Jolly Phonics

At our school one method we use in English classes for Preschool is the use of phonics. We currently use the Jolly Phonics system.

In Jolly Phonics the 42 main sounds of English are taught, not just the alphabet. The sounds are in seven groups. Some sounds are written with two letters, such as ee and or. These are called digraphs. oo and th can each make two different sounds, as in book and moon, that and three. To distinguish between these two sounds, the digraph is represented in two forms.

Each sound has an action which helps children remember the letter(s) that represent it. As a child becomes more confident, the actions are no longer necessary. Children should learn each letter by its sound, not its name. For example, the letter a should be called a (as in ant) not ai (as in aim). The names of each letter can follow later.

The letters have not been introduced in alphabetical order. The first group (s, a, t, i, p, n) has been chosen because they make more simple three-letter words than any other six letters.