Jolly Phonics

My view of phonics is still a little murky, as it was never something I recall learning as a child. It has always seemed rather complicated, with digraphs, trigraphs, graphemes, phonemes etc. But, I am starting to get the hang of it.

In one of our workshops today, we were introduced to Jolly Phonics. A class of 30 people, aged between 22 and 50, and every single one of us seemed to have a big grin when we gave it a go. Some of the actions and stories relating to the phonemes [42 in Jolly Phonics although we have been taught that there are 44] are very funny and we watched part of a lesson with reception children and they seemed just as engaged and enthusiastic about it as we were. Having stories, actions and fun little things [like a toy snake when introducing 's' and a mouse when introducing 'i'] make the prospect of teaching phonics much more interesting. It has always seemed like a dry and rather tedious topic, but with a bit of imagination, and a scheme like Jolly Phonics, I am coming around to the idea that it could be rather good. :D