Flashcards with long vowels

Magnetic letters by Jolly Phonics

Get this magnetic letters to make words. Kids can start blending words even if they cannot write the letters very well yet. They enjoy touching them and it is a different approach to writing. Remember we have multiple intelligences, and this means that each student likes learning in a different way!

Alphablocks

The Alphablocks are a fantastic resources to learn the sounds, the letters, the magic e and some compound words. While doing this, kids can learn lots of vocabulary and have fun with very good videos and books.

Find in google the Alphablocks' resources.

Sparklebox

Find colourful worksheets in 

sounds:

magic e:

non-decodable words:

diagraphs:

Bogglesworldesl

Find printable games and worksheets in the web page http://bogglesworldesl.com/phonics.htm

Bossy E

In this webpage the magic e is called 'bossy e', find some worksheets. flashcards and fun games!

http://bogglesworldesl.com/longvowels.htm

Phonicsplay resources

Games to work on sounds, alternative spellings, non-decodable words and plurals.

Letters and sounds resources

Games and flashcards to work on sounds, alternative spellings and non-decodable words.

way to write the sounds

When we 'write' a sound the right way to do it is using the phonogical way and the most extended way is the one proposed in the IPA (international Phonetic Alphabet), however, those symbols are not always used when we find information regarding synthetic phonics. What we normally find is the first way of writing the sound. For example, for the sound /i:/ we normally find it as the sound ee and for the sound /ʃ/ we may see it as sh.

Best guesses

Best guesses are used to spell words that have a sound that may be spelt in different ways.
Using them we have more chances to spell them right!

sound	best guess
c	c before a, o, u  k before i, e ck at the end
ch	always ch
sh	always sh
oi	oi in the beginning and middle oy at the end
ou	ow at the end of followed by n ou the rest
er	er in more than one syllable words
air	always air
d	ed in past tenses d the rest
f	ph in graeco-latin words f the rest
g	gu before e, i g the rest
j	g before e, i and y including magic e dge end of words and after a short vowel j the rest
s	c in ce, ci, cy s the rest
t	ed in past tenses t the rest
s	c in ce, ci, cy s the rest
z	z at the beginning zz at the end after short vowel _ze after a vowel diagraph

Who is writing Synthetic Phonics in my class?

I am an English teacher that works with children between 0 and 12 years old. Since 2009 I have been teaching all the subjects in English to students that are in an experimental immersion programme in Spain and teaching English as a Foreign Language.
I found out this methodology in 2008. Since then, I have been learning how to use it with non-native learners of English, how to simplify the contents and how to adapt the order to introduce them.
In 2013 I have started giving courses to other teachers and parents as every year there are new publishers that include certain aspects of synthetic phonics in their pupil books and more teachers that start using synthetic phonics to teach English as a Second Language.
Here, I try to sum up the methodology and give a few links that can help teachers to implement it and parents to help their kids, having a global view of the most important concepts.

Explanation of the sequence of the sounds

The order in which the sounds are introduced does not follow the alphabet, but it is not random.
Sounds and their written correspondence are taught creating a balance between the frecuency of usage of the sound and the amount of words that can be created with all the sounds known so far by the student. 
For example, by the time we have learnt how to pronounce, read and write the sounds s, a, t, p, i, n, we are able to read and write plenty of words such as pin, tip, ant, tap....

sounds around us
s	a	t	p	i	n	m	d
g	o	c k	e	u	r	h	b
f	l	j	v	w	x	y	z
qu	ch	sh	th	ng	ai	ee	ie
oa	ue	oo	oi	ou	or	ur	air

green: easiest sounds to write

orange: consonant diagraphs

purple: long vowels

pink: vowel diagraphs

What is Synthetic Phonics

Synthetic Phonics is a methodology to teach how to read and write the English language is a systematic way. The centre of Synthetic Phonics is the sound-spelling correspondences which are sequenced taking into account the 44 sounds of the English language and the different ways to spell them. These sounds are divided into short and long vowels, diagraphs and triagraphs and the rest of the sounds. This way of naming the different kind of sounds is used in the National Curriculum in England of September 2013. It is included in a systematic way of teaching the written code of the English Language. This systematic and phonological approach helps students to learn step by step all the regularities and irregularities of the English writing. 
Thanks to this approach to reading and writing, the English language becomes easily codable and decodable from de begining and its pronunciation is deeply learnt. 

What is an alternative spelling?

Alternative spellings are the different ways to spell a sound.
For example, the English sound /k/ can be written  with the graphemes c, k, the diagraph ck and very few times with ch.

Phases of the methodology

The sequence to learn the different regularities and irregularities is the following one:

1st: basic sounds and only one way of spelling each sound. The order in which each publisher introduces the basic sounds may vary. In this site you can find one of the most commonly used sequence.

2nd: magic e rule.

3rd: y as a semivowel rule.

4th: the alternative spellings of each sound should be learnt starting by long vowels.
5th: the alternative spellings of the other important sounds.
6th: the alternative spellings of the rest of the English sounds.

7th: double consonants rule.
8th: plurals, contractions, homophones, prefixes, suffixes and loan words.

While learning each one of these things, reading and writing should be done, in order to practice each content.

Non-decodable words will appear during the previous phases and should be pointed out as words that don't follow any rule. After teaching the basic sounds it is interesting to work on them little by little to review their irregular spelling.

Double consonants

The use of double consonants can be grouped and taught teaching the rule that states that:

For words with one syllable: if they end with the sound f, s, l, z, the consonant will be doubled (such as buzz, doll, miss…) except for the words: if, pal, us, bus, yes, his.

For words that have more than one syllable: a short vowel has to be followed by two consonants (such as dinner, summer…) and a long vowel has to be followed by one consonant (such as acorn, famous).

Diagraphs and Triagraphs

Diagraphs and triagraphs are two or three letters together making a single sound. For example ph in phonics are two graphemes that make one sound /f/.

Y as a semivowel

The grapheme y at the end words sounds in a different way depending on the number of syllables:

In words with one syllable: the sound /ai/ at the end is spelt with y. 

For example: fly, shy, dry...

In words with more than one syllable: the sound /i/ at the end is spelt with y. 

For example: happy, sunny, funny...

Magic e

The alternative spellings that have the pattern long vowel-consonant-letter e (such as cane, rope, kite…) can be taught at the same time teaching the rule of the magic e that states that:

In words ending with the pattern vowel-consontant-letter e: the vowel sounds as a long vowel and the e is silent.

Examples: face, donate, Pete, pine, dime, postpone, cone, amuse...

Watch the episode 26 of the series 1 of the Alphablocks!

Short and long vowels

Short vowels are the sounds of the vowels /æ/ /e/ /i/ /o/ /ʌ/

Long vowels are the name of the vowels in the alphabet: /eɪ/ /i:/ /aɪ / /əʊ / /ju/