PHASE 3 GUIDE · ABOUT YEARS 1–2
A parent and teacher guide to phase 3 of Ready to Read Phonics Plus — what it means, what's taught, and how to help at home.
🪴A māhuri is a sapling — a young tree, growing fast in every direction. That's exactly what this phase feels like: the number of spelling patterns a child can read roughly doubles.
Māhuri usually spans Years 1–2. Children arrive able to read split digraphs and blends, and leave able to read most one-syllable words in English — a huge leap. Phonics Plus is progression-based — children move up when they're ready, not by age, so treat year levels as a guide only.
Māhuri opens up the long-vowel teams (several spellings for each sound), the r-controlled vowels where r changes everything, the diphthongs (gliding sounds like ou and oi), and the first suffixes:
The key idea of Māhuri: one sound can have several spellings (the long A can be ai, ay or a–e), and one spelling can have several sounds (ea in sea vs bread, ow in snow vs cow). Flexible readers try one, check it makes a real word, and adjust — that's a skill worth praising loudly.
✅ Signs your child is ready to move on
Write rain, day, cake on cards and sort by spelling of the long A. Sorting builds the pattern-spotting the phase is all about.
When they misread bread as 'breed', smile and say 'try the other sound of ea' — then celebrate the fix. The fix IS the skill.
Try word sums out loud: jump + ing = ? — then trickier ones: run + ing? (double the n!).
R-controlled vowels are everywhere: car park, surf, shark, fern. Spot them on signs and try spelling them by ear.
Ten focused minutes beats a battle. If it turns into tears, stop, read TO them, and try again tomorrow.
Every Māhuri mystery on KiwiABC practises one focus pattern from this phase, inside decodable clue sentences — so the reading practice feels like detective work, not drill. Browse the Māhuri mysteries →
Every Māhuri mystery practises one pattern from this phase inside a decodable whodunit. The first ones are free — no account needed.
Open the Māhuri mysteries →