Phonics Screening – words to practise

The phonics screening check has 40 words. 20 real word and 20 nonsense words. 
 
Nonsense words are words that are phonetically decodable but are not actual words with an associated meaning e.g. brip, snorb. Nonsense words (sometimes called pseudo words) are included in the check specifically to assess whether your child can decode a word using their phonics skills and not their memory.
 
It is important that children practise reading nonsense words and identify that they are a nonsense word. The pseudo words will be shown to your child with a picture of an alien and they will be asked to tell their teacher what sort of alien it is by reading the word. This not only makes the check a bit more fun, but provides the children with a context for the nonsense word which is independent from any existing vocabulary they may have. Crucially, it does not provide any clues, so your child just has to be able to decode it. Children generally find nonsense words amusing so they will probably enjoy reading these words.
As with all reading of words out of context (ie in a book) it is important to look for known digraphs (sh, th, ng etc) and trigraphs (igh, ure, air etc).

Your child will bring home a set of words and activities today along with this letter to practise.

Phonics Play, is a really useful and free online site which offers lots of interactive games which can be played on iphones, ipads and computers.

We will be administering the Phonics Screening the week beginning the 9th June, so please, is possible, use the Whit Holiday to continue to rehearse, read and complete the activities sent home. As a reminder, Monday 9th June is an INSET day.
 
Thank you for your continued support.
The Year One Team

Download your practice words here...

Phonics