Hands-On Learning Tips and Activities

Home education allows parents to tailor learning and resources to their child’s pace, learning style and interests. Whether you're...

It's finally summer, even if the weather doesn't always quite catch on. It's time to bring some fun and excitement into your learning...

Phase 4 phonics is an exciting time for children as they begin to blend and segment longer words and become more confident readers. It is usually taught towards the end of Reception and/or at the beginning of Year 1. As a parent or teacher, you can help your child develop their phonics skills by continuing to incorporate fun and engaging activities into their learning. In this blog post, we look at what is taught in phase 4 phonics and share some exciting activities for home

Do you feel like you've tried everything to help your child improve their spelling skills, but nothing seems to work? Are you fed up with...

With spring finally here, it's time to start thinking about how to incorporate the season into your classroom's continuous provision! ...

Phase 5 phonics is typically taught throughout Year 1 of primary school in the UK. It builds on the foundation laid in the earlier phonics phases and introduces a range of new phonemes and graphemes, as well as more complex spelling patterns. What is taught in phase 5 phonics? One of the key aspects of Phase 5 phonics is the introduction of alternative spellings for the sounds that children have already learned. For example, they might learn that the sound /ai/ can be spelt

While there are many resources available to teach phonics, hands-on resources can be particularly effective. One major advantage is that...

These fun spelling activities for children in key stage one (school years one and two) are perfect for small groups, continuous provision or homeschooling. They're engaging, hands-on and varied, so hopefully, you'll find some strategies which work for your child(ren)! Spelling is a crucial skill that helps children to communicate. However, young children can usually read words more accurately than they can spell them. That's why providing plenty of practice is so importan

Are you tearing your hair out because your child is struggling to learn to blend sounds? Do you feel like they aren't moving forwards...

What's so tricky about tricky words? Tricky words are also known as common exception or irregular words. They're used often in reading and writing but contain letter-sound correspondences which children have yet to learn. For example, in the tricky word ‘was’ the ‘a’ corresponds to the phoneme /o/, which children who are just beginning to learn to read would not be familiar with. Let's have a look at how we can make tricky words a little less tricky... Make tricky words us

Imagine you didn't have to spend hours creating activities for your phonics' continuous provision. Imagine if there were quick and easy phonics setups using resources you already had to hand! Guess what? There are! Here are 10 phonics activities to save your weekend! If you're not short of activities but need some new hands-on resources, download your free list of top 10 resources for teaching phonics! 1. Roll, Read, Cover Sounds Choose how many sounds you would like

Phase 3 phonics is usually taught in Reception class and takes children about 12 weeks to cover. It introduces children to the remaining, more difficult and/or less commonly used phonemes. Here's an overview of what phonics is, what’s taught at phase 3 and some tried and tested blending and segmenting activities… What is phonics? Words are made up of sounds called phonemes . A phoneme can be represented by between one to four letters (graphemes), such as 'igh' in l igh t,

Here we take a look at early phonics skills, the meaning of segmenting and some fun and easy-to-set-up ideas and activities. Phonics games and activities to download and use straight away can be found here! What is Segmenting? Segmenting teaches children to recognise the segments that form a word. It is when children ‘stretch’ out a word and then break it up into sounds, e.g. dog = d-o-g. This enables them to spell words. Segmenting is the opposite of blending . Oral Se

Are you new to teaching? Not got a clue about phonics? Overwhelmed by too much information? Here are 10 easy tips to help you to instantly start teaching phonics! Where Do I Start? In schools, the 42 main sounds are taught during phonics lessons - not just the 26 letters of the alphabet! Not sure where to start? It's a good idea to listen to the correct pronunciation of each sound , as this will ultimately help your child to learn to read and spell! A Phonics Guide to

If you're new to Reception, have members of your team who are new to EYFS or want to direct parents to a definitive guide for phase 2 phonics, you've come to the right place! Here's an overview of what phonics is and some tried and tested tips for teaching early word reading. If you're in a rush and struggling to make progress with blending, save time and download your free blending checklist! What is phonics? Phonics is a key strategy in the teaching of reading and spelli