Reception Phonics Worksheets

Most Reception classes start Phase 2 in the first half of the autumn term and move into Phase 3 around the spring term, finishing it by summer. Phase 1, which is entirely oral (listening, rhyme, alliteration), runs through Nursery and continues alongside. Schools following a validated scheme other than Letters and Sounds use different names for the same stages, but the content is broadly the same.

Letters and Sounds Phase 2 teaches s, a, t, p, then i, n, m, d, then g, o, c, k, then ck, e, u, r, then h, b, f, ff, l, ll, ss. Phase 3 adds j, v, w, x, y, z, zz, qu, the consonant digraphs ch, sh, th, ng, and the vowel digraphs and trigraphs ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, ure, er. New sounds are introduced at about four a week.

Tricky words are common words that cannot be fully sounded out with the phonics a child has learned so far, such as the, to, I, no, go, into, he, she, we, me, be, was, you and they. Children learn to read them by sight while still noticing which parts are decodable. From Year 1 the National Curriculum calls a similar set common exception words.

The Word Reading Early Learning Goal expects a child to say a sound for each letter of the alphabet and at least 10 digraphs, read words consistent with their phonic knowledge by blending, and read aloud simple sentences and books made up of those sounds and a few tricky words. Writing the same sounds and short phrases is the companion Writing goal.

Sounds first. Reception phonics teaches the sound each grapheme makes (a as in apple, not ay) because sounds are what a child blends to read. Letter names are useful for spelling aloud and for the alphabet song, and children pick them up alongside, but leading with names is a common cause of blending difficulty. Keep sounds short and pure: t, not tuh.