Phonics Vocabulary
Know and use the vocabulary of phonics and word structure — phoneme, grapheme, GPC (grapheme-phoneme correspondence), blend, segment, digraph, CVC, vowel, consonant, syllable, root word, suffix, prefix, and homophone — and understand that these words describe the building blocks that phonics instruction is built on
What a learner can do afterwards
- Say the sounds for common graphemes (e.g. 'sh', 'ch', 'th', 'ee', 'igh') and use 'phoneme' and 'grapheme' correctly when explaining
- Blend sounds together to read an unfamiliar word and explain what they are doing using the word 'blend'
- Segment a word into its individual sounds for spelling and use the term 'segment' to describe the process
The lesson
Phonics has its own special words. These words help you talk about sounds and letters.
A phoneme is one sound, like the first sound in 'sun'. A grapheme is the letter or letters that show that sound.
Mia wants to spell 'sun'. She segments it into three sounds: s, u, n. Then she writes s, u, n as letters.
A digraph is two letters that make one sound. Say 'sh' in 'ship'. It makes one soft sound.
Phonics words like phoneme, blend, and segment describe sounds and letters.
Watch it
Where it sits
Learn first
Nothing; this is a starting point.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.