The following concepts are important to help your child understand sentence level grammar.

• A noun is a naming word that is the subject of the sentence. It can be a person, place or thing. In the sentence 'The ballon is red,' the noun is ‘balloon’ as it is the subject, or the thing the sentence is about.
• An adjective is word that describes a noun. Adjectives add information about a person, place or thing. In the sentence ' I can see a yellow car.' the adjective is ‘yellow’ as it is describing the noun (car).
• A noun group is a phrase that includes a noun with at least one word that provides additional information about the noun. In the sentence 'There is a small, white cup.' the noun group in is ‘small, white cup’.
• A verb is a word that expresses an action, something that we can do. In the sentence 'Billy was running to meet his friend.', the verb is ‘running’.
• An adverb is a describing word used to add detail to verbs. In the sentence 'The tiger walked slowly.', the adverb is ‘slowly’ as it describes how the tiger walked.

• Engage in conversations: Talk with children often. Hearing and using lots of language supports their spoken and written language development.
• Discuss stories: When reading, talk about the people, places or things in the stories. Discuss how these are described in the story.
• Sentence scramble: Change the order of words in sentences. Say or write a sentence with the words out of order. Ask your child to rearrange it so it makes sense.
• Expand sentences: Build on your child’s sentences. For example, your child asks for a cup. You could describe the colour or the size of the cup. “Did you want the small, yellow cup or the big, red cup?”.
• Share stories: Read, share and talk about stories with your child at home. Share stories from your culture, your family stories and your child’s stories. When story telling or reading books talk about how the language makes the story interesting and descriptive.
• Encourage discussions: Engage your child in discussions that encourage them to talk in sentences. Ask open questions that start with ‘what’, ‘how’ or ‘why’ to encourage children to speak in full sentences. For example, questions like ‘Why do you think you’re feeling that way today?’ or ‘What did you find challenging at school today?’ require them to express their feelings and their thoughts in longer responses.
• Explore photos: Look at photos or pictures and discuss them. Ask questions like: What do you remember about when we took this photo? How does this make you feel? Support your child to share their thoughts.
• Create stories: Support your child to create their own story from their imagination. Ask questions like: What is this story about? Who is in the story? What happens in the story?

These concepts support children’s understanding of how sounds and letters work together in both reading and writing.

• Phonemes are the smallest unit of sound in speech. They do not have any meaning on their own, but when combined, they form a word. For example, the word 'cat' has 3 phonemes: /c/, a/ and /t/. The word 'ship' has 3 phonemes: /sh/, /i/, /p/.
• Grapheme: The letters or groups of letters that represent a sound (phoneme). For example,
  • the letter ’a‘ as in ’cat’.
  • the diagraph 'sh‘ in ’shoe’ or ’ch‘ in ’chair’ (a digraph is 2 letters together represent one sound)
  • the trigraph ‘tch’ in ‘watch’ (a trigraph is 3 letters together represent one sound).

We use phonemes and graphemes together when we read and write.

• To spell or write a word we break down or segment the word into its individual sounds (phonemes). For example, segmenting the word ‘cat’ would give us the sounds /c/, /a/, and /t/.
• When reading, children use their knowledge of graphemes to match phonemes and sound out words. For example, when they see the word ‘bat’, they recognise the sounds /b/, a/, and /t/, then match those sounds to the letters b, a, and t. They combine or blend individual sounds (phonemes) together to read a word.
• When writing, children listen for the phonemes in a word, then use their knowledge of graphemes to match those sounds with letters. For example, to write the word ‘ship’, your child hears the sounds /sh/, /i/, and /p/, and writes sh, i, and p.

By practising these activities at home, you can help your child strengthen their phonics skills, supporting them to be more confident in becoming independent readers and writers.

Digraph search

Choose lots of different texts to read including stories, poetry and informational texts. Search for words which include digraphs (2 letters that represent 1 sound) such as 'sh', 'th', 'ch', 'ck', 'ng', 'ph' and 'wr'. Discuss the sounds and the words when you find them.

You can play this game as a trigraph (3 letters that represent 1 sound) search for words that contain 'air', 'ear', 'igh' or 'tch'.

Rhyme time

Take turns at saying a word and coming up with a word that rhymes. For example, if you say ‘bag’ the next word could be ‘flag’. Remember words that rhyme sound the same at the end of the word.

Phonics problem solver

One person breaks a word into sounds and the other needs to solve the word by blending the sounds together. For example, one person says the word ‘bell’. The problem solver would break the word into /b/ /e/ /ll/.

This game can also be played by giving the word as sounds and the problem solver needs to blend the sounds to make a word. For example: /b/ /r/ /u/ /sh/, the problem solver blends the sounds to answer ‘brush’.