Phase 3 · Set 12
Sounds: air ure er
Tap a card to hear its sound, then say it. Look at the pictures. Tap the letters to blend a word.
Listen and say
Look and say
hair
chair
pair
river
singer
fair
Tap to blend
Tap a letter to hear its sound. Tap the play button to blend the sounds into a word.
Read it
The singer sat on a chair near the river.
Now play
For grown-ups
What to do: let your child tap a card, listen, and say the sound back. Then look at the pictures and say each word. Finish by blending a few words and reading the sentence together. Ten minutes is plenty.
Mouth tips
- air (/eə/): Mouth half open, then relax into a soft uh. As in hair.
- ure (/ʊə/): Lips rounded (oo) and relax into a soft uh. As in cure. Said more often in careful speech than everyday speech.
- er (/ə/): The softest sound in English: mouth relaxed, a quiet uh. As at the end of river.
Follow your own programme. This order follows the general Letters and Sounds phase order (GOV.UK, 2007, now historical). Schools in England choose their own phonics programme. The DfE publishes a list of validated programmes (there is no legal requirement to use one), and each programme orders the sounds a little differently. If your school has one, practise in its order and use these pages for extra listening and reading.
More: phonics notes for parents and teachers, phonics phases explained.