"We don't teach phonics but they learn letters and their sounds." That's what I heard myself say when a parent asked if we teach phonics. I pointed to the name labels on the tables and told her that we're always talking about letters and their sounds, like the sounds in their names. I pointed to the alphabet puzzles and the magnetic letters which had been incorporated into the home center play. On display is the recipe book, A-Z of recipes, that we will make over the year. It is through their play that the children begin to connect letters to the sounds they make. We don't teach phonics but they learn letters and their sounds through play. We don't teach phonics when the environment, or the third teacher, does it so beautifully.