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Reach Crest Learning

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Sounds and letters · Lesson 1 of 77

Letters have names and sounds

Read with an adult. Take your time. You can say, point, draw or write your answer.

Let's look together

This is the letter m. It has a name: em. It can show the sound at the start of mat.

We use sounds to help read a word. We use letter names when we talk about its spelling. Listen to your adult say both.

m Ms Sa At T
Look, point and talk with your adult.

Watch how I do it

My adult points to m and says its sound, without adding 'uh'. I copy. Then we say the letter name, em.

Your turn

Find the matching capital for m: M or S. Say the sound at the start of mat with your adult.

Have a go before opening the answer.

Let's check together

M matches m. Mat starts with the /m/ sound.

Try it away from the page

Sing the alphabet with an adult. Match three lower-case letters to their capitals. Add more over several days.

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Adult notes · prerequisites, safety and coverage

Start with the child's known grapheme–phoneme correspondences. Model pure sounds; letter names are not a substitute for blending. This course does not provide recorded phonics audio.

Read instructions aloud. Word-reading practice must match the child's taught sounds. The phonics pages support, but do not replace, the school's systematic synthetic phonics programme. Shared stories are adult-read unless the child can decode them. Re-read and practise daily.

These are teaching introductions, not a claim of mastery. Open the subject's coverage map and limits.

Practise and check together

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