Phase 4

Introduction to Letters and Sounds Phase 4

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When children start Phase Four of the Letters and Sounds phonics programme, they will know a grapheme for each of the 42 phonemes. They will be able to blend phonemes to read CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words and segment in order to spell them.

Children will also have begun reading straightforward two-syllable words and simple captions, as well as reading and spelling some tricky words.

In Phase 4, no new graphemes are introduced. The main aim of this phase is to consolidate the children's knowledge and to help them learn to read and spell words which have adjacent consonants, such as trap, string and milk.

Tricky words

During Phase 4, the following tricky words (which can't yet be decoded) are introduced:

• said
• have
• like
• so
• do
• some
• come
• were
• there
• little
• one
• when
• out
• what

Recommended: Phonics and Spelling Games

For full details, visit the Standards site to download a guide on implementing Phase 4 of Letters and sounds in the classroom.