Learning Map

Single Letter Sounds

Know the primary sound for each consonant and the short and long sounds for the five major vowels; respond speedily to single-letter graphemes

How to tell they’ve got it

Tick these off as you see them — no test required.

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Try this together

Can your child look at a letter and quickly say its sound — like 's' makes /s/, 'a' can make a short /a/ as in 'apple' or a long /ā/ as in 'cake'?

Where this sits on the map

Stuck here? Check the skills it builds on first. Confident? Here’s what it unlocks.

Builds on
Knowing all lettersages 4–6Must recognise letters before learning their sounds
Single Letter Soundsthis skill · ages 4–6
Unlocks
Blending Sounds to Read Wordsages 4–7Need GPC knowledge to blend
Consonant Digraphsages 4–7Must know single letters before digraphs
Segmenting words into soundsages 4–7Need GPC knowledge to encode phonemes
Vowel Digraphsages 4–7Must know single letter sounds before vowel digraphs
R-Controlled Vowel Soundsages 5–6Must know single letter sounds before r-controlled vowels
Alternative Spellings for Known Soundsages 6–8Must know single letter sounds before learning alternatives

+ 1 more in Phonics & Word Reading →

solid = must come firstdashed = helps

Curriculum alignment

Candidate matches to official curriculum codes — machine-suggested, unreviewed (v0.1).

Show candidate curriculum codes · 3 ACARA · 2 NSW · 3 VIC

Australian Curriculum v9 candidate

AC9E1LY12medium confidenceYear 1 · Literacy

understand that a letter can represent more than one sound and that a syllable must contain a vowel sound

AC9E1LY11medium confidenceYear 1 · Literacy

use short vowels, common long vowels, consonant blends and digraphs to write words, and blend these to read one- and two-syllable words

AC9E1LY09low confidenceYear 1 · Literacy

segment words into separate phonemes (sounds) including consonant blends or clusters at the beginnings and ends of words (phonological awareness)

NSW syllabus codes & stages only

ENE-PHOKW-01low confidenceEnglish K-10 · Early Stage 1
EN1-PHOKW-01low confidenceEnglish K-10 · Stage 1

Victorian Curriculum 2.0 codes & levels only

VC2E1LY05high confidenceEnglish · Level 1 · Literacy strand
VC2EFLY05medium confidenceEnglish · Foundation · Literacy strand
VC2EFLY06medium confidenceEnglish · Foundation · Literacy strand

These are candidate alignments generated by semantic matching — machine-suggested and unreviewed (v0.1), not official or verified mappings. For official curriculum content see australiancurriculum.edu.au, curriculum.nsw.edu.au and f10.vcaa.vic.edu.au. Don’t rely on them for registration or compliance purposes.

Nearby on the map

All Phonics & Word Reading skills →