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Give your child a head start in reading To be a good reader, your child will need to know all of the letter sounds of English, not just the alphabet. When we teach children the alphabet they learn the letter names, but it is the letter sounds that we use for reading and writing. My First Letter Sounds provides an easy introduction to those letter sounds and, in doing so, gives your child the best start to reading and writing.
Say the sound and encourage your child to say it too.
Encourage your child to trace the shape of the letter, starting at the dot.
f
Say the word. Can your child hear that there is a /fffff/ sound in ‘frog’?
frog
Designed and edited by Louise Van-Pottelsberghe © Sue Lloyd and Sara Wernham 2015 (text) © Lib Stephen 2015 (illustrations) Printed in China All rights reserved
Jolly Learning Ltd www.jollylearning.com info@jollylearning.co.uk 82 Winter Sport Lane, Williston, VT 05495, USA Tel: 1-800-488-2665 Fax: (802) 864-7626 Tailours House, High Road, Chigwell, Essex, IG7 6DL, UK Tel: +44 20 8501 0405 Fax: +44 20 8500 1696
Say the sounds in the word. Can your child hear that /f-r-o-g/ makes ‘frog’?
ISBN 978-1-84414-475-4
ËxHSLIOEy14 754z Reference: JL755
in print letters
s t
sun
a
ant
Learn the letter sounds with
tent
s ant
sun
a
u log
cup
l
oo moon
book
oo
oi rescue
oil
ue
Tips for Parents With My First Letter Sounds, children learn all of the letter sounds of the English language, not just the alphabet letters. Learning the letter sounds is the first step towards reading and writing. Help Your Child Learn the Sounds • Introduce each letter with the sound it makes, not its name. For example, when you show your child the letter ‹s› say /sss/ – like the noise a snake makes – and not ‘ess’. A written pronunciation guide for each sound has been provided in the table below. (A free audio pronunciation guide is available on the Jolly Learning website.) • After you have pointed to a letter and said its sound, encourage your child to do the same. • Later on, encourage your child to look through books or magazines and try to spot the letter sounds that have been introduced. Help Your Child Form the Letters • Encourage your child to trace over the letter shape with his or her finger, starting at the starting dot. • Once your child knows how to form a letter, encourage him or her to trace the shape of the letter in the air or on the ground. Help Your Child Listen for Sounds and Words • After you have introduced a letter sound, point to the picture next to it and ask, for example, ‘Can you hear the /ssssss/ sound in “sun”?’ It can help if you stress the sound in bold type: for example, ‘sssun’. • As your child becomes more familiar with the letter sounds, you can ask where a sound comes in a word. For example, ‘Is the /ssssss/ sound at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of the word “sun”?’ • Play ‘Spot the Picture’ with your child. Open the book at any page and choose one of the pictures without saying which one. Ask your child, for example, ‘Can you spot the picture of the /k-i-ng/?’ (Say the sounds in the word rather than the word as a whole.) With some practice, your child should begin to hear that /k-i-ng/ makes ‘king’. This is one of the essential skills for reading. The table below shows the individual sounds in each word. Letter Sound Pronunciation s as in ‘sand’ a as in ‘hand’ t as in ‘bat’ i as in ‘pin’
Word sun ant tent hill
Sounds in Word /s-u-n/ /a-n-t/ /t-e-n-t/ /h-i-l/
p as in ‘pen’ n as in ‘spin’ ck as in ‘cap’, ‘kick’ e as in ‘mend’ h as in ‘hop’ r as in ‘red’ m as in ‘must’ d as in ‘dig’ g as in ‘gap’ o as in ‘spot’ u as in ‘under’ l as in ‘flop’ f as in ‘fun’ b as in ‘crab’ ai as in ‘aim’ j as in ‘jog’ oa as in ‘moan’ ie as in ‘lies’ ee as in ‘tree’ or as in ‘storm’ z as in ‘zip’ w as in ‘went’ ng as in ‘song’ v as in ‘vet’ oo (little) as in ‘look’ oo (long) as in ‘spoon’ y as in ‘yes’ x as in ‘mix’ ch as in ‘chop’ sh as in ‘ship’ th (voiced) as in ‘then’ th (unvoiced) as in ‘thin’ qu as in ‘quick’ ou as in ‘found’ oi as in ‘spoil’ ue as in ‘value’ er as in ‘stern’ ar as in ‘start’
pie net cook egg hen rabbit map bed goat dog cup log frog bus snail jam boat tie bee fork zoo winter king van book moon yak box chest shell feather moth queen cloud oil rescue fern car
/p-ie/ /n-e-t/ /c-oo-k/ /e-g/ /h-e-n/ /r-a-b-i-t/ /m-a-p/ /b-e-d/ /g-oa-t/ /d-o-g/ /c-u-p/ /l-o-g/ /f-r-o-g/ /b-u-s/ /s-n-ai-l/ /j-a-m/ /b-oa-t/ /t-ie/ /b-ee/ /f-or-k/ /z-oo/ /w-i-n-t-er/ /k-i-ng/ /v-a-n/ /b-oo-k/ /m-oo-n/ /y-a-k/ /b-o-x/ /ch-e-s-t/ /sh-e-l/ /f-e-th-er/ /m-o-th/ /qu-ee-n/ /c-l-ou-d/ /oi-l/ /r-e-s-c-ue/ /f-er-n/ /c-ar/
Digraphs: Sometimes, two or more letters make a single sound: for example, the ‹ie› in ‘pie’, or the ‹oo› in ‘zoo’. Double Letters: When two letters that make the same sound are together in a word, you only need to say the sound once. Silent Letters: On the main pages, silent letters, such as the ‹a› in ‘feather’, are in faint type as a reminder that they are not pronounced.