Phase 3 is taught from the spring term of Reception. Phase 3 follows on from Phase 2 and continues with the phonemes (sounds) made by the rest of the indiviudal letters of the alphabet. It then moves on to introduce digraphs - where two letters join together to make one sound e.g. ai, oo, or. It also includes some trigraphs - where three letters join together to make one sound e.g. air, ear, igh. There are more actions as well as pictorial cues to help children remember the sounds that the letters or groups of letters make. Please watch the video below to see all of the phonemes with their actions. There is also a link to a document explaining the actions and the associated images for each phoneme.
Each phase includes the teaching of Common Exception Words. These are words that we are unable to use our Phonics knowledge to sound out and instead we just have to learn to read them by sight. You wil find a link to the Phase 3 Common Exception Words below.