Updated: Jan 29
During Phase 3, your child will have practised reading and spelling CVC words. These are words made up of a consonant - vowel - consonant. During Phase 4 your child will begin to read longer words with adjacent consonants. This is where two consonants are next to each other in a word. Unlike a digraph where the two letters make a new sound, the individual sounds can still be heard in words with adjacent consonants e.g. 'went' where you can hear that all four letters make a sound.
A CVCC word is made from a consonant-vowel-consonant-consonant. When you introduce CVCC words, begin with Phase 2 sounds rather than Phase 3 sounds. This is because Phase 2 sounds are mostly single letters so your child doesn't have to decide whether the letters are a digraph or just adjacent consonants.
Children often find it tricky when two consonants are next to each other e.g. they might write mik for milk. So this stage of phonics is really important. To make it easier, we can start with CVCC words that are CVC words first but become CVCC words when a consonant is added to the end of them.
Create a phoneme frame with 4 boxes from cardboard or a piece of paper. Fold it so that the 4th box can be covered up. Put one sound in each box and cover up the final box.
Sound talk and blend the CVC word e.g. d-a-m. Then discuss its meaning (a barrier to hold back water).
Then uncover the last sound. Ask them to blend the word again to read the CVCC word e.g. d-a-m-p, damp. Discuss that by adding one consonant you have changed the meaning of the word (damp - slightly wet).
You could turn this game into a code breaking mission. Put the final consonant of the CVCC word in the last box of the phoneme frame (p). Hide the other three letters (b, u, m) around the room and see if your child can find them and arrange them to spell a CVC word. Sometimes this will create a nonsense word! Encourage them to keep going until they crack the code by working out the correct CVC word. Then they can uncover the hidden letter and see if they can read the CVCC word. Play again using different CVC and CVCC words.
men/mend
hum/hump
pin/pink
ban/band
den/dent
win/wind
ban/bank
bun/bunk