Camera Words

Camera words are a group of words in the English language that children like to use in their speech and in their writing that cannot be easily decoded or need advanced phonics skills to do so. For example: was, the and friend. Children want to read and spell these words right at the beginning of their schooling. Knowing a small bank of these tricky words helps children to begin to read and write sentences that make sense and encourage them to communicate in writing right from the start.

Teaching Camera Words

Camera words are taught alongside the phonics teaching: lesson 5/10 teaches reading and lesson 10/10 teaches the spelling of these irregular but so essential words. Just like the phonics lessons the camera words lessons are taught in a fun and lively way – with games like Photographer, Snap and Pairs included in The Synthetic Phonics Toolkit.

The Practice Books include a camera book for each unit – so children get lots more practice at reading and spelling these tricky but so essential words.