Level 3 Codebreakers Week 2 Session 3 Level 3

Terminology:
grapheme, letter, digraph, sound/phoneme, segment, sound-talk, blend, tricky word

Learning Objectives Resources • Level 2 Codebreakers Tricky Word

• To read and write words containing the ‘z’ • Codebreakers Level 3 Log Book
and ‘zz’ graphemes • ‘z’ and ‘zz’ Level 3 Codebreakers
• To read tricky word ‘me’ Mnemonic Flashcards (as well as those
taught so far)
• Level 3 Codebreakers Sound
Mat (1 each)
• Level 3 Codebreakers Grapheme
Formation Rhyme Posters
• Level 3 Codebreakers Grapheme
Formation Mat
• Level 3 Codebreakers Tricky Word
Flashcards
Revisit and Review (3 minutes)
• Flashcards
• These can be found in the Level 3
Supporting Resources Pack
• ‘z’ and ‘zz’ Codebreakers Decodable
Word Cards
• whiteboard and pen (1 each)
• timer
• different coloured pens or highlighters
• interesting writing tools, e.g. UV pens,
chalk pens to write on windows, a tablet
and stylus
• magnetic letters (optional)

(1 minute) ‘Break the code and say the sound.’ Hold up the grapheme side of the already taught Level 3 Mnemonic
Flashcards, one at a time, and encourage the children to say the sound
that each grapheme can make. Work through these rapidly.

Further support? Prompt the children by making the action for the sound
or showing them the mnemonic side of the card.

(1 minutes) ‘Now, I am going to say a sound and you will write the
grapheme down on your whiteboard as quickly as you can. You can
use the sound mat/action/mnemonic to help you.’
Without letting the children see them, say the sounds on the flashcards
at a quick pace. Make sure you say the sound (phoneme) and not the
letter names. Ensure the children can see your mouth clearly so they can
make the link between the sounds they are hearing and the mouth shape/
tongue positioning.

Further support? Ask the child to point to the sounds on their Level 3
Codebreakers Sound Mat instead of writing them down.

(1 minute) ‘We are going to read some tricky words that we already
know. These can’t be sounded out so we learn them. We’ll look for the
tricky part and then read them together.’
Show the children a mix of the taught Level 3 Codebreakers Tricky Word
Flashcards and some Level 2 Codebreakers Tricky Word Flashcards.
Hold up a card, identify the tricky part and say the word with the children.
Repeat for the other words, going through the cards at a quick pace.
Prioritise any word cards that the children find difficult.

‘Now, it’s your turn.’ Hold up the word cards for the children to say by themselves. Keep it
quick and pacey. If the children haven’t read all of the words in the time,
leave them to come back to at another time.

Praise the children for their efforts and achievements.

Teach (6 minutes)

(1 minute) ‘To help us with our codebreaking, we are going to practise Show the mnemonic side of the ‘z’ and ‘zz’ Mnemonic Flashcards and
the ‘zzz’ sound today. The letter that makes this sound is called ‘z’ say the /z/ sound.
(pronounce as if you are saying the alphabet) and it looks like this.’

‘When two ‘z’ graphemes are together, they make the ‘zzz’ sound too.
Two ‘z’ graphemes are usually used when the /z/ sound is at the end
of a word.’

‘We can use our mnemonic to help us remember these new

graphemes.’

‘Let’s say the sound together: zzz, zzz, zzz.’ Say the sound together three times.

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‘Write the graphemes in your log book.’ Encourage the children to write the graphemes in the ‘Today’s Code’
boxes in their log book. Display the flashcards in a place where the
children can see them for the rest of the session.

If children need support with letter formation, model the letter formation
of the letter ‘z’ and the digraph ‘zz’ using the Level 3 Codebreakers
Grapheme Formation Rhyme Posters.

‘Let’s find the graphemes in the back of our log book.’ Children to find the graphemes on the sound mat on the back page of
their log book.

(1 minute) ‘Now, we are going to segment and blend some words that Listen for children saying the individual sounds ‘z-i-p’.
contain this new sound. Use your codebreaking skills to sound-talk
the word ‘zip’.‘ Ensure the children are saying all of the sounds in the words and saying
the pure sounds.

‘Sound-talk the word ‘Zak’.’ Listen for the individual sounds ‘Z-a-k’.

‘Sound-talk the word ‘buzz’.’ Listen for the individual sounds ‘b-u-zz’.

Further support? Model segmenting and sound-talking the word for the
child to hear.

(30 seconds) ‘This time, I am going to sound-talk the words and Pause for children to say the word ‘zip’.
I want you to use your codebreaking skills to blend them back
together. Say the word, ‘z-i-p’.’

‘z-a-k’ Pause for children to say the word ‘Zak’.

‘b-u-zz’ Pause for children to say the word ‘buzz’.

Further support? Use bouncy and stretchy sounds to help the children
with blending the sounds back into the whole word.

(1 minute) ‘Let’s use our codebreaking skills to read some Show the ‘z’ and ‘zz’ Decodable Word Cards.
words which contain these new graphemes. I’ll go first.’

‘z-a-p’ (pointing to the matching sound buttons as you say Hold up/display the card showing the word ‘zap’. Point to each sound
each sound) button and say the sounds.

‘Your turn.’ Indicate to the children for them to say the sounds as you point to the
sound buttons.

Repeat for the words ‘jazz’ (j-a-zz) and ‘zigzag (z-i-g-z-a-g), using the
relevant word cards. Point out the two ‘z’ graphemes at the end of ‘jazz’

Further support? Remind children of the graphemes by using actions

and/or referring to the Level 3 Codebreakers Mnemonic Flashcards.

(1 minute) ‘Now, we will tap it on our watches as we say the sounds Tap for each phoneme in the word, e.g. ‘zap’ has 3 taps, ‘z’ - tap, ‘a’ -
in the words.’ tap, ‘p’ tap.

‘Jazz’ also has 3 taps and ‘zigzag’ has 6 taps.

‘We are going to count each phoneme as we sound-talk the word. We Sound-talk ‘zap’ (i.e. z-a-p) and as you say each phoneme, count it on
can use this codebreaking strategy to help us in the classroom when a finger.
we aren’t sure how to spell a word.’
Repeat for ‘jazz’.

Repeat for ‘zigzag’. You may wish to sound out each syllable separately
like this ‘z-i-g/z-a-g’.

(1 minute) ‘Now, we are going to learn the code to read a new tricky Show the children the ‘me’ card from the Level 3 Codebreakers Tricky
word. Today’s word is ‘me’. Let’s say it in a sentence.’ Word Flashcards. Children to use the tricky word in a spoken sentence.

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‘Which part of the word is tricky and doesn’t follow our normal
phonics code? Why is this part tricky?’
‘Write the word in your log book and colour code the tricky bit.’
(30 seconds) ‘Now, we are going to put on our spy glasses and
practise reading our new tricky word. I will show you some cards and
you need to say the words. See if you can count how many times I
sneak in today’s new word.’
Practise (5 minutes)
‘We are going to practise our new grapheme and play ‘Pass the
Password’.’
‘You are going to be given the password that you need to open a top
secret file. Quietly pass along the word you hear. The last person
chooses the matching word card from the middle.’
Apply (6 minutes)
‘You are going to use today’s codebreaking skills to write some words
in your log books. Let’s do the first word together, ‘zap’.’
‘jazz’
‘fizz’
‘Crack today’s code by writing this secret message in your log book:
A bee will buzz and zip in a zigzag.’
‘Let’s use today’s message to crack the secret code together.’
‘Today, you need the 2nd, 10th and 24th letters. Write the letters in the
circles in your log book to get today’s code word.’
‘Well done, you’ve worked hard today! Colour the battery in your log
book to show how confident you are in your learning.’
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Ask the children to identify which letters or graphemes aren’t as expected.
In this case, the ‘e’ making an /ee/ sound.
Children may give different answers and it is important that they identify
what is difficult to them.
Children to write the word in their log book, using a different colour to
write the tricky part, e.g. me.
Mime making reading glasses with fingers (the activity can be done
without the glasses action). Mix the new tricky word card in with three of
the cards from the Revisit and Review section. Hold up the word cards,
one at a time, for the children to read and say. Bring the new tricky word to
the top of the pile several times so the children can practise recognising
and reading it.
Further support? Ask them to refer to their written version of the tricky
word with the tricky bit written in a different colour.
Use just one other tricky word flashcard with the new tricky word.
Set the timer for this part of the session and keep to time.
Children sit in a circle. Arrange 4-6 ‘z’ and ‘zz’ Codebreakers Decodable
Word Cards in the middle of the circle. Quietly sound-talk one of the ‘z’
or ‘zz’ words to the first child. Ask them to blend it together and whisper
the word to the next child and so on. Once all of the children have heard
the word, they have thinking time to look for the correct word. As a team,
they select the matching word card. If they choose the correct word, the
team scores a point. Repeat with the other words. Can they beat their
score from today next time?
Further support? Encourage the children to sound-talk the word clearly
and use the sound buttons to help them find the matching word card.
Support them with this if necessary.
For children who would benefit from more multisensory games, you
could swap this game for one of the games listed here.
Model segmenting the words into phonemes (e.g. z-a-p) and counting
the phonemes. Encourage the children to write the letters as you do. Say
the words one at a time and support the children with writing the words
down if necessary.
Further support? Remind them to use the mnemonic to help recall what
the new graphemes look like and to check the ‘Today’s Code’ box in
their log book.
Make the words using magnetic letters.
Support the children with writing the sentence in their log book. Dictate
the sentence for the children to write. Repeat the sentence lots of times
and encourage them to count the number of words in the sentence (9).
Ask the children to give their spellings of the words in the sentence. Act
as a scribe to write the sentence on the whiteboard or some paper. Make
sure this shared sentence is accurate so that the children are able to
successfully crack the code.
Children to write the letters ‘b’ ‘u’ and ‘g’ in the circles at the bottom of the
page in their log books to find the secret code word (bug).
Celebrate the children’s efforts. Encourage them to think about how
much progress they’ve made today.
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 Level 3 Codebreakers Week 2 Session 3
Learning Objectives:
To read and write words containing the ‘z’ and ‘zz’ graphemes

To read tricky word ‘me’

Assessment of today’s session:

Name

To read words containing ‘z’ and ‘zz’.

To spell words containing ‘z’ and ‘zz’.

To read tricky word ‘me’.

To spell ‘z’ and ‘zz’ words in

a sentence.

Observations from the session:

Use this space to record any additional observations, progress and achievements as well as areas to work on further or gaps in the children’s knowledge.

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