# data[].attributes.headline
Phonics involves knowing the connections between
letters, letter combinations and speech sounds (NSW Department of Education and
Training Learning and Development, 2009). Experts have indicated that phonics
is one of the aspects of literacy that is substantial to successful literacy
learning (p.6). Within in this digital resource, various phonic resources have
been gathered to promote reading skills in the early years. These resources are
most suitable for children in foundation year at school. 

# data[].attributes.subject
Phonics involves knowing the connections between
letters, letter combinations and speech sounds (NSW Department of Education and
Training Learning and Development, 2009). Experts have indicated that phonics
is one of the aspects of literacy that is substantial to successful literacy
learning (p.6). Within in this digital resource, various phonic resources have
been gathered to promote reading skills in the early years. These resources are
most suitable for children in foundation year at school. 

# data[].attributes.body
This resource promotes the development of children’s phonemic awareness as the children look at the given letter and determine the sounds it makes. The children then have to use their spoken language to determine the starting sounds of the objects in the pictures and then link it to the correct letter stick. The teacher’s role would be to model how to slowly sound out the words to emphasise the starting sounds. By developing this awareness children become conscious of sounds in spoken words they use and gives them the ability to hear the sounds of different letters, which is essential for emergent readers (Hill, 2012). Also, it is identified that when early readers begin to learn to read they take on four roles (Freebody and Luke, 1990 (cited in Hill, 2012)). The first role is ‘code breaking’ where readers decode the print by using sound letter relationships (Hill, 2012). This activity promotes children to link  the letter and sound together to enable children to develop their alphabetic principle understandings. In the Australian Curriculum in Foundation year English, children are expected to recognize and name letters, and know the most common sound each letter represents (ACELA1440) (Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), 2016).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This is a fun, hands-on literacy center activity that will provide your students with practice identifying beginning sounds.

Keep reading to get your copy of the free printable that includes pictures for all letters A-Z.

Supplies to Make the Beginning Sounds Paint Sticks
Materials

Paint sticks {one per child in your small group}

Adhesive backed Velcro {available at any craft store}

Pictures of beginning sounds for each letter {see below}

Laminating film

Scissors

How to Make the Paint Stick Activity

Start by collecting paint sticks, one for each child in your small group. Attach the soft side of the adhesive Velcro on each paint stick from top to bottom as shown in the picture at the top. Next, laminate the pictures and cut out. Attach a piece of hard adhesive Velcro to the back of each picture.

How to Use the Paint Stick Activity

Give each student in your small group one paint stick. You can attach the letters to the top before they begin playing or allow them to choose.

Then, the students search for pictures that start with the beginning sound at the top of their paint stick and attach those pictures to their stick. When they are finished they can switch sticks to keep playing.

Click on the picture below to download the beginning sound pictures for letters A-Z

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This is a fun, hands-on literacy center activity that will provide your students with practice identifying beginning sounds. Keep reading to get your copy of the free printable that includes pictures for all letters A-Z.

# data[].attributes.body
This resource enables children to look at the objects in the pictures and use the magnetic letters to experiment with the starting sounds. This activity encourages children to sound at the words and elongate its pronunciation to identify the starting sounds. Recognizing the initial sounds of words assists children with recognizing other words when learning to read, spell and write.  By doing this activity, the children will get to know what individual letters and combined letters sound like. It has been associated that high quality phonics teaching involves the use of auditory, visual and kinesthetic activities that encourage students to activate their senses (NSW Department of Education and Training Learning and Development, 2009). The NSW Department of Education identified magnetic letters as a key resource to assist and enhance children’s phonic development. By completing this activity, the children are manipulating the letters so they can make the sound of the object in the picture. The children have to use their auditory skills to listen to the sounds in the word and determine if the letters make the correct sound. This activity can build upon children’s graphological awareness which is the third cueing system readers use when attending to information to read. Bellwood et. al (2007) states visual cues come from students developing knowledge of letter/ sound relationships and how letters are formed. This is achieved by breaking words down to letters, sound, syllables, prefixes and chunks.

# data[].attributes.body
This activity involves exploring phonics through word families. The teacher may read a story to identify a favorite word in the text and study its word family.  For instance, the word ‘cat’ might be identified where the children then explore the ‘at’ family. A brainstorm can be proposed where the children share all the words they know ending with ‘at’. The children and teacher may use each letter in the alphabet as the onset to ‘at’ where they can blend it together and determine whether it makes a word. Rhyming words may also be explored. Children may identify made up words which can also be written down as it gives children the opportunity to play with sound. The ‘real’ words children identified then can be put onto a poster and be displayed in the classroom. This way children can refer to it throughout the year and add new words to it. Word families assist beginning readers to recognize and decode a large quantity of words because the onset is the only change to the ending letters. This activity encourages the children to manipulate the sounds and letters. Flit, Kitson, Lowe and Shaw establish (2014) making word lists invites readers to practice word patterns and letter sound correspondence. This can help children establish strategies for code-breaking text. A child may use the onset and sense of meaning of the sentence to figure out an unknown word (Flint et al. 2014). This helps children underpin patterns in unfamiliar words by using what they know from familiar words.

# data[].attributes.body
Reading a book to children can be an effective way to study phonics, as the children can apply their phonetic understandings in a meaningful and authentic way. Any book can be used but preferably a book that plays with sound. This may be through the use of rhyme, alliteration or repetition. One example book is ‘Hairy Maclary and Zachary Quack’ by Lynley Dodd. Throughout the reading children can be asked to point out words on the page with the same starting and ending sounds, find word families, determine the rhyming words, look for familiar words in bigger words and think of other words that might fit in the sentence with the same starting sound as a replacement word. The teacher can elongate the words when reading them, so the children can hear all the sounds. Reading Rockets (2014) defines that to be able to make use of letter-sound information, children need phonemic awareness to be able to blend sounds together, decode words and break spoken words into constituent sounds. This guided instruction helps students decode the words in the book by recognizing the sounds in the words of the text. In addition, this strategy relies on discussions where children express their understandings and share what they have noticed about the sounds of words. It has been recognized that oral language is a foundational aspect of learning to read as it can build phonetic awareness and decoding skills (Flint, Kitson, Lowe and Shaw, 2014). This classroom talk is important for phonic learning as children can extend their thinking, develop reasoning capacities and respond to one another’s ideas (Edwards-Groves, 2014).

# data[].attributes.body
This application gives children the opportunity to play with phonics for reading. It introduces over 30 letter sounds, including individual sounds and combined letter sounds e.g. ‘sh’. It provides children with the most frequently used words where they can gain familiarity of these words which is substantial for reading and writing. The children are supported throughout the application with a voiceover where children can listen to the sounds and sound out the sounds together. This application can be used in the classroom but also in the home setting. It can also be customized to individual children’s needs.Spences and Smullen (2014) recognize that technologies are respected for their role in assisting children to develop and learn the required skills to function in modern society. It was also found that when literacy educators used technology within the classroom it bought massive benefits. It increased student motivation and engagement in literacy and lead to higher literacy achievement. NSW Department of Education and Training Learning and Development (2009) recognizes that the use of technology in literacy can provide benefits of phonics teaching and learning as it facilitates children to build upon subsequent lesson, manipulate letter combinations and make modelled and guided phonics more interactive, interesting and engaging. The Australian Curriculum also highlights that technologies ensures students benefit from learning about and working with traditional, contemporary and emerging technologies that shape the world in which we live. This resource links to The Australian Curriculum in Digital Technologies in Foundation where children ‘recognise and explore digital systems (hardware and software components) for a purpose’ (ACTDIK001) (ACARA, 2016).

# data[].attributes.body
This resource idea was inspired by Flint, Kitson, Lowe and Shaw (2014). Each puzzle picture is segmented into the amount of phonemes heard in the word. This gives children the opportunity to practice their blending skills. On the front of the puzzle is the picture and on the back are the letters of the sounds. For instance, Chair is segmented into 2 phonemes of ‘ch’ and ‘air’. This enables the children to segment and determine their separate sounds and then blend them together to make the whole word. Blending enables a child to merge the individual phonemes together to pronounce a word. In order for a child to read, a child needs to recognize and sound out each grapheme, not each letter. For example, ‘ch-air’ rather than ‘c-h-a-i-r ’ (Browne, 2007). This is needed to enhance children’s reading fluency as phonemic blending enables children to become familiar with isolating and blending sounds to recognize many words with similar sounds. For example, cat, mat, sat, fat. Flint, Kittson, Low & Shaw (2014) also acknowledge that blending is substantial to children’s literacy development and greater competency in code breaking skills (p. 228).

# data[].attributes.body
This video can be used in the classroom where the children can learn it and join in. There is a different song for each letter where the teacher may choose a focus letter. The video enables children to be actively involved where the children are learning phonics and reading in a playful way. As the song plays, the words appear where the starting letters/ sounds are highlighted. It can facilitate word recognition as the children will begin to learn the lyrics of the song and might associate them to the words on the screen. Alliteration is also used within the lyrics, such as ‘Slowly snail likes to slip and slide.’ This provides children with a fun and playful way to hear the similar starting sounds of different words. Neaum (2012) states that listening and engaging with sound through language play (rhymes, music and song) is important to phonics learning. When children are learning to read it requires readers to notice and reflect on words, where the letters and their sound relationships are fundamental. This links to the Australian Curriculum in Phonics and word knowledge as it facilitates children to ‘Recognise words, alliteration patterns, syllables and sounds (phonemes) in spoken words’ (ACELA1439) (ACARA, 2016).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Phonics songs for Children Collection Part 1 | infobells

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This collection of Phonics songs part one, is sure to help children build a strong reading foundation. This alphabet sounds collection video is presented by infobells, is framed to teach phonics through rhythm and song, bringing an element of play into learning.