English Phonics Chart Programme Guide - THRASS

PERMISSION IS GIVEN FOR THIS DOCUMENT TO BE COPIED AND REPRODUCED BUT NOT ADAPTED 

ENGLISH PHONICS CHART PROGRAMME 

Resources and Guidance Notes for teaching the ‘I CAN…. Skills’ 

written and designed by 

ALAN DAVIES, EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGIST, CHESTER, ENGLAND 

The English Phonics Chart Programme is for learners of all ages and abilities, including young children and those learning English 

as an additional language. It teaches learners to read and spell words by sight, by first teaching them to blend the right sounds 

when they read, and visualise and name the right letters when they spell. It can be used for individuals, classes or whole schools. 

MAIN RESOURCES (for the images, please visit www.englishphonicschart.com) 

S-60 ENGLISH PHONICS PACK (“EP Pack”): One copy of each of the main resources (the S-50 EP Book and the S-51, S-52, S- 

53 and S-54 tumble turn deskcharts) are stored in a handy clear plastic wallet (S-61). The pack is an ideal way for learners to store 

and carry the book and charts needed for their English Phonics Chart Programme lessons (“EP Chart lessons”). 

S-50 ENGLISH PHONICS BOOK ("EP Book"): Use the pictures and questions in this colourful book to introduce the keywords 

and keyspellings, and to encourage good speaking, listening, reading and spelling skills, even with very young children. 

S-51 ENGLISH PHONICS CHART A4 ("EP Chart"): Use the keywords and keyspellings in this tumble turn deskchart to work out 

the sounds and spellings in the keywords, basewords and words not known by sight. This chart is also available as one-sided 

wallcharts (in small, medium and large size) for reference by individuals, pairs, groups and classes in schools, homes and centres: 

S-55 ENGLISH PHONICS CHART A3, S-56 ENGLISH PHONICS CHART A1, S-69 ENGLISH PHONICS CHART A0. 

S-52 ENGLISH PHONICS CHECK A4 ("EP Check"): Based on S-51. Use this wipe-clean tumble turn deskchart to check that 

your learners know the letters of the alphabet, the 120 keyspellings and the 44 sounds. Correct any errors using the words in S-58. 

S-53 ENGLISH PHONICS KEYWORD CODES A4 ("Keyword Codes Chart"): Use the keyspellings on this tumble turn deskchart 

to work out the number of sounds and syllables in each keyword, and then use S-51 to work out the same in the basewords (S-57). 

S-54 ENGLISH PHONICS OVERWRITE CHART A4 ("Overwrite Chart"): Using the Alphabet Side of this tumble turn deskchart, 

encourage your learners to trace over the letters (with a finger, felt-tip pen or pencil) to practise the name and formation of the 

lower-case letters and their capitals. Later, they can trace over a letter or group of letters in sequence, to help visualise a nonkeyspelling 

in a word (a spelling not in the S-51 EP Chart). Using the Keyspellings Side, encourage them to trace over and name 

all the letters in a blue consonant or red vowel keyspelling to help visualise the keyspelling in a word and to recognise it in others. 

Also available as a handy mini version, usually for older children or adults to refer to when they want to work out the sounds and 

spellings for a word that they do not know by sight: S-59 ENGLISH PHONICS OVERWRITE CHART A5 ("Mini Overwrite Chart") 

S-57 ENGLISH PHONICS 500 CHART A3 ("Green 500 Chart"): In the programme, learners soon start learning to spell the 

Hotwords, Keywords and Other Basewords (the 500 basewords) by first saying the word and then ‘Visualising & Naming’ all the 

letters in it. They say the word and then trace over and name (or form the letters in the air and name them) the letters in the 

keyspellings and/or non-keyspellings (using S-54/S-59) until they can say the word and name all the letters without any hesitation. 

S-64 ENGLISH PHONICS 500 BOOK ("Green 500 Book"): Learners use this book daily to read, spell and revise some or all of 

the words in one of the 49 lists, starting with the 100 Hotwords. They do this until they can read and spell all 500 basewords. 

S-58 ENGLISH PHONICS 1200 CHART ("Blue-Red 1200 Chart" - for ‘1200’ say “Twelve-Hundred”): Use the words to correct 

any errors in the S-52 EP Check. For keyspelling errors, encourage the learner to spell the 10 Group Words containing the correct 

keyspelling. For Sound Errors, encourage them to read the 10 Group Words by saying the correct sound for the keyspelling. 

S-62 CATCH-ALL SPELLINGS CHART A3 ("Catch-All Chart"): The asterisk is called the “Catch-All”. It catches all the spellings 

that represent the same sound. Use this chart to display, celebrate and collect spellings that are not a keyspelling on S-51. 

S-63 ENGLISH PHONICS CHART PROGRAMME: GUIDE ("EP Guide”): This downloadable and photocopiable 8-page pdf has 

information on the Resources and the Guidance Notes for teaching the ‘I CAN…. Skills’ and the S-71 English Phonics Chart Drill. 

S-65 ENGLISH PHONICS CHART PROGRAMME: MAIN SKILLS CHECKLIST (“Main Skills Checklist"): This downloadable pdf 

can be printed as an A4 deskchart or A3 wallchart to record the progress made by individuals or classes with the main skills. 

S-66 ENGLISH PHONICS CHART PROGRAMME: CLASS CHECKLIST (“Class Checklist"): This downloadable pdf can be 

printed as an A4 deskchart or A3 wallchart and the boxes ticked or shaded to record the progress made by a class of 30 learners. 

SUPPLEMENTARY RESOURCES 

T-51 RAPS AND SEQUENCES CD ("Raps CD"): This CD has 33 soundtracks of spoken sequences and musical raps (vocal and 

instrumental), for learning the names of letters, formation of letters, 120 keywords, 44 sounds and all the sounds in each keyword. 

T-52 HOTWORDS CARDS: 100 laminated tumble turn cards (180 x 90 mm) for reading and spelling the first 100 basewords. To 

help learners with the sounds in a word, tumble turn the card to see the blue consonant and red vowel spellings. 

T-24 PHONEME-GRAPHEME CARDS: 120 laminated tumble turn cards (210 x 148.5 mm) for reading and spelling the 120 

keywords. To help learners with the sounds and spellings, tumble turn the picture to see the individual keyspellings. 

S-63 ENGLISH PHONICS CHART PROGRAMME GUIDE © 2012 ALAN DAVIES V1305ZW PRINTED BY, AND WITH THE PERMISSION OF, BIDVEST PAPERPLUS PTY LTD, SOUTH AFRICA

T-55 PICTURE CARDS: 120 playing cards (56 x 75 mm) for sorting into groups (e.g. Animals, Things you can Eat, Parts of the 

Body, Pictures with the Same Colour, Words with the Same Letter, Same Spelling or Same Sound) and playing snap games. 

T-49 MAGNETIC GRAPHEMES (“Magnetic Spelling Tiles”): 170 large tiles (30 x 90 mm) for teaching the sounds and spellings 

in the keywords & 1000s of other words. The lower-case and capitals are black. Consonant spellings are blue. The vowels are red. 

T-12 THRASS DICTIONARY: A5 book, with the 500 basewords, for learners to write and store words (using the first vowel sound). 

S-31 SPELLING LIST WORKBOOK: A4 book, with the 500 basewords in 49 separate lists, for learners to spell and write. 

SING-A-LONG RESOURCES: A FUN WAY TO RECALL 

learners sing, dance and read the catchy 44 sound songs to recall the sounds and keyspellings 

S-01 SING-A-LONG BOOK (“SAL Book”): Learners sing-a-long with the songs on S-02 and read the words over and over again. 

S-02 SING-A-LONG CD (“SAL CD”): Double CD - 44 vocal and 44 instrumental tracks for singing the 44 sound songs in the S-02 

SAL Book. There are many different musical styles and dance rhythms to enjoy, including African Round, blues, boogie, 

Charleston, disco, Hawaiian, hip hop, Irish Dance, jazz, jive, pasodoble, ragtime, reggae, twist and waltz. 

S-05 MOVE-A-LONG WITH SING-A-LONG DVD (“MAL with SAL DVD” ): A fun way for learners to recall what they have learnt 

about the sounds and keyspellings of English. Children at the ‘World Premiere Concert’, in South Africa, sing the 44 sound songs 

wearing costumes and using actions. There are lots of opportunities for reading, as all the words are shown on screen. 80 mins. 

S-12 SING-A-LONG INTERACTIVE BOOK SOFTWARE (“SAL Interactive Book”): Popular Interactive Book version of the S-01 

SAL Book and S-02 CD. A site licence is available for 5 or more computers/laptops: S-14 SING-A-LONG PC SITE LICENCE. 

For details of our SOUND IT OUT software, THRASS-IT WINDOW software and APPS, please visit our website. 

UNDERSTANDING THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE EP CHART: It’s a good idea to refer to one of the S-51, S-55, S-56 or S-69 

charts, as you read through this paragraph about the ‘Landmarks’. English has 44 sounds, of which 24 are consonants and 20 are 

vowels. In S-51, the Consonant Chart is on one side and learners do a “Tumble Turn” to see the Vowel Chart on the other. In S-55 

and S-56, the Consonant Chart is at the top and the Vowel Chart is at the bottom, separated by the two black and white text boxes 

which together form the Vowel Line. The Consonant Chart has 24 sound-boxes and the Vowel Chart has 20 sound-boxes. English 

has 120 keyspellings, of which 60 are consonant keyspellings and 60 are vowel keyspellings. The 60 consonant keyspellings 

‘live’ in the 24 consonant sound-boxes and are shown using large blue letters. The 60 vowel keyspellings ‘live’ in the 20 

vowel sound-boxes and are shown using large red letters. Each keyspelling is also shown in a keyword, using bold letters to 

make it easy to see whether it is at the beginning, middle or end of the word. Above each keyword is a colourful cartoon picture. 

There is a keyword and picture in each of the 120 keyword-boxes. The keywords and pictures help learners to remember the 

keyspellings and their location in the eight rows of 44 sound-boxes. There are four rows in the Consonant Chart - C1, C2, C3 and 

C4 and four rows in the Vowel Chart - V1, V2, V3 and V4. Each keyspelling has a ‘home’, a place, in the chart. The keyspellings 

are used to help learners blend the right sounds when they read and visualise and name the right letters when they spell. 

Through using the chart, learners gain a good knowledge of the sounds and spellings in English words. They know that the letters 

of the alphabet do not represent only one sound. They know that, even in the most basic of words, English letters represent 

different sounds, either as 1-letter spellings or as a letter in a 2-letter or 3-letter spelling (or even a 4-letter spelling when they see 

the red vowel spellings in the basewords listed in the Green 500 Chart, such as in eigh-t, p-l-ough, th-ough-t and th-r-ough). 

When reading the word ‘machine’, the ‘c’ ‘h’ is pronounced as in ‘chef’ (in row C3 of the Consonant Chart) and not like the ‘c’ ‘h’ in 

‘school’ or the ‘c’ ‘h’ in ‘chair’ (both in row C1). Through using the chart, learners can see that a reading error is when they are in 

the “Wrong Sound-Box!”. They have the right spelling but they have said the wrong sound. When spelling the word ‘might’ as ‘mit’ 

or ‘myt’, the middle sound is spelled using the ‘i’ ‘g’ ‘h’ in ‘light (in row V3) and not the ‘i’ in ‘tiger or the ‘y’ in ‘fly’ (both in sound-box 

number 35, row V3). Through using the chart, learners can see that a spelling error is when they are in the “Right Sound-Box!”. 

They have the right sound but they have chosen the wrong spelling. Therefore, reading errors are caused by choosing the 

wrong sound and spelling errors are caused by choosing the wrong spelling. When learners understand the geography of 

the chart, when they get the ‘big picture’, knowing which sounds and spellings to use comes from making the right choice. 

The 120 keyspellings can be used to read and spell 100s of 1000s of English words. However, there are other spellings that are 

not keyspellings, such as the 4-letter spellings above. Many of these non-keyspellings are in the basewords listed in the Green 500 

Chart and the Group Words listed in the Blue-Red 1200 Chart (120 keyspellings x 10 group words). If desirable, non-keyspellings 

can be displayed, celebrated and collected in the Catch-All Chart. The asterisk on the chart is called the ‘catch-all’ because it 

‘catches’ all the spellings that represent the same sound. A good number of catch-alls are shown on the chart, taken from the 

words in the ‘500’ and ‘1200’ charts. It is sensible and fun to investigate the catch-alls but it is not necessary to collect all of them! 

“I think that the THRASS spelling choices charts would be very useful mnemonics [memory aids] for children 

to refer to when they are unsure of the letters needed to produce all the 44 sounds in the English language.” 

Professor Bevé Hornsby, The Hornsby International Dyslexia Centre, London, 27 March 2000 

The foundations for the English Phonics Chart Programme were initially conceived by Alan Davies, using the International Phonetic 

Alphabet. A copy of the original work was lodged with Stationers Hall Registry, London, England in 1989. The first ‘THRASS’ 

(Teaching Handwriting Reading And Spelling Skills) charts and resources were published in England in 1992 and 1994. In 1995, Alan 

was joined by Australian Denyse Ritchie and together they created and designed the THRASS professional development courses and 

various THRASS resources. Since April 2005, the courses and resources have been developed and managed in territories. THRASS 

UK, overseen by Alan Davies, is licensed to serve customers in Europe, the Middle East, South America, Central America (including 

the West Indies), the USA, Central Asia (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan) and Africa (but not, since 

late 2011, South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana and Namibia - now overseen by BidVest Paperplus Proprietary Limited). 

S-63 ENGLISH PHONICS CHART PROGRAMME GUIDE © 2012 ALAN DAVIES V1305ZW PRINTED BY, AND WITH THE PERMISSION OF, BIDVEST PAPERPLUS PTY LTD, SOUTH AFRICA 

2

Guidance Notes for 

TEACHING THE ‘I CAN…. SKILLS’ 

We recommend that you teach young children for 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the afternoon. You can teach 

older learners for 30, 45 or 60 minutes, depending on their age and ability. Young children who have been using the EP Book 

and/or EP Chart pre-school in a nursery or at home with a parent or older brother or sister are likely to be able to concentrate for 

longer, as will those who are known to be gifted. The advice below should be used in conjunction with the written instructions on 

the resource that is being used and the need for individuals and groups to regularly rehearse the actions and wording listed on the 

downloadable English Phonics Chart Drill sheet, until they can do all eight phases in one continuous solo/group performance! 

Every day, encourage your learners to practise some of the skills from each of Groups 1, 2 and 3, and to also read and spell some 

or all of the words from a spelling list in Group 7. Every week, aim to read, spell and revise all the words in a list, starting with List 

1, List 2 and so on. By spelling these words and recognising them by sight, your learners are continually reminded that they only 

name the letters in a word when they need to identify them; otherwise, they say the sounds that they represent to read words. 

(It also revises the names and formation of the lower-case letters.) As your learners become better at predicting and remembering 

which letters to use for the sounds and groups of sounds that they hear in words, encourage them to do more than one list of 

spellings each week. Practise the skills and spellings until your learners have acquired all the skills in Groups 1-3. Then encourage 

them to practise and acquire the skills in Groups 4-6 and to also read, spell and revise the words in more of the lists, until they can 

spell all the 500 basewords in Group 7. The programme teaches learners to read words by sight and to focus on their meaning. It 

also teaches them the skills needed to predict and remember the sound-spelling relationships in the words that they cannot read 

and spell, through using a good and thorough knowledge of the keyspellings and non-keyspellings of English. 

GROUP 1 SKILLS: Name and write the lower-case letters and their capitals 

Using the S-54 ENGLISH PHONICS OVERWRITE CHART A4 (“Overwrite Chart”), I CAN…. 

01. Point under each lower-case letter and name it using Double Raps, Single Raps and 1-1 Matching. □ 

02. Point under each capital letter and name it using Double Raps, Single Raps and 1-1 Matching. □ 

03. Use my finger to trace over each lower-case letter and ‘Name the letter and say the instructions’. □ 

04. Use my finger to trace over each capital letter and ‘Name the letter and say the instructions’. □ 

05. Use a pencil to trace over each lower-case letter and ‘Name the letter and say the instructions’. □ 

06. Use a pencil to trace over each capital letter and ‘Name the letter and say the instructions’. □ 

07. Use a pencil to write each lower-case letter and ‘Name the letter and say the instructions’. □ 

08. Use a pencil to write each capital letter and ‘Name the letter and say the instructions’. □ 

Practise these skills for about 5 minutes each day until your learners are able to name and form each letter without saying the 

instructions. The lower-case letters are the main letters and the capitals are just alternatives. For the Letter Name Raps, learners 

should point underneath the lower-case ‘a-g’ and say “Ay, Bee; Ay, Bee, See; Ay, Bee, See, Dee, Ee, Eff, Jee” and repeat this for 

a “Double Rap”. This 2-3-7 rap pattern is also used to learn the letter groups ‘h-n’, ‘o-u’ and ‘v-z’. It’s great fun for learners to 

punch the air three times when they say “Zed!, Zed!, Zed!” at the end of the ‘v-z’ rap. They then do the same for the capitals. The 

letters start from either the ‘a’ line (where the lower-case ‘a’ starts from) or the ‘b’ line (where the lower-case ‘b’ starts from) and 

some go below the ‘s’ line (sitting line), where the letters ‘sit’. When tracing over or writing the letters, the pencil should be held 

using a tripod grip and the support hand should be flat on the page and near to the writing hand, otherwise there is too much 

pressure on the writing hand and the pencil digs into the surface instead of gliding over it; the angle of the paper is of course 

different for left- and right-handers. Encourage your learners to spell their own name by saying their name and then naming and 

forming each letter, first by using a finger to do air writing (which is great fun to do with babies and toddlers, especially with the 

help of older brothers and sisters) then by tracing over the letters and, finally, by writing the letters. This is an important social skill 

and it teaches learners that English words are read/written from left to right, that lower-case and capital letters represent sounds 

and that words can, with practice, be read as a whole. If you do not use the Sassoon Primary Infant Font (clubtype.co.uk), which 

we use because the exit strokes form the basis of the joining strokes and give the option (usually for older learners) to use joined 

writing once all the separate letters can be visualised in a word, practise naming and forming your preferred font. The Groups 2-7 

skills teach the different sounds that the letters represent. For example, your learners know they have a letter ‘h’ (“Aitch”), and 

that it has a capital version (H), but what are the different sounds that it represents in the 1-, 2-, 3- or 4-letter spellings of English? 

GROUP 2 SKILLS: Say the keywords, answer and repeat the keyword questions and say the 44 sounds 

Using the S-50 ENGLISH PHONICS BOOK (“EP Book”), I CAN…. 

09. Point under each consonant keyword and say it using Double Raps, Single Raps and 1-1 Matching. 

Bird Rap □ Chair Rap □ Gate Rap □ Leg Rap □ Knee Rap □ Wrist Rap □ Shark Rap □ Voice Rap □ Fizz Rap □ 

10. Point under each vowel keyword and say it using Double Raps, Single Raps and 1-1 Matching. 

Ant Rap □ Car Rap □ Key Rap □ Measure Rap □ Shirt Rap □ Light Rap □ Snow Rap □ Glue Rap □ Cow Rap □ 

11. Slide my finger under each consonant keyword question and “Have a good go” at repeating the question. 


12. Slide my finger under each vowel keyword question and “Have a good go” at repeating the question. 


13. Point under each consonant picture and blue keyspelling and ‘Say the keyword and the sound’. 


14. Point under each vowel picture and red keyspelling and ‘Say the keyword and the sound’. 


Practise these skills for about 15 minutes each day. The 2-3-7 rap pattern is also used to practise and revise the Keyword Raps, 

using the keywords in the book (and S-51-54 and S-59). Point at and discuss what you and your learners think are the important 

words in the questions. Practise the finger sliding and 1-1 matching (written as ‘One-to-One Matching’ in the book) and encourage 

your learners to “Have a good go” at repeating/reading some or most of the questions on each page. Take account of the age 

and ability of your learners in determining what is a ‘good go’. Also, practise the keywords and sounds until your learners can ‘Say 


3 

Before forming the 

letters, encourage 

your learners to say, 

“All the letters start 

at the top, except 

for the lower-case 

‘d’ and ‘e’."

4 

the keyword and the sound’ for each picture and keyspelling (perhaps by doing the first consonant page and then the first 

vowel page and so on, so that your learners become increasingly aware of the different consonant and vowels sounds in words). 

GROUP 3 SKILLS: Name the EP Chart Landmarks and score 120 for the Sounds Check 

Using the S-51 ENGLISH PHONICS CHART A4 (“EP Chart”) and/or S-55, S-56 & S-69, I CAN…. 

15. Slide my finger under the letter-boxes and say “letter-boxes”. □ 

16. Slide my finger under the lower-case letters and say “lower-case letters”. □ 

17. Slide my finger under the capital letters and say “capital letters”. □ 

18. Point under each lower-case letter and name it using Double Raps, Single Raps and 1-1 Matching. □ 

19. Point under each capital letter and name it using Double Raps, Single Raps and 1-1 Matching. □ 

20. Point under each of the 24 consonant sound-boxes and count them. □ 

21. Move my hand in a large circular motion over the consonant chart 

and say “24 consonant sound-boxes”. □ 

22. Slide my finger under the consonant rows and say “C1” □ “C2” □ “C3” □ “C4” □ 

23. Slide my finger under the two black and white text boxes and say “vowel line”. □ 

24. Point under each of the 20 vowel sound-boxes and count them. □ 

25. Move my hand in a large circular motion over the vowel chart 

and say “20 vowel sound-boxes”. □ 

26. Slide my finger under the vowel rows and say “V1” □ “V2” □ “V3” □ “V4” □ 

27. Point under the FIRST consonant keyword and keyspelling in each sound-box 

and ‘Say the keyword and the sound’. C1 □ C2 □ C3 □ C4 □ 

28. Point under the FIRST vowel keyword and keyspelling in each sound-box 

and ‘Say the keyword and the sound’. V1 □ V2 □ V3 □ V4 □ 

29. Point under each consonant keyword and blue keyspelling and ‘Say the keyword 

and the sound’ (Sounds Check Part 1). C1 □ C2 □ C3 □ C4 □ 

30. Point under each vowel keyword and red keyspelling and ‘Say the keyword 

and the sound’ (Sounds Check Part 2). V1 □ V2 □ V3 □ V4 □ 

TEACHING 

FOCUS 

WE BLEND SOUNDS 

TO READ AND 

‘VISUALISE & NAME’ 

LETTERS TO SPELL 

It should not take learners long to acquire skills 15-26, especially if you act out the keywords. Skills 29 and 30 are the same as 13 

and 14, except that the learners are required to point under the keyword and not the picture (as is required for this unofficial 

Sounds Check and the official Sounds Check, later, in Group 5). Practising with the EP Book helps practising with the EP Chart 

and vice versa. Both resources are also really good for developing study skills and spatial awareness skills, through turning over 

the pages of the book to locate the keywords and the questions, and looking through the rows of the chart (with or without first 

needing to do a “Tumble Turn”) to locate the keywords and keyspellings. Use the EP Chart as a bookmark and handy index so 

that the location of each consonant keyword (and bold blue keyspelling) and each vowel keyword (and bold red 

keyspelling) becomes familiar. The keyspellings will be used, with and without your learners being aware of it, to help them read 

and spell 100s of 1000s of words. From time to time, practise skills 27 and 28 (requiring no repetition of the sound), to quickly 

check and reinforce good articulation, and to revise “The Best Guess Keyword” and “The Best Guess Keyspelling” for each of 

the 44 sounds. The 2-3-7 rap pattern can also be used to perform double or single Sound Raps. Performing the ‘24 Consonants 

Rap’ and ‘20 Vowels Rap’, while pointing under the middle of the sound-boxes or under the first keyspelling in each sound-box, is 

really good fun, especially as some of the 7-sound sequences are real tongue-twisters and it will sometimes be hard for your 

learners to keep their face straight as they rap them! Allow about 15 minutes each day for these skills until your learners are fairly 

competent with skills 15-26, but not necessarily perfect with the sounds for 27-30. Then move on to skills 31 and 32. 

GROUP 4 SKILLS: Say all the sounds in the keywords 

Using the S-53 ENGLISH PHONICS KEYWORD CODES A4 (“Keyword Codes Chart”), I CAN…. 

31. Say each consonant keyword and point under the blue and red keyspellings to say all the sounds. 

Rap Group: Bird □ Chair □ Gate □ Leg □ Knee □ Wrist □ Shark □ Voice □ Fizz □ 

32. Say each vowel keyword and point under the blue and red keyspellings to say all the sounds. 

Rap Group: Ant □ Car □ Key □ Measure □ Shirt □ Light □ Snow □ Glue □ Cow □ 

MINUTES 

EACH DAY 

I CAN…. 

SKILLS 

HANDWRITING 5 Group 1 

READING 15 

SOUNDS & 

SPELLINGS 

15 

S-65 “Main Skills Checklist” 

is downloadable and photocopiable 

Group 2 

Group 6 

Group 3+7 

Group 4+7 

Group 5+7 

It should not take long to acquire 

skills 31 and 32. This is because 

every keyword (but ear) contains 

consonant and vowel spellings, 

so learners often repeat the same 

sounds but for different spellings 

and in different parts of the word - 

ideal training for the sounds and 

spellings in the 500 basewords! 

Explain that each keyword has a code and do Keyword Raps and 1-1 Matching practices to introduce the layout. Discuss the 

spelling-sound relationships and the number of syllables in each word until your learners are able to ‘Say the keyword and the 

sounds’ for each word in the nine consonant and nine vowel Keyword Raps. A monosyllable has one vowel sound/spelling e.g. 

bus, ear, fly, key, hair, through; a polysyllable has two or more vowel sounds/spellings e.g. kitten, teacher, cherry, camel, 

banana. The keyspellings can be used to help your learners read and spell 100s of 1000s of words. To help them understand this, 

have them locate the keyword codes on the EP Chart, followed by group/class discussion of the answers and possible alternatives 

by using a wallchart (S-56 or S-69). To help a learner find a keyspelling, others can say the keyword and/or give the ‘Row-Box- 

Number’ reference by saying the row (using C1-V4), the sound-box number (SBN) and the keyspelling number e.g. “The 2-letter 

spelling ‘i’ ‘r’ in the middle of ‘bird’ is V2, SBN33, keyspelling 2”. (The sound-box numbers are shown in the Catch-All Chart, SAL 

Book and SAL Interactive Book.) When appropriate, also discuss the spelling-sound relationships, syllables and keyword codes for 

some, most or all of the basewords in the Green 500 Chart using the blue and red ‘IN-ONE-LIST' side. A consonant blend is 

when two or three consonant sounds are SAID together in one syllable. Encourage your learners to find any words containing two 

or three blue spellings WRITTEN together (known as consonant clusters) e.g. f-r-o-g, s-ch-oo-l, wr-i-s-t, s-c-r-ew, th-r-ee, q-uee-n 

etc) and to then blend the sounds together to create the consonant blend. But watch out! Sometimes the next blue spelling is 

in the next syllable so the sounds are not said together and are not a consonant blend (e.g. pan-da). For a spelling that is not a 

keyspelling, such as the ‘e’, ‘i’, ‘g’, ‘h’ in ‘eight’, ask your learners to say which SBN the spelling should be in (e.g. V1, SBN26). 

Non-keyspellings can be collected in the Catch-All Chart - ‘eight’ is in ‘Blind 26’, with great, rein, chalet and they. 

TERMINOLOGY: When you think it is appropriate, introduce and revise the correct terminology. For sound use phoneme; 

keyspelling use keygrapheme; spelling use grapheme; 1-letter spelling use graph; 2-letter spelling use digraph; 3-letter spelling 

use trigraph; 4-letter spelling use quadgraph; split 2-letter spelling use split digraph (e.g. kite and note but not pie or toe). It is a 

good idea to sometimes use the simpler words followed by the terminology e.g. “What is the sound, what is the phoneme, for the 


2-letter spelling, the digraph, ‘s’ ‘h’?”. Reading involves changing Letters to Sounds (RLS), that is, changing Graphemes to 

Phonemes (RGP). Spelling involves changing Sounds to Letters (SSL), that is, changing Phonemes to Graphemes (SPG). 

GROUP 5 SKILLS: Score 120 for the Keyspellings Check and 52 for the Letters Check 

Using the S-52 ENGLISH PHONICS CHECK A4 (“EP Check”), I CAN…. 

33. ‘Name and write the missing letter’ for each lower-case underline in the empty Letter-boxes. □ 

34. ‘Name and write the missing letter’ for each capital underline in the empty Letter-boxes. □ 

36. Point under each consonant keyspelling underline and ‘Say the keyword and name the missing letter/s’. □ 

37. Point under each vowel keyspelling underline and ‘Say the keyword and name the missing letter/s’. □ 

38. For each consonant keyspelling underline, ‘Say the keyword and write the missing letter/s’. □ 

39. For each vowel keyspelling underline, ‘Say the keyword and write the missing letter/s’. □ 

I CAN…. SKILLS 

FAST TRACK 

With older learners, 

have more or longer 

lessons so that you 

can go through the 

programme ASAP. 

Give more time to 

the skills that need 

IMPROVEMENT 

Once your learners are able to name and form the letters, ‘Say the keyword and name the missing letters’ and, using the EP Chart, 

‘Say the keyword and the sound for the keyspelling’ (the skills for Groups 1-3), they are ready to complete the Check. The Letters 

Check and Keyspellings Check can be practised and performed as a group, class or year group and for most learners it will take 5- 

10 minutes. The Sounds Check can also be practised as a group or class but the actual Sounds Check needs to be performed 

individually; most learners take 5-10 minutes to complete the task. Spoken errors can be recorded on the learner’s chart by placing 

a cross within the keyword, not in the bigger space below the keyword-box. Add the scores to the check-box located in the middle 

of the vowel line. Use the Blue-Red 1200 Chart to correct the keyspelling and sound errors. For keyspelling errors, help your 

learner to SPELL the relevant 10 Group Words and then 10 or 20 other words from the same sound-box. For sound errors, help 

your learner to READ the relevant 10 Group Words and then 10 or 20 other words with the same keyspelling (but representing a 

different sound). Using the blue Consonant 600 Chart side of the chart, for ‘c’ ‘h’ these words could be anchor, arch, chalet, chart, 

chemist, chevron, crunch, echo, machine, orchid and/or any other words from the three lists for the 2-letter keyspelling ‘c’ ‘h’. 

GROUP 6 SKILLS: Read word for word all the keyword questions 

Using the S-50 ENGLISH PHONICS BOOK (“EP Book”), I CAN…. 

40. Read each consonant keyword question word for word while pointing under the relevant words. 

Rap Group: Bird □ Chair □ Gate □ Leg □ Knee □ Wrist □ Shark □ Voice □ Fizz □ 

41. Read each vowel keyword question word for word while pointing under the relevant words. □ 

Rap Group: Ant □ Car □ Key □ Measure □ Shirt □ Light □ Snow □ Glue □ Cow □ 


5 

Although the keyword questions are 

not in the grammatical format of 

questions, they are described as 

such and each has a question mark 

at the end, so that learners know that 

they are required to provide an 

answer to each (as would also be 

indicated by the voice inflection). 

Encourage your learners to practise reading the keyword questions by sliding and/or pointing under the words as they say them, 

until they can read all the questions word for word. If they are unable to read one of the words, it is fine to tell them what it says or 

to use one or more of the four searchlights explained on the back cover of the book, especially the grammar, context and/or 

phonics searchlights. Play ‘Teachers and Learners’, as explained below, with ‘The Teachers’ and ‘Learners’ reading and 

repeating the questions on one or more pages. ‘The Teacher’ could be an older and/or wiser learner who is helping out. 

GROUP 7 SKILLS: Spell all the 500 Basewords 

Using the S-64 EP 500 BOOK (“Green 500 Book”) and S-57 EP 500 CHART (“Green 500 Chart”) 

42. Say each of the 100 Hotwords and ‘visualise & name’ all the letters in it. Lists 01-10 □ 

43. Say each of the 120 Keywords and ‘visualise & name’ all the letters in it. Lists 11-18 □ 

44. Say each of the 280 Other Basewords and ‘visualise & name’ all the letters in it. Lists 19-49 □ 

Statements are often intended to 

be questions (“Good weekend?”, 

“Ice and lemon?”) and a question 

mark makes sense because it 

indicates that this is the intention! 

As more of the ‘30 minutes each day’ is freed up through the skills reaching the required standard in Groups 1-5, ask your learners 

(including young learners) to read, spell and revise more words from the spelling lists, until they can spell all the 500 basewords. 

PLAYING ‘TEACHERS AND LEARNERS’: An effective and fun teaching and learning strategy for classes/groups (including those 

with young learners!) is to play ‘Teachers and Learners’. Put your class in pairs, numbered one and two, and have all the Number 

Ones (‘The Teachers’) say the letter names, letter formation instructions, keywords, questions, sounds or instructions (such as 

“Please point under the keyword…. mouse.” or “Please find and (try to) read the keyword question for…. kitten.”), while the 

Number Twos (‘The Learners’) repeat what they hear and do the pointing, tracing, finger-sliding, spelling aloud or writing, watched 

and, if necessary, helped by ‘The Teachers’. When appropriate, the roles should be reversed. Where necessary, use your voice to 

lead or join with those of ‘The Teachers’ (and/or ‘The Learners’). Move around to get a feel of how things are going so that you 

can help to improve individual performances and give praise to particular individuals and/or pairs. Stop the class if anything, such 

as the loudness of the voices or the clarity of the pronunciation, needs improving, or the pointing, tracing or finger-sliding is 

inaccurate. When the class has stopped and you have everyone’s attention, take the opportunity to give reminders, praise the 

whole class or draw attention to exemplary performances by individuals or pairs (such as speaking clearly throughout the task). 

Also, encourage ‘The Teachers’ to praise their ‘Learner’ if they have performed well and to tell them what they did well! Sometimes 

you can have one learner, or a small group, be the ‘The Teacher’. Some of the skills can also be performed while listening to the 

soundtracks on the T-51 Raps CD with ‘The Teachers’ watching and/or helping ‘The Learners’. Changing partners can also be fun, 

allowing your learners to meet with, learn from and help others within the group or class. Ask the Number Ones to stand, while the 

Number Twos stay seated, and to then find a new partner. The Number Ones could be older and/or wiser learners, who can 

already perform the skills, and they could help out with teaching a class or a small group either as a one-off or on a daily basis. 

To practise and revise ‘Say the keyword and the sound’ using the EP Chart (in Group 3): The Number Ones say a keyword 

from row C1 and the Number Twos then point under the keyword, and repeat it, and point under the blue keyspelling, and repeat 

the sound. Do this for a good few keywords, keeping only to the keywords in C1, with the emphasis on pointing under the keyword 

not the picture and giving good clear articulation. Then the Number Twos say a sound, for one of the sound-boxes in C1, and the 

Number Ones repeat the sound, and point under any keyword in the right sound-box (and, at a later date, only the first keyword, so 

as to revise “The Best Guess Keyword” and “The Best Guess Keyspelling”). Repeat this procedure to practise and revise the 

keywords and sounds in V1. Then encourage your learners to choose keywords and sounds from C1 AND V1 (involving tumble 

turns of the chart). Do the keywords and sounds in C2 (then from C1 AND C2) and V2 (then from V1 AND V2) and then from C1, 

C2, V1 AND V2. Repeat the procedure for C3 (then from C1-C3), V3 (then from V1-V3) and then from C1-C3 AND V1-V3. Do the 

same for C4 (then from C1-C4), V4 (then from V1-V4) ending with choosing any keyword or sound from either side of the chart.

SPELLING THE 500 BASEWORDS: The ‘500-IN-LISTS’ side of the Green 500 Chart has the 500 basewords in 49 spelling lists. 

Encourage your learners to use the ‘Say, NAME, Cover, Write, Check’ spelling procedure to spell all the words, starting with List 1. 

Learning to spell some of the Hotwords (or Keywords) can begin at any time (even pre-school with the help of a school-age brother 

or sister). 1. SAY the word. 2. NAME the letters. Encourage your learners to repeatedly say the word and to ‘Overwrite & Name’ (or 

form in the air and name) only the letters that they cannot visualise or the letters over which they hesitate. They should be 

encouraged to do this until they can say the word and name ALL the letters with clarity and confidence. If a letter is part of a 2- 

letter, 3-letter or 4-letter spelling, they should be encouraged to overwrite and name all the letters in it, to help them recognise it in 

other words. Learners should also be encouraged to identify the spellings in the onsets (consonants at the start of syllables e.g. 

skill) and rimes (vowel and any consonants at the end of syllables e.g. skill), and to overwrite and name the letters in them (if only 

in their mind’s eye) to help remember them for other words (e.g. sky, skirt, skull, and chill, drill, thrill). The ‘500-IN-ONE-LIST’ 

side is good for explaining the onsets and rimes in syllables, given that the consonant and vowels spellings are in blue and red. 3. 

COVER the word. 4. WRITE the word. 5. CHECK the letters. For the actual Spelling Test, the teacher (or ‘The Teacher’) can say 

the word aloud for the learners to repeat and write. When appropriate, learners can prepare for more than one list at a time. 

For older learners, when learning a new list of words, it is best to first say the words aloud for them to write the spellings in a ‘Have 

a Go Book’. They can then examine their spellings, ideally with the help of a partner, to determine which are the ‘Best Letters’ to 

practise visualising prior to the actual spelling test (especially if the letters form part of a keyspelling or non-keyspelling). These 

words can then be written in a ‘Spelling Logbook’ (a plain or lined exercise book) and the ‘Best Letters’ traced over using 

‘Overwrite & Name’, using a pencil and/or highlighter pen so that the letters stand out from the word (as the keyspellings do in the 

EP Chart). Ideally, this should be using a print script and not using joined letters - though these can be used later, once the word 

can be visualised and spelled without hesitation. The logbook can be dated at the start of each new week and these ‘Best Letters’ 

can be discussed with other learners, the teacher/tutor and/or parent (for the learners who are not adults!) before the test or as 

revision or to celebrate the progress made with the basewords, Group Words and/or class-generated lists of Topic Words, 

Subject Words, Rhyming Words and/or School Outing Words (learned before the trip!). Watch Out! People may sometimes 

disagree or be inconsistent as to which letters represent which sounds. It often depends on how the word is pronounced. For 

example, it could be argued that the word ‘really’ can be said with two or three vowels e.g. r-ea-ll-y or r-e-a-ll-y (with the ‘e’ ‘a’ 

being only SBN 31 or 31 and 32). Also, it seems sensible to think that the ‘e’ ‘s’ in c l o th es represents /z/ and yet, perhaps, it is 

only the ‘s’ in d oe s and not the ‘e’ ‘s’? c ou gh or c o ugh? C ou gh, is probably preferable because ‘o’ ‘u’ and ‘g’ ‘h’ are used as 

digraphs in other words (e.g. house, group, touch and ghost, laugh) so this segmentation seems the most sensible. c a ge or c a 

g e? i ce or i c e? n o se or n o s e? The first alternative in each case is probably preferable. Learners often write these words as 

‘caj’, ‘is’ and ‘noz’. It is preferable to underline the ‘j’ and write ‘ge’ above it, underline the ‘s’ and put ‘ce’ above it and underline the 

‘z’ and put ‘se’ above it, to let the learner know which letters to ‘Overwrite & Name’ in their logbook (and find in the EP Chart!). 

Sometimes letters are used for abbreviations, such as in Dr, Mr, Mrs, Ms and St, and sometimes for more than one sound, such as 

the ‘x’ in box (where the ‘x’ represents two sounds, the consonant blend /ks/) and the ‘u’ in music (where the ‘u’ represents the 

consonant sound at the start of “yawn” and the vowel sound in the middle of “moon”), where there is no sensible relationship 

between the letters and sounds. The ‘d’ ‘n’ ‘e’ ‘s’ in ‘Wednesday’ is not a 4-letter spelling, as the four letters represent two sounds, 

so there is no sensible relationship between the letters and the sounds. In these cases, it is best to learn the letters by sight, as if 

they were a sequence of players or dancers on a stage, by saying the word and then naming all the letters. The letters can still be 

the ‘Best Letters’ but they do not represent a keyspelling or spelling. In the ‘500-IN-ONE-LIST’ side, letters with more than one 

sound are black. These letters are ‘NPS’ - “Not Playing Sensibly” or you can use the term Non-Phonographic Spelling. 

THE 44 SOUNDS: It’s a good idea to refer to one of the S-51, S-55, S-56 or S-69 charts, as you read through this paragraph. The 

sound-box numbers (SBN) are shown in S-62, S-01 and S-12. Fifteen of the 24 consonant sounds, represented by the blue 

keyspellings in SBN1 (bird), 4 (dog), 6 (gate), 8 (jam), 9 (leg), 10 (mouse), 11 (net), 12 (king), 14 (rain), 16 (treasure), 20 

(feather), 21 (voice), 22 (wheel), 23 (yawn) and 24 (zip), are “voiced” (i.e. they vibrate the vocal cords). The other nine, 

represented by the blue keyspellings in SBN2 (cat), 3 (chair), 5 (fish), 7 (hand), 13 (panda), 15 (sun), 17 (shark), 18 (tap) and 19 

(thumb) are “unvoiced” (i.e. they do not vibrate the vocal cords). All 20 vowel sounds, represented by the red keyspellings in 

SBN25-44, are “voiced” and are in two groups “short vowels” and “long vowels”. There are seven short vowels (7SV), 

represented by the red keyspellings in SBN25 (ant), 29 (bed), 32 (teacher), 34 (tin), 36 (frog), 39 (book) and 44 (bus). When you 

say the short vowels, your tongue stays still and the sound is short. These sounds are the 7 short monophthongs of English. There 

are thirteen long vowels (13LV), represented by the bold keyspellings in SBN26 (baby), 27 (hair), 28 (car), 30 (me), 31 (ear), 33 

(shirt), 35 (tiger), 37 (nose), 38 (coin), 40 (moon), 41 (moor), 42 (fork) and 43 (cow). When you say the long vowels for SBN28 

(car), 30 (me), 33 (shirt), 40 (moon) and 42 (fork), your tongue stays still and the sound is long. These sounds are the 5 long 

monophthongs of English. When you say the long vowels for SBN26 (baby), 27 (hair), 31 (ear), 35 (tiger), 37 (nose), 38 (coin), 41 

(moor) and 43 (cow), the sound is still long but your tongue moves, making it sound and feel as if there are two sounds when it 

counts as only one. These are the eight diphthongs (8D) of English. Note that “the THRASS way” for pronouncing the double ’o’ 

’r’ in moor is “oo-er” (as spoken widely in Northern England and by many others in the first syllable of ‘rural’). This gives the 

diphthong a sound-box (a home) so learners can discuss the different pronunciations for such words as moor, poor, sure, pour and 

tour etc (with ‘moor’ being the least abstract and, therefore, the keyword). When learners spell the word ‘ear’ as ‘eyer’ (SBN31) and 

‘my’ as ‘miy’ (SBN35) it shows that they can hear the two parts of the diphthong but they need to learn that each counts as only 

one sound. You should clap your hands only once to represent the vowel sounds in these words - even though many might think 

that you should be clapping your hands twice, as if the words were polysyllables (explained in the Group 4 Skills). There are slight 

differences in the way that people say the sounds, depending on how they use their organs of speech (i.e. lips, teeth, tongue, 

palate and vocal cords) and the sound that is pronounced immediately before and/or after a sound. Nevertheless, it is best to teach 

your learners that there are 44 pure forms but, in truth, each sound has weaker variations (allophones). For example, the sound 

/t/, for the letter ‘t’ at the start of ‘tap’, is much stronger than the /t/, for the letter ‘t’ in ‘city’. Therefore, when locating a sound-box on 

the EP Charts (e.g. the sound /t/), remember that the pronunciation of the sound in a particular word may actually be a variation of 

the pure form so you are really looking for the “Best Fit Box”! To make sense of the EP Chart Programme, it is best to first learn the 

keywords and their sounds “the THRASS way”. Then, when looking for the Best Fit Box for a sound in a keyword, especially if a 

different sound is being used because of accent, the best fit will simply be a different sound-box. For example, if the second ‘a’ 

in banana is pronounced with the short vowel heard at the start of “ant” then the Best Fit Box will be SBN25 in V1, rather than with 


6

the long vowel in SBN28 (which is “the THRASS way”). Please note that, for most people, the letter ‘r’ in the red vowel keyspellings 

in hair, square, car, ear, deer, teacher, collar, doctor, measure, fern, shirt, worm, fur, moor, fork and door is not pronounced 

with the sound /r/. The tongue does not curl back on itself, as it does when you say /r/ for the keyspellings in rain, cherry and 

wrist. For some speakers, such as those with American, Irish or Scottish accents, where there is some movement towards /r/ in 

pronouncing the vowel keyspellings above, it is still best to consider their pronunciations as variations (allophones) of the same 

sound and, therefore, “the THRASS way” is still the Best Fit Box. That is, the letter ‘r’ in ‘shark’ is part of the 2-letter vowel digraph 

‘a’ ‘r’. It is only for very broad accents that the ‘a’ would be with ‘ant’ (SBN25) or ‘banana’ (SBN28) and the ‘r’ would be with ‘rain’, 

resulting in the letters ‘r’ ‘k’ being a consonant cluster for the consonant blend /rk/ (as in sh-a-r-k). “Give me a word with the sound 

/r/?” For most people, the words hair to door (above) would not be good answers but rain, cherry and wrist would be! 

THE “QUIET VOWEL”: The short /er/ vowel (SBN32) can be heard at the beginning, middle and/or end of many polysyllabic 

words e.g. teacher, collar, doctor, measure, zebra, garden, fossil, lion, circus, about, across, again, ago, o’clock, upon, another, 

banana, litre, Saturday, sulphur, camera, chocolate. It is not so easy to hear in some syllables e.g. ki-tten, gar-den, fo-ssil and circus. 

However, you can prove that it must be there because you clap your hands twice for two vowel sounds (e.g. kitten not kittn). 

The learner who spells kitten as kittun or kittern is able to hear the short /er/ even though it is a weak variation (allophone) of 

the pure form. They now just need to visualise the right spelling. If schools use the ‘Spelling Log’ idea, the short /er/ is often the 

cause of the problem. This is because: (1) it has so many different spellings; (2) it is often hidden in the middle of syllables 

(making it very hard to hear); and (3) sometimes it is so quiet that people don’t even bother saying it, such as in ‘camra’, 

‘choclate’, ‘gardner’, ‘intrest’, ‘seprate’, ‘stationry’, ‘Arsnal’, ‘Margret’ and so on. It also causes problems for reading too, with 

learners stressing the vowel so that they pronounce the ‘e’ in kitten as if it was in ‘bed’ and the ‘o’ ‘r’ in doctor as if it was in ‘fork’. 

WORDS ENDING IN ‘L’ ‘E’: Most people agree that the words: final, medal, petal; April, pencil, pupil; carol, petrol, symbol; angel, 

camel, label; awful, harmful and painful are all polysyllabic and we clap our hands twice to represent the two vowel sounds. 

However, many learners do not hear the second vowel, the “Quiet Vowel” (the unstressed vowel), and they spell these words 

as monosyllables - finl, medl, petl, Aprl, pencl, pupl, carl, petrl, symbl, angl, caml, labl, awfl, harmfl and painfl and so on. For words 

like ankle, apple, bottle, kettle and table, we would expect to spell these words as ankel, appel, bottel and tabel, as we do in the 

words ‘angel, camel and label’ above. However, the expected letter arrangement 'e' 'l' is actually written as 'l' 'e' (the last two 

letters have swapped places!), so by analysis the short /er/ vowel is represented by the 'l' and the consonant sound /l/ is 

represented by the 'e'. Therefore, the 'l' and ‘e’ should be regarded as ‘catch-alls’. However, instead of spelling these words by 

focusing on the individual sounds, it is probably best to treat the last two sounds as a unit, as a rime (vowel and any consonants at 

the end of syllable e.g. skill). That is, “The TWO SOUNDS /er/ /l/ can be spelled as ‘al’, ‘el’, ‘il’, ‘ol’, ‘ul’ and ‘le’!”. Alternatively, 

learners can learn to spell these words by focusing on syllables e.g. gra-vel, le-vel, no-vel, sho-vel, swi-vel, tra-vel and so on. The 

Penguin Rhyming Dictionary has masses of rhyming words so, if you think it is a good idea, you or your learners can create a word 

list containing the same rhyme (where the endings sound the same) or rime (where the endings sound and look the same). 

In the basewords fire, our and hour, the vowel sounds are triphthongs (with an additional movement of the tongue) and each word 

should be treated as a monosyllable (with one hand clap). However, your learners might think that these words are polysyllables, 

with TWO vowel sounds e.g. f-i-re (h-i-re, w-i-re, t-y-re), ou-r and hou-r, and this is also acceptable. This is because there are no 

sound-boxes in the EP Chart for the English triphthongs, as these were found to be unnecessary following trials in 1992-94. 

THE FIRST FOCUS SHOULD BE ON THE MEANING OF WORDS: There is wide disagreement as to how schoolchildren should 

be taught to read and spell. We believe that it all starts before formal schooling with parents, grandparents, childminders and 

nursery teachers talking to babies, toddlers and young children about the pictures, photographs, words, phrases, sentences 

and stories in favourite books. It is extremely important to first develop speaking and listening skills, vocabulary, knowledge 

about the structure of phrases and sentences, knowledge of the world and how it works, and a love of reading - through looking at, 

discussing and enjoying the contents of books. It is not a good idea for schools to use a ‘Phonics-First’ (Synthetic Phonics) 

approach, where children are first taught that each lower-case letter represents only one sound and they are only shown words 

that can be read through using these sounds, often in contrived sentences. Using this method, children are not able to read 81 of 

the 100 Hotwords, that is, 81% of the ‘see-a-lot’ words of English. A Phonics-First approach results in fewer parents sharing books 

with their young children and causes many children to take longer to read and/or spell than they should do or, even worse, to have 

reading and/or spelling difficulties that they would otherwise not have had. When reading the many basewords of English that 

contain 2-letter, 3-letter and 4-letter spellings and 1-letter spellings that do not make the sound that they have been taught, they 

persist with the flawed strategy of giving each letter one sound (often with the short vowel /er/ added at the end, so that they 

are actually saying two sounds and syllables, as in f-er, k-er, m-er, n-er, s-er, t-er and so on) with the result that they cannot read 

these words. When spelling, they continue (even as adults) to use mostly 1-letter spellings to represent the sounds that they hear, 

with the result that they are not able to spell many of the simplest of words e.g. sed, woz, becos, skool and, later, mosk, fisics, 

teknology etc. They often use capital letters in words to represent the long vowel sounds that they have still not yet been taught 

(e.g. ‘wAt’ for wait. ‘mEt’ for meet, ‘rIt’ for right, ‘rOd’ for road, ‘fRm’ for farm etc), having only been taught that there are five not 20 

vowel sounds. They often do not use the names of letters when spelling aloud (as is normal) but instead use poorly-articulated 

sounds (with ‘cat’ being “ker-a-ter” instead of “See-Ay-Tee”). Learning to read and spell does not begin with the Synthetic Phonics 

approach to reading but with parents discussing and enjoying the contents of books with their pre-school children - doing their bit 

to build the foundations for essential speaking, listening, reading and spelling skills and a love of reading. Young schoolchildren 

should be encouraged, by parents, teachers and older schoolchildren (Reader Leaders), to turn over the pages of books, 

especially favourite books, to read and re-read the stories, so that they learn to read more and more words by sight. When 

reading new or unfamiliar sentences, they should be encouraged to point at and discuss the important words and to ‘Have a good 

go’ at repeating the sentence, while sliding a finger under the words as they say them. If they are unable to read a word, they 

should be told what it says or encouraged to work it out by using one of the four searchlights explained on the back cover 

of the EP Book. Having a good understanding of phonics is important. However, the first focus should be on the meaning of words. 

PERMISSION IS GIVEN FOR THIS GUIDE (VERSION V1305ZW) TO BE COPIED AND REPRODUCED BUT NOT 

ADAPTED. THRASS UK LTD, THE WILLOWS, 18 LONG LANE, UPTON, CHESTER. CH2 2PD, ENGLAND, +44 

1244 323079. THRASS UK IS LICENSED TO SERVE CUSTOMERS IN EUROPE, AFRICA*, THE MIDDLE EAST, 

SOUTH AMERICA, CENTRAL AMERICA AND USA EXCLUDING SOUTH AFRICA, LESOTHO, SWAZILAND, 

BOTSWANA AND NAMIBIA, WHICH SINCE 2011 HAVE BEEN OVERSEEN BY BIDVEST PAPERPLUS PTY LTD 

SOUTHERN AFRICA 

(ZA, LS, SZ, BW, NA) 

Contact SSC Pretoria 

thrass@silveray.co.za 

+27 (0)12 523 1000 

ZIMBABWE (ZW) 

World Links Zimbabwe 

Eliada Gudza eliada@ 

world-links-sar.co.zw 

+263 (0)772 239 534 


7

8 

CODE ENGLISH PHONICS CHART PROGRAMME RESOURCES FOR ZIMBABWE - ORDER FORM 2013 QTY PRICE COST 

VISIT OUR ONLINE SHOP FOR SPECIAL OFFERS AND DISCOUNTS FOR NURSERIES, PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS, ADULT CENTRES & PARENTS. 

UK EDUCATIONAL ESTABLISHMENTS CAN ORDER ONLINE USING A PURCHASE ORDER NUMBER OR NAMED PERSON. 

MAIN RESOURCES 

S-60 ENGLISH PHONICS PACK - S-50, S-51, S-52, S-53, S-54 in clear wallet (S-61), all at 15% discount. $15.00 

S-50 ENGLISH PHONICS BOOK - full colour 20-page A4 book, laminated throughout, with pictures, keywords & questions $6.00 

S-51 ENGLISH PHONICS CHART A4 - full colour deskchart, tumble turn, encapsulated, with sound-boxes & keyspellings $3.00 

S-52 ENGLISH PHONICS CHECK A4 - wipe-clean deskchart, tumble turn, encapsulated, to check sounds & keyspellings $3.00 

S-53 ENGLISH PHONICS KEYWORD CODES A4 - full colour, tumble turn, encapsulated, sounds/spellings in keywords $3.00 

S-54 ENGLISH PHONICS OVERWRITE CHART A4 - full colour, tumble turn, encapsulated, trace letters to recall them $3.00 

S-67 ENGLISH PHONICS TIME AWARENESS CHART - - full colour deskchart, tumble turn, and encapsulated $3.00 

S-55 ENGLISH PHONICS CHART A3 - full colour wallchart, one sided, encapsulated, for schools and homes $6.00 

S-56 ENGLISH PHONICS CHART A1 - full colour wallchart, one sided, encapsulated, 594 x 841 mm for schools & homes $18.00 

S-69 ENGLISH PHONICS CHART A0 - full colour large wallchart, one sided, encapsulated, 841 x 1189 mm for schools $36.00 

T-04 THRASS GRAPHEMECHART - large blue wallchart, one sided, encapsulated, 886 x 605 mm (just larger than A1) $18.00 

S-57 ENGLISH PHONICS 500 CHART A3 - full colour deskchart, tumble turn, encapsulated, to read & spell the basewords $5.00 

S-64 ENGLISH PHONICS 500 BOOK - learners use this book daily to read, spell and revise words in one of the 49 lists $5.00 

S-58 ENGLISH PHONICS 1200 CHART A3 - deskchart, tumble turn, encapsulated, 10 Group Words for each keyspelling $5.00 

S-59 ENGLISH PHONICS OVERWRITE CHART A5 - handy mini version of S-54, usually for older children or adults $3.00 

S-62 CATCH-ALL SPELLINGS CHART A3 - colourful wallchart, one sided, encapsulated, to display spellings not on S-51 $5.00 

S-63 ENGLISH PHONICS CHART PROGRAMME: GUIDE - Resources, Guidance Notes & an Order Form - 8 pages 

S-65 ENGLISH PHONICS CHART PROGRAMME: MAIN SKILLS CHECKLIST - A3 wallchart/A4 deskchart 

S-66 ENGLISH PHONICS CHART PROGRAMME: CLASS CHECKLIST - A3 wallchart/A4 deskchart for 30 learners 

S-71 ENGLISH PHONICS CHART DRILL - using an English Phonics Chart, learners practise the actions - 2 pages 

SUPPLEMENTARY RESOURCES 

T-51 RAPS AND SEQUENCES CD - 33 spoken sequences and musical raps - for letter formation, keywords & sounds $6.00 

T-52 HOTWORDS CARDS - 100 laminated tumble turn cards (180 x 90 mm) for reading and spelling the first 100 words $23.00 

T-24 PHONEME-GRAPHEME CARDS - 120 laminated tumble turn, (210 x 148.5mm) for reading/spelling the keywords $38.00 

T-55 PICTURE CARDS - 120 playing cards (56 x 75 mm) for sorting into groups and playing snap games $8.00 

T-49 MAGNETIC GRAPHEMES - 170 large blue & red tiles (30 x 90 mm) for teaching the sounds and spellings in words $75.00 

T-12 THRASS DICTIONARY - A5 book, with the 500 basewords, for learners to write and store words $4.00 

S-31 SPELLING LIST WORKBOOK - A4 book, with the 500 basewords in 49 separate lists, for learners to spell & write $4.00 

S-01 SING-A-LONG BOOK - learners sing-a-long with the songs on S-02 and read the words over and over again $6.00 

S-02 SING-A-LONG CD - Double CD - 44 vocal and 44 instrumental tracks for singing the 44 sound songs in S-02 Book $6.00 

S-05 

MOVE-A-LONG WITH SING-A-LONG DVD - A fun way for learners to recall what they have learnt about the sounds 

and keyspellings of English. There are lots of opportunities for reading, as all the words are shown on screen. 

$6.00 

S-12 SING-A-LONG INTERACTIVE BOOK PC - Popular Interactive Book version of the S-01 SAL Book and S-02 CD $8.00 

S-14 SING-A-LONG INTERACTIVE BOOK PC SERVER - Network installation for any number of machines. No annual fee. $75.00 

S-20 SOUND IT OUT PC - single installation - Interactive Word Bank & users build keywords to beat Personal Best Times $8.00 

S-30 SOUND IT OUT PC SERVER - Network installation for any number of machines. No annual fee. $75.00 

S-15 THRASS-IT WINDOW PC - single installation - handwriting, reading & spelling practices. Not full size screen. $8.00 

S-17 THRASS-IT WINDOW PC SERVER - Network installation for any number of machines. No annual fee. $75.00 

ALL RESOURCES ARE VIEWABLE ON THE INTERNATIONAL WEBSITE 

www.englishphonicschart.com 

TOTAL 

TITLE: FIRST NAME: SURNAME: 

POSITION: 

ADDRESS (SCHOOL □ HOME □): 

SCHOOL NAME: 

TOWN: PROVINCE: TEL: 

EMAIL: 

BANK: Stanbic Bank A/C: World Links Zimbabwe A/C No: 02220 261920 01 BRANCH NAME: Minerva BRANCH CODE: 3125 

SWIFT: SBICZWHAXXX CORRESPONDING BANK: Deutsche Bank Americas, New York, NY, BKTRUS33XXX 

TIN No. (Tax Exemption Certificate No: 200066576) ENQUIRIES ~ M: 0772 239534 T: 04 308286 E: eliada@world-links-sar.co.zw 

ADDRESS ~ World Links Zimbabwe, ETC Building (Audio Visual Services), Upper East Rd, Mt Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe 

FAX:

English Phonics Chart Programme Guide - THRASS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?