Alphabet and Phonics Matching Cards

Includes free A4 Alphabet Code and Alphabet Tabletop Charts (value £2)

Size and card type:

Each card is plastic coated, 320gsm linen finish, playing card size and quality.

Organising and sequencing:

There are 52 double- sided playing cards plus 2 additional double- sided cards with information about alphabet letter-sound links, the use of capital letters, and letter names linked to ‘alphabetical order’. The cards are numbered sequentially as pairs, 1, 1a, 2, 2b.

For Full Information and Printable Guidance Click HERE

ABOUT THE ALPHABET AND PHONICS MATCHING CARDS

For every letter (capital and lower case) and sound, there are two double-sided cards.

One card features the lower case letter shape and key picture-word such as apple, and the following card features the capital letter (upper case), sound and a character’s name such as Anna. The key picture-words and character names are ‘mnemonics’ or ‘aids to memory’ for learning the letters and their linked sounds.

The illustrated sides of each pair of cards always include both capital and lower case letter shapes as these are both CODE FOR the SAME SOUND.

The backs of the cards feature the capital letters or lower case letters always shown on a fine writing line.

The capital letters are distinguished with colour borders – the vowel letters have red borders, the consonant letters have blue borders.

The ‘key picture-words’ such as ‘apple’, ‘bat’, ‘cat’ linked to the ‘alphabet letters’ and initial sounds are the same as in the two pre-school ‘Phonics and Talk Time’ books, the free ‘Teeny Reading Seeds’ resources, the ‘No Nonsense Phonics’ programme, the free ‘Phonics International’ programme, and Debbie’s overview ‘Alphabetic Code Charts’.

The characters and their names on the matching cards such as ‘Anna’, ‘Ben’, ‘Carol’ are the same characters as featured in the two pre-school ‘Phonics and Talk Time’ books and their associated frieze and flash cards sold as the ‘Phonics and Talk Time Frieze Set’. Click HERE to see the content of the ‘Phonics and Talk Time’ resources.

Purpose:

The 52 Alphabet and Phonics Matching Cards are ideal for use in the home, for home education, in nursery and pre-school settings, and in early years and infant classes, and for special needs when required. When English is a new language, however, the cards may be useful for older learners especially when their home language is in a different script from alphabet letter shapes. The cards will familiarise learners with the shapes of the alphabet letters – both capital (upper case) and lower case letters – and make clear that both capitals and their lower case equivalent letters are BOTH code for the SAME SOUNDS. Letter recognition linked to the phonics sounds, pairing capitals with their lower case letters, and letter formation are supported with the cards. Further, for more advanced learning, ‘alphabetical order’ linked to letter NAMES can be introduced, and also decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling) can be modelled and practised with phonemic ‘SOUNDS’ as appropriate for the age and stage of the learners.

Word level reading:

A phonics sub-skill of reading (decoding) is to teach the learner to ‘see the letter’ (capital or lower case) and ‘say the sound’. The full skill is to show a printed word (made up from the cards for manipulative activities) such as ‘pan’, then sound out each letter to ‘hear’ or ‘discern’ the target word: see pan, say “/p/ /a/ /n/ pan”.

Word level spelling:

A phonics sub-skill of spelling is for the adult to say the whole spoken word “sit” then model how to ‘orally segment’ the word into its component sounds, beginning to end of the word: “Sit  /s/ /i/ /t/”. The next step is to model how to allot the correct letters to spell the word (use the backs of the cards) s  i  t. So the sub-skill of spelling is saying the sounds of any letters of the alphabet for the learners so they can select, or point to, the correct letter shapes for the sounds – whether capital or lower case.

Teaching and learning tip:

These cards do not feature the full range of the phonemes (smallest identifiable sounds) in English speech. They can be used prior to the use of a full ‘systematic synthetic phonics’ programme AND alongside a full SSP programme when focusing on knowledge and understanding of ‘the alphabet’ and its bank of letters, their roles in written content, and letter formation for handwriting.