Phonics Teaching Resources
Make teaching phonics easy with printable phonics worksheets, activities, games and more designed for primary teachers.
This collection of Australian 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 recognising 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 recognise 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 in Primary School
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 to Remember
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 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 foundation, year 1 and even year 2 getting a handle on all phonics elements!
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Vowel Sorting Activity - Short and Long Vowels
Supplement your phonics lessons with an apple-themed vowel sound sorting activity.
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The Pink Dump Truck - Decodable Reader (Level 2)
Develop confident, successful readers with this phonics-based, printable decodable book.
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Long U Graphemes - SCOOT! Task Cards
Explore words containing graphemes that make the ‘long u’ sound with this active classroom game that will get your students moving!
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Short OO Graphemes - SCOOT! Task Cards
Explore words containing graphemes that make the ‘short oo’ sound with this active classroom game that will get your students moving!
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R Blend Word Wall Vocabulary
Forty-eight R blend vocabulary cards for a word wall.
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My Magic E Story - Mini-Book
Practise reading and writing sentences with CVCe words with this magic e mini-book.
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Syllable Types Sorting Activity
Practise identifying and sorting syllable types in two- and three-syllable words with this treasure-themed sorting activity.
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Initial Sound - Interactive Sorting Activity
Practise identifying initial sounds by working your way through each letter of the alphabet.
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Word Study List - Trigraphs
Introduce and explore common trigraphs with this extensive list of words.
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Word Study List - Hard and Soft G
Introduce and explore words containing the hard and soft g with this extensive list of words.
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Word Study List - Y as a Vowel
Introduce and explore words containing the letter ‘y’ making a vowel sound with this extensive list of words.
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Word Study List - CVCE Words
Introduce and explore words containing the ‘magic e’ with this extensive list of CVCE words.
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Long I Graphemes - SCOOT! Task Cards
Explore words containing graphemes that make the ‘long i’ sound with this active classroom game that will get your students moving!
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Long A Graphemes - SCOOT! Task Cards
Explore words containing graphemes that make the ‘long a’ sound with this active classroom game that will get your students moving!
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Which Sound? Poster - The Letter C
Remind your students of the different sounds made by the letter C with this colourful classroom poster.
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The OW Digraph - Sorting Activity
Practise reading words containing the 'ow' digraph using this hands-on sorting activity.
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Consonant Digraphs Match-Up Activity
Complete words using the correct consonant digraph with this set of match-up cards.
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Magic E Wand and Word Cards
Explore the power of the magic e in CVCe words with this crafty phonics activity.
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How Many Syllables? Sorting Activity
Practise segmenting and counting syllables in words with this set of 24 picture sorting cards.
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CCVC Word Dominoes
Practise decoding CCVC words with this set of 28 dominoes.
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Building Sundaes - CVC Word Mats
Segment CVC words with this set of 14 word mats.
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CVCe Word Building - Google Slides Interactive Activity
Practise spelling and reading CVCe words by identifying and blending sounds using this interactive Google Slides activity.
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Pixel Art Syllable Types
Consolidate understanding of syllable types with these appealing worksheets.
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Syllable Count Board Game
Segment and count up to 4 syllables with this game board and set of 33 picture cards.
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Colour by Sight Words - 6 Words - Toucan
A fun colouring activity to use when working with sight words.
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Colour by Sight Words - 6 Words - Chicken
A fun colouring activity to use when working with sight words.
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It's Time to Rhyme! Worksheet
Practise identifying and producing rhyming sets with this worksheet.
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Beginning Sound Craft – P – Playful Pig
An initial sounds activity to introduce the sound 'p'.
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Beginning Sound Craft – S – Slithering Snake
An initial sound craft to introduce the sound 's'.
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Word Building Picture Reveal PowerPoint
An interactive PowerPoint that will energise your classroom word building activities.
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Alphabet Craft Display Posters
Letter craft posters for each letter of the alphabet.
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SATPIN Colour by Letter - Chicken
An engaging activity to consolidate your students’ understanding of the letters – s,a,t,p,i,n.