Glossary Here are some words that are used in phonics!
Phonics Phonics is how we read and write. We blend words to read and we segment words to write. We segment the words into phonemes.
Phonemes A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a word. For example, the word 'cat' has three phonemes, 'c', 'a', 't'. When we are writing something down, phonemes are represented by graphemes.
Graphemes A grapheme is the written symbol of a phoneme. It is a letter, or group of letters, representing a sound. For example, the 'c' sound (or phoneme) can be written using the 'c', 'k' or 'ck' graphemes.
Segmenting Segmenting consists of breaking words down into their smallest units of sound (phonemes) to spell.
Blending Blending consists of building words from their smallest units of sound (phonemes) to read.
Digraph A digraph is a two-letter grapheme where two letters represent one sound. For example, 'ea' in 'seat' and 'sh' in 'ship'.
Trigraph A trigraph is a three-letter grapheme where three letters represent one sound (phoneme). For example, 'igh' in 'light'.
Consonant cluster A consonant cluster is a group of consonants that creates a sound that does not include any vowel sounds. For example, 's', 't' and 'r' create the 'str' sound in strap.
Syllable A syllable is part of a word and only contains one vowel sound. The word 'pocket' has two syllables, 'pock' 'et'.
CVC A word made up of Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (e.g. dog). VC (at), CVCC (hump), CCVC (crab) etc. may also be used.