Double consonants can be very tricky to master. It is easy for children to forget that there are double letters as they only hear one sound. Use household items to spot double letters hiding in words. 

When progressing to more difficult texts, writing begins to replace images and children must rely more on creating their own mental images of what is happening in a story. The more we encourage this skill in the early years, the easier it will be for children to do this independently as they begin to graduate to higher level texts.

This fun scavenger hunt focuses on the initial phonetic sound of common words. Children will have fun hunting around the house for items!

High frequency or sight words are the words that appear the most often in written text. They need to be practised frequently. Repetition can be dull, so make it a game to keep it fun and interesting. 

Making CVC words is the first step in blending phonetic sounds. This Melissa & Doug product is great because it makes sounding-out CVC words fun and easy.

In the early years it is important to introduce children to both uppercase and lowercase letters. This simple matching game will help children to recognise the shapes of the uppercase and lowercase letters.