Lesson 1 Guidance

Introduce: Letter-sound recognition. 

Teach: Letter recognition and recall for the letter-sound /s/

Formation: Start at the snake’s head, slide down his back and round his tail

Write: Children write the letter s on whiteboards or paper

Revisit: Letter recognition and recall for/s/

Teach: Letter recognition and recall for the letter-sound /a/

Formation: Start at the stalk. Round the outside of the apple and back down.

Write: Children write the letter a on whiteboards or paper

Revisit: Letter recognition and recall for /s/, /a/

Teach: Letter recognition and recall for the letter-sound /t/

Formation: Down the tiger’s tummy and across its arms.

Write: Children write the letter t on whiteboards or paper

Revisit: Letter recognition and recall for /s/, /a/, /t/

Teach: Letter recognition and recall for the letter-sound /p/

Formation: Down the pig’s back, up and around its head

Write: Children write the letter p on whiteboards or paper

Display a word with the focus grapheme and point to the sound button under each grapheme from left to right as you say the pure sound (sound-talk). Repeat, but ask the children to sound-talk the word with you.

Revisit: Letter recognition and recall for /s/, /a/, /t/, /p/

Teach: Letter recognition and recall for the letter-sound /i/

Formation: Down the side of the jar and put a dot on the squeezer 

Blending: it, sit, pit, pip, sip

Draw children’s attention to the letter-sound correspondence (GPC) that they already know (i in is). Discuss the tricky bits of the word (e.g. ‘s’ does not make the same sound for /s/ already learnt as in Sam).

Read the word a couple more times. Encourage children to read the word and refer to it regularly throughout the day.

Revisit: Letter recognition and recall for /s/, /a/, /t/, /p/, /i/

Teach: Letter recognition and recall for the letter-sound /n/

Formation: Down the side and back up to the birds. Back down the other side

Blending: an, in, nip, pan, pin, tin, tan, tan, nap

Apply: Read the caption ‘a pin in a tin’

Revisit: Letter recognition and recall for /s/, /a/, /t/, /p/, /i/, /n/

Teach: Letter recognition and recall for the letter-sound /m/

Formation: Down the first monkey and back up through its tail.  Down the second monkey and back up through its tail. Then down to the third monkey’s hands.

Blending: man, mam, mat, am, map, Pam, Tim, Sam

Apply: Read the caption ‘a man on a mat’

Point to the letters as the children sing the alphabet song. Continue singing the song daily and pointing to the letters until you are satisfied that all the children know the letter names.

Sing the alphabet song while pointing to the lower case and upper case letters on an alphabet frieze.

Revisit: Letter recognition and recall for /s/, /a/, /t/, /p/, /i/, /n/, /m/

Teach: Letter recognition and recall for the letter-sound /d/

Formation:  Around the dog’s head, up its back and back down

Blending: dad, sad, dim, dip, din, did, Sid, and

Apply: Read the caption ‘dad is sad’

Say a CVC word (e.g. pig) and, holding up three fingers, sound-talk it (e.g. p - i - g), pointing to a finger at a time for each phoneme.

Ask the children to do the same and watch to check that they are correct.

Revisit: Letter recognition and recall for /s/, /a/, /t/, /p/, /i/, /n/, /m/, /d/

Teach: Letter recognition and recall for the letter-sound /g/

Formation: Around the goats head, down its neck and around its belly

Blending: tag, gag, gig, gap, nag, sag, gas, pig, dig 

Tricky Word: th-e

Apply: Read the caption ‘pig in the pit’

Revisit: Letter recognition and recall for /s/, /a/, /t/, /p/, /i/, /n/, /m/, /d/, /g/

Teach: Letter recognition and recall for the letter-sound /o/

Formation: Start at the stalk and go around the outside

Blending:  got, on, not, pot, top, dog, pop, Mog

Apply: Read the caption ‘Mog got the mop’

Revisit: Letter recognition and recall for /s/, /a/,


Book: The Dog
/t/, /p/, /i/, /n/, /m/, /d/, /g/, /o/

Teach: Letter recognition and recall for the letter-sound c

Formation: Start at the cats head, stroke its back all the way around to its tail

Blending:  can, cot, cop, cap, cat, cod

Tricky words: n-o, g-o         

Apply: Read the caption ‘a cat in a cot’ 

Revisit: Letter recognition and recall for /s/, /a/, /t/, /p/, /i/, /n/, /m/, /d/, /g/, /o/, c

Teach: Letter recognition and recall for the letter-sound /k/

Formation: Down the gold key, up around the copper key and back down

Blending: kid, kit, Kim, Ken           Tricky word: I

Apply: Read the caption ‘I am a kid’

Explain that sometimes two

letters can make one sound and this is called a digraph.

Explain that the digraph ck makes the same sound as ‘c’ and ‘k’ but is spelt with two letters

Revisit: Letter recognition and recall for /s/, /a/, /t/, /p/, /i/, /n/, /m/, /d/, /g/, /o/, c, /k/

Teach: Letter recognition and recall for the digraph ck

Blending:  k-i-ck, s-o-ck, s-a-ck, d-o-ck, p-i-ck, s-i-ck, p-a-ck       Tricky word: t-o

Apply: Read the caption ‘I go to the duck’

Revisit: Letter recognition and recall for /s/, /a/, /t/, /p/, /i/, /n/, /m/, /d/, /g/, /o/, c, /k/, ck

Teach: Letter recognition and recall for the letter-sound /e/

Formation: Start at the bottom of the yolk, all the way around, down the white

Blending:  get, pet, ten, net, pen, peg, met, men, n-e-ck 

Apply: Read the caption ‘ten men get a pet’

Revisit: Letter recognition and recall for /s/, /a/, /t/, /p/, /i/, /n/, /m/, /d/, /g/, /o/, c, /k/, ck, /e/

Teach: Letter recognition and recall for the letter-sound /u/

Formation: Down one side of the umbrella, up the other and back down

Blending:  up, mum, run, mug, cup, sun, t-u-ck, mud

Apply: Read the caption ‘a mug in the mud’

Revisit: Letter recognition and recall for /s/, /a/, /t/, /p/, /i/, /n/, /m/, /d/, /g/, /o/, c, /k/, ck, /e/, /u/

Teach: Letter recognition and recall for the letter-sound /r/

Formation: Down to the rabbit’s feet, back up and along its ear

Blending:  rim, rip, ram, rat, rag, rug, ro

Tricky word: i-n-t-o

Apply: Read the caption ‘a rat on a rug’

After the core phonics lesson, dictate the caption/sentence of the day. Children use pencil and paper to write out the caption/sentence. As the children progress, so will their handwriting and spelling accuracy.

Revisit: Letter recognition and recall for /s/, /a/, /t/, /p/, /i/, /n/, /m/, /d/, /g/, /o/, c, /k/, ck, /e/, /u/, /r/

Teach: Letter recognition and recall for the letter-sound /h/

Formation: Down the neck and front legs, up along its back, down its back legs

Blending:  had, him, hot, hut, hop, hum, hit, hat

Tricky words: h-i-s, h-a-s

Apply: Read the caption ‘his hat has a rim’

Revisit: Letter recognition and recall for /s/, /a/, /t/, /p/, /i/, /n/, /m/, /d/, /g/, /o/, c, /k/, ck, /e/, /u/, /r/, /h/

Teach: Letter recognition and recall for the letter-sound /b/

Formation: Follow the ball as it bounces down., then go around the ball

Blending:  but, big, back, bad, bag, bed, bug, bun, bus

Tricky word: a-s

Apply: Read the caption ‘bug in the bed’

Revisit: Letter recognition and recall for /s/, /a/, /t/, /p/, /i/, /n/, /m/, /d/, /g/, /o/, c, /k/, ck, /e/, /u/, /r/, /h/, /b/

Teach: Letter recognition and recall for the letter-sound /f/

Formation: Around the head, down to its tail then across its flippers

Blending:   if, fit, fun, fog, fan, fat  

Apply: Read the caption ‘run in the fog’

Revisit: Letter recognition and recall for /s/, /a/, /t/, /p/, /i/, /n/, /m/, /d/, /g/, /o/, c, /k/, ck, /e/, /u/, /r/, /h/, /b/, /f/

Teach: Letter recognition and recall for the digraph ff

Blending: p-u-ff, h-u-ff, c-u-ff, o-ff  

Apply: Read the caption 'huff and puff’

Revisit: Letter recognition and recall for /s/, /a/, /t/, /p/, /i/, /n/, /m/, /d/, /g/, /o/, c, /k/, ck, /e/, /u/, /r/, /h/, /b/, /f/, ff 

Teach: Letter recognition and recall for the letter-sound /l/

Formation: Scratch the lion’s ear then come straight down to his toes

Blending: p-u-ff, h-u-ff, c-u-ff, o-ff  

Apply: Read the caption 'huff and puff’

Revisit: Letter recognition and recall for /s/, /a/, /t/, /p/, /i/, /n/, /m/, /d/, /g/, /o/, c, /k/, ck, /e/, /u/, /r/, /h/, /b/, /f/, ff,  /l/

Teach: Letter recognition and recall for the digraph ll

Blending: f-i-ll, d-o-ll, t-e-ll, s-
e-ll     

Tricky word: p-u-t

Apply: Read the caption 'huff and puff’

Revisit: Letter recognition and recall for /s/, /a/, /t/, /p/, /i/, /n/, /m/, /d/, /g/, /o/, c, /k/, ck, /e/, /u/, /r/, /h/, /b/, /f/, ff,  /l/, ll, ss

Teach: Letter recognition and recall for the digraph ss

Blending: l-e-ss, h-i-ss, m-a-ss, m-e-ss, b-o-ss, f-u-ss, k-i-ss  Tricky word: o-f

Apply: Read the caption 'the hut is a mess’

Explain that sometimes a word can be made from two smaller words. Go to the segmenting activity for ‘sunset’. Sound-talk the first syllable and blend: s-u-n sun. Sound-talk the second syllable and blend: s-e-t set.

Drag the words into the frame and say both syllables: sunset.

Children should read each book 3 times:

First: In the core phonics lesson with the teacher.

Second: Independently or in a small group later that same day.

Third: At home with a parent/fluent reader in the afternoon or evening.

It is important to assess all children at the end of each phase. The assessment can also be used before starting the programme to assess a child’s ability. Learn more about our comprehensive online assessment and teaching platform here:

www.growthecode.org