Phonics Vocabulary
Know and use the vocabulary of phonics and word structure — phoneme, grapheme, GPC (grapheme-phoneme correspondence), blend, segment, digraph, CVC, vowel, consonant, syllable, root word, suffix, prefix, and homophone — and understand that these words describe the building blocks that phonics instruction is built on
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Teaching Table · Reviewed guide
Set out your lesson
“Phonics has special vocabulary. A phoneme is a sound. A grapheme is the letter or letters that write a sound. A digraph is two letters for one sound, like sh. Blend means push sounds together to read. Segment means pull a word apart into sounds to spell.”
Bring to the table
- Ready cards labeled: phoneme, grapheme, blend, segment, digraph
- Letter cards: s, h, i, p
- Word card: ship
Full guide and materials
- Ready cards labeled: phoneme, grapheme, blend, segment, digraph
- Letter cards: s, h, i, p
- Word card: ship
- Step 1. Show phoneme and clap once while saying /sh/. “That sound is a phoneme.”
- Step 2. Show grapheme and digraph with the sh card. “These two letters are one grapheme, and that grapheme is a digraph for /sh/.”
- Step 3. Segment ship into /sh/ /i/ /p/ while pulling the cards apart. Name the action segment.
- Step 4. Blend the cards back into ship and name the action blend.
- Step 5. Quiz with the five vocabulary cards: child says the meaning in kid words and points to the matching part of the ship example.
- Quick check. Success means your child explains phoneme as a sound and grapheme as the written part, shows blend or segment on ship, and identifies sh as a digraph.
Worked example. In ship, sh is a digraph grapheme for the phoneme /sh/. We segment ship to spell and blend it to read.
Optional challenge. Using cat, have your child say whether a, c, and t are single-letter graphemes, then segment and blend the word while using the terms aloud.
What to notice. Save a parent note quoting how your child defined two terms and which ship action they demonstrated.
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Teaching approaches
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1 approach
Phonics has special vocabulary. A phoneme is a sound. A grapheme is the letter or letters that write a sound. A digraph is two letters for one sound, like sh. Blend means push sounds together to read. Segment means pull a word apart into sounds to spell.
Spend about 10 minutes matching each vocabulary card to a quick action with ship.
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Check understanding
- Say the sounds for common graphemes (e.g. 'sh', 'ch', 'th', 'ee', 'igh') and use 'phoneme' and 'grapheme' correctly when explaining
- Blend sounds together to read an unfamiliar word and explain what they are doing using the word 'blend'
- Segment a word into its individual sounds for spelling and use the term 'segment' to describe the process
“When your child's teacher asks them to 'segment a word into phonemes' or spot a 'digraph', do they understand what those words mean and can they do the task without looking confused?”
Curriculum record
- Type
- Language
- Subject
- English
- Domain
- Spelling & Word Study
- Age range
- Ages 4–7