Go through the above chart with your child- they will be able to make the letter sounds for you. Below are the rhymes that the children use to remember the letter sounds. ay – May I play?

ee – What can you see?

igh – Fly high

ow – Blow the snow

oo – Poo at the zoo

oo – Look at a book

ar – Start the car

or/oor/ore – Shut the door

air – That’s not fair

ir – Whirl and twirl

ou – Shout it out

oy – Toy for a boy

ea – Cup of tea

oi – Spoil the boy

a-e – Make a cake

i-e – Nice smile

o-e – Phone home

u-e – Huge brute

aw – Yawn at dawn

are – Care and share

ur – Nurse with a purse

er – Better letter

ow – Brown cow

ai – Snail in the rain

oa – Goat in a boat

ew – Chew the stew

ire – Fire, fire!

ear – what can you hear?

Ure – Sure it’s pure?

Tion – Pay attention, it’s a celebration!

Cious/tious – Scrumptious! Delicious Vowels in the English language can represent a variety of sounds. The first step in mastering the various vowel sounds is learning the difference between short vowels and long vowels.

Of the two, the long vowels are easier for children to learn because long vowels basically sound the same as the letter names. For example, long a sounds like the a in able, long o sounds like the o in over, and long u may sound like the u in use or the u in blue.

Children generally find it more challenging to learn the short vowel sounds because many of them sound so similar to each other: The short i in pig sounds very similar to the short e in peg. The short o in pop sounds a lot like the short u in pup.

Before children can learn the rules for spelling and reading short and long vowel sounds, they must be able to recognize and produce these sounds reliably.

The short vowels can represented by a curved symbol above the vowel: ă, ĕ, ĭ, ŏ, ŭ.

The long vowels can be represented by a horizontal line above the vowel: ā, ē, ī, ō, ū.

Here are some examples of short vowel words: at, egg, it, ox, up.

Here are some examples of long vowel words: ate, each, ice, oak, use.

At Berger we teach these sounds through the complex sound chart. We also use rhymes and actions to support the children’s learning of these sounds.

We encourage parents and/carers to come in and see how reading is taught in their child’s class- just ask the class teacher.

Thank you

Ruth Lennon

Key to alphabetic code knowledge: a, i, m, s, t

/a/ as in 'cat', /i/ as in 'pin', /m/ as in 'map', /s/ as in 'sip' and /t/ as in 'ten'

n, o, p /n/ as in ‘not’, /o/ as in ‘pop’, and /p/ as in ‘pen’

b, c, g, h /b/ as in ‘big’, /c/ as in ‘cup’, /g/ as in ‘get’, and /h/ as in ‘hen’ d, f, v, e /d/ as in ‘dog’, /f/ as in ‘fun’, /v/ as in ‘vet’, and /e/ as in ‘leg’ k, l, r, u /k/ as in ‘kit’, /l/ as in ‘leg’, /r/ as in ‘run’, and /u/ as in ‘bun’ j, w, z /j/ as in 'jug', /w/ as in 'wig', and /z/ as in 'zip' x, y, ff, ll, ss The letter X represents two sounds /ks/ or /gz/ (depending on the word and/or the speaker's accent), so /ks/ as in 'fox'; /y/ as in 'yes'. The double consonants <ff>, <ll> and <ss>, represent the sounds /f/, as in 'sniff', /l/ as in 'fill', and /s/ as in 'miss'.