What are phase 3 letters and sounds?

In Phase 3, children will learn: j, v, w, x, y, z, zz, qu . Consonant digraphs - ch, sh, th, ng . Vowel digraphs and trigraphs - ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, ure, er .

What are the phases of letters and sounds?

Activities are divided into seven aspects, including environmental sounds, instrumental sounds, body sounds, rhythm and rhyme, alliteration, voice sounds and finally oral blending and segmenting . Learning 19 letters of the alphabet and one sound for each. Blending sounds together to make words.

What sounds are taught in Phase 3 in reception?

Phase 3 takes most children around 12 weeks to learn and is taught after children have been introduced to Phase 2 at the start of reception. By the end of Phase 3, children should be able to say the sound made by most of the Phase 2 and 3 graphemes .

What order should I teach phase 3 phonics?

Step 2: Phase 3 Digraphs. Not all phonetic sounds are represented by single letters. ... Step 3: Phase 3 Trigraphs. As well as grapheme and digraph sounds, your child will also learn about trigraphs. ... Step 4: Phase 3 Blending and Segmenting. ... Step 5: Phase 3 Tricky Words. Feb 2, 2023

What are letters and sounds?

Letters and Sounds is a systematic approach for teaching children to read using phonics. It is used in many schools in England, but is not a mandatory part of the National Curriculum. It is split into six phases, from starting to learn about sounds at nursery to becoming fluent readers around age 7.

What are the tricky words in phonics Phase 3?

'T-h-e-y' why 'they'. So many tricky words like 'was', 'you', 'me' and 'they' and 'her' .

What is a 3 letter sound called?

A trigraph is a single sound that is represented by three letters, for example: In the word 'match', the three letters 'tch' at the end make only one sound. Other examples of trigraphs are: igh as in sigh.

What is Phase? An important characteristic of a sound wave is the phase. Phase specifies the location or timing of a point within a wave cycle of a repetitive waveform . Typically, it is the phase difference between sound waves that is relevant, rather than the actual absolute phases of the signals.

What are the group 3 sounds?

GROUP-3 LETTER SOUNDS:g, o, u, l, f, b egg dig peg hop socks up leg lips doll puff soft big Jun 18, 2022

Letters and Sounds: Phase 3 (2024)

PageSpellzone resources

Summary

The purpose of this phase...
"Children entering Phase Three will know around 19 letters and be able to blend phonemes to read VC words and segment VC words to spell. While many children will be able to read and spell CVC words, they all should be able to blend and segment CVC words orally…"

"The purpose of this phase is to teach another 25 graphemes (listed below), most of them comprising two letters (e.g. oa), so the children can represent each of about 42 phonemes…"

"Children also continue to practise CVC blending and segmentation in this phase and will apply their knowledge of blending and segmenting to reading and spelling simple two-syllable words and captions…"

"It must always be remembered that phonics is the step up to word recognition. Automatic reading of all words – decodable and tricky – is the ultimate goal…"

Letters:
Set 6: j, v, w, x*
Letters Set 6 and 7 (pdf)
Set 7: y, z, zz, qu*

The Spellzone Starter Course includes recorded sounds and teaches all the basic phonic rules and includes the top 100 high frequency words.

Suggested timetable for Phase Three – discrete teaching

Week 1

Practise previously learned letters and sounds.
Teach Set 6 letters and sounds:
Practise blending for reading
Practise segmentation for spelling:
Practise reading high-frequency words
Read sentences using Sets 1–6 letters and the tricky words no, go, I, the, to

Week 2

Practise previously learned letters and sounds
Teach Set 7 letters and sounds
Practise blending for reading
Practise segmentation for spelling
Teach reading the tricky words he, she
Practise reading and spelling high-frequency words
Teach spelling the tricky words the and to
Practise reading captions and sentences with Sets 1–7 letters and he, she, no, go, I, the, to

Week 3

Practise previously learned GPCs
Teach the four consonant digraphs
Practise blending for reading
Practise segmentation for spelling
Teach reading the tricky words we, me, be
Practise reading and spelling high-frequency words
Practise reading two-syllable words
Practise reading captions and sentences
Practise writing captions and sentences

Week 4

Practise previously learned GPCs
Teach four of the vowel digraphs
Practise blending for reading
Practise segmentation for spelling
Teach reading the tricky word was
Teach spelling the tricky words no and go
Practise reading and spelling high-frequency words
Practise reading two-syllable words
Practise reading captions and sentences
Practise writing captions and sentences

Week 5

Practise previously learned GPCs
Teach four more vowel digraphs
Practise blending for reading
Practise segmentation for spelling
Teach reading the tricky word my
Practise reading and spelling high-frequency words
Teach spelling two-syllable words
Practise reading captions and sentences
Practise writing captions and sentences

Week 6

Practise previously learned GPCs
Teach four more vowel digraphs
Practise letter names
Practise blending for reading
Practise segmentation for spelling
Teach reading the tricky word you
Practise reading and spelling high-frequency words
Practise spelling two-syllable words
Practise reading captions and sentences
Practise writing captions and sentences

Week 7

Practise previously learned GPCs
Teach four more vowel digraphs
Practise letter names
Practise blending for reading
Practise segmentation for spelling
Teach reading the tricky word they
Practise reading and spelling high-frequency words
Practise spelling two-syllable words
Practise reading captions and sentences
Practise writing captions and sentences

Week 8

Practise all GPCs
Practise letter names
Practise blending for reading
Practise segmentation for spelling
Teach reading the tricky word her
Practise reading and spelling high-frequency words
Practise spelling two-syllable words
Practise reading captions and sentences
Practise writing captions and sentence

Week 9

Practise all GPCs
Practise letter names
Practise blending for reading
Practise segmentation for spelling
Teach reading the tricky word all
Practise reading and spelling high-frequency words
Practise spelling two-syllable words
Practise reading captions and sentences
Practise writing captions and sentences

Week 10

Practise all GPCs
Practise letter names
Practise blending for reading
Practise segmentation for spelling
Teach reading the tricky word are
Practise reading and spelling words
Practise spelling two-syllable high-frequency words
Practise reading captions and sentences
Practise writing captions and sentences

Weeks 11–12

More consolidation if necessary, or move on to Phase Four.

Teaching Sets 6 and 7 letters

In teaching the remaining Sets 6 and 7 letters:

Words using Sets 1 – 6 GPCs:
(+j) - jam, Jill, jet, jog, Jack, Jen, jet-lag, jacket
(+v) - van, vat, vet, Vic, Ravi, Kevin, visit, velvet
(+w) - will, win, wag, web, wig, wax, cobweb, wicked
(+x) - mix, fix, box, tax, six, taxi, vixen, exit

Words using Sets 1–7 GPCs:
(+y) - yap, yes, yet, yell, yum-yum
(+z/zz) - zip, Zak, buzz, jazz, zigzag
(+qu) - quiz, quit, quick, quack, liquid

Introducing and teaching two-letter and three-letter GPCs

Introducing two-letter GPCs
Two-part example session for teaching sh
Resources:

sh cards (pdf)
sh words (pdf)

Procedure:
See it and say it

2. Recall that the children have already seen two letters being used in the recently learned q, which always has a u after it, and also ck and the double letters zz to ff, ll, and ss; at the ends of some words.

Practising grapheme recognition (for reading) and recall (for spelling)

Flashcards
Resources:

Set of cards with a grapheme on one side and its mnemonic on the other (e.g. sh on one side and a picture of a finger to the mouth on the other).

Practising blending for reading

What's in the box?
Resources:

Set of word cards (e.g. with words containing Sets 6 and 7 letters and Phase Three graphemes.

86
87

Countdown
Resources:

List of Phase Three words

Select Phase Three word lists (from the resources section below) and print flash cards to use in the countdown activity.

Sentence substitution
Resources:

A number of prepared sentences at the children's current level
Lists of alternative words for each sentence:
dog, hid, Gail, moon
bedroom, farmyard, cars, wait
toad, song, see, coin
market, summer, we, fish
church, right, shark, boat
boots, boats, seen, He
chair, fell, soil, weeds
food, seen, hard, Joan
them, park, keep, coach
coats, year, coffee, bad

Matching words and pictures
Resources:

As 'What's in the box?' above.

Buried Treasure
Resources:

Set of nonsense word cards:jarm, win, jowd, yes, wug, zip, quit, vil

Sorting
Resources:

Words, such as the names of farm and zoo animals e.g. zebra, camel, hen, chimpanzee, panda, cow, yak, sheep, goat, duck.

Practising segmentation for spelling

Phase Three two-letter and three-letter graphemes

Follow the same procedure as for Sets 6 and 7 words. It is important that the graphemes are units, not separate letters.

Quick write words
Resources:

Phoneme frame worksheets for use by the teacher ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, ure, er (pdfs)

Full circle
Resources:
When the graphemes sh, ch, th and ng have been learned:

List of words ship, chip, chin, thin, than, can, cash, rash, rang, ring, rip, ship and letters sh, ch, th, ng, p, n, r, c, a, i (pdf), for each pair of children.
List of words song, long, lock, shock, shop, chop, chip, chick, thick, thing, sing, song and letters ch, sh, ck, th, ng, s, l,p, i, o (pdf), for each pair of children.

When the graphemes for the new vowel sounds have been learned:

List of words car, card, lard, laid, maid, mood, moon, moan, moat, mart, cart, car and letters ar, ai, oo, oa, c, d, l, m, n, t (pdf), for each pair of children
List of words light, right, root, room, roam, road, raid, paid, pain, main, mail, sail, sigh, sight and letters ai, igh, oo, oa, l, t, r, m, d, p, n, s (pdf), for each pair of children

Teaching and practising high-frequency (common) words

There are 100 common words that recur frequently in much of the written material young children read and that they need when they write. Most of these are decodable, by sounding and blending, assuming the grapheme–phoneme correspondences are known, but only 26 of the high-frequency words are decodable by the end of Phase Two and a further 12 are decodable by the end of Phase Three. These are will, with, that, this, then, them, see, for, now, down, look and too.

Reading a group of these words each day, by applying grapheme-phoneme knowledge as it is acquired, will help children recognise them quickly. However, in order to read simple captions it is necessary also to know some words that have unusual or untaught GPCs, 'tricky' words, and these need to be learned (see Notes of Guidance for Practitioners and Teachers, page 15, for an explanation).

Why not set Spellzone word lists as homework tasks?

Teaching reading and spelling two-syllable words

Reading two-syllable words
Resources:

Short list of two-syllable words (for use by the teacher) using Sets 1-7 letters or using phase three vowel graphemes (pdfs).

Introducing spelling two-syllable words
Resources:

Short list of two-syllable words (for use by the teacher) using Sets 1-7 letters or using phase three vowel graphemes (pdfs).

Practising reading and writing captions and sentences

Reading captions: Matching (with the teacher)
Resources:

Caption or sentence for one of the pictures

Procedure:
8. As children get more practice with the high-frequency words, it should not be necessary to continue sound-talking them.

Reading captions: Matching (independent of the teacher)
Resources:
Captions or sentences for one of the pictures

Drawing
Resources:

Two captions or sentences

Why not create your own word lists with sentences?

'I can...' books
Resources:

Action phrases on cards (pdf)
Zigzag book templates (pdf)

Yes/no questions
Resources:

A number of prepared questions on card or on an interactive whiteboard (pdf)
Cards with 'yes' on one side and 'no' on the other, one per pair of children (pdf)

Demonstration writing
Resources:

Pictures of subjects that have VC, CV and CVC names (pdf)

Assessment

By the end of Phase Three children should:

give the sound when shown all or most Phase Two and Phase Three graphemes;
find all or most Phase Two and Phase Three graphemes, from a display, when given the sound;
be able to blend and read CVC words (i.e. single-syllable words consisting of Phase Two and Phase Three graphemes);
be able to segment and make a phonemically plausible attempt at spelling CVC words(i.e. single-syllable words consisting of Phase Two and Phase Three graphemes);
be able to read the tricky words he, she, we, me, be, was, my, you, her, they, all, are;
be able to spell the tricky words the, to, I, no, go;

Bank of suggested words, captions and sentences for use in Phase Three

100

The words in this section are made up from the letters taught for use in blending for reading and segmentation for spelling. These lists are not for working through slavishly but to be selected from as needed for an activity. (Words in italics are from the list of 100 high frequency words).

Words and sentences using sets – letters

Words using sets 1 – 6 GPCs(+j) - jam, Jill, jet, jog, Jack, Jen, jet-lag, jacket
(+v) - van, vat, vet, Vic, Ravi, Kevin, visit, velvet
(+w) - will, win, wag, web, wig, wax, cobweb, wicked
(+x) - mix, fix, box, tax, six, taxi, vixen, exit

Words using sets 1 – 7 GPCs

(+y) - yap, yes, yet, yell, yum-yum
(+z/zz) - zip, Zak, buzz, jazz, zigzag
(+qu) - quiz, quit, quick, quack, liquid

Yes/no questions with words containing sets 1–6 GPCsYes/no questions with words containing sets 1–7 GPCs

101

Sentences using words containing sets – GPCs and he, we and she

Sentences are offered here to give children practice in reading and understanding short texts which are fully decodable.

Words and sentences using Phase Three graphemes

Words using the four consonant digraphs
Each of these words contains the target grapheme but no other Phase Three graphemes. This means that the Phase Three graphemes can be taught in any order.

ch - chop, chin, chug, check, such, chip, chill, much, rich, chicken
sh - ship, shop, shed, shell, fish, shock, cash, bash, hush, rush
th - them, then, that, this, with, moth, thin, thick, path (north), bath (north)ng - ring, rang, hang, song, wing, rung, king, long, sing, ping-pong

Sentences with Set 1–7 letters plus the four consonant digraphs and some tricky words

102

Words using the Phase Three vowel graphemes

ee - see, feel, weep, feet, jeep, seem, meet, week, deep, keepigh - high, sigh, light, might, night, right, sight, fight, tight, tonightoa - coat, load, goat, loaf, road, soap, oak, toad, foal, boatmanoo - too, zoo, boot, hoof, zoom, cool, food, root, moon, rooftop, look, foot, cook, good, book, took, wood, wool, hook, hoodar - bar, car, bark, card, cart, hard, jar, park, market, farmyardor - for, fork, cord, cork, sort, born, worn, fort, tornur - fur, burn, urn, burp, curl, hurt, surf, turn, turnip, curdsow - now, down, owl, cow, how, bow, pow!, row, town, toweloi - oil, boil, coin, coil, join, soil, toil, quoit, poison, tinfoil ear - ear, dear, fear, hear, gear, near, tear, year, rear, beardair - air, fair , hair, lair, pair, cairnure - sure, lure, assure, insure, pure, cure, secure, manure, matureer - hammer, letter, rocker, ladder, supper, dinner, boxer, better, summer, banner

103

Words with a combination of two Phase Three graphemes

cheep, tooth, chair, sharp, torch, looking, sheet, harsh, waiter, poach, orchard, powder, thing, short, arch, shoal, north, lightning, thorn, church
and
chain, shook, farmer, porch, teeth, singer, faith, shark, shorter, thicker, coach, shear, sheep, march, longer

Captions
Captions (pdf)
Sentences

Sentences for the end of Phase Three

On the farm In town
In a wigwamAt the river In the woods

104

Sentences for 'Sentence substitution'Yes/no questions suitable for the end of Phase Three