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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Gingerbread Phonics - Letter-Sound Correspondence Sort
Have some sweet Christmas reading fun with a gingerbread-themed letter-sound correspondence sorting activity.
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Phoneme Segmentation Work Mats - Count It!
Develop phonemic awareness using hands-on manipulatives with this counting phonemes work mat and accompanying picture cards.
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Alphabet Interactive Activity - Letter H
Explore the Letter H through technology with this interactive drag-and-drop activity.
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Alphabet Interactive Activity - Letter G
Explore the Letter G through technology with this interactive drag-and-drop activity.
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Rhyming Jellybeans - Interactive Activity
Sweeten up your literacy lessons with an interactive jellybean-themed rhyming word game for the Early Years.
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Phoneme Segmentation Work Mats - Build It!
Develop phonemic awareness using hands-on manipulatives with this set of ten phoneme segmentation work mats.
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Phoneme Segmentation - Count and Hook Cards
Help students gain mastery in phoneme segmentation with these hands-on count and hook task cards.
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Counting Syllables Sorting Activity - Penguins
Help these freezing cold syllable penguins escape the frigid water by sorting them onto the correct ice floes.
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Open and Closed Syllables - Match Up Activity
Practice identifying open and closed syllables with a rainbow-themed matching activity.
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Word Study List - Consonant Digraphs
Introduce and explore common consonant digraphs with this extensive list of words.
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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 - CVCE Words
Introduce and explore words containing the ‘magic e’ with this extensive list of CVCE words.
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I Spy CVCe Words - Worksheet
Identify words that contain the magic e with this printable black and white worksheet.
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Consonant Digraphs - Interactive Sorting Activity
Practise identifying beginning and ending consonant digraphs with this interactive sorting activity.
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Ending Consonant Digraphs Sorting Activity
Explore words that contain a final consonant digraph with a set of 24 picture sorting cards.
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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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Building Sundaes with Vowel Teams (OA, OW, OE and EY)
Decode words with OA, OW, OE and EY long vowel teams by crafting cute desserts!
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CCVC Word Dominoes
Practise decoding CCVC words with this set of 28 dominoes.
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R-Controlled Vowel Peg Cards
Build an engaging literacy center or station activity around r-controlled vowels with these digital and/or printable r-controlled vowel clip cards.
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Onset and Rime Word Building - Google Slides Interactive Activity
Form words by blending onsets and their rimes with a Google Slides interactive activity.
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SMASH IT! Blending 'l' Game
Practise finding different ways to blend 'l' with other consonants with this set of 8 game boards and letter cards.
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Consonant Blends Beehive Sorting Activity
A set of 12 beehives with corresponding bee word cards for the consonant blends – fl, tr, br, cr, fr, cl, dr, sl, st, bl, gl, sc.
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Colour by Sight Words - 5 Words - Bee
A fun colouring activity to use when working with sight words.
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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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Beginning Sound Craft – P – Playful Pig
An initial sounds activity to introduce the sound 'p'.
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Blend and Digraph Cards
A set of 32 blend and digraph cards that can be used in a variety of ways.
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Letter Craft Activity - 'Z' is For Zebra
An activity to assist young students with letter recognition, phonemic awareness and fine motor development.
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Letter Craft Activity - 'T' is For Toucan
An activity to assist young students with letter recognition, phonemic awareness and fine motor development.
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Letter Craft Activity - 'S' is For Snail
An activity to assist young students with letter recognition, phonemic awareness and fine motor development.
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Letter Craft Activity - 'I' is For Insect (Version 2)
An activity to assist young students with letter recognition, phonemic awareness and fine motor development.
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CVC Word Building Mats
A set of 25 word building mats using consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words.