Skip to content

Year 1

Welcome to Year 1

Class Teacher:  Mr Breen

Teaching Assistant: Miss Carty

Useful links

  • SeeSaw – An app where children access assigned remote learning.
  • Numbots – A game to support number bonds.

Monster Phonics in Year 1

Phonics: Monster Phonics


What is Monster Phonics?

Monster Phonics is a whole class, systematic synthetic phonics programme, which became our new phonics scheme in October of this year (2021).

Monster Phonics is currently taught from Reception to Year 2, but it can also be used as an intervention tool for Key Stages 1 and 2. The design and implementation of the programme is to support children to ‘keep up’ rather than ‘catch-up’ with their phonics learning.

Colour Coding                                                                                             

Monster Phonics teaches children to read by enabling them to identify the individual graphemes (letter combinations) and blend sounds (phonemes) together to read the word. Sounds are categorised into ten colour groups, and each colour has a corresponding monster character.

Monster Phonics is an advanced multisensory scheme, with songs, actions and colours associated with graphemes. There is an action for each Phase 2 and 3 grapheme, as well as for each Monster, which we believe, excites and engages our pupils.

Teaching Overview (Reception – Year 2)

Monster-Phonics-Teaching-Overview-Reception-Year-1-and-Year-2

Useful Resources

100-High Frequency Words -colour

100-High-Frequency-Word-Charts

200-High Frequency Words -Flashcards

Year-1-Common-Exception-Word-Flashcards

Year-1-Common-Exception-Word-Chart-Colour-Coded

Year-2-Common-Exception-Word-Flashcards

Year-2-Common-Exception-Word-Chart-Colour

The Monster Phonics Reading Scheme

We want learning to read to be fun and memorable for our pupils, which is one of the main reasons we chose this scheme for our children. Rather than relying on rote learning, it uses colour coding to promote understanding, which we believe, will lead to greater confidence and independence.

Children access decodable books matched to where they are on the programme. Regular assessment throughout the school year ensures that their reading book match their ability. Children also have access to Monster Phonics eBooks that can be read at home, using a personal login.

Spelling

The 26 letters of the alphabet and combinations of these letters make 44 speech sounds in English.

The 44 sounds (phonemes) are spelt by 144 different letter combinations (graphemes). For example, the sound A is spelt several different ways, including ay (play) and ai (train).

Traditional ways of learning to spell can be time-consuming and for some children they are ineffective. Monster Phonics teaches children to read by enabling them to identify the individual graphemes (letter combinations) ad blend the sounds (phonemes) together to read the word. To support this process, Monster Phonics uses the 10 monsters to categorise all sounds into 10 simple areas. Furthermore, each monster has a different colour and that colour represents that way of spelling the sound.

The 10 monsters categorise all sounds into 10 simple areas. Each monster has a different colour and that colour represents that way of spelling the sound.

Spelling Books are colour-coded for the sounds to accelerate learning. Spelling log books cover all KS1 graphemes and spelling rules, to support weekly spellings and home-learning.

Skip to content