Letters, Sounds and Phonics
"Sing the ABCs and hear every friendly letter sound from A to Z."
A Today you'll learn
- Recognise uppercase (A–Z) and lowercase (a–z) alphabet letters
- Pronounce common phonics letter sounds (e.g., /b/ for ball, /s/ for sun)
- Identify the beginning sound of familiar words
B Let's understand
The English alphabet has 26 letters, from A to Z! Every letter has a big sister (Uppercase like A, B, C) and a little sister (Lowercase like a, b, c). Every letter also makes a special sound called its phonic sound. For example, the letter B makes the /b/ sound like in "ball". The letter S makes the hiss sound /s/ like in "sun". When we blend sounds together, like /c/ + /a/ + /t/, we can read the word "cat"! Five letters are special vowels: A, E, I, O, U.
C See it step by step
- Say the word slowly: "Ah - pple".
- The first sound is the short /a/ sound.
- The starting letter is A (lowercase a).
- Uppercase: D.
- Lowercase: d (round belly to the left with a tall stick).
- D pairs with d (like in Dog).
D Your turn
E Ready to practise?
There are 26 letters in the alphabet
There are 26 letters in the alphabet, from A to Z.
Key idea 2
Letters come in Capital (Uppercase) and Small (Lowercase) forms.
Every letter has a unique phonics sound
Every letter has a unique phonics sound.
The 5 special vowels are A
The 5 special vowels are A, E, I, O, and U.
Key idea 5
Blending letter sounds together lets us read simple words (c-a-t -> cat).