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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Letter Sounds Worksheets Complete Set)
Practise beginning letter sounds with this set of colouring in worksheets.
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Letter Sounds Worksheet – Letter A
Practise beginning letter sounds with this colouring in worksheet.
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Fry Sight Words Flash Cards
A set of flash cards for the first 100 Fry Sight Words.
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Roll and Read – Sight Words (Version 3)
A fun game for students to practice reading sight words.
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Roll and Read – Rhyming Words
A fun game for students to practice reading rhyming words.
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Sight Word BINGO (Fry Word List)
A set of 25 BINGO cards to practise reading the first 100 words on the Fry Sight Word List.
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‘Said’ Sight Word Little Book
A little book with activities for the word 'said'.
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Colour by Sight Words - 4 Words - Butterfly
A fun colouring activity to use when working with sight words.
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Colour by Sight Words - 4 Words - Lady Beetle
A fun colouring activity to use when working with sight words.
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Alphabetical Order Worksheet for Year 2
This year 2 worksheet explains alphabetical order and allows students to demonstrate.
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Initial Letter Bingo
30 different bingo cards using initial letters.
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Alphabetical Order Poster
A poster explaining how to order words according to their place in the alphabet.
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Alphabetical Order Dominoes
A set of dominoes to consolidate students' understanding of alphabetical order.
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Vowel Digraph Bingo
Thirty different bingo cards using vowel digraph graphemes.
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Alphabet Matching Caterpillar Activity
A vibrant and fun activity to teach lower case and upper case to young children.
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'I take it you already know' - Poster
A poster displaying 'I take it you already know', a poem describing the difficulties in the English language.
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Missing Beginnings Worksheet
A worksheet to consolidate initial blend sounds.
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Letter Ll - Alphabet Worksheet
An activity worksheet to use in the classroom when learning about phonics and the letter L.
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Cl Blend Flashcards
Fourteen flashcards showing cl blend words and pictures.
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Alphabet Matching Activity
A great matching activity to consolidate your students' knowledge of the alphabet, letters and sounds.
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Vowel and Consonant Digraph Spin Games
A fun phonics game for students to consolidate their knowledge of some vowel and consonant digraphs.
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Digital Activity for Learning Diphthongs
Practise diphthong knowledge with this fun and engaging digital learning activity.
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Alphabet Poster Pack
Create your own classroom alphabet display with these ink-friendly classroom alphabet posters.
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Consonant Digraph WH Interactive Activity
Engage students in practising their learning around the consonant digraph of ‘wh’ with this ocean-themed interactive activity.
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Consonant Digraph CK Interactive Activity
Engage students in practising their learning around the consonant digraph of ‘ck’ with this fun rock climbing-themed interactive activity.
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IE Vowel Team Board Game
Practise decoding words with the ie vowel team in this board game.
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Read and Type Diphthongs Interactive Activity
Practise diphthong vowel team knowledge with this engaging ‘read and type’ style interactive activity
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Kn Digraph Lesson Resource Pack
Introduce students to the ng digraph with this set of teaching slides and mini activity book.
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Diphthong Cut-and-Paste Worksheet
Help students practise their knowledge of different diphthongs with this set of cut-and-paste worksheets.
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My Diphthong Cheat Sheet
Help students learn all about diphthongs with this handy diphthong student reference sheet.
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EA Vowel Digraph Bingo Game
Practise decoding words that include the EA long /e/ vowel team sound with this BINGO game for up to 20 players.
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'EA' Vowel Digraph Board Game
Decode words with the ea long vowel team in this printable board game.