Week 14, lesson 1 Grapheme "s" and Phonemes "s,zh" - Phonics Phase 5, unit 2 - Lesson plan

In the first lesson of Week 14, part of Phase 5 Unit 2 in the phonics curriculum, children dive into the versatile sounds of the grapheme . The objective for the day is to explore the different phonemes that the grapheme can represent, primarily focusing on the sounds /s/ and /zh/. The lesson starts with a dynamic 'Quickdash' activity, where children rapidly identify phonemes from previously learned grapheme flashcards, including digraphs and trigraphs, to refresh their memory and sharpen their phonemic awareness.

Diving deeper into the lesson, the teacher writes a large on the board, prompting the children to suggest phonemes associated with it. With a bit of fun and imagination, the characters Seal and Jean are introduced, the latter humorously explained as 'Jean ze Sheep in a Zheep'—a character who adopts a French persona while driving to France, to help children grasp the /zh/ sound found in words like 'measure'. The class practices pronouncing this challenging phoneme and uses words such as 'set' and 'measure' to differentiate the sounds. During the 'Word Sort' activity, children decode words and categorize them according to the phoneme represented by . Finally, they apply their knowledge by completing a worksheet where they connect words to the correct phoneme or pictophone. Teaching notes highlight the irregularity of the -ure ending, representing the /er/ phoneme, and its common occurrence in words with the /zh/ sound, reinforcing the connection between phonics and fun through the amusing character of Jean ze Sheep.