Phonics Vocabulary
Know and use the vocabulary of phonics and word structure — phoneme, grapheme, GPC (grapheme-phoneme correspondence), blend, segment, digraph, CVC, vowel, consonant, syllable, root word, suffix, prefix, and homophone — and understand that these words describe the building blocks that phonics instruction is built on
Typical age: 4–7 years
“When your child's teacher asks them to 'segment a word into phonemes' or spot a 'digraph', do they understand what those words mean and can they do the task without looking confused?”
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- Homophones
Distinguishing homophones requires knowing 'homophone' as a named category
- Spelling from DictationREQUIRED
Applying taught GPCs in dictation requires understanding what a GPC is
- Segmenting words into soundsREQUIRED
Segmenting words into phonemes and spelling CVC words requires knowing 'phoneme', 'segment', and 'CVC' as defined terms
- SuffixesREQUIRED
Suffix spelling rules (doubling final consonants, dropping -e) require knowing 'suffix', 'root word', 'vowel', and 'consonant'
- Alternative Spellings for SoundsREQUIRED
Alternative grapheme choices for phonemes requires knowing 'grapheme', 'phoneme', 'homophone', and 'GPC'
- Spelling Verb EndingsREQUIRED
Spelling with suffixes requires knowing 'suffix', 'root word', and understanding how suffixes attach
- Prefixes (age 7+)REQUIRED
Spelling with a range of prefixes requires 'prefix' and 'root word' vocabulary
- The Prefix un-REQUIRED
Spelling with prefixes requires knowing 'prefix' and 'root word' as distinct, named concepts