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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Diphthong Vowel Teams Interactive Activity
Practice knowledge of diphthongs during your phonics lessons with this fun bubble-themed interactive activity.
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Diphthong Vowel Teams Teaching Slides
Teach your students about diphthongs with this set of 23 teaching slides.
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Vowel Teams Worksheet Pack
Practice writing and enhancing knowledge of vowel digraphs with this worksheet pack.
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Do-a-Dot Art Alphabet Chart
Design a Dot Day Alphabet Chart with a pair of fun “Finish the Drawing” worksheets.
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Phoneme Segmentation Flashcard Activity Set
Print this phoneme segmentation activity set stocked with 100+ printable flashcards for your classroom reading centers!
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Inflectional Endings - Spelling with Suffixes Worksheets
Spell words with the inflectional endings -ed, -ing, -s, -es and -ies with a pack of printable practice worksheets covering inflected endings.
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Common Spelling Rules - Instructional Slide Deck
Boost your students' spelling skills with an instructional slide deck teaching the different spelling rules.
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Plural Nouns Chart - Printable Plural Rules Guide
Give your students a reference guide to help them remember all of the different plural rules.
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Prefixes and Suffixes Word Search
Practice identifying the meanings of words containing prefixes and suffixes with a fun word search activity.
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Spelling CCVC Words - Worksheets (Differentiated)
Develop students’ ability to segment and blend the sounds in CCVC words with this set of differentiated worksheets.
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Spelling CVCC Words - Worksheets
Develop students’ ability to segment and blend the sounds in CVCC words with this set of differentiated worksheets.
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CVC Word Chain Sequencing Cards
Practice building word chains involving CVC words with these word chain sequencing cards.
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Long I Words - Word Search
Explore words containing some of the most common “long i” spelling patterns with this set of differentiated word searches.
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Long U Words - Word Search
Explore words containing some of the most common “long u” graphemes with this set of differentiated word searches.
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Long O Words - Word Search
Explore words containing some of the most common “long o” graphemes with this set of differentiated word searches.
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OI and OY Words - Word Search
Explore words containing “oi” and “oy” with this set of differentiated word searches.
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Short OO Words — Word Search
Explore words containing some of the most common “short oo” graphemes with this set of differentiated word searches.
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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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Rhyming Word Cards
Reinforce students' knowledge of rhyming words with this set of 30 picture cards.
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Syllable Types - Cut and Paste Worksheets
Identify and match words to the correct syllable types with this set of three treasure-themed worksheets.
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Silent Letters Worksheets - Word and Picture Match Up
Explore one and two-syllable words with silent letters with this set of 7 skill-targeted worksheets.
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Long A Word List
Introduce and explore words containing letter combinations that make the “long a” sound with this printable long A word list.
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Printable Word List - CVCE Words
Introduce and explore words containing the “magic e” with this extensive list of CVCE words.
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Independence Day ABC Order Worksheet
Support your students in reviewing the vocabulary and concepts surrounding the Independence Day holiday with this fun ABC Order Worksheet.
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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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ASL Alphabet Line — Printable Cursive and Print Classroom Decor
Print a set of 26 ASL alphabet posters for the classroom with cursive and print letters to help your students with letter formation and handwriting.
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Google Interactive Sight Words - 1st Grade Dolch
Read, write, identify, and build all 41 Dolch first-grade sight words in an interactive Google Slides presentation.
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Phoneme Spotter Story – /oo/ Sound
A decodable text featuring various graphemes that make the /oo/ sound.
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Phoneme Spotter Story – /oy/ Sound
A decodable text featuring various graphemes that make the /oy/ sound.
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How Many Syllables? - Worksheet
Practice counting syllables in spoken words.
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Sweet Sight Words Worksheet - LIKE
Practice reading, writing, and identifying the high-frequency word “like” from the Kindergarten-level Dolch sight words list.
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Sweet Sight Words Worksheet - WHO
Practice reading, writing, and identifying the high-frequency word “who” from the Kindergarten-level Dolch sight words list.