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Copyright © 2012, Centre Of Excellence

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Published by Centre Of Excellence ©

Author: Imran Sherwa
First Published 2012
Second Edition 2016
Third Edition 2019
www.centreofexcellence.in
Lesson 1: Aa_____________________

Finally, we are about to start the 1st lesson with your child. I know
you're all excited to get started; so am I for your child. And I hope
you did not skip all the way from the start to here! If you must skip
because you're too excited to get started, then please at least read
these sections:

 How to develop Phonemic Awareness through listening

 From choppy seas to smooth sailing (Segmentation and
smooth blending)
 The approach of sounding out and blending
 Importance of teaching letter sounds along with letter
names
 Let’s get started (The entire section)

As this will be your first lesson with your child, you should make
sure that you learn the /a/ sound of letter A properly.

Teaching Letters and Letter Sounds

The importance of teaching letter names and sounds together has

already been discussed earlier. While the names of the letters help
the child learn the letter sounds, it is the letter sounds that we want
your child to master, as that is what will help your child learn to
read. This makes it much more important to learn letter sounds,
while we teach letter names. We introduce a further dimension of
learning in addition to learning the letter name and sound, whereby
your child traces the letter and says its sound. This can be done on
plain white paper, whiteboard or chalkboard. Be clear and explicit
on what you are teaching while adding new letters and sounds from
the lessons. Begin by displaying the letter and introduce its name.
Then teach the sound of that letter. Next is to trace the letter while
saying its sound every time you write individual stroke for that
letter. Once you’ve finished tracing, ask your child to repeat the
same.

For example:

Aa
Point to the letter and say:
"This is the letter A, and the letter A makes the /a/ (ah) sound."

As you trace each of the lines in the letter A, say the /a/ sound. So
for letter A, you traced 3 lines in total, and you will have said the /a/
sound 3 times. You can then have your child attempt to write their
own upper case and lower case letter Aa on a whiteboard or plain
paper, and say the /ah/ sound while trying to write it.

Step 1: It is very important to note, that each letter or combination

we cover in our curriculum will have a sound and its related action.
Both, the sound and action go hand in hand. While you start the
lessons, watch the video for individual sound and its action. Please
make sure that you teach your child both. As your child is about to
get on a new journey, it is natural that they may forget a few
sounds as they progress learning new lessons. Whenever this
happens, just provide them a clue with the action of that letter or
sound, so the association is reinforced strongly.

Teach the letter Aa and its sound: /a/. Please refer to our mp3
audio clips to learn the proper pronunciation. Also watch the video
for the action associated with the sound of /a/. We also have a
video named ‘Lesson 1’, where we introduce the letter Aa along
with its sound and action. It is then followed by practicing a few
words which begin with the /a/ sound i.e apple, ant, alligator,
anchor and astronaut. You can show this video to your child with
the audio on a few times. Then turn off the audio and let them read
out the /a/ sound and the related words watching the video.

The video lessons are great for older children and for them you may
not have to get into teaching them letter sounds, the associated
words or blending words from the lesson printout provided. The
video lessons would serve all the needs mentioned above. Saying
that, the video lessons also work great with young children too, but
you have to really observe how they grab the letter sounds and
words from the video lessons. If they are progressing well, then you
may not have to teach them from the lesson printout as outlined in
the following steps. Simply choose what your child is more
comfortable with and getting the most out; i.e video lessons alone
OR use of lesson printout OR a mix of both. Proceed with whatever
works best for your child.

You can alternatively introduce letter Aa from the lesson printout as

follows:
Show the letter Aa (introduce both capital and small letter) to your
child, and there are many ways to introduce it:
"This is the letter Aa, and the letter Aa makes the ahhhhhh sound”.

Action: Wiggle your fingers on your arm, as if ants are crawling on

you and say “ahhh, ahhh, ahhh”

“Can you say ahhhhhh for me with action?"

“The letter Aa says… aaaahh aaaahhh aaaahhh” (with action)

• "Do you know what letter this is?"

"Aa"
"Great! Can you tell me what sound does the letter Aa make, along
with the action?" Ask your child to repeat the sound with action a
few times.

The key is to be explicit about what letter you are teaching and be
specific about the sound & action it makes.

Step 2: Let your child watch the Lesson 1 Aa video, which has the
sound, action and a few words associated with Aa. Let your child
repeat it along with the video. They can also practice and repeat the
sound of Aa and the associated words with the audio off.
Step 3: The next step is to get your child to think more about the
/a/ sound, and where he or she might hear the /a/ sound. Some
examples:
 "If I say the word cat, can you tell me if the word cat has the /a/
sound in it? Listen carefully: c-aaaaaaa-t, cat."
 "Can you think of a word that starts with the /a/ sound?"
 "Does apple have the /a/ sound? Listen carefully: aaaaaapple...
Great!
 Now, can you tell me where you hear the /a/ sound in apple? Is
it at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end?"

Step 4: Start blending

At the start of the program, the number of words we can form are
very limited. So we will engage the child in blending and
segmenting of various different words that contain the /a/ sound.
Please remember that different children will catch on to blending at
different speeds so please be patient, and keep working at it with
them. You can pick any number of simple words that contain the
/a/ sound to stretch and blend with your child. This is really an
extension of step #3. Below are some examples:
AT
"I'm going to say AT slowly. Like this: AAAAAAAAAATT. AT. Can you
say AT slowly for me?"
"AAAAAAAATT". Your child responds.
"Great! Now can you say AT?" You now ask your child to say AT at
normal speed.
BAT
"Now I'm going to say BAT slowly. BAAAAATT. BAT! Can you say BAT
slowly for me?"
"BAAAAAATT".
"Fantastic! Ok, can you say BAT?" Ask your child to say BAT at
normal speed.
Other word suggestions: CAT, NAP, JAM, TAP, MAT, SAD, MAD,
DAD, APPLE

Step 5: Now you can let your child practice writing the upper case
and lower case letter Aa using a whiteboard, chalkboard, or plain
white paper. Ask the child to say the /a/ sound while writing the
letter Aa.
"Now, let's try to write the letter Aa and say /a/ at the same time.”
Proceed to demonstrate to your child how to write the letter Aa,
and say the /a/ sound along with each stroke. (Refer ‘Letter
formations with their strokes’ section)

Important Note:

Please make sure your child has mastered the /a/ sound before
moving on to lesson #2. The various words suggested in step 4 are
just suggestions, and you can do as few or as many as you feel
comfortable for your child. Each session should take only 3 to 5
minutes, and you should aim to go through this lesson 2 to 3 times
each day with your child.
Lesson 2: Bb_____________________

Step 1: Revise letter Aa with your child. You can let your child read
through the Lesson 1 video with the sound off. Once you are sure
that your child has mastered lesson # 1, you can move on with
lesson # 2.

Step 2: Introduce letter Bb from video Lesson 2 or use the lesson

printout. When using the lesson printout, show your child the letter
Bb and say, “This is letter Bb and it makes the /b/ sound (along with
the action)”. Ask your child to repeat the sound with action a few
times.

Note: Letter Bb is a stop sound, and cannot be stretched. Don’t try

to stretch and avoid pronouncing it as BUUUUUUH.

Please refer to our mp3 audio clips to learn the proper

pronunciation. Also watch the video for the action associated with
the sound of /b/.

Action: The child pretends to hold a bat and hit a ball, saying, /b, b,
b, b/.

Step 3: Let your child watch the Lesson 2 Bb video, which has the
sound, action and a few words associated with Bb. Let your child
repeat it along with the video. They can also practice and repeat the
words with the audio off.
Step 4: Let’s continue basic blending like we did in Lesson # 1. Don’t
fixate on whether your child has grasped the concept of blending
sounds into words yet. It’ll come with time and practice.
Below are some examples:
AB
"I'm going to say AB slowly. Like this: AAAAAAAAAAB. Can you say
AB slowly for me?"
"AAAAAAAAB". Your child responds.
"Great! Now can you say AB?" You now ask your child to say AB at
normal speed.
CAB
"Now I'm going to say CAB slowly. CAAAAAB. CAB! Can you say CAB
slowly for me?"
"CAAAAAAB".
"Fantastic! Ok, can you say CAB?" Ask your child to say CAB at
normal speed.
Other word suggestions: BAT, BAM, DAB, NAB, BAD, TAB, BACK

Again, with these words, it's not necessary to show them to your
child because the words contain letters which your child has not
learned yet. Simply practice blending these words with your child.
This lesson should be relatively quick as well. Make sure to repeat it
several times throughout the day.

Step 5: Now you can let your child practice writing the upper case
and lower case letter Bb using a whiteboard, chalkboard, or plain
white paper. Ask the child to say the /b/ sound while writing the
letter Bb.
"Now, let's try to write the letter Bb and say /b/ at the same time.”
Proceed to demonstrate to your child how to write the letter Bb,
and say the /b/ sound along with each stroke. (Refer ‘Letter
formations with their strokes’ section) After you have finished
tracing and writing the letter Bb, ask your child to do the same.

Important Note:

As mentioned earlier, each session should take only 3 to 5 minutes,

and you should aim to go through this lesson 2 to 3 times each day
with your child. Practice will make your child grasp the sounds and
the skill of blending words together.
Lesson 3: ab ba____________________

Step 1: Revise letter Aa and Bb with your child. You can let your
child read through the Lesson 1 and 2 video with the sound off.
Once you are sure that your child has mastered lesson # 1 and 2,
you can move on with lesson # 3.

Step 2: In lesson 3 here, we will introduce your children to their first

instance of reading and blending of two letters - Aa and Bb, which
they've already learned.

ab ba

Your child can go through the Lesson 3 video, which will introduce
them to the blending of ab and ba.
You can also use the cutout of ab and ba from the lesson printout to
teach them the blending sounds. This is how you do it:

1. Point your finger on ‘a’

ab ask the child the sound of letter ‘a’. It says aaahh

2. Point your finger on ‘b’

ab ask the child the sound of letter ‘b’. It says /b/

3. Now move your finger from ‘a’ to ‘b’ slowly saying the word ‘ab’
at normal speed.

ab
After you have shown your child how to sound out each letter,
blend it together to say ‘ab’, and ask your child to repeat the same
steps.

Step 3: Blending of ba

Repeat the same procedure to teach your child blending ba

together.

1. Point your finger on ‘b’

ba ask the child the sound of letter ‘b’. It says /b/

2. Point your finger on ‘a’

ba ask the child the sound of letter ‘a’. It says aaaahh

3. Now move your finger from ‘b’ to ‘a’ slowly saying the word ‘ba’
at normal speed.

ba
It is very important to reinforce your child about sounding out
individual letter and blending it together to read out the word.

Step 4: Say out a few other ab and ba words to your child, just like
we did in Lesson # 1 and 2.

"Now I'm going to say TAB slowly. TAAAAAB. TAB! Can you say TAB
slowly for me?"
"TAAAAAAB".
"Fantastic! Ok, can you say TAB?" Ask your child to say TAB at
normal speed.

BAT
"Now I'm going to say BAT slowly. BAAAAAT. BAT! Can you say BAT
slowly for me?"
"BAAAAAAT".
"Fantastic! Ok, can you say BAT?" Ask your child to say BAT at
normal speed.

Other word suggestions: DAB, LAB, BAN, BAD, NAB, CAB, BACK.

You do not have to show them the words, just say it out and let
your child listen to these words. Remember, learning to hear is the
first step of learning to read.

Important Note

Reading Left to Right

Explain the child that you should always start reading the words
from the top of the page and then from left to right. As
you read the story, model reading top to bottom, left to right, and
page by page by pointing to the words with your finger or a
pointer as you read. For most of us reading from left to right
seems very obvious, but for a young child reading from right to left
is just as normal as reading from left to right. Make an effort to
reinforce this with your kid, particularly at the beginning of our
program when you use the learning units.

Always Point to Where You are Reading

We all know how important it is to read aloud, but you can get so
much more out of the read aloud sessions by just pointing out
where you're reading. This subtle yet extremely powerful print
referring technique will attract your child’s attention to the printed
text. For many years, researchers have argued that adults play an
essential role in actively mediating children’s attention to print
during book reading (Adams, 1990; Snow & Ninio, 1986). Indeed,
eye-gaze studies confirm that children spend very little time looking
at print when adults do not use specific behaviors, like questioning
about print and pointing to print, that elicit attention to print during
read-alouds (Evans & Saint-Aubin, 2005; Justice, Pullen, & Pence,
2008). Unless adults strategically and deliberately highlight print,
young children spend less than 6% of read-aloud time looking at
print (Evans, Williamson, & Pursoo, 2008). However, estimates
suggest that when preschool-age children are read to with a print-
referencing style every day for 10 minutes they may fixate on print
20,000 times more often than children who are read to in a way
that does not draw their attention to print (Justice et al., 2008).
Therefore, whenever you are reading to your child, make sure you
point out to the text or word that you are reading and move along
gradually.
Lesson 4: Tt_______________________
Word Bank: tab, bat

Our program doesn’t teach letters in sequence. While we started

off our program by teaching your child the letters Aa and Bb, the
remaining letters from here on are not taught in alphabetic order.
This is the third letter of the alphabet your child will learn. Like
always, teach your child both the letter name, letter sound and its
action.

Step 1: Teach the letter Tt and its sound: /t/. Introduce letter Tt
from video Lesson 4 or use the lesson printout. Please refer to our
mp3 audio clips to learn the proper pronunciation. Also watch the
video for the action associated with the sound of /t/.
"This is the letter Tt, and the letter Tt makes the /t/ sound.

Action: The child imitate watching tennis match, turning their heads
from side to side and saying “t, t, t”

Can you say /t/ for me with action?" Ask your child to repeat the
sound with action a few times.

The letter Tt says… “/t, t, t/” (with action)

Please note that the /t/ sound is a stop sound, and it should not be
stretched. Make sure that you do not add a voiced “uh” sound at
the end of it to make it sound like “tuh”. Tt is a voiceless sound, so
that when you make this sound, your vocal cords will not vibrate.
You can test this by placing your fingers on your throat, while
making this sound. If your vocal cords vibrate while making the /t/
sound, then you are making the incorrect pronunciation of the /t/
sound.

Step 2: Trace the letter Tt and say the /t/ sound.

"Now, I'm going to trace the letter Tt and say /t/ at the same time.”
Proceed to trace the letter Tt, and say the /t/ sound at the same
time.
Step 3: Have your child trace the letter Tt and say the /t/ sound at
the same time.
" Okay, I have traced Tt and it was fun! Can you trace letter Tt and
say /t/ like I just did?"

Step 4: Let us start blending some words with the 3 letters that
we’ve learned. The child can start with the video for Lesson # 4,
where the break up and blending of the words are on display. You
can also use the lesson printout and teach these words in the
following way:

at: Ask them to sound out each letter and then blend the sounds
together to say ‘at’

"Okay, let's read this. What does this say?"

"AAAAAAAAT, AT!" Your child responds.

“Good Job!”. Now show them the ‘BAT’ print out. Let them sound
out each letter and try to read BAAAAAT together. If they are able
to read it, then great! If they are stuck or confused, don’t worry,
just help them break individual sounds along with their actions and
read BAAAAAT together for them. Let them repeat it once you’ve
done that. This may seem like an exceedingly simple process;
however, for very young children, this can pose some difficulties.
Don't get frustrated or worry if your child does not catch on to it
right away. Be patient and practice this several times a day.

Teach them the word ‘tab’, just as you did for ‘bat’

Important Note

At this stage, things can be a little challenging, where your child is

grasping the new knowledge and sometimes it does take some
time. Don’t try to have a time restraint or requirement placed on
each lesson. Doing this will only add pressure to the child and that’s
the last thing we want to do. Let your child progress through our
program at a speed they can handle and are comfortable with. Note
that it should never feel like a challenge for your child to learn to
read, and this is a key reason why each lesson is meant to be
learned in a very short period of time. To make it fun and exciting
for your kids, make sure to play our phonics games with them.

As for how long or how many days you need to spend teaching and
reinforcing each lesson with your child, that depends largely on you
and your child. There's absolutely no need to hurry through
anything and after your child has obtained a strong grasp of current
content, you can just move on to new lessons.

Finally, don't worry if progress at first seems slow. Do not

reprimand your child for making mistakes or condemn them. This
just creates a negative atmosphere for learning, which can cause
your child to lose confidence, and can bring a negative stigma to the
learning to read experience. It should only be a good experience to
learn to read. Simply correct the errors and make your kid try again.
To help your child build confidence, always give plenty of
motivation and praise.
Lesson 5: Cc______________________

Word Bank: cab, cat, act

Step 1: Teach the letter Cc and its sound: /c/. Introduce letter Cc
from video Lesson 5 or use the lesson printout. Please refer to our
mp3 audio clips to learn the proper pronunciation. Also watch the
video for the action associated with the sound of /c/.
"This is the letter Cc, and it makes the /c/ sound”.

Action: Raise your hands and snap your fingers together, as if you
are playing castanets and say “c, c, c”

Can you say /c/ for me with action?" Ask your child to repeat the
sound with action a few times.

The letter Cc says… “/c, c, c/” (with action)

Step 2: Trace the letter Cc and say the /c/ sound.

"Now, I'm going to trace the letter Cc and say /c/ at the same time.”
Proceed to trace the letter Cc, and say the /c/ sound at the same
time.
Step 3: Have your child trace the letter Cc and say the /c/ sound at
the same time.
"Okay, I have traced Cc and it was fun! Now it's your turn. Can you
trace letter Cc and say /c/ like I just did?"

Step 4: You can now introduce 3 more words to them. Quickly

review the combination ‘ab’ with your child. Write ‘ab’ on the
whiteboard or show them the cutout and let them say out the
sound of each letter and then blend the sounds together to say ‘ab’.

“What is the sound of a? Answer: /a/

“What is the sound of b? Answer: /b/

“What will ‘ab’ say together? Answer: /ab/

“Good job! Now add letter c before ‘ab’ or show the printout of the
word ‘cab’ and ask your child, “What will happen if we put the
sound /c/ before ‘ab’?

If your child is able to sound the word ‘caaaaab’ (cab), then great!
But if they find it difficult or get stuck blending them together, you
can read it out to them slowly and let them follow you.

Quickly review the combination ‘at’ with your child. Write ‘at’ on
the whiteboard or show the cutout and let them say out the sound
of each letter and then blend the sounds together to say ‘at’.

“What is the sound of a? Answer: /a/

“What is the sound of t? Answer: /t/

“What will ‘at’ say together? Answer: /at/

“Good job! Now add letter c before ‘at’ or show the printout of the
word ‘cat’ and ask your child, “What will happen if we put the
sound /c/ before ‘at’?
Let your child read out ‘caaaaat’ (cat) slowly. Help them out read it
slowly, in case they find it challenging and let them follow you.

Introduce the next word ‘act’ to your child. Show the ‘act’ printout
to your child and let them break individual sound slowly and then
blending it together to say ‘act’.

It may seem like a simple task to do, but for young children it can be
a little challenging. So the key is to be patient and give time to your
child. Believe me, once they get a hang to the process and
understand how blending works, things will get relatively very easy,
as you move along. Just repeat the exercises a few times a day and
let them read out letter sounds and blend words together as much
as possible. The more they practice, the better they understand the
concept and they would outperform themselves each time they do
it.

Step 5: Writing cat, cab and act (optional)

Don’t force your young child to write, if they are not willing to. If
they are able to grip the pencil comfortably and have well
developed fine motors skills, then it’s a good idea to encourage
some writing here. If they struggle gripping the pencil and write,
don’t worry about this step. In case they are prepared to write,
follow the steps as given below:

The child can write on the whiteboard, chalkboard or plain piece of

paper. Let your child break individual sounds in the word, write
each corresponding letter by saying out the letter sound and then
say the full word after writing all the letters. You can help your child
by showing them the action for the letter sounds, in case they are
not able to recall the sound of any letter.

Example:

cat –

c: The child writes the letter c and says the sound /c/

a: The child writes the letter a and says the sound /a/

t: The child writes the letter t and says the sound /t/

Similarly the child can write the words cab and act.

Important Note: When your child is reading the words, ask them to
follow a few instructions:

 Always point your finger on the letter you are reading and
move along.
 Break the word to read out individual letter sounds and then
read out the entire word by swiping the finger across the
bottom of the word slowly.

Why do some children struggle while blending

One major reason of some children struggling to read is when

they’ve learned many incorrect sound pronunciations. Yes, learning
incorrect sounds can cause word blending problems. These sounds
are the basic building blocks of our speech and when students learn
the wrong sounds, reading and decoding would definitely be a
challenge.

I’ve observed many teachers and parents add a schwa sound (uh) at
the end of many of the stop sounds like b, c, d, g, j, k, p and t.

So the sounds of these letters change from

/b/ to /buh/

/c/ to /cuh/

/d/ to /duh/

/g/ to /guh/

And so on…

Never add that extra /uh/ at the end of the letter sounds. This will
only end up distorting the original sound and the children will
struggle to blend letters together using these incorrect sounds.

Therefore, we have included the audio and video clips to

demonstrate the proper pronunciation of each sound taught in this
program. Kindly follow these clips and make sure you know the
correct sounds before you teach them to your child.
Lesson 6: Revision_________________

Word Bank: ab, ba, at, tab, cab, cat, bat, act

Lets Recap: Let’s quickly revise all the letters learnt so far – a, b, t
and c. You can let your child go through the lesson videos from 1 to
5. Also you can use the lesson printouts for 1 to 5 and recap all the
letter sounds and words.

Step 1: Your child can go through the video from Lesson 6 with the
audio on first and then with the audio off, reading out the individual
letter sounds and then blending the words together.

You can also use the lesson printouts to revise the words given in
the lesson. The method of breaking and reading out the words have
been explained before. Let’s go through it one more time.

Quickly review the combination ‘ab’ with your child. Show the ‘ab’
cutout and let them say out the sound of each letter and then blend
the sounds together to say ‘ab’.

“What is the sound of a? Answer: /a/

“What is the sound of b? Answer: /b/

“What will ‘ab’ say together? Answer: /ab/

“Good job! Now show the printout of the word ‘tab’ and ask your
child, “What will happen if we put the sound /t/ before ‘ab’?
If your child is able to sound the word ‘taaaaaab’ (tab), then great!
But if they find it difficult or get stuck blending them together, you
can read it out to them slowly and let them follow you. Don’t push
them. Be patient. Give them th e time and space to learn. It’s
perfectly normal. So don’t stress yourself out.

Step 2: You can revise the words cab, cat, bat and act in the exact
same way as mentioned above.

Step 3: Writing words – Phoneme Addition

The child can write spellings of the words that they read and
practiced in step 1 and 2. Let’s look into it…

Ask your child to write ‘ab’. Let them read out each letter sound as
they write ‘ab’.

a: The child writes the letter a and says the sound /a/

b: The child writes the letter b and says the sound /b/

“What sound do you hear in ab?” - aaaaab

“Now listen to the word ‘tab’ carefully. How can we change the
word ‘ab’ into ‘tab’? Which sound needs to be added to ‘ab’ to
change it to ‘tab’?” – taaaab

“Yes exactly, we need the /t/ sound to be added in front of ‘ab’ to

make it taaaab
You can follow the above mentioned example for ‘tab’ and help
your child write the word ‘cab’.

This can be followed by writing at, cat and bat using the above
mentioned steps.

They can also practice writing the word ‘act’.

Important Note

Here we’ve seen an example of phonemic addition and substitution

in step 1. We started with ‘ab’ and proceeded further doing ‘tab’
and ‘cab (simple substitution of ‘t’ and ‘c’), which are similar words.
You can play around doing addition and substitution and also work
with phonetic spelling of words whenever you can. We’ve followed
grouping together similar words throughout our program.
Lesson 7: Revision_________________

Word Bank: ab, ba, at, tab, cab, cat, bat, act

Lets Recap: This lesson is an extension and repetition of Lesson 6.

Let your child watch the video for Lesson 7, initially with the audio
on and then with the audio off. They can also use the lesson
printouts to break and blend to read words.

Once they complete the reading, they can repeat the writing
exercise mentioned in Lesson 6 (Step 3).
Lesson 8: Oo______________________

Word Bank: cob, bot, cot, bob, tot

So far your child has been making a steady progress as we are

moving forward with our lessons. Be patient, revise the lessons a
few times throughout the day. Let your child understand and
master the concept of segmenting and blending the words
together.

Step 1: In this lesson, we introduce the child with the second vowel
– Oo.

Teach the letter Oo and its sound: /o/ (awwww). Introduce letter
Oo from video Lesson 8 or use the lesson printout. Please refer to
our mp3 audio clips to learn the proper pronunciation. Also watch
the video for the action associated with the sound of /o/.
"This is the letter Oo, and it makes the /o/ (awwwww) sound”.

Action: Pretend to turn a light switch on and off with your finger
and say “aaaww, aaaww, aaaww”

The letter Oo says… “aaaww, aaaww, aaaww” (with action)

Can you say /o/ for me with action?" Ask your child to repeat the
sound with action a few times.

Step 2: Teach the words cob, bot, cot, bob, tot from video Lesson 8
or lesson printouts. Choose whatever the child is comfortable with.
Step 3: Let them trace Oo and write the words.

Lesson 9: Ss_______________________

Word Bank: sob, sat, toss, boss, bats, tabs

Step 1: Teach the letter Ss and its sound: /s/ (ssssss). Introduce
letter Ss from video Lesson 9 or use the lesson printout. Please
refer to our mp3 audio clips to learn the proper pronunciation. Also
watch the video for the action associated with the sound of /s/.

"This is the letter Ss, and it makes the /s/ (ssssss) sound”.

Action: Weave your hand like a snake, making s shape and say
“ssssss, ssssss, ssssss”

The letter Ss says… “ssssss, ssssss, ssssss” (with action)

Can you say /s/ for me with action?" Ask your child to repeat the
sound with action a few times.

Step 2: Teach the words sob, sat, toss, boss, bats, tabs to your child
from video Lesson 9 or lesson printout.

Important Note:

Often, children who may have mastered the idea of mixing and
blending words and have strong word recognition skills, may be
tempted to simply say the word without sounding it out. At this
stage it is advised to always encourage the child to sound out each
letter in the word, regardless of whether the child can simply "look
and say" the word. As we progress further, the child can look and
read out the word, without sounding each letter. The idea is to not
let the child get into reading words as a ‘whole’ or ‘sight word’,
which will take away the main objective of learning to read with
synthetic phonics and phonemic awareness, where the child can
decode and read words with fluency and confidence.
Lesson 10: Uu_____________________

Word Bank: bus, cut, but, tub, cub, sub, tubs

Sight Words: a, the

Step 1: Teach the letter Uu and its sound: /u/ (uh). It is not sounded
as ‘you’ but ‘uh’. Introduce letter Uu from video Lesson 10 or use
the lesson printout. Please refer to our mp3 audio clips to learn the
proper pronunciation. Also watch the video for the action
associated with the sound of /u/.

"This is the letter Uu, and it makes the /u/ (uh) sound”.

Action: Keep one hand steady and raise the other, as if raising an
umbrella and say “uh, uh, uh”

The letter Uu says… “uh, uh, uh” (with action)

Can you say /u/ for me with action?" Ask your child to repeat the
sound with action a few times.

Step 2: Teach the words bus, cut, but, tub, cub, sub, tubs to your
child from video Lesson 10 or lesson printout.

Introduction of sight words:

Here, we introduce two sight words to the child; i.e ‘a’ and ‘the’.
Introduce sight words to your child by saying that these words are
just to be read as a whole. Unlike the previous lessons, these words
can’t be read as individual sounds and blended together to read the
word. Instead, they are just to be read as a WHOLE WORD.

Sight word ‘a’: When your child sees ‘a’, their typical reaction
would be to sound it out as ‘aaaaahhh’ (Lesson 1). Just tell the child,
that the sound of ‘a’ is ‘aaaahhh’ as we had learned in Lesson 1. But
here, when we use ‘a’ in a sentence, we use them as a sight word,
which makes the ‘uh’ sound. Let your child hear and watch the 2 nd
half of the video for Lesson 10. Repeat the sight word ‘a’ a few
time.

You can use the lesson printouts from the previous lessons and
combine them together with the printout of sight word ‘a’ to read
them out together.

Show the cutout ‘a’ and ask them “what does this say as a sight
word”? (it says ‘uh’)

Show another cutout ‘bus’ and ask them “what does this say”? (it
says ‘bus’)

Now put both the cutouts ‘a’ and ‘bus’ side by side and read them
together - ‘a bus’

Use some other word cutouts (cob, cot, tub etc), and repeat the
above step, combined with the cutout of sight word ‘a’.

Sight word ‘the’: As mentioned above, tell the child that the word
‘the’ will be read as whole. It won’t be segmented and blended like
we’ve been doing in our previous lessons. Let the child watch and
hear ‘the’ from video Lesson 10. At this point, when they first see
‘the’, their reaction would to break it up into individual sounds and
they would try doing it. Because they’ve already learned ‘t’, so they
would attempt to read ‘t’ and get stuck with ‘h and ‘e’, as these
sounds are not been taught yet . So just explain the child that ‘the’ is
a sight word and it is not to be broken into individual sound, but it is
simply to be read as ‘the’.

You can repeat the cutout activity as mentioned for sight word ‘a’
with your child. Use the word cutout cub, tub, bus etc to read them
out together with sight word ‘the’.
Lesson 11: Pp_____________________
Word Bank: up, tap, pat, pub, pot, cap, cup, cop, top, pop, taps,
apt, opt

Sentences:

Pat the cat

A top cup

Pop the cap

A cat sat

As we are progressing into new lessons, you’ll notice that we are

introducing new words to the child. This is because, as new letters
are introduced, the scope of combining different words together
also increases. With the addition of more words gradually as we
move along, the lessons will take slightly more time to complete.
With the previous lessons, where we had 2 -4 words, it was quite
easy to complete the lessons in 2 to 3 minutes. But now with more
words in the build up and also with the introduction of sentences
and stories ahead, the lessons will take longer time to complete.
We would advice to keep all the lessons between 5 to 7 minutes.
With longer lessons, simply break them into smaller chunks of 5 to
7 minutes each. This will ensure that the child is not over loaded
with lessons lasting long periods of time.

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104
Step 1: Teach the letter Pp and its sound: /p/. Introduce letter Pp
from video Lesson 11 or use the lesson printout. Please refer to our
mp3 audio clips to learn the proper pronunciation. Also watch the
video for the action associated with the sound of /p/.

"This is the letter Pp, and it makes the /p/ sound”.

Action: Hold up your finger, as if it is a candle, and pretend to puff it

out, saying “p, p, p”

The letter Pp says… “p, p, p” (with action)

Can you say /p/ for me with action?" Ask your child to repeat the
sound with action a few times.

Step 2: Teach the words up, tap, pat, pub, pot, cap, cup, cop, top,
pop, taps, apt, opt to your child from video Lesson 11 or lesson
printout.

Introduction to Sentences:

In this lesson, the child is introduced to simple sentences. The

sentences will include the sounds and the words that the child has
already learned so far. With the knowledge of the 2 sight words - ‘a’
and ‘the’, we will introduce simple sentences comprising of 3
words. It is important to note that while reading the sentences, the
child will use the same reading rules that they’ve been following so
far; i.e To sound out each letter in a word while reading the
sentence.

Phonics Fun Young Readers Program

105
Pat the cat

A top cup

Pop the cap

A cat sat

The way to read sentences is as follows:

Let’s take the example of “Pat the cat”.

Step 1: Break and sound out each letter in ‘Pat’ as in /p/ /a/ /t/
saying ‘pat’

Step 2: Reading the sight word ‘the’.

Step 3: Break and sound out each letter in ‘cat’ as in /c/ /a/ /t/
saying ‘cat’.

Step 4: Once you finish breaking and reading each word, just read
the entire sentence slowly “Pat the cat”

As, discussed earlier, kindly encourage your child to use their finger
under each letter and word as they read, sliding it towards the next
letter or word as they move along.

Challenges with sentence reading:

Reading sentences can sound like an easy and straight forward task
for us adults, but for young children it can be a real challenge,

Phonics Fun Young Readers Program

106
especially in the beginning. A sentence is a combination of several
words together and each word a combination of letters. It involves
sounding out and blending a single word, to sounding out and
blending multiple words, and finally putting those words together
to read the entire sentence. When a child begins to read single
words, blending may pose some problems, as the child sounds each
letter and several seconds may elapse between the first sound and
the last sound of the word, so that the child may have forgotten the
initial sound. Now, with sentences it’s going to be a few degree
harder.

Let’s take a simple example of the first sentence used in this lesson:

Pat the cat

Now, reading this sentence will involve 4 steps as outlined above in

the lesson. Let’s look at it in details.

Step 1: Break and sound out each letter in ‘Pat’ as in /p/ /a/ /t/
saying ‘pat’.

Step 2: Reading the sight word ‘the’.

Step 3: Break and sound out each letter in ‘cat’ as in /c/ /a/ /t/
saying ‘cat’.

Step 4: Once you finish breaking and reading each word, just read
the entire sentence slowly “Pat the cat”

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107
With every step, the child will have to sound out each letter, blend
& read the word and move along to sound out, blend & read the
next word. This may be easy for a 2 or 3 word sentence, but with
the addition of more words, it can be a challenging task for the child
to read out the sentences. With an addition of every word, it will
involve an extra step and this requires more brain capacity.

With sentences, it is absolutely NOT necessary for your child to

achieve perfect sentence reading right from the start. In fact, we
suggest taking it easy and slowly. Some younger children may face
difficulties reading sentences from start to finish. And they may
show some initial resistance reading sentences, due to the
complexities discussed earlier. But don’t worry, it is quite normal.
With a little time and practice, reading sentences will become just
as natural as reading words for your child. Because of the possible
initial difficulties, we introduce very short and simple sentences
early on, and slowly build up to longer and more complicated
sentences as we progress.

Just make sure they follow the right way of reading sentences, as
discussed earlier.

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 Phonics Fun
Young Readers
Lesson printouts

Print out the sheets and use it for reading activity. You can
also cut out letters and words to use it as flashcards.
Lesson 1 Lesson 2 Lesson 3

Aa Bb ab ba
Lesson 4 Lesson 5 Lesson 8

Tt Cc Oo
at cat cob
bat cab bot
tab act cot
bob
tot
 Lesson 9

Ss sob sat toss

boss bats tabs
Lesson 10

Uu bus cut but

tub cub sub tubs
Sight words

a the
 Lesson 11

Pp up tap pat
pub pot cap cup
cop top pop taps
apt opt
Sentences

Pat the cat

A top cup
Pop the cap
A cat sat