Phonic Zoom encourages the learning of phonemes and graphemes through play and supports the development of independent reading for children in a fun and exciting way.
A phoneme is…
A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a language. Phonemes are like the building blocks of spoken words and when combined they make full words. They are best thought of as the sounds we make when we speak. For example, when we say words like “pat”, “top” or “happy”, we are using the phoneme /p/. It’s the sound made when you quickly release air from your mouth, like a little puff. Understanding phonemes helps us read and write by recognising how different sounds come together to form words.
Phonemes and graphemes
Phonemes and graphemes are like puzzle pieces that fit together to help us read and write. Graphemes are the written symbols (letters or letter combinations) that represent phonemes. They are the way we visually represent the sounds we make when we speak. Phonics is all about understanding how phonemes (sounds) and graphemes (letters) work together. When you can match the right graphemes to the sounds (phonemes) you hear, you can read and write words accurately and can use this knowledge to spell words you might never have written or heard before.
How can I help my child?
You can help your child understand the relationship between phonemes and graphemes by reading together. Point out words in the book, showing how each letter (or combination of letters) represents the sound you’re making. Encourage your child to sound out words while reading – praise their efforts even if they get it wrong initially! Consider playing games with them to make the experience fun or use videos and quizzes to support their learning. This website contains lots of worksheets, quizzes and game ideas.
How do we use phonemes in our speech?
When we speak, we combine and change phonemes to create different sounds and words. Here’s how it works:
1. Sound production – Our vocal cords and mouth shape help produce different phonemes. For example, when we say “cat”, we start with the /k/ sound by blocking air at the back of our mouth, then open it to make the /æ/ sound, and finally close it again for the /t/ sound.
2. Phoneme sequencing – We string these phonemes together in a specific order to form words. For instance, “cat” is made up by saying /k/ – /æ/ – /t/ in quick succession.
3. Word formation – By combining phonemes, we create words with distinct meanings. Changing just one phoneme can turn “cat” into “bat” or “rat”.
Phonemes are the building blocks of our spoken language; they allow us to communicate and understand each other when we talk. There is even an international phonetic alphabet, designed to help with learning any language by knowing the phonetic sounds any word is made up of.
In phonics, there are two main types of phonemes: consonant phonemes and vowel phonemes…
Consonant phonemes:
These are simply consonant sounds making the noises you would normally associate with the consonants in our alphabet. For example, /b/, /c/, /d/, /f/, /g/, etc. Consonant phonemes often form the ‘core’ of words and help define their structure.
Vowel phonemes:
These are sounds that make the noises you would normally associate with the vowels in our alphabet (/a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/). They are often referred to as ‘long vowel’ and ‘short vowel’ sounds. Vowel phonemes provide the ‘melody’ of words.
How many phonemes are there?
In phonics, the English language consists of roughly 44 phonemes, although this number can vary depending on accents and regional dialects.
Why phonemes are not the same as syllables:
Phonemes are the smallest unit of sound in a language. They
represent the individual speech sounds that can change the meaning of words.
They are often presented by using slashes, like /b/ for the sound “b” in “bat”
or using the IPA symbols (like ʃ, ʒ, ʂ and ʐ). Syllables are units of
pronunciation and are typically made up of one or more phonemes. They can be
thought of as the ‘beats’ in a word and often determine how words are broken
down into chunks when they are spoken. Syllables are often separated by hyphens
or dots, like “cat” (one syllable) or “ba-by” (two syllables).
Phonemes
1. “cat” = /k/ – /æ/ – /t/, three phonemes that make up the whole word.
2. “sun” = /s/ – /ʌ/ – /n/, three phonemes that make up the whole word.
3. “elephant” – /ɛ/ – /l/ – /ɪ/ – /f/ – /ə/ – /nt/, six phonemes that make up the word.
4. “break” = /b/ – /r/ – /eɪ/ – /k/, four phonemes that male up the word.
Syllables
1. “cat” = one syllable, pronounced as a single unit.
2. “sun” = one syllable, pronounced as a single unit.
3. “elephant” = three syllables, pronounced “el” – “e” – “phant”.
4. “break” = one syllable, pronounced as a single unit.
Home learning tasks
1. Listening to phonemes in words – ask your child how many phonemes they can hear in a particular word you say. Give them a word, such as “chicken” and then slowly stretch out the word to elongate its phonemes. For example, /ch/ /i/ /ck/ /en/. Give your child a while to count the phonemes that they hear and see if they are right.
2. Identifying how many phonemes you can hear in relation to objects around the house – ask your child to pick an object, tell you what the object is and then tell you how many sounds they think it might have in it.
3. Oral blending – read out the individual phonemes in a simple word and ask your child what word you are spelling. For example, you say /c/ /a/ /t/, for your child to then blend these sounds together to say “cat”.
4. Take it in turns with your child to shout out a phoneme to see if you can spell a word together. For example, start by shouting /sh/, your child then might shout /ee/ and to finish the word, you can shout /p/. Then ask your child what word you have spelled together.
You can find more handouts like this on our website:
Advice!
All children learn at a different pace, so don’t worry about the level your child is currently working at. Simply offer a helping hand to them – read with them, point out words and emphasise their sounds, enforcing that connection between phonemes and graphemes. This can be applied to asking them what sounds the names of certain objects make, creating flashcards with graphemes on them and asking them what sounds they make, or even simple games such as ‘I spy’. Celebrate their successes and always keep the out of school learning enjoyable and fun!