Sonic Phonics: Explained
How do we work?
Kia Ora!
We understand that as educators and adults, it’s important to align with existing teaching methods so we can guide our tamariki with confidence. That’s why Sonic Phonics is built around the trusted New Zealand Kākano Seed Phase framework for teaching phonics.
1. Download our app
2. Go through our easy log-in procedure
We talk you through the few-step log in procedure, where you can choose your setup style. For optimal app usage, please enable both camera and mic access. Sonicphonics relies heavily on voice activities for your children, so please do view our privacy statements and documents if needed:
3. Choose your setup
A home setup allows you, as a caregiver, to control different accounts for your kid(s) and access the app without re-scanning the QR, as all progress is pre-saved.
A school setup is made with a classroom in mind, where the app supports multiple students using shared devices, having to scan each child’s personal QR when opening the app.
4. Scan in through QR Code
To organise students and create an easy effective experience, we use QR Codes for scanning. Teachers simply print the classroom logins in one go and put them on the wall or in a booklet. Home users can log in and save a school provided account or just create their own.
5. QR Tip
You can access each child’s QR Code under their individual page on the teacher portal. We recommend you print these out in a pdf and onto your students’ table, wall or projector, for efficient everyday use!
6. You’re all set!
Hand over the device to the child, as the rest of the app is now designed to be child-intuitive! They can choose their sidekick and begin their journey below.
7. Our activities
Our activities are built by a literacy specialist specifically for New Zealand schools. They are designed to engage children and practice letter recognition, sound recognition, speaking sounds, handwriting, sound blending and word segmenting. We use touch, audio and AI to listen and monitor student progress.
Let’s go through them below!
sound Introduction
We start by introducing the child to the sound, giving examples and video of pronounciation allowing them to become familiar with letter pronunciation and form.
Handwriting
We model how to write the sound. Then we have them repeat the writing themselves with progressively less guidance. When they make a mistake we give them specific guidance on how they should do it with visual and audio feedback.
sound Bubbles
To introduce a sense of play, we allow the child to play a 2-minute ‘game’ in which they are incentivised to identify the sound. This gives them feedback when they get it right an increases the speed of identification.
Starting sound Identification
We introduce how different words start with the current sound. Then the student will practice selecting objects starting with this sound. As we repeat the phonics, the child is prompted to identify the object that matches the letter sounded out. To make it more efficient, the objects will also be voiced aloud.
Cumulative Practice
After a set of 2-3 phonics [e.g. MAD] have been introduced, the child does cumulative practice. This is a set of selectable activities that the child has to complete to move on to the next set. Each activity focusses on the current sounds but also brings in previous sounds.
The child will get rewarded with stars depending on their accuracy. After all activities have 3 stars, they can continue to the next set and so on!
Cumulative Approach
Some activities are repetitions of the ones above, otherwise, we have new activities it is slightly more advanced with less guidance. The child is engaged to link phonemes to words, sounds, and writing via audio and clues. These new activities are below:
Sound Selection
This activity prompts the child to select letters based on the sound they hear. The ‘narrator’ will repeat a phoneme out loud and incentivises the child to select the respective letter.
Sound Voicing
Quite a step from the last activity, the child repeats the phoneme an object starts with. With plenty of practice from object repetition, the child should be able to identify the object and say the starting sound for that object. We use AI to assess the child speech for accuracy
soundLetterProg
Similar to starting sound identification, we flip the narrative. This time the child has to identify the appropriate letter that matches to the object image provided.
To be continued…
We are working on our next set of activities! These will focus on sound blending and word segmentation so children begin to read words. Thank you for your support.
Download The App!
Available on all devices, iOS Apple Store & Google Play.