What Is Jolly Phonics?
Jolly Phonics is a synthetic phonics programme that teaches the letter sounds in a fun and multi-sensory way that has proven to be fast and effective.
Makes Learning Easy
In Jolly Phonics the 42 main sounds of English are taught... not just the letters of the alphabet. Each sound has an action which helps children remember the letter that represents it. As the child becomes more confident the actions are no longer necessary.
Children first learn each letter by its sound rather than its letter name. The letters are not introduced in alphabetical order. The first group (s,a,t,i,p,n) have been chosen because they make more simple three letter words than any other six letters. As soon as the children know the first three sounds the teaching emphasis is on blending those sounds together to make words.
Improves Children's Confidence
Jolly Phonics gives children a great deal of confidence and with the tools they learn they become independent in their reading and writing much sooner. This means they are ready to focus on learning higher-order comprehension strategies sooner as well.
How Does 
Work?
- Learning the letter sounds. The 42 main letter sounds are taught. This includes the alphabet sounds as well as digraphs such as sh, ai and ue.
- Learning letter formation.
- Blending. As soon as the letter sounds are known, children are taught how to blend them to read and write words.
- Identifying the sounds in words. Listening for sounds gives children the best start for improved spelling.
- Tricky words. These have irregular spelling and children are taught directly how to learn them.
More Information
The following link is a recent article, which explains some of the principles of Jolly Phonics:/p>
Magic Spells (Right click and select "save target as...") 1.6 MB PDF, Adobe Reader Required
You can learn more about Jolly Phonics at their website www.jollylearning.co.uk.
Jolly Phonics Seminars
I also run two seminars that will show you how to apply this knowledge in the classroom: