Phonics Teaching Resources
Make teaching phonics easy with printable phonics worksheets, activities, games and more designed for elementary ELA and ELAR teachers.
This collection of curriculum-aligned teaching resources has been carefully reviewed by our expert teaching team to make sure every resource is classroom-ready — so we can make your lesson planning easier!
New to teaching phonics, or just looking for new ways to engage your students? Read on for a primer from our teacher team!
What Is Phonics?
You've likely heard the word "phonics" thousands of times throughout your own education and maybe on one of those old as from the '90s. But what is phonics, exactly?
Phonics is technically defined as the systematic instruction of the relationships between letters and sounds in written language. But that's a mouthful, isn't it? More simply, phonics is the word we use to refer to the method of teaching reading by focusing on the relationship between written letters and the sounds they represent.
In phonics, kids learn how to decode written words by recognizing the sound-symbol correspondence.
Phonics vs. Phonemic Awareness
When we start talking about letters and their sounds, we start to wander into phonemic awareness territory. So what's the difference?
The words phonics and phonemic are similar, and the two concepts are — surprise, surprise — related. But there are key differences.
Phonemic awareness is essentially the ability to identify and manipulate individual sounds — aka phonemes — in spoken language. It's those individual sounds and their correspondence to the letter symbols that can be used by kids to then decode written words.
So students learn to recognize the individual sounds of spoken language (phonemes) and how these sounds can be represented by letters (graphemes) in written language. Then they apply this knowledge to decode written words by understanding the sound-symbol correspondence.
Consider this example:
- Let's say your student can identify the separate sounds in a spoken word such as "cat" (i.e., /k/ /a/ /t/). That's phonemic awareness.
- Now let's say you're teaching that same student that the letter "c" represents the /k/ sound and that the letter "a" represents the /a/ sound, and that these sounds combine to form the word "cat." That's phonics!
How to Teach Phonics
OK, you probably already know that phonics is all about teaching word recognition via grapheme-phoneme associations and letter-sound correspondences.
It’s a means of teaching early readers the pieces that make up a word so they can blend them together to decode the English language as readers and writers.
But how do you teach it?
In the earliest stages, phonics instruction typically begins with teaching students the most common letter-sound relationships. You start with consonants, then move on to vowels, then consonant blends.
Students then learn to sound out words by decoding the letters and blending the sounds together to form words.
Phonics Vocabulary Terms
The English language system is one of the hardest to teach and learn, so how do you teach phonics? Let’s start with the phonics vocabulary.
- For starters, there are 26 letters that create approximately 44 phonemes, the word for the individual speech sounds that make up words. Put together, phonemes make words. OK, easy enough, right?
- Well, these phonemes can be written in over more than 200 different letter combinations, known as graphemes. Graphemes can be made up of 1 letter (such as “p” in “pig”), 2 letters (such as “gh” in ghost), 3 letters (such as “igh” in night), or 4 letters (such as “ough” in rough).
- Then there are digraphs or two letters that work together to make one sound — such as “ph” in graph. But wait, isn’t that a grapheme? Yup, a digraph is a type of grapheme.
- So is a trigraph, trigraphs, aka three letters that work together to make one sound, such as “dge” in edge.
- And if you’re teaching phonics, you can’t forget dipthongs, the name for a sound that is formed by the combination of two vowels in a single syllable, such as “ou” in loud.
Most students will spend kindergarten, first, and even second grade getting a handle on all phonics elements!
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Segmenting and Blending CVC Words Interactive PowerPoint
An interactive PowerPoint for students to practice reading CVC words.
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Connect the Dots Printable Alphabet Worksheet (Robot-Themed)
Download the free connect the dots printable for your students to practice putting letters in alphabetical order.
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Long Vowel Digraph Writing Worksheet
Learn to encode long vowel digraphs with this set of writing worksheets.
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Long Vowel Digraph Cut-and-Paste Worksheet
Reinforce your students' knowledge of long vowel digraphs with this set of cut-and-paste worksheets.
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Consonant Digraph CH Interactive Activity
Engage students in practicing their learning around the consonant digraph of ‘ch’ with this fun beach-themed interactive activity.
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Consonant Digraph TH Interactive Activity
Engage students in practicing their learning around the consonant digraph of ‘th’ with this fun sloth-themed interactive activity.
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Alphabet Coloring Pages - A to Z
Print a set of alphabet coloring pages to boost letter recognition skills.
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OA Vowel Team Board Game
Practice decoding words with the oa vowel team in this board game.
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CVC Words - Spell and Write Task Cards
Practice spelling CVC words and manipulating their phonemes to create word chains with this set of hands-on work mats.
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Spaceship Word Chains - Worksheets
Manipulate the individual phonemes in 3- and 4-letter words to create new ones with this set of word chain worksheets.
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CVC Phoneme Manipulation Worksheets - Short E
Manipulate the individual phonemes in “short e” words with this set of differentiated CVC words worksheets.
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Phoneme Segmentation Bingo - Printable Phonics Game
Help students master phoneme segmentation through targeted listening with fun and engaging phonics games.
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Word Study List — Double Consonant Words
Introduce and explore double letters in words with a list of 50 double-lettered words.
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Spring Syllables - Syllable Sort
Save the baby birds by clapping and counting syllables in words with this Spring syllable sorting activity.
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Fall Phonics - Kindergarten Worksheet Pack
Bring a bit of fall into the classroom with a set of fall-themed worksheets covering syllables, blending, segmenting, and more!
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Daily Dolch Drills — Pre-Primer Weekly Homework
Practice weekly sight words to strengthen letter-sound recognition, spelling, and reading fluency with six weeks of sight word homework worksheets.
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Weekly Spelling Homework-Year-Long Spelling Worksheets
Practice weekly spelling words to strengthen letter-sound recognition, alphabetization, and sentence writing skills with 36 weeks of worksheets.
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Phoneme Spotter Story – /er/ Sound
A decodable text featuring various graphemes that make the /er/ sound.
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CVCC Word Work Mat
Practice segmenting and spelling simple words with this set of 24 CVCC picture task cards.
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My Word Builder Folder
A word building folder to develop students’ phonemic awareness.
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Digraph Handwriting - Worksheets
24 digraph worksheets that focus on handwriting and vocabulary activities.
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Building Sundaes Game - L Blends
Build a sundae to practice decoding words with L consonant blends.
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Move It! - Long and Short Vowel 'O' PowerPoint Game
An active PowerPoint game to practice reading and identifying long and short vowel ‘o’ words.
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FIND IT! S Blends Board Game
Practice decoding and spelling words with this board game that focuses on S consonant blends.
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FIND IT! Rhyming Words Game
Practice recognizing rhyming with pictures and words using this set of 20 cards.
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Uppercase and Lowercase Letter Maze - 'Qq'
A fun maze to use when learning how to identify uppercase and lowercase letters.
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How Does It End? - Final Sounds Printable or Interactive Activity
Practice spelling CVC words with this set of 15 fill-in-the-blank word cards and their matching missing letters.
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Uppercase and Lowercase Letter Maze - 'Bb'
A fun maze to use when learning how to identify uppercase and lowercase letters.
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Dolch Noun Sounding Out Cards
A set of 95 cards containing Dolch nouns for students to practice sounding out words.
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Rhyming Match Worksheets
Identify rhyming words through images with this set of 5 worksheets.
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Roll and Read – Sight Words – Kindergarten
A fun game for students to practice reading sight words.
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Final 'e' Picture Puzzle - o_e
Practice decoding words with long 'o' vowel sounds and final ‘e’ conventions with this 15-piece picture puzzle.