Developed by Jolly Learning Ltd., UK

Jolly Phonics is a fun and child centred approach to teaching literacy through synthetic phonics. With actions for each of the 42 letter sounds, the multi-sensory method is very motivating for children and teachers, who can see their students achieve. The letter sounds are split into seven groups.

Letter Sound Order

The sounds are taught in a specific order (not alphabetically). This enables children to begin building words as early as possible.

How does Jolly Phonics work?

Using a synthetic phonics approach, Jolly Phonics teaches children the five key skills for reading and writing. Complemented by Jolly Readers and Jolly Grammar, it provides a thorough foundation for teaching literacy over three years in school.

The five skills taught in Jolly Phonics

• Learning the letter sounds Children are taught the 42 main letter sounds. This includes alphabet sounds as well as digraphs such as /sh/, /th/, /ai/ and /ue/.
• Learning letter formation Using multi-sensory methods, children learn how to form and write the letters.
• Blending Children are taught how to blend the sounds together to read and write new words.
• Identifying the sounds in words (Segmenting) Listening for the sounds in words gives children the best start for improving spelling.
• Tricky words Tricky words have irregular spellings and children learn these separately.

What is Jolly Grammar?

Jolly Grammar is the next stage, after a first year with Jolly Phonics. The materials provide guidance and resources to help teach grammar to children; it is active and multi-sensory, with emphasis on consolidating the children's knowledge from Jolly Phonics and helping them develop an understanding of how grammar works.

How does Jolly Grammar work?

By teaching key essential grammar rules, it helps children bring diversity to their writing and improve their spelling in a structured way. Jolly Grammar teaches a wide range of language forms including the parts of speech, plurals, punctuation, and the tenses past, present, and future. It also teaches a wide range of spelling rules. Jolly Grammar uses colours and actions to help children identify parts of speech in sentences, for example verbs are red and nouns are black. Filled with great ideas and fun ways to remember some of the rules, Jolly Grammar provides teachers with a systematic way to teach grammar, spelling and punctuation. Jolly Grammar is designed for three years of teaching. Together with Jolly Phonics they provide a course for the first four years.