Progression Of Phonics And Reading

LION CUBS / MONKEYS - Pre-phonics Foundations (0–2 years) – Letters and Sounds

 

Focus: Listening, attention, and sound awareness

• Responding to sounds (voices, music, environmental noises)

• Joining in with action songs and rhymes

• Developing attention and turn-taking

• Exploring sound through play (shakers, banging, vocalising)

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Activities:

• Nursery rhymes with repetition

• Peekaboo and sound imitation games

• Musical instruments and sensory play

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At this stage, no formal phonics—just building the ear for language.

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MONKEYS / HIPPOS / CROCODILES - Sound Awareness (2–3 years) - Letters and Sounds

 

Focus: Tuning into sounds and patterns

• Recognising environmental sounds (cars, animals)

• Beginning to notice rhyme (cat/hat)

• Exploring rhythm and syllables (clapping names)

• Voice play (loud/quiet, high/low sounds)

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Activities:

• “What’s that sound?” games

• Rhyming stories and songs

• Clapping syllables in names

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CROCODILES / ZEBRAS - Oral Blending & Segmenting (3–4 years) – Letters and Sounds and Bug Club Phonics

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Focus: Hearing words in parts (without letters yet)

• Blending sounds orally (c-a-t → cat)

• Segmenting simple words (dog → d-o-g)

• Identifying initial sounds (s for sun)

• Building vocabulary through talk

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Activities:

• Robot talking games (“Can you pass the c-u-p?”)

• Sorting objects by initial sound

• Sound treasure hunts

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OLDER ZEBRAS - Introduction to Phonics – Letters and Sounds and Bug Club

 

Focus: Linking sounds to letters (grapheme-phoneme correspondence)

 

Using Bug Club Phonics structure:

Step 1: Learn simple sounds (Phase 2)

• s, a, t, p, i, n

• Begin blending for reading (sat, pin)

Step 2: Expand sounds (Phase 3)

• Digraphs (sh, ch, th, ee, ai)

• Read simple captions and words

Step 3: Fluency building (Phase 4)

• Blend longer words (frog, clap)

• Segment for spelling

 

Skills developed: Recognising letters quickly / Blending to read / Segmenting to spell / Reading simple books