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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Letter Kk - Alphabet Worksheet
An activity worksheet to use in the classroom when learning about phonics and the letter K.
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Letter Confusion Poster - b and d
A poster highlighting the difference between b and d letterforms.
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Compound Words with Pictures - Combining Word Cards
Combine words to make compound words and boost vocabulary skills with a printable combining words word wall.
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Days of the Week Word Scramble
Unscramble the names of the days in a week with a printable word scramble worksheet!
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Days of the Week Activity Mat
Review the order and spelling of the days in a week with a printable Days of the Week Activity Mat!
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Months of the Year Worksheets
Read, write, and spell the months of the year with a set of printable Months of the Year worksheets for kindergarten.
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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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Vowel Teams Worksheet Pack
Practice writing and enhancing knowledge of vowel digraphs with this worksheet pack.
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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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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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Spelling CVC Words - Worksheets
Develop students’ ability to segment and blend the sounds in CVC words with this set of differentiated worksheets.
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Sounds of OO - Glasses Template
Review the long and short “oo” sound by creating a pair of “sOOper” funky glasses!
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Color By Long A — 2nd Grade Spelling Pattern Worksheet
Invite spring into the classroom and learn long A spelling patterns with a color by code worksheet for 2nd grade.
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CVC Word Chain Task Cards
Manipulate individual phonemes in CVC words to create new ones with this set of differentiated task cards.
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Types of Syllables Anchor Charts
Remind your students about the most common syllable types with this set of classroom display posters.
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Multisyllable Words Worksheets
Build multisyllable word decoding skills with a Science of Reading based worksheet pack.
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Google Interactive CVCC Word Building Activity
Practice building, reading, and writing words with consonants, vowels, blends, and digraphs while spelling CVCC words.
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Blends and Digraphs Clip Card Reading Center
Practice identifying digraphs and blends in word through interactive Google slides and traditional PDF printable formats.
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Phoneme Spotter Story – /oo/ Sound
A decodable text featuring various graphemes that make the /oo/ sound.
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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.
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Uppercase and Lowercase Letter Maze - 'Yy'
A fun maze to use when learning how to identify uppercase and lowercase letters.
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Roll and Read – Rhyming Words
A fun game for students to practice reading rhyming words.
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Sweet Sight Words Worksheet - MY
Practice reading, writing, and identifying the high-frequency word “my” from the Pre-Primer Dolch sight words list.
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Initial Letter Coloring Worksheet
Identify the first letter for each picture and then color it.
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Word Work Grid and Worksheets - Version 2
A grid with spelling activities and corresponding worksheets that can be used for any set of spelling words.
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Letter Yy - Alphabet Worksheet
An activity worksheet to use in the classroom when learning about phonics and the letter Y.
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CVC Beginning and Ending Letters Worksheet Pack
Practice identifying missing beginning and ending sounds and letters in this set of 10 CVC worksheets.
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Combining Words - Compound Word Worksheets for Kids
Combine word parts to build compound nouns with a printable compound word worksheet.
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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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AI, AY and A_E Vowel Team Lesson Resource Pack
Introduce students to AI, AY, and A_E vowel digraphs with this set of teaching slides and mini activity book.
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Diphthong Vowel Teams Pocket Chart Cards
Help students visualize and remember the different diphthong vowel teams with this pocket chart sorting activity with mouth articulation images.