This guide is here to help you learn the sounds of the English language. Learning the sounds helps you to speak more clearly, so people can understand you better. It also makes it easier for you to understand others when they speak English.
We will learn together, step by step. We will start with the simple sounds, then we will learn the more difficult sounds and how they work together.
Step 1: Learning Your First Sounds
Let’s start with the sounds! We begin with just a few important sounds like S, A, T, P, I, and N. Learning these sounds helps us start understanding English.
Step 2: Putting Sounds Together (Blending)
Now that we know some letter sounds, let’s put them together to make words. This is called blending. We start with easy words like ‘sit’, ‘pan’, or ‘tap’ – these have a consonant sound, then a vowel sound, then a consonant sound (CVC). Then we try words with more consonant sounds together, like ‘stop’ (CCVC) or ‘milk’ (CVCC). Using letter blocks or magnets can help you practice putting sounds together.
Drag and Drog the Phonemes
Drag consonants (S, T, P, N) and vowels (A, I) to create CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words. Place initial consonants in the first position, vowels in the middle, and final consonants at the end.
Word Builder
Target Words
Step 3: Sounds with Multiple Letters (Digraphs & Tricky Words)
Sometimes, two letters work together to make one new sound. These are called digraphs. We will learn sounds like ‘ch’ in ‘chin’, ‘sh’ in ‘ship’, and ‘ng’ in ‘sing’. We also learn vowel pairs like ‘ea’ in ‘sea’, ‘oo’ in ‘moon’, and ‘ai’ in ‘hair’. There are also some ‘tricky words’ in English that don’t follow the rules, like ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘was’, ‘they’, and ‘all’. We just have to learn these special words. Using flashcards can help us practice these new sounds and tricky words.
Step 4: One Sound, Different Spellings (Alternative Graphemes)
English can be a bit tricky! Sometimes, the same sound can be spelled in different ways. For example, the ‘ai’ sound in ‘rain’ can also be spelled ‘ay’ like in ‘day’, or ‘a_e’ like in ‘make’. We will learn these different spellings for the sounds we know. Also, sometimes the same spelling can make different sounds! Like ‘ea’ can sound different in ‘sea’, ‘head’, and ‘break’. We will learn about these too.
Step 5: Reading Smoothly and Correctly (Fluency & Accuracy)
The goal is to read words quickly and easily, without stopping too much. This is called fluency. We will practice recognizing words automatically. We will also learn more about spelling, like how adding beginnings (prefixes) or endings (suffixes) changes words, and about letters you don’t say (silent letters). Reading a little bit every day helps you read faster, smoother, and understand more.