Hello and welcome to phonics for the week beginning 1^st June!

So far you have learnt all the Phase 2 sounds and j v w x y z zz qu ch sh th ng ai ee igh oa in Phase 3. WOW! That’s a lot of sounds.

This week we are going to learn the digraph oo which sometimes has a short sound as in the words book and good, and sometimes has a long sound as in zoom and moon.

When reading a word with oo, your child may need to try both sounds to see which one is best, e.g.

‘A rocket can zoom to the moon’ would sound like this if they used the short oo.

‘A rocket can zum to the mun.’ which doesn’t sound right or make sense, so then they could try the long oo and hear that this makes more sense.

Encourage your child to try both sounds if they are unsure.

Choose a phonic warm up from these ideas.

Sing Jolly Phonics songs. The film shows all Phase 2 which your child knows. The j sound is the beginning of Phase 3 and starts at 5 min 27 seconds, so you could start from here. Play until you have sung oo, and join in with the actions and singing. https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2wpdvv

Game This game can be played inside or outside in a garden or field. Write 4 Phase 3 sounds on separate pieces of paper, e.g. igh, ee, ai, oa. Read through them with your child then place each one in its own space, e.g. in 4 corners of a room. You and your child then stand in the middle. Call out a sound and your child runs to the letter that make the sound, then returns to the middle. For a challenge, your child says a word with that sound when they return to the middle. For a different challenge, say a word with the sound in e.g. night. The child has to identify the trigraph igh and run to igh.

Phonics Ball Game -  Find a ball to throw or roll between you and your child. The first person says a sound e.g. sh. They throw or roll the ball to the other person who repeats the sound then says a word with the sound in it e.g. sh, brush. Keep taking turns. If you child needs help to think of a word they can ask for a clue e.g. ‘You use one of these to sweep the floor.’

Go to the Phonics Play website https://new.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources/phase/3 The username is: March20 and password is: home  Choose ‘Resources’ then ‘Phase 3’ and play a game like Dragon’s Den, Picnic on Pluto, Buried Treasure or Pick a Picture. Choose any sounds that your child is unsure of to practise.

Session 1 Learning short oo

Listen to the Jolly Phonics song for oo which is about a cuckcoo. It has the long and short oo in it. Start at 9 min 52 seconds https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2wpdvv

For the action, pretend to be a cuckcoo, coming in and out of the clock saying oo (short) and oo (long).

Look at the Phase 3 sound/phoneme mat (attached below) and show your child the new digraph ‘oo’ with the book picture.

Listen to the story ‘Charlie Cook’s Favourite Book’ by Julia Donaldson. Listen out for any words with a short oo sound (e.g. book, cook, hook, brook, look) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV5zNUCca8M

Try to read these oo words. Pause the video if you need more time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9m24pCcKM3Q

Write oo 3 times. Remember to write the o correctly, starting with the c shape then closing the gap. The oo sits on the line.

o – all around the orange.

Sound out some short oo words together. Say the whole word e.g. cook, then segment it c-oo-k. Try book, look, wood, foot, good, shook.

Choose 2 words to write.  

Session 2 Learning Long oo

Look at the sound mat and find oo with the moon picture. Sing the Jolly Phonics song again and practise saying oo (short) and oo (long) with the cuckcoo action.  Start at 9 min 52 seconds https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2wpdvv

Listen to the story ‘Whatever Next! By Jill Murphy. Listen out for some words with the long oo sound (moon, too, zoom, boots, food, room, bathroom.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c5cb0u0rPM

Watch Mr Thorne Does Phonics long oo with Geraldine the giraffe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfMKV_9agiY

Write oo and then 2 words with the long oo digraph e.g. moon, zoo, zoo, too, boot, broom.

Session 3 Learning long and short oo

Practise the short oo and long oo.

Hold hands close together in front of you for the short oo and move them far away out to the sides for the long oo sound. Say some words with oo and your child shows you if they can hear a short oo or long oo using their hands. This can be quite tricky so please help if needed.)

Say moon, zoo, wood, food, book, good, food, foot, hook, hoot, room, boom, look, tooth.

Read some words with oo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONgqoexO8gY

Now write some words with long oo and short oo.

Zoo, hook, hoop, wood.  For a challenge write a 2 syllable word bedroom, toothbrush.

Say a sentence for each word e.g. ‘Some animals live in a zoo’.

Session 4 Learning long and short oo

Read some words with short oo and long oo  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDJQM9XxsCc

Write some words that rhyme with book: book, cook, look, hook,

Write some words that rhyme with hoot: root, boot, loot.

Write a caption/sentence with oo words in it. Try one of these or make up your own.

‘Zoom up to the moon’  ‘Soon I will hoot in my room.’  ‘Look at a good book.’

Session 5 Tricky words from Phase 3

Now your child has been introduced to all the Phase 3 tricky words, here are some activities to practise reading and spelling them.

Read the words on this film. Stop after are unless your child would like to look at some words from Phase 4 and 5. Turn the sound down on the second time and challenge your child to read the words by themselves.

Visit Phonics play and choose Sentence Substitution Go through th week s and click on tricky words from week 2 e.g. was, you, they, are, all. 

https://new.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources/phase/3/sentences-3

Have a go at spelling these words:

all you was are they my.

Teach your child the spelling of any words they are unsure of. Say the letter names in the right order, look at the shape of the whole word and talk about tall, short/long letters.

Attached below are some tricky word activities too.