Phase 5

Introduction to Letters and Sounds Phase 5

Click here if you're looking for free, printable Phase 5 Resources.

Children entering Phase Five will already be able to read and spell words with adjacent consonants, such as trap, string and flask. They will also be able to read and spell some polysyllabic words.

In Phase Five, children will learn more graphemes and phonemes. For example, they already know ai as in rain, but now they will be introduced to ay as in day and a-e as in make.

Alternative pronunciations for graphemes will also be introduced, e.g. ea in tea, head and break.

With practice, speed at recognising and blending graphemes will improve. Word and spelling knowledge will be worked on extensively.

Tricky words

During Phase 5, the following tricky words (which can't yet be decoded) are introduced:

• oh
• their
• people
• Mr
• Mrs
• looked
• called
• asked
• could

For full details, visit the Standards site to download a guide on implementing Phase 5 of Letters and sounds in the classroom.

Recommended: Sight Word Resources