of reading and writing skills.

Phase 1 phonics resources

Explore a range of phase 1 activities that focus on the key skills that children need to learn during phase 1. You can use our phase 1 voice sounds bingo game to help identify different vocal sounds, this is ideal for introducing children to phonemic awareness to encourage them to discriminate sounds. We also have a fantastic phase 1 play activity, where children have to create their own phase 1 sound trumpet, to be used during phonics sessions. This is a great hands-on phase 1 phonics activity that can be used again and again and is great for getting children involved in phase 1 phonics learning.