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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Word Study List - Final Blends
Introduce and explore words containing final blends with this extensive list of words.
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Word Study List - L Blends
Introduce and explore words containing an initial l-blend with this extensive list of words.
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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? Worksheet - The Letter G
Practise identifying the different sounds made by the letter G with this printable two-page worksheet.
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Which Letter? Sorting Activity - K or C
Practise identifying when to begin words with the letter K or the letter C with this hands-on sorting activity.
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Types of Syllables Posters
Remind your students about the most common syllable types with this set of classroom display posters.
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Consonant Digraph Word Puzzles
Familiarise your students with a variety of consonant digraphs with these hands-on word puzzles.
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Letter of the Day - Alphabet Crown Craft Templates
Build letter recognition and highlight the focus letter with a set of printable alphabet hats.
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Final 'E' Worksheet Pack (O_E)
Explore words that make the 'long o' sound using the split o_e digraph with this set of 11 worksheets.
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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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Pixel Art Syllable Types
Consolidate understanding of syllable types with these appealing worksheets.
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Beginning Sound Craft – I – Interesting Igloo
An initial sounds activity to introduce the sound 'i'.
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Letter Craft Activity - 'X' is For Fox
An activity to assist young students with letter recognition, phonemic awareness and fine motor development.
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Letter Craft Activity - 'K' is For Koala
An activity to assist young students with letter recognition, phonemic awareness and fine motor development.
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Uppercase and Lowercase Letter Maze - 'Qq'
A fun maze to use when learning how to identify uppercase and lowercase letters.
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Uppercase and Lowercase Letter Maze - 'Nn'
A fun maze to use when learning how to identify uppercase and lowercase letters.
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Uppercase and Lowercase Letter Maze - 'Ii'
A fun maze to use when learning how to identify uppercase and lowercase letters.
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Initial Sound Recognition Worksheet - Letter Y
A colouring activity to develop letter recognition and phonemic awareness.
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Letter Sounds Worksheet – Letter X
Practise beginning letter sounds with this colouring in worksheet.
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Letter Sounds Worksheet – Letter V
Practise beginning letter sounds with this colouring in worksheet.
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Letter Sounds Worksheet – Letter T
Practise beginning letter sounds with this colouring in worksheet.
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Letter Sounds Worksheet – Letter L
Practise beginning letter sounds with this colouring in worksheet.
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Letter Sounds Worksheet – Letter K
Practice beginning letter sounds with this colouring in worksheet.
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Letter Sounds Worksheet – Letter H
Practise beginning letter sounds with this colouring in worksheet.
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Letter Sounds Worksheet – Letter F
Practise beginning letter sounds with this colouring in worksheet.
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Musical Blending Active Game
An active game that allows students to practise using blends and digraphs.
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Uppercase and Lowercase Letter Maze - 'Aa'
A fun maze to use when learning how to identify uppercase and lowercase letters.
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‘They’ Sight Word Little Book
A little book with activities for the word ‘they’.
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Move It! - Long and Short Vowel 'o' PowerPoint Game
An active PowerPoint game to practise reading and identifying long and short vowel ‘o’ words.
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Move It! - Long and Short Vowel 'i' PowerPoint Game
An active PowerPoint game to practise reading and identifying long and short vowel ‘i’ words.
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Move It! - Long and Short Vowel 'u' PowerPoint Game
An active PowerPoint game to practise reading and identifying long and short vowel ‘u’ words.
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Mould It! Task Cards
A set of 28 playdough activity cards.