A high quality systematic synthetic phonics reading resource – that works by playing decodable card games.
All age students and children can learn to read by laughing and playing and having fun.
trugs (for teachers), trugs at home (for parents) is a systematic synthetic phonics group of resources to enable anyone, who can themselves read, to help a child/student to progress their level of reading/spelling. The structured decodable card games combines the professional phonics side of learning to decode print with the fun side of playing card games in a hugely, effective and engaging way. The pupils will be succeeding in a manner that captures their enthusiasm and achieves incidental learning.
By reading the words within the four decodable card games at the selected Stage pupils are able to practise reading by sounding out the phonemes in a word from left to right and blending them together all through the word until they can read the word automatically. The trugs resource gives them an enjoyable and successful way to reinforce and consolidate the knowledge of their letter-sound correspondences.
It is important to realise that these are reversible games. So where the games can be used as reading games, they can also be used as spelling games, reminding them that spelling is the reverse of reading. For reading we look at a written word and blend sounds; for spelling we listen to a spoken word and segment it to identify the sounds.
By using trugs you can practise, reinforce and consolidate reading and spelling, safe in the knowledge that by playing the games and having fun, the most effective teaching methods are being followed.
How can I teach my child to read and enjoy the time together?
trugs is a system based on a synthetic phonics structure to allow anyone, who can themselves read, to help a child/student to progress their level of reading.
The trugs card games are deliberately designed with children and students in mind – in other words there is no mention of phonics, or letter clusters in the actual card games. The supportive literature gives all the details necessary, keeping the card games as an enjoyable way to practise the phonics being taught.
The card games are fun and competitive, with lots of laughter, they hardly notice the reading element – that’s why trugs works and that’s why children want to come back for more.
Every time they are playing they are decoding words in order to win. The stages are carefully graded to ensure easy progress and success.
What is the trugs structure?
The trugs structure is divided into 15 stages and within those stages there are only those words relevant to that specific stage as follows:
Box 1: Approx Reading Age 6 – 7 ½ yrs, Interest level 5 – 95 yrs
Each stage practices the phonic rules below
| Stage | Word examples |
| Stage 1 consonant-vowel-consonant | sat yes big fox hug |
| Stage 2 c-c-v-c | pram shall trip snack |
| Stage 3 c-v-c-c and c-c-v–c | left best crash drank |
| Stage 4 two syllable words | magnet instruct |
| Stage 5 ‘ar’ – ‘or’ – ‘er’ | car port standard |
Box 2: Approx Reading age 7 ½ – 9 yrs, Interest level 5 – 95 yrs
Each stage practices the phonic rules below, building on the previous stage
| Stage | Word examples |
| Stage 6 split digraph | make these fine code tuneful |
| Stage 7 vowel digraphs and trigraphs | snail seen light boat statue |
| Stage 8 alternative vowel digraphs | boy out paw |
| Stage 9 two syllable words | limit pilot |
| Stage 10 three syllable words | consider discontent |
Box 3: Approx Reading age 9-15 yrs, Interest level 5 – 95 yrs
Each stage practices the phonic rules below, building on the previous stage
| Stage | Word examples |
| Stage 11 ‘c’ as in /s/ | mice pencil succeed |
| Stage 12 ‘g’ as in /j/ | gem page rigid |
| Stage 13 consonant-le | candle sensible |
| Stage 14 four syllable words | independent |
| Stage 15 suffixes with ‘ti’ ‘ci’ ‘si’ | electrician |
- Get it, Match it and Take it card games enable students and children to practise, reinforce and consolidate reading.
- Use it card game develops sentence construction and increases vocabulary knowledge.
- Explanation Card explains what each Stage is and how to teach that stage
That’s all that’s needed as the structure has been put together by a phonics specialist.
Progress with reading is inevitable; the learner picks up the phonic patterns easily and then reinforces them every time they play the games, over and over again.