We have so much fun with phonics in Nursery! We explore and learn all 7 aspects of Phase One phonics which focuses primarily on developing speaking and listening skills. Speaking and Listening are two key skills that create strong foundations for children's future learning. 

Aspect 1-General sound discrimination (environmental sounds)

The aim of this aspect is to raise children's awareness of the sounds around them and to develop their listening skills. Our activities include listening walks, drumming on different items outside and comparing the sounds, playing sound lotto games and making shakers. 

Aspect 2-General sound discrimination (instrumental sounds)

This aspect aims to develop children’s awareness of sounds made by various instruments and noise makers. Activities include comparing and matching sound makers, playing instruments alongside a story and making loud and quiet sounds.

Aspect 3-General sound discrimination (body percussion) 

The aim of this aspect is to develop children’s awareness of sounds and rhythms. Activities include singing songs and action rhymes, listening to music and developing a sounds vocabulary.

Aspect 4-Rhythm and rhyme 

This aspect aims to develop children’s appreciation and experiences of rhythm and rhyme in speech. Activities include rhyming stories, rhyming bingo, clapping out the syllables in words and odd one out.

Aspect 5-Alliteration 

The focus is on initial sounds of words, with activities including I-Spy type games and matching objects which begin with the same sound.

Aspect 6-Voice sounds

The aim is to distinguish between different vocal sounds and to begin oral blending and segmenting. Activities may include Metal Mike, where children feed pictures of objects into a toy robot’s mouth and the teacher sounds out the name of the object in a robot voice – /c/-/u/-/p/ cup, with the children joining in.

Aspect 7-Oral blending and segmenting 

In this aspect, the main aim is to develop oral blending and segmenting skills.

To practice oral blending, the teacher could say some sounds, such as /c/-/u/-/p/ and see whether the children can pick out a cup from a group of objects. For segmenting practise, the teacher could hold up an object such as a sock and ask the children which sounds they can hear in the word sock.