LCP Phonic Families

Written by teacher Hayley Hancock, Phonic Families was written to support Hayley and her colleagues in teaching the alternative spellings in Phase 5 of the Letters and Sounds document.

Many teachers tell us that they find Phase 5 of Letters and Sounds the most challenging and problematical. Written by teacher Hayley Hancock, LCP Phonic Families provides a fun and reliable way of teaching Phase 5, and a great way of helping children to remember how different digraphs ‘work’ in words.

The book features a detailed introduction outlining how to use the materials in your classroom, including photos of the ‘families’ in action, a sample weekly plan for one of the Phonic Families which can be adapted for the other families, plus notes on the resources you will need for each member of the ‘families’.

The book also contains alphabet flashcards, and digraph flashcards (e.g. oi, ai, ei, etc.) which can be printed off.

The eleven Phonic Families are the ‘oi’ family, the ‘ou’ family, the ‘ai’ family, the ‘ee’ family, the ‘igh’ family, the ‘oa’ family, the ‘ue’ family, the ‘er’ family, the ‘or’ family, the ‘air’ family, and the ‘ear’ family.

 Children dress up as family members (example photos of children dressed up as family members are provided in the teacher’s book) and, using the alphabet or digraph flashcards, stand together to make up words using the family sound.

Phonics Families is accompanied by a CD containing PowerPoint slides for each member of each family. Each slide has a picture of the family member, a caption for the picture, and a silly sentence to help the children remember where in the words the sound comes. For example, in the ‘ai’ family, we have Daddy ’ai’ who likes to go in the middle words, as in:

• Daddy ‘ai says, “It’s a pain to paint in the rain”.
• Mummy ‘ay’ (who is called May) who likes to go on the end of words, as in:
• All day, May likes to chase the children away to play.

The naughty ‘ae’ twins who need to be split up because they come in the

middle and at the end of words, as in:

• Jane and Jake like to bake especially when they make chocolate cake.
• And Grandma ‘ey’ who likes to go on the end of words, as in:
• Grandma ‘ey’ shouts “hey” when you stare at her grey hair.

The male characters generally go in the middle of words, and the female characters on the ends of words, though there are exceptions. The children are encouraged to go on to make up their own silly rhyming sentences which helps to reinforce how the particular digraph is used in the spellings of words.

The slides are ideal for a whiteboard. Alternatively, if the classroom doesn’t have a whiteboard or if e.g. a teaching assistant were to use the package with a small group of children, the PowerPoint slides can be printed off to make flashcards, and this is made clear in the teacher’s notes.