Jolly Phonics for Kids Explained | Introducing Phonics

When speaking about English language learning, the term “Jolly Phonics” comes
up again and again! Jolly Phonics is a fun and child centered approach to teaching
literacy through synthetic phonics. Jolly Phonics is a world-leading English literacy
method that teaches children how to read and write using phonics. Phonics is the
teaching of the sounds that letters make, rather than the names of letters that
are taught in the alphabet, because it is the sounds that are useful for reading and
writing, not the names. These sounds are taught in a systematic way, alongside all
of the skills needed for being a fluent reader and writer. Jolly Phonics also teaches
all of this in a fun and engaging way, through characters, stories, actions, songs
and games! Jolly Phonics has been proven to be highly effective again and again,
With actions for each of the 42 letter sounds, the multi-sensory method is very
motivating for children and teachers, who can see their students achieve. The
letter sounds are split into seven groups.
Learning Jolly phonics is the most important and essential first step to learning
English, by applying Jolly Phonics to English language learning one can ensure
proper pronunciation from the beginning. These elements ensure that every
sound is memorable whether a child learns better through visual representation
or aurally. Although only 26 letters appear in the English alphabet, the 42 sounds
are created through joining letters. By teaching children how to identify these
letters, they gain the ability to read by breaking down each sound when faced
with a bigger word.
The Jolly phonics and their positive effects can really be seen when children begin
speaking full sentences in English. By referring back to Jolly phonics when
teaching, children grasp pronunciation of a new word far easier.

Lets look at it….
The 42 Sounds
In English, even though there are only 26 letters, there are actually 42
different sounds. This is because two or more letters together sometimes
make just one sound, for example, “oa” as in boat and “ie” as in pie. As seen in
the picture, Jolly Phonics teaches these 42 sounds in 7 different groups. Group
1 starts with the easiest sounds, and the sounds gradually get harder. Some
sounds also have different ways of being written, for example, "ay” as in pay

and “ai” as in paid. In Jolly Phonics, we call these “alternative spellings”. At
first, children are taught the most simple or common way of spelling each of
the 42 sounds, as seen in the picture. Later, they are introduced to the
alternative spellings.
The main 42 sounds of English are taught – one sound every day and in the
Jolly Phonics order.
Lets look at the 5 skills taught through Jolly Phonics:
The 5 Skills Taught Through Jolly Phonics
 Learning the letter sounds: 
Children are taught 42 letter sounds, (1 sound – 1 letter) , b,
d, m etc., and digraphs (1 sound – 2 letters) such as sh, th, ai
and ue.  Using a multi-sensory approach each letter sound is
introduced with fun actions, stories and songs. We teach the
letter sounds in 7 groups of 6 letters at a pace of 4-5 sounds
a week. Children can start reading after the first group of
letters have been taught and should have been introduced
to all the 42 letter sounds after 9 weeks at school.
Learning letter formation: This is taught alongside the
introduction of each letter sound. Typically, children will
learn how to form and write the letters down during the
course of the lesson. Children are taught how to form
(write) letters using a pencil.

 Blending: 
Once the first few letter sounds are learnt, Group 1 – s a t i p
n children begin blending the sounds together to help them
read and write new words. For instance you can see, from G-
1 Children are taught how to blend individual sounds
together in order to read full words. For example, “s” +
“a” + “t” = sat.. words like p a n, t i n, p a t Lots of
blending practice builds reading fluency.

 Segmenting: 
When children start reading words, they also need to
start identifying the phonic components that make the
word sound the way it does. By teaching blending and
segmenting at the same time children become familiar
with assembling and breaking down the sounds within
words. Children are taught how to hear the
individual sounds in full words so that they can
break them down to write and spell them
correctly.

After these 4 skills are taught, the 5 skill would be
teaching tricky words. Tricky words are also called as
sight words.
 Tricky Words
Some words do not follow the sound rules. Children are
taught these words separately, alongside strategies to
remember them. For example, “the” and “she”
These are words with irregular parts, such as ‘who’ and ‘I’.
Children learn these as exceptions to the rules of phonics.
Introducing the common tricky words early in the year
increases reading fluency (as they frequently occur in those
first simple sentences you might expect them to read).

#jollyphonics #phonics #42lettersounds