Our tricky words are called ‘camera words’ in the Phonics Hero games. They are irregular, high-frequency words – words like ‘was’, ‘are’ and ‘the’. These words are tricky to decode but essential for children to progress onto reading and writing sentences.
In every level of Part 1 and 2 of Phonics Hero, there are camera words. These words will always appear on a ‘photo card’ to highlight to children that they should be employing a different skill.
Once children have played the reading and spelling camera word games, they then move onto using these words within a sentence. You will notice that, within a sentence, they are always bolded. This is to indicate to children that they must employ a different skill to read these words.
| Level | Words | Level | Words |
| 1 | I, was, are, the, to, she | 7 | one, some, want, many, love, has |
| 2 | day, a, today, of, he, for | 8 | people, live, brother, sister, house, where |
| 3 | all, me, they, is, no, said | 9 | her, out, there, about, his, down |
| 4 | you, this, my, play, come, have | 10 | because, two, another, more, here, our |
| 5 | like, says, going, do, what, give | 11 | friend, their, were, your, could, four |
| 6 | away, look, once, see, very, we | 12 | half, first, good, girl, saw, would |
| Level | Words | Level | Words |
| 2B | to, the | 7A | like, some, come, said, so, have |
| 3A | no, go, I | 7B | were, there, little, one, do, when, out, what |
| 4B | he, she | 8A | oh, their, people |
| 5A | we, me, be | 8B | Mr, Mrs, looked |
| 5B | was | 8C | called, asked |
| 6A | my | 9A | water, where, who, again, thought, through |
| 6B | you | 9B | work, mouse, many, laughed, because, different |
| 6C | they, her, all, are | 9C | any, eyes, friends, once, please |
You will notice that some of the camera words are decodable, words like, ‘play’ and ‘she’. We include them in our list because they are very high frequency (and therefore needed to succeed in reading or writing a sentence) but include parts of the phonics code not yet learned.