Phonics Pronunication Code Clouds

I love teaching with stories, and created one about the Speech Sound King, who wanted to send messages, so he created ‘Sound Pics®’ for the speech sounds he used when speaking ie pictures of his speech sounds. He then created the Phonics Pronunciation Code based on this system, and Phonemies® show the sound value so we can manipulate speech sounds for Individual Pronunciation Codes (IPCs).

We share this here on the Phonics Reform England site to show that, for years, teachers and children in Australia have enjoyed exploring how speech and print connect across the day, not just within phonics lessons. If we are to meet individual needs, make word mapping meaningful and engaging, and boost self-teaching, we can look at what has happened in other countries where phonics teaching is not as restrictive as it is currently in England.
Emma Hartnell-Baker

To play, press and hold the enter key. To stop, release the enter key.

For over 10 years, children across Australia helped Miss Emma discover which graphemes can be used to represent the speech sounds we use in phonics. This included exploring ‘Sound Pics®’ (graphemes) outside of phonics lessons, building up am English Pronunciation Code that shows how the speech sounds of England can be represented in print using Speech Sound Pics®.

This work explored the whole alphabetic code, not just the Core Code covered in the four SSP levels (Letters and Sounds Phases 2 to 5). There are 48 Spelling Clouds®.

These correspondences align with how the Speech Sound King pronounces the sounds, while also giving teachers the opportunity to discuss accent differences through Personal Pronunciation Codes.

Phonics Pronunciation Code Spelling Clouds | Showing IPA-aligned spelling choices for each speech sound

The Speech Sound King uses what is often referred to as Received Pronunciation.

Green Code Level | Letters and Sounds Phase 2 Sets 1 and 2

Purple Code Level | Letters and Sounds Phase 2 Sets 2 - 5

Yellow Code Level | Letters and Sounds Phase 3 Sets 6 - 9

Here are some of the Spelling Cloud® poems written for children mapping words throughout the day. Only the graphemes outside of the clouds are taught explicitly within the Core Code (in phonics lessons). This aligns with the explicit phonics instruction in synthetic phonics programmes that follow the original Letters and Sounds framework.

Would a bank of mapped current music tracks and poems be useful for your classroom? If we’re to bring about change, we need to get children excited about reading and spelling, and you can fit these in around regular lessons as a bit of fun. Let us know if you’d like us to build a free resource bank? Miss Emma Support@TheReadingHut.com

We found that writing poems for children when they’d discovered new spelling patterns was a great motivator! We also mapped music they loved or stories they wanted to read. Phonics Reform England supports word mapping within meaningful context, bringing the code to life. We’re sharing ideas that Aussie teachers know work really well!