Book Creator | A Guide to Early Reading

Welcome

Today, children in schools up and down the country are taught to read using phonics. Phonics is a tried and tested method of learning to read where learners link letters (graphemes) to corresponding sounds (phonemes) and combine them to produce words. Sound confusing? It can be!

Working in partnership with Carter's Yard Phonics, this weekly guide is for parents and carers who wish to support their children with phonics at home. Consisting of daily 20 minute sessions, each day will introduce a new grapheme and phoneme with supportive materials to help support you and your child.

@QPRtrust

QPR.co.uk

"Working with Carter's Yard Phonics has allowed us to enhance our delivery as part of our Premier League Primary Stars programme. The cards have supported coaches' interventions with the children & have been a real hit with teachers & parents/carers."

Paul Mitchell
QPR Community Trust Education Manager

Using this guide

During each session, you will notice a 'zap code' that appears on the 'Today's new sound...' page. This 'zap code' is an interactive code that can be brought to life using the free to download Zappar app.

When scanned, the page in the book will be brought to life with an interactive menu that will help you and your child with the pronunciation of the new phoneme and with blending sounds together to form a word.

@Carters_Phonics

cartersyardphonics.com

Try now

"Working with Carter's Yard Phonics has allowed us to enhance our delivery as part of our Premier League Primary Stars programme. The cards have supported coaches' interventions with the children & have been a real hit with teachers & parents/carers."

Paul Mitchell
QPR Community Trust Education Manager

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Before we begin

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Learning to read is tricky and supporting the process at home is a great way to speed up the journey of getting children to read whatever they like! The sections below offer guidance and support about how to move through this booklet.

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Is your child ready?

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Before you embark on the process of learning to read together, it is vitally important to note that every child learns to read at a different pace.

Every child's starting point begins with them learning to develop their speaking and listening skills - known as Phase 1 of Phonics. Phase 1 is divided up into 7 aspects and largely focuses on children being able to listen to the sounds around them, separate the sounds and copy them. Before proceeding through this booklet, we thoroughly recommend you take time to familiarise yourself with this phase.

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Make it fun!

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Use your child's interests to keep each 20 minute session fun! Sing songs, create silly rhymes, use instruments and the world around you to bring learning to life!

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@QPRtrust

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QPR.co.uk

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Phonics

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Terms

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There are many technical terms used as we move through this booklet. Where necessary, we will define these terms on the page. For now, here are a few to get us started:

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Grapheme:

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"Working with Carter's Yard Phonics has allowed us to enhance our delivery as part of our Premier League Primary Stars programme. The cards have supported coaches' interventions with the children & have been a real hit with teachers & parents/carers."

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a written letter or group of letters that represent one sound, like ‘d’, ‘s’, ‘igh’ or ‘are’. Some graphemes are single letters like ‘f’; others are digraphs like ‘ay’.

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Decoding:

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Digraph:

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Blending:

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using your phonic knowledge to sound out and read words.

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two letters that make one sound together, like ‘sh’, ‘ay’, ‘oo’.

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Paul Mitchell
QPR Community Trust Education Manager

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combining the individual sounds in the word together to read the whole word, e.g. ‘r-e-d, red’, ‘c-a-t, cat’.

Pronunciation

Where possible be mindful of your pronunciation of the sounds - the zap codes within this guide will help. Many people pronounce 'm' as 'muh' instead of 'mmm' or 't' as 'tuh'. This can end with blending difficulties.

Think of the word: ‘mat’ if you sound it out as ’muh-a-tuh’ and then blend them together you get ‘muhatuh’ a long way off from ‘m-a-t’ and then ‘mat’.

Read, read and read some more!

Children who are read to, exposed to lots of chat and language at home are more likely to succeed at school. This is particularly true of early reading. Although you may not be a teacher, your role at home is vital.

Books are not the only type of print that can be read and discussed. Use your child's interests and tap into them. Comics, magazines and matchday programmes are all types of environmental print that can be used.

@Carters_Phonics

cartersyardphonics.com

“My son starts school in September and I have no idea what phonics is, but the cards are great. It’s like having a teacher in your home. It’s reassuring to know that they are created by teachers.”

Joanne Knowles
Parent

Day 1

Phase 2; set 1

First Half:

How many sounds can you hear? Who or what does the sound belong to? Can you copy each sound?

@QPRtrust

QPR.co.uk

My first sound is...

s

SCAN ME

Ask your child: what letter is this?

Second

Activity 1

Half:

My turn, your turn...

Start by scanning the zap code on the previous page. Take it in turns to repeat the sound 5 times to each other.

Finally, ask your child again: what letter is this and what sound does it make?

"Working with Carter's Yard Phonics has allowed us to enhance our delivery as part of our Premier League Primary Stars programme. The cards have supported coaches' interventions with the children & have been a real hit with teachers & parents/carers."

Paul Mitchell
QPR Community Trust Education Manager

Tip: remember not to use 'uh' at the end of each sound