The first six weeks of the spelling component of Jolly Grammar is focussed on the revision of the spelling of these sounds:

/sh/ /ch/ /th/ /ng/ /qu/ /ar/

In this section, we will look at ways to reinforce the identification of these sounds, along with the consolidating the spelling of them. This will also give you an opportunity to establish an evidenced-based teaching and learning cycle that will set your lessons up for the remainder of the year (see Introduction for more information about this).

Revision is an crucial aspect of the Jolly Phonics and Jolly Grammar program, as it is in an effective teaching and learning cycle. The main aim of revision is to move learning from the short term memory to long term, so that it can quickly and easily be retrieved when required.

First, let's consider the first six sounds in Jolly Grammar 1. Below you will find these six sounds and some brief, yet useful, information to know about each. The final section of this lesson will provide ways that meaningful revision can occur so that students develop increasing automaticity moving from recall to apply/transfer.

The sound /sh/ is most commonly written using the letters sh. Other ways to write /sh/ include ch (usually words with a French origin), ti ci si ssi (commonly followed by a schwa vowel - think action, special, collusion, confession). Here is a snapshot of how knowing how to write the /sh/ sound develops over the course of Jolly Phonics through to Jolly Grammar 6.

The sound /ch/ is most commonly written using the letters ch. If the sound /ch/ comes straight after a short vowel, is it written using the trigraph tch (this is taught in Jolly Grammar 3). Other ways to write the sound /ch/ are t (picture), ti (question).

When using the letters ch to write sounds, it is interesting to note the following:

If the letters ch make a hard /ch/ sound, the word is likely to have Germanic origins (church, bench).

If the letters ch make a /sh/ sound, the word is likely to have French origins (Charlotte, chef, chaperone, chauffeur).

If the letters ch make a /k/ sound, the word is likely to have Greek origins (chemist, character, ache, school).

The /ch/ sound is taught in the following years in the Jolly Grammar program.

The sound /th/ can be both voiced (as in the word this) and unvoiced (in the word thing), making it 2 separate sounds. Jolly Phonics introduces both of these sounds at the same time, as they are both most commonly spelt using the letters th.

The unvoiced /th/ is made when the tongue is placed between the teeth and the breath blown out. The vocal cords do not vibrate. Feel this when you say the following words: bath, thigh, eighth, threw.

In contrast, the voiced /th/ is made when the vocal cords do vibrate. Feel the vibration when you pronounce these words: soothe, that, these, clothing.

The actions taught in Jolly Phonics for both of these sounds are very similar. As a class, you may want to introduce two differing actions and use them as part of a game for identifying the voiced and unvoiced /th/.

The nasal sound /ng/ is made when the back of the tongue is lifts and presses against the soft palate at the back of the mouth. Other nasal sounds are /m/ and /n/.

There are two instances when we use the /ng/ sound. One is following a short vowel (king, rang, dung). This only occurs in the middle and at the end of words (not the beginning). The other is when it is part of the present progressive suffix -ing. When teaching this in Year One, it is useful to revise it again when students learn about verbs, particularly the different tenses.

Jolly Phonics introduces the sounds /k/+/w/ as one sound (although technically it is a blend of two sounds). It is almost always written using the letters qu, however there are many (new and/or introduced to English) words that only use q - words such as qwerty, qat, and niqab.

When the letters qu just represent the /k/ sound (croquet, quiche, etiquette), the origins are likely to be French.

/ar/ is the final sound introduced in Jolly Phonics, during the first year of school. Most likely to be written using the letters ar, there are several ways to write this ar controlled vowel. For instance, a as in last, al as in half, ah as in galah, aa as in baa, er as in clerk, au as in aunt, ear as in heart, arre as in bizzarre.

It is necessary to be aware of these, as you can see below that the /ar/ sound is not covered often throughout the Jolly Grammar program.

Strategies to engage all students in active practice.

During the active practice phase of the lesson, the aim is for students to attend to:

1. hearing and recognising the sound both in isolation and in words
2. associating the sound with the letters used to write that sound
3. blending sounds, including the focus sound, to hear and read words
4. segmenting words, including those with the focus sound, to write words

To further engage students, ensure that the active practice includes fun and movement, and that it is pitched right for the cohort you are teaching. The strategies and activities in this section can be applied to any of the 6 revision sounds that are covered in this section of the course. We have included a few activities for each part of the teaching and learning cycle outlined, so that you can mix them up and introduce new ways of practising the skills above with each sound you revise.

Hearing and recognising the sound both in isolation and in words

Begin with hearing and recognising the focus sound in isolation. A fun way for Year One students to do this is through manipulating familiar games. Here are a couple you can try during the revision section of Jolly Grammar 1, in weeks 1-6.

• Musical Chairs Instead of playing music, and having students find a chair to sit on when the music stops, try calling out a range of sounds. Students need to sit on a chair when they hear the focus sound (eg in Week 1, /sh/). When students master this, call out words instead of isolated sounds and students find a chair when the words contains the focus sound (eg brush)
• Sort picture prompts Have a range of pictures (without labels/words) ready for students to sort into those with the focus sound and those without. Students can sort into containers (use a tick or cross on the front to indicate whether it has the sound or not) or just sort into piles. Once they have mastered this, encourage them to identify where in the word the focus sound is - at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end. There are a myriad of ways students can organise this. Check out this idea from The Reading Mama.

Alternatively, use your interactive whiteboard to flash up images and seek clarification from the students around whether the focus sound is at the beginning, middle or end.

Associating the sound with the letters used to write that sound

As these weeks are revision weeks, students may already be familiar with the letters used to write these sounds. Be sure to clarify that these are the most common ways to write the sounds. Over the course of the Jolly Grammar program, students will learn a range of ways (from most common to less usual) to write the sounds.

• use the Jolly Phonics Interactive Whiteboard program's daily practice pages Step 2 is a good place to start for daily practice of associating the sound with the letter/s. Students will be able to practice both saying the sound when they see the letter/s, and making the letter/s associated with the sound they hear. Below is a snapshot of a daily practice page found in Step 2. Alternatively, you can use flashcards or create your own powerpoint. If you do create your own, it is valuable to add the focus sound for the week into the powerpoint in several places. This way students will get saturated practice with the focus sound.

• Identify the letter/s used to represent the sounds - move to goalpost. Use (or make) flashcards that show the focus sound and a couple of other sounds that students are familiar with. Place them around the classroom and clear a path to each. Call out one of the sounds to the whole group and students move to the 'goal post' that contains the letters that represent that sound. You will need to bring in some pace to keep the game going. Alternatively, have students all line up behind each other in the middle of the room. Have two sounds displayed, one to the far right of the students, and the other to the far left. Ensure the focus sound is one of the sounds displayed. Students listen as the teacher calls out a sound, then they run to the side that contains the letters that represent the sound called out. The middle line position is where students run to when the sound called out is a sound that isn't represented by letters. Bring in some competition if you like - the last one to the letters that represent the sound called out, is out.

Blending sounds, including the focus sound, to hear and read words

Blending is the basis of reading. At this point of the lesson, we are asking students to apply their knowledge of the letters and sounds, to then read a word. Blending itself is a skill that takes practice though. Have you ever had a student sound out the letters in a word, to then look at you to tell you the word? They need practice in blending the sounds to read!

• Blend student names You can start by asking students to blend sounds without seeing the letters as well. Use the students' names as this is a great engagement tool! For instance, call out the sounds in Jack's name ' j - a - ck' then say an action that Jack needs to do (eg stand up). The students will all blend the sounds together to get the word Jack, and then if their name is Jack, they will do the action. Some students may call out 'Jack' as soon as they finish blending the sounds. This can be a valuable way to see who can blend really easily, however it can also stop others, usually the ones who need more blending practice, from completing the task. It may be useful to introduce an action, such as thumbs up, when they have successfully blended the word. This way, you can see who can do it, and how fast, as well as preventing the calling out.
• Blending bingo Play a whole class game of bingo where the students have typical bingo cards with words printed on them and the teacher sounds out the words to be marked off. At this point, if all students have been taught using Jolly Phonics, any words spelled in a regular way can be used for the game. See the glossary/resources section at the end of this course for a word bank if you are looking for regular words to create a blending bingo game.

Segmenting words, including those with the focus sound, to write words

The reverse of blending is segmenting, the skill we use to write words. Segmenting involves breaking words apart into their smallest parts, the individual sounds. Students need lots of practice doing this, initially orally and then with the requirement to write the letters used to represent the sounds they have identified when they segmented a word.

• Use pictures As a group, flash up pictures and segment together. At first, be very clear and explicit about what you are doing so that all students understand the process of segmenting. For example, flash up a picture of a cat. Then explain that when you stretch out the word cat (ccccc - aaaaaa - ttttt), you can hear three separate sounds. Flash up a range of pictures (stick with one syllable words) and practice segmenting as a group. Objects, student's names, or spoken words can also be used for students to then segment.
• Move to writing Ultimately, we want students to segment a word, then write that word using the letters they know to represent the sounds they hear. Dictation on individual whiteboards is perfect for this. Hold up a picture, have the class say the word that the picture represents, then segment as a group. Then students write the word on their individual whiteboard. As the teacher, you can recognise the students who can do this easily, the students who need to check with the person next to them, the students who are unsure and need more prompting and the students who need a lot more practice to get it right.

Strategies to engage all students in semi-independent practice.

At this point, the aim is for students to begin practising in smaller groups, with some input from the teacher. The teacher's aim is to gradually release the responsibility to students, therefore moving from a high level of support to very low. This will ease students into the independent apply and transfer stage.

How you group students will be up to your judgement. Mixed ability groups ensure that students are challenged and can use their peers for support, so that may be a consideration. The following activities aim to ensure maximum opportunity for students to practice the four skills outlined above: hear and identify the sound, associate the sound with letter/s, blend sounds to read, segment sounds to write. Again, to engage students, we need to aim for fun and movement where possible.

• Editable dice Write letters, words or place images on large dice. In a small group, the students take turns to roll the dice and say the sound for the letter, blend to read the word or segment the word that the image represents. To keep students accountable (and on task), you may ask them to record either the letters or words as they go, on an individual whiteboard or page.

• Matching words to pictures Have a pile of pictures and a pile of words that match the pictures for students to sort and match. To challenge students, include some two syllable words or compound words (cowboy, watermelon). Students can complete in pairs or small groups. Alternatively, they can play the card game Memory, where instead of matching two identical pictures, they match a picture to the word. The activity of matching a picture to a word requires the skill of blending.
• Yes/no questions Sparklebox have a short question resource (available here) that students can work through. They read the question (all use regular words so are easy to blend), then decide if the answer is yes or no, then pop the question on the appropriate pile (or in the yes/no container). Perfect for getting students to blend together and to encourage oral language!
• Creation of a sentence The Jolly Phonics interactive whiteboard program has a range of story prompts that students can look at and create a sentence for. The story prompts allow students of any level to practice their segmenting skills - either to write a simple or complex sentence, or even just write down words for what they see in the picture. Here are some examples of the picture prompts available.

Other picture prompts for kids can be found at these websites:

The Literacy Shed

Teach Starter

The New York Times

Super Easy Story Telling

Sparkle Box

Scholastic

Once Upon a Picture

The John Fox

Pobble

Share your go-to websites for great images to prompt writing in the comments section below.

Strategies to engage all students to apply the new knowledge independently.

Students have now had numerous opportunities to practice the new skill, both in a large group with maximum input from the teacher, and in smaller groups with less input from the teacher. Students are now required to demonstrate the grasp they have of the new learning as they apply it in different contexts.

You may still want some students to complete tasks in pairs or small groups at this point. The suggestions below can be used in either pairs or independently. The aim is to ascertain whether students understand the new learning and are moving towards increasing automaticity of the skill/concept taught.

• Sort sounds into beginning, middle, end A task that requires students to independently say words and identify whether the focus sound is at the beginning, middle or end of the word will establish their ability to hear the sound, regardless of its position. The PDF below contains pages for each of the first six sounds in Jolly Grammar 1. A word version, so that you can easily edit it to use any sound you focus on, can be found in the resources section towards the end of this course. To use, cut out the pictures at the bottom of each page and place in a pile. Students choose a picture, say the word associated with the picture and identify whether the focus sound was at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of the word. They then place the picture in the corresponding section of the sheet.

• Labelling items Asking students to independently label items will demonstrate both their ability to hear all of the sounds in words and to ascertain if they know the letters used to represent those sounds. Small post it notes are handy to use for labelling. Picture prompts, detailing a busy scene, can be great as well, as they provide a range of items to be labelled. If possible, enlarge the picture prompt to an A3 size and laminate for reuse. Alternatively, use a clear plastic sheet and have students place the sheet over pages in a big book to then label the illustrations. Students can label using words or, for more capable students, short sentences.
• Phonics Battleships based on the game Battleships, students aim to find the square that their partner has identified by blending a sound from the top row with a sound from the side row. They cross out the squares that correlate as they work through. Below is an example of a battleship board that can be made. Remember, not all of the words will result in a 'real' word, however blending is the skill we want students to master and blending pseudo words supports the mastery of this skill.

Another great game that can be played at either the semi-independent or independent stage is a phonics card game created by Spelfabet. Access the free card game download and watch the one minute video explaining how to play here.

• Dictation Use the Word Bank (available on the resources page) to locate words with the focus sound that have not been used in the preceding activities. Use these words to get students to either write the words, or dictate a sentence with the word in them. Dictation supports a range of skills, including listening, note taking and memory.
• Decodable readers Students practice their knowledge of letters and sounds, and blending, using decodable readers that are structured so that only the sounds students have been introduced to are used. There are a range available, and Jolly Phonics have just released orange decodable readers. For a list of publishers of decodable readers, visit the Spelfabet website.
• Online resources Reading Rockets are a wealth of information about phonics and have a range of activities to match. Five from Five have links to valuable resources and information about teaching blending and segmenting (and phonics in general). Reading Mama has an extensive list of activities for blending and segmenting, including ones that are specific to certain sounds.