I remember these charts from my early primary schooling in Hobart. I can recall the class being asked to recite the sounds, with the teacher up the front with a pointer. That was my year one class, 1971, under Sister Catherine. It was pretty effective and enjoyable, as I remember it. The colours were the key to the whole thing.

We also used Cuisenaire rods a lot. The classroom had a giant set – great for building miniture cities – as well as many of the small sets. Great fun to play with, and you learned so much at the same time. They were extremely well produced and nice to handle. Precision was all-important to matching them together. You can occasionally pick up a set second hand.