My Second Phonics Activity Book

Age 4+

This fun-filled activity book is great preparation for school.

It will help your child develop essential first reading and writing skills.

Research has shown how important the right support at home can be. This lively series of activity books has been designed to help you make the adventure of learning to read, write, rhyme and spell a pleasurable part of home life.

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Published by Letterland International Ltd, Leatherhead, Surrey, KT22 9AD, UK © Letterland International Ltd 2014 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Product Code: TF01 ISBN: 978-1-86209-981-4 LETTERLAND® is a registered trademark of Lyn Wendon.

My Second Phonics Activity Book

Hundreds of thousands of children have learned to read, write and spell with Letterland’s fun, interactive teaching system.

Writing Reading

Writers: Alison Milford, Gill Munton, Gudrun Freese & Lisa Holt Illustrations: Ainslee MacLeod, Celia Hart, Kathy Baxendale & Laura Bittles Design: Laura Bittles

Code: TF01 £8.99 ISBN 978-1-86209-981-4

9 781862 099814

See our full range at: www.letterland.com

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Child-friendly phonics

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About Letterland Letterland is an imaginary place where letters come to life! The friendly Letterland characters help children to easily understand the sound and shape of letters - one of the key skills needed when learning to read and write.

Simple stories about the Letterland characters explain letter sounds and shapes, so that confusion over similar looking letters is avoided and children are motivated to listen, think and learn.

One of Letterland’s keys to success is its ‘Sound Trick’. By just starting to pronounce a character’s name, such as ‘a…’ (Annie Apple), ‘b...’ (Bouncy Ben), ‘c...’ (Clever Cat), a child automatically says the correct letter sound. It’s that simple! The combination of memorable characters and proven educational principles makes Letterland the ideal way to introduce your child to the alphabet.

Annie Apple

Bouncy Ben

Kicking King

Lucy Lamp Light

Uppy Umbrella

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Vicky Violet

Clever Cat

Munching Mike

Walter Walrus

Dippy Duck

Noisy Nick

Fix-it Max

Eddy Elephant

Oscar Orange

Yellow Yo-yo Man

Firefighter Fred

Peter Puppy

Golden Girl

Quarrelsome Queen

Harry Hat Man

Red Robot

Impy Ink

Sammy Snake

Jumping Jim

Talking Tess

For more information, including a pronunciation guide for all the letter sounds, see: www.letterland.com Zig Zag Zebra

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Introducing reading My Second Phonics Activity Book is divided into two sections – Reading and Writing.

The first section of the book focuses on reading skills.

Many of the activities in this book rely on knowing the a-z letter sounds. Here is the simple Letterland ‘Sound Trick’ that your child can use to discover each letter’s sound: Just START to say any Letterlander’s name, and catch the very first sound that comes out of your mouth*.

That sound is actually the sound that letter makes in words.

For example: Bouncy Ben ‘b…’ (not ‘buh’ or ‘bee’) Eddy Elephant ‘eh…’ (not ‘ee’) Firefighter Fred ‘fff…’ (not ‘fuh’ or ‘ef’) * It is important not to add ‘uh’ on to ends of sounds. This can cause children to read and spell words inaccurately, for example, saying ‘buh’ ‘tuh’ and expecting they can spell the word butter with just bt.

Pages 4-25 provide activities to help children recognise the beginnings, middles and endings in regular words. If each letter in a word is making its ‘regular’ sound, then children can blend the sounds together to read the word. (For example ant, bug, cat and dog are regular words.)

With the help of the Letterlanders, children will be able to work out which letters belong in each position in a word (spelling), and blend the sounds together into a whole word (reading).

Pages 26-44 provide activities focusing on rhyming. Children enjoy rhymes because rhymes play with language and children love all forms of play. Understanding how rhymes work is an important skill that will give your child a happy start in reading and spelling simple words. A child who can read and spell cat will be able to read and spell hat, mat and so on. So, as children enjoy these rhyming activities, they will also be taking an essential step towards successful reading.

Throughout this book there are useful notes at the bottom of the page to help you draw attention to both shapes and sounds and to get the most out of every activity.

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Starting words Say the first sound in each Letterlander’s name.

Annie Apple

Bouncy Ben

Clever Cat

Whose sound starts each word? Write the letter. Read the word.

bus ___

4

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List e

n

___

ed

___

___

nt

up

___

___

at

pp l e

After saying the sounds at the top together, look at the pictures underneath. Can your child tell you the first sound he or she hears in the word ‘bus’? Which Letterlander makes that sound?

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Say the first sound in each Letterlander’s name.

Dippy Duck

Eddy Elephant

Firefighter Fred

Golden Girl

Whose sound starts each word? Write the letter. Read the word.

___

Hea

ding

___

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og

uck

___

___

gg

reen

___

___

ox

ro g

When you have helped your child to finish the page, stop and let him or her have fun pretending to be a firefighter fighting fires with foam as you make Firefighter Fred’s ‘fff…’ sound.

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Say Impy Ink’s sound.

Say Eddy Elephant’s sound.

Name each picture below. Whose sound can you hear in the middle of each word? Write in the missing letter.

10 w n

t n

p g

p g

___

16

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Rea

d!

___

___

___

Encourage your child to try this game when you have finished this page (and other pages).

Take turns closing your eyes and putting your finger somewhere on the lower part of the page. Then read the word closest to where your finger landed.

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In the middle Say Oscar Orange’s sound.

Say Uppy Umbrella’s sound.

Name each picture below. Whose sound can you hear in the middle of each word? Circle the matching word.

hut hot

dog dug

nut not

Lett e sou r nds

hot hut

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Uppy Umbrella makes the sound you hear in ‘Up, up and away!’ Try opening your mouth wide for Oscar’s sound so your child can see the difference.

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Rhyming pairs Join the words to the pictures to form rhyming pairs.

ball

small

cat

fat

bed

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List

en

red

As you read the words together, encourage your child to listen to the way they sound alike at the end. Explain that this makes them into rhyming words.

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Draw the rhymes

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Draw a picture of…

…a fox in a box.

Vol

ume

…a cat on a mat.

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Say the sentences together several times. Have some fun and make a game of saying the rhyming words louder than the rest of the sentence.

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Cross it out Cross out the words that do not rhyme in each line.

house

locket

nest

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Poin

t

clock

mouse

cake

jelly

rocket

hat

rat

sock

cow

Help strengthen the sound/symbol link by pointing to each word as you read them to your child.

Help with the discovery that, except for the first letter or two, the rhyming words on this page both sound and look similar.

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Tick it off Tick the words that rhyme with ‘tree’.

bee

duck

three knee

apple flower

Loo

k

horse TF01_text.indd 29

key

Help with the discovery that sometimes the rhyming part of the word will not look the same, but it will still sound the same.

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Rhyming words

cake

lake

snake Look! I’ve got lots more rhyming words for you.

rake 30

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whale

nail

sail

Loo k

snail

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Tick the words as you find the objects in the picture. Then colour the picture.

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Read the poems and try to fill in the missing rhyming word at the end of each one.

Annie Apple Annie Apple is in her tree, How many animals can she see?

Five pink piglets in their pen, and five white lambs, that makes _ _ _!

ten fun

axe ant

Mum kite

Mike hike

Bouncy Ben

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Poin

t

Bouncy Ben is riding on his bright, blue bike.

He’s going up a mountain to visit Munching _ _ _ _!

It’s important to try and help your child realise that every spoken word can be written down and ‘kept’ on a page. This is why pointing to each word is useful.

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Clever Cat Clever Cat is playing.

She’s dressed up as a clown.

She jumps into her car, and drives around the _ _ _ _!

moon town

hill cows

door desk

drum pad

Dippy Duck Here is the band from Letterland.

Down the road they come.

Look! Dippy Duck is at the front banging on her _ _ _ _!

Eddy Elephant

Enjo

y

Eddy loves to exercise.

He likes to stand on his head.

But sometimes he prefers to do eleven push-ups _ _ _ _ _ _ _!

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shed in town down instead

Research has shown that learning to love reading is one of the most important factors in success at school. So have a good time reading together!

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Introducing writing My Second Phonics Activity Book is divided into two sections – Reading and Writing.

The second section of this book (pages 47-95) focuses on writing.

There are 52 basic letter shapes in written English (Aa - Zz) and they are all abstract shapes. In Letterland these abstract shapes are bonded with child-friendly concrete images that act as memory cues. When your child sees the Letterland characters linked to the letter shapes, the risk of confusing all these abstract shapes is greatly reduced.

It’s important for your child to learn the right movement pathway for each letter.

Correct formation ensures that the letters begin and end in the right place. This is especially important when your child moves on to the next stages of joining up handwriting. If young children are allowed to form letters ‘their own way’ these habits quickly become established and can hold back their progress later.

Useful tips Throughout this book there are useful notes at the bottom of the page to help you draw attention to both shapes and sounds and to get the most out of every activity.

Use the illustrations below to make sure that the correct pencil grip becomes a habit from the start. A poor grip very quickly becomes a hard habit to change.

Children learn a lot about muscle control directly through their hands, wrists and fingers, so let your child finger-trace the various activities first. Another time, provide two or three coloured pencils, and stay on hand to give encouragement as your child goes over the paths and lines with each colour. Little and often works best, so just do a few pages at a time.

Above all, have fun! Remember to give lots of praise and encouragement to your child as you do the activities together.

Left-hander

Finger tips 4cm from tip of pencil

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Right-hander

Finger tips 2cm from tip of pencil

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Warm up!

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Pen c con il trol

Trace over the lines.

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Tracing the lines to complete the shapes encourages good pencil control - an essential element for successful letter formation.

47

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Annie Apple Annie Apple says ‘a...’ at the start of words like ant, astronaut and apple. Say Annie Apple’s sound as you write her letter.

a...

a ant a astronaut Circle the things that start with Annie Apple’s sound.

Trace over Annie Apple’s uppercase and lowercase letters.

Aa Aa Aa Aa 48

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Annie Apple represents the short ‘a...’ sound you can hear at the start of her name. She belongs to Mr A, the Apron Man. Mr A says his name (‘ay’) in words like acorn and April.

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Bouncy Ben Bouncy Ben says ‘b...’ at the start of words like big, bird and butterfly. Say Bouncy Ben’s sound as you write his letter.

big b…

butterfly

Colour the butterfly.

Circle the things that start with Bouncy Ben’s sound.

Trace over Bouncy Ben’s uppercase and lowercase letters.

Sou nd sha & pe

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Remind your child to keep their mouth almost shut to avoid saying two sounds, ‘b...’ and ‘uh’ by mistake.

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Recognising b and d Colour in the balloons that have my letter in them.

b d d b Draw a circle round the words that start with my letter sound.

b

doll duck

Pre v con ent fusi on

bun

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bell

To avoid confusing ‘b’ and ‘d’, make sure your child learns their two very different handwriting strokes well.

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Choose a letter to complete each word. Now draw a picture of your word.

ma ____

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End

ings

ca ____ Here is a chance to make eight different words, depending on which final letter your child chooses.

Try all the options together, sound out the words you have made, and watch while your child draws one of them in each box.

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Learning vowel sounds

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Join the Letterlanders to the objects that start with their sounds.

Write in the letters to finish off the words.

nk

____

gg

____

mbrella

____

pple

____

ranges

Vow e

ls

____

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This page features the five short vowel sounds. Explain that each of these vowels appears in thousands of words, so it is good to get to know their sounds very well.

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Write in a, e, i, o or u to complete the words.

f ____ x

z ____ p

s ____ n

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Vow e

ls

h ____ t

r ____ d

Learning to listen carefully for the vowel sound in the middle of 3-letter words takes practice.

Help your child by stretching out each sound in the words above.

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Recognising middle sounds

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Write in my letter to make these words.

j ____ t h ____ n w ____ b

Mid

dles

t ____ nt

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When your child has added Eddy Elephant’s ‘e…’ sound, try sounding out the word. Does it match the object drawn around it? Yes, it does!

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Writing labels

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Write labels under the objects in the picture.

duck pond cat jet web

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Wri tin wor g ds

bell

Writing labels helps your child to see that letters can be made into words that can represent pictures, and carry meaning both with and without seeing the pictures.

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Days of the week

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Trace over the letters to make a whole week.

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

Goo pra d ctic e

Draw a picture of something you like to do on your favourite day of the week.

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Some long words, like the days of the week, all end in the same way. Noticing repeated letter patterns like this is a valuable part of learning to read and spell well.

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Colours Trace over the name of each colour and then colour the shapes underneath each word.

red yellow blue green pink purple

black

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Pra

ctic

e

brown

Not all words can be fully decoded with the regular alphabet sounds. It is important to practise the words we use a lot. Recognising and writing high-usage words is a valuable skill.

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Make your own card Fold a piece of paper in half. Draw a picture on the front.

Open out the card and write your message inside.

Practise writing your message by tracing over the letters below.

love from Write your name here.

Pra

ise

Send your card to someone you love.

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Encourage your child to feel a real sense of achievement on completing this book.

If possible have him or her share it with other caring adults to receive further praise.

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Child-friendly phonics The Letterland system teaches all 44 sounds in the English language through stories rather than rules. There are resources to take children from the very ďŹ rst stages of learning to full literacy.

ABC Trilogy

Getting Started

Handwriting Practice

Sticker & Activity Books

Picture Books

Games & Puzzles

See our full range at: www.letterland.com For product advice and support: info@letterland.com

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