B2.3 Phonics: Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondence
As mentioned in the previous section, phonics plays a crucial role in a student’s ability to read and write. Systematic, explicit instruction in phonics is a large focus in Grade 1 and lays the foundation for skills taught in Grades 2 and 3, and beyond.
During Kindergarten, the focus was on:
Producing the most common graphemes for each consonant sound and the most common phoneme for each consonant grapheme, including:
- Consonants
- Both sounds for <s> (as in sat, and has)
- Digraphs:
- <ch>
- <ck>
- <sh>
- <th> (unvoiced – as in thick)
- <wh>
Producing the most common graphemes for each short vowel sound and the most common phonemes for each vowel grapheme, including:
- Short vowels:
- /a/
- /i/
- /o/
- /u/
- /e/
New for Grade 1:
Letter-sound correspondences including:
- Consonants
- Short vowels
- Long vowels
- R-controlled vowels
- Long-vowel teams:
- <ai>, <ay> = /ā/;
- <ee>, <ea>, <ey> = /ē/;
- <oa>, <ow>, <oe> = /ō/;
- <ie>, <igh> = /ī/;
- <oo>, <u> = /oo/;
- <oo> = /ū/;
- <ew>, <ui>,<ue> = /ū/
- <au>, <aw>, <augh> = /o/
- <air>, <are>, <ear> = /air/
- Diphthongs:
- <oi>, <oy> = /oi/;
- <ou>, <ow> = /ow/
- Silent letters:
- <kn> = /n/;
- <wr> = /r/;
- <mb> = /m/
Note: This is not an exhaustive list of all expectations in this strand. For a more detailed view, please see the official Ontario curriculum.
Further Reading
Suggested Resources
- Syllable Spelling Template
- Phinder
- Search “Phonics” in the Resource Library for more!
