Phonics: Letters & Sounds: Phase 1

Yoto Says: Yoto Daily's very own Jake Harris gives youngsters the tools to decode written and spoken language, and understand the big wide world around them.

Phonics are an essential part of language learning and give kids the ability to speak and spell with confidence. Letters & Sounds: Phase 1 is the first in Yoto's Phonics series and features 7 interactive audio cards based on the UK National Curriculum.

Through a range of fun interactive exercises, kids from age 3+ learn to associate letters and words with speech, to speak more confidently and with greater expression, hear and repeat musical patterns, and to identify sounds from their daily lives.

The pack includes 7 cards with exercises which will play at random to keep your child's ears and mind engaged. Also included is a guide to Phonics with imagery to assist with some of the exercises.

Letters & Sounds: Phase 1

1. What's That Sound? - This card develops your child's environmental awareness and listening skills by having them distinguish between sounds from daily life - from a dog barking to the sound of a lawnmower.
2. What's That Instrument? - This card asks your child to identify the different sounds instruments make, and identify these visually using the supplied guide.
3. Body Beats - This card develops your child’s ability to copy sounds and rhythms by stomping their feet, clapping their hands and more. Identifying and copying patterns is key to kids' social and intellectual development.
4. Rhythm & Rhyme - This card helps your child recognise that some words rhyme and encourage them to find pairs of rhyming words, which is a vital foundation to reading aloud with articulation and expression.
5. Tongue Testers - This card introduces your child to alliteration (when two or more words have the same initial sound) and encourages them to consider the different sounds words are made up of.
6. Make That Sound - This card encourages children to use their mouths to make fun (and often funny!) sounds. Making different vocal sounds develops children’s pronunciation confidence and awareness of the many sounds that make up speech.
7. Make That Word - This card introduces your child to blending and segmenting - breaking words down into the sounds they are made up of and putting them back together again. This is the final step before entering the more formal aspects of learning to read.