Tip Sheet.pdf - Primarily Learning

Jolly Phonics Tip Sheet for Daycare Professionals
Beginning steps by Sue Lloyd…. Check out Resources by Sue Lloyd for more information
Read to the children and talk about the stories to develop oral comprehension.
Teach the 42 letter sounds as quickly as possible…. about 1 sound every second half day of
school. (Mastery of the sounds is not expected as the sounds will be repeated frequently alone
and in spelling and reading activities.)
Blend the sounds of words with regular spellings… all-through-the-word, for reading…. every day!
Segment the sounds of words with regular spellings… all-through-the-word, for spelling…. every
day!
Focus on the sound of the letter when you identify or talk about letters. Spelling cat with letter
names will not help the child to read the word…. voicing the letter sounds of the word will lead to
improved reading and spelling skills.
Sing the alphabet song. After about a month of school, begin to match the letter names to the
letter flash card... but remember to connect the letter to the letter sound most often.
Teach tricky words systematically Talk about how these words belong in word jail because they
do not follow the rules! Try blending the sounds first and then learning the correct pronunciation.
Teach the printing of the sounds (left to right), and the spelling (letter names) of tricky words.
Initially have the children recognize and print letter sounds (including digraphs) with automaticity.
Then read words, then short sentences with tricky words and sounds that have been taught and
then use reading books with controlled texts and decodable words.
Avoid guessing words from the initial letter, picture or context for word identification. (Blending is
the strategy for working out words, and then context if the blending does not give a recognised
word.)
Do not expect children, in the beginning, to read books that have words that cannot be blended
because the letter sounds have not been taught.
The steps for teaching reading in Kindergarten with Jolly Phonics
Step 1 – teach the letter sounds from groups 1 – 3 (s,a,t,i,p,n,c,k,e,h,r,m,d,g,o,u,l,f,b) and how to
blend regular 2 or 3 letter words that use these letter sounds e.g. it, sit, pot, hat, etc.
Step 2 – teach the blending of regular words that use the above letter sounds and:
- start with a consonant blend e.g. black, crab, step etc.
- have a double letter sound e.g. neck, rabbit, fuss etc
- are long words e.g. handbag, dustpan, milkman etc.
Step 3 – teach the tricky words 1 – 10 (I, the, he, she, me, we, be, was, to, do) by blending them
and learning the correct pronunciation. It helps to look for the part of the word that is tricky or
irregular. They need to be practised until the words can be read fluently
Step 4 .– teach the letter sounds from groups 4 – 7 (ai, j, oa, ie, ee, or, z, w, ng, v, oo, y, x, ch, sh,
th, qu, ou, oi, ue, er, ar) and how to blend regular words that use these letter sounds
e.g. rain, jet, boat, pie, feel, corn, zip, web, ring, van, look, moon, yet, box, chop, ship, this,
thick, quack, out, boil, cue, her, arm etc.
Step 5 – start reading Red Level Jolly Readers (these readers use the skills that have been taught so
far).

Step 6 – teach the 'y' sound when it is being a vowel and it takes on the vowel sound /ee/ (e.g.
mummy, happy, funny, etc. ) or /ie/ (e.g. my, by, try, etc)
Step 7 – teach the tricky words 11 – 20 (are, all, you, your, come, some, said, here, there, they).
The steps for teaching writing in Kindergarten with Jolly Phonics
Step 1 – teach the letter sounds from groups 1 – 3 (s,a,t,i,p,n,c,k,e,h,r,m,d,g,o,u,l,f,b), and how to
write them. Regularly dictate a few letter sounds. This gives the children the necessary
practice of writing the letters and enables you to check how many are known and if the
formation is correct. Naturally very young children will not have the pencil control – just
adapt expectations to the age of the children.
Step 2 – call out simple words, such as hat, bus, red, fun, tin etc., and immediately say the sounds
in each word, holding up a finger for each sound – hat ... h-a-t, bus ...b-u-s etc.
Encourage the children to do it with you. Gradually the ability to hear the sounds
develops until the children have the skill to say the sounds on their own.
Step 3 – make words with magnetic plastic letters. Call out simple 2 or 3 letter words and
ask your children to listen for the sounds and choose the correct letters for those
sounds, placing them in a left to right order (either avoid using words with c or k in them
or accept that the children might choose the wrong letter for the /k/ sound.)
Alternatively you or a child could write the letters on the board or a white board as the
sounds are called out.
* letters on squares of paper can be used instead of plastic letters.
Step 4 – dictate simple 2 or 3 letter words that use the letter sounds that are known by your
children. Words can be found in the Jolly Phonics Word Book on Pages 3 – 8 (avoid
words with double letters, such as hill, bell, puff etc.)
Step 5 – practise listening for sounds in consonant blends – bl is b-l, sp is s-p, cr is c-r etc. Then
ask your children to identify the sounds in words that have consonant blends in
them, such as flat..f-l-a-t, stop..s-t-o -p etc. Words can be found in the Jolly
Phonics Word Book on Pages 11 & 12. Then dictate words for your children to write or
make with plastic letters.
Step 6 – teach the letter sounds from groups 4 – 7 (ai, j, oa, ie, ee, or, z, w, ng, v, oo, y, x, ch, sh,
th, qu, ou, oi, ue, er, ar) and how to write them. Dictate regular words that use these
sounds, such as pain, jug, soap, tie, feed, sort, zigzag, went, sing, vet, boot, yes, fox,
chin, shop, thin, queen, round, soil, value, arm. Words can be found in the Jolly
Phonics Word Book – the first column of each page is very suitable for dictation.
Step 7 – teach the tricky words 1 – 10 and how to spell them (take care that the children can
read them before asking them to spell them). Use dictation to check that the spelling of
these words is known.
Step 8 – dictate sentences that contain tricky words 1 – 10 and regular words made from the letter
sounds that have been taught so far, such as: He ran to the shops. I slept in a big bed.
Step 9 – teach the tricky words 11 – 20 and dictate sentences that use these words and regular
words made from the letter sounds that have been taught so far, such as:
You are not to jump on your bed. Here are some sweets for you.
*** Initially try to avoid asking the children to read or spell words that use letter sounds that have not
been taught. Once there is confidence and fluency in the blending and reading of controlled words
and texts then the children are much more able to cope with words that do not follow normal
patterns. This system is successful because the teaching is systematic and builds up gradually.

*** Introduce new sounds and/or review sounds that have been taught as they are matched to the
letter card or printed by the child … every day!
*** Do blending and segmenting activities both orally and with printed text every day!