The Monster Phonics Nursery Programme gives practitioners a clear, joyful and developmentally appropriate way to teach Phase 1 phonics and prepare the chuildren for the beginning of Phase 2.
Before children are ready to learn letter sounds formally, they need strong foundations in listening, speaking, vocabulary and sound awareness. These early skills help children tune into sounds, hear rhythm and rhyme, play with words, and begin to understand that spoken words are made up of sounds.
Our updated Nursery Programme teaches these foundations through carefully structured, teacher-led activities that feel playful, natural and engaging for young children.
Beautifully crafted stories, memorable ditties and interactive activities help children embed learning in meaningful ways, while ready-to-use resources support high-quality delivery for practitioners.
Phase 1 phonics focuses on developing the listening, language and sound awareness skills children need before formal letter sound teaching begins.
Children learn to notice sounds in the world around them, listen carefully, join in with songs and rhymes, hear patterns in words, explore voice sounds, and begin oral blending and segmenting. These skills help children develop the strong foundations needed for future phonics learning, reading and writing.
Although the original Letters and Sounds Phase One guidance has now been withdrawn by the DfE, the underlying skills remain essential. Children still need strong foundations in listening, speaking, vocabulary, rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, oral blending and oral segmenting before they move confidently into formal phonics teaching.
The Monster Phonics Nursery Programme provides an updated, structured and developmentally appropriate approach to teaching these foundations, while gradually introducing early sound–letter connections of Phase 2 at an appropriate pace.
The programme develops the key areas of Phase 1 in a simple and manageable way. Children explore environmental sounds, instrumental sounds, body percussion, rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, voice sounds and oral blending and segmenting.
Activities are short, engaging and easy to repeat, helping children build confidence over time. Practitioners are supported with clear guidance, ready-to-use activities and familiar Monster Phonics characters that bring learning to life.
Following the foundations of phonics, the Nursery Programme also introduces early letter sounds, but at a slower and more developmentally appropriate pace than a typical Reception phonics programme.
Children are introduced to a small number of sounds and letters only once secure oral foundations have been developed. The focus remains on hearing, saying and playing with sounds, rather than rushing children into reading and writing too soon.
This gives children a smoother transition into formal phonics learning and helps them begin early reading with greater confidence.
Nursery classrooms are busy, varied and full of children at different stages of development. That is why the programme includes three developmental levels within each strand, allowing practitioners to adapt activities for younger children, older children or those ready for more challenge
Activities are short, engaging and easy to revisit, with clear planning, ready-to-use resources and familiar Monster Phonics characters supporting consistent, high-quality delivery across a range of early years settings.
The result is a programme that is structured enough to support progression, but flexible enough to work in real nursery and early years classrooms.
Strong Phase 1 teaching gives children the best possible start. They support speech and language development, vocabulary, listening, attention, confidence and early reading success.
The Monster Phonics Nursery Programme helps practitioners build these foundations and prepare children for the next stage of phonics, through clear progression, engaging activities and ready-to-use resources that are enjoyable for children and easy to deliver in busy early years settings.
