Teaching phonetics

How do you do it?

I've looked at youtube clips about blending words etc, sounding it out etc, but DD5 isn't grasping all sounds (eg if I ask her for the first sound in bat, she wouldn't sound it out and say 'b' (beh). But if I get her to do the same with mat, she'd reply 'mm'.

I found some lowercase alphabet cards and held them up making a big game out of 'what other things start with_____' and she was pretty good at doing it with all letters.

Am I expecting too much too soon? Its just that the teacher has told me that she knows all her sounds, but I'm not sure how she made that assessment - so much so that DD5 skipped ahead to learn spelling with a few of the other kids, whilst the majority of the year level stayed on learning the sounds. Now DD has been moved back to the sounds group - I'm not sure why we're going backwards?!?!

It could be that the games taught your DD some of the sounds, enough to convince the teacher that she knew them, whereas in actual fact she might not have consolidated that learning enough to be in the spelling group. Remember that "sounds" includes blended sounds like th sh ch ge etc, plus a whole lot of vowel action (ee, ou, ie) which aren't included in ordinary alphabet cards.

There are several phonics-teaching systems with material available to support learning. Jolly phonics and Letterland are two that are commonly used in schools. Ask at your school whether they are using one of these systems, if so there may be some songs/books/web materials that you can draw on. Best idea though is to find out what the teacher is doing and just reinforce that at home, rather than trying to teach her the whole thing at home

Oh yes, we are a jolly phonics school. we play the youtube clip as often as DD requests it - and she loves it!

I just feel a little helpless I guess :-(

Have a look at the 'Progressive Phonics' program. Just google it. All free materials for teaching them :)

Off to google - thank you :)

As a teacher (who also uses jolly phonics), I often find some kids will 'know' the sounds in one situation (eg may be able to tell you a sound when it's held up on a flash card), but may not know it in another situation (eg when it's part of a word, or when told the sound not be able to write it). Maybe the teacher only tested one situation when saying she knew the sounds and not the others?

Jolly phonics is a fantastic program. Your DD should be having a sound book sent home on a daily basis do she can practice the sounds and actions at home. If she isn't then ask. If you want to help her at home I'd suggest:
1. Using this book like flash cards
2. Saying the sounds learnt and asking her to write she sound (without seeing the book).
3. Giving her words made purely of the sounds learnt to try and read and also the other way, so you say the word without showing and she tries to identify the sounds and write. (making sure they're pronounced in the same way - if she's learnt 't' and 'h' don't give the word 'the' because its bit sounded out with a 't' and 'h' but rather a 'th' which she'll learn later on.
4. You could also play games where either if you do a sound action and the other guesses what the sound is - you can act out words in this way too....

It's only week 2 (or is it 3?). If she's in a group then there are obviously other children at exactly the same place as her so you don't need to worry. I think it's a good sign that the teacher is flexible and moves the children around. Obviously she's giving them all attention and responding to their needs. IMO the most important thing is that they enjoy school. If they can start with a positive attitude towards education/learning then it all follows from there.