Rhyme Town Week 14 – Oral Blending and Segmenting (Seaside)

Based on A Sailor Went to Sea and The Big Ship Sails

Rhyme Town Week 14 is a week of oral blending and segmenting activities for Phase 1 phonics in Nursery and Reception (ages 3 to 5). Children practise listening to words spoken in separate sounds, blending the sounds together to hear the whole word and segmenting simple spoken words into their individual phonemes. Seaside-themed games using boats, shells, beach objects and picture cards give children plenty of opportunities to consolidate these important early phonics skills.

Alongside the pre-reading activities, children revisit a range of pre-writing shapes and movements developed throughout Rhyme Town. Boats, shark fins, shells, waves and fish provide meaningful contexts for practising early mark making and developing the control and coordination needed for writing.

What’s included in Week 14?

You’ll get five pre-reading phonics lessons and five pre-writing and mark making lessons, with a lesson plan for each, a launchable interactive presentation and supporting resources. The pre-reading lessons consolidate oral blending and segmenting through practical seaside-themed listening games, while the pre-writing activities revisit familiar shapes and movements from across the programme.

Pre-reading lessons (oral blending and segmenting)

• What did the sailor see? – orally blend and segment seaside words using picture cards
• I spy telescopes – listen to orally segmented words, blend the sounds together and identify the correct seaside picture
• Pack your beach bag – blend spoken sounds to identify which items belong in the beach bag
• Shell segmenting – segment spoken words and use pearls to represent the individual sounds heard
• Mystery water – listen to, identify and work with the sounds in simple words using objects hidden in water

Pre-writing lessons

• Shark fins – practise diagonal movements through shark fin mark making
• Boat sails – use diagonal lines and familiar pre-writing shapes to complete boat sails
• Shells – practise pre-writing movements and shapes through shell-themed mark making
• Waves of shapes – create waves using repeated pre-writing shapes and movements
• Pre-writing shape fishing – revisit familiar pre-writing shapes using fish cards and outlines

Resources in this pack

• Week 14 lesson plans
• Week 14 lesson presentation (launchable)
• Shark Fin Picture Sheet
• Pre-writing Shells
• Telescope Viewing Sheet
• Wave Worksheet
• Beach Bag Worksheet
• Seaside Picture Cards
• Shell and Pearl Sheet
• Pre-writing Fish Cards and Outlines
• Boat Sail Worksheet

How to use Week 14

Each lesson plan explains the session step by step and tells you which slides and resources to use. The oral blending and segmenting activities can be repeated as short listening games or warm-ups, giving children plenty of opportunities to hear individual phonemes, blend sounds together to identify words and segment spoken words into sounds.

The lessons don’t all need to be taught in one week, so you can adapt the pace to suit your children. Rhyme Town can be used with a whole class or small group, and can also be used as an intervention for children who need additional support with Phase 1 phonics and readiness to write.

The pre-writing activities can be taught as focused adult-led sessions or revisited within your Early Years learning environment. As the final week of Rhyme Town, they also provide opportunities for children to revisit and consolidate pre-writing movements and shapes introduced throughout the programme.

Rhyme Town is a Phase 1 phonics and pre-writing programme rather than a systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) programme, so it can be used alongside your school or setting’s chosen SSP to build listening and phonological awareness before and during early phonics teaching.

Curriculum links

• Phase 1 phonics: oral blending and segmenting, including hearing individual phonemes in spoken words and blending sounds together to identify words
• Phonological awareness: identifying, separating and combining sounds within spoken words
• EYFS Communication and Language: listening, attention, understanding and responding to spoken language
• EYFS Physical Development: gross and fine motor control and early mark making through revisiting familiar pre-writing shapes and movements

Want to see how this week fits into the full 14-week sequence? Download the Rhyme Town progression document or explore the complete Rhyme Town Phase 1 phonics scheme.