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 Family Worksheet Pack - CVC Words
Consolidate your students' understanding of onset and rime with this set of 20 worksheets.
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My Alphabet Book - Printable Alphabet Worksheets
An alphabet booklet to use in the classroom when learning letter recognition.
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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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Decodable Readers Teacher Support Pack
A set of free supplementary resources to support the implementation of Teach Starter’s series of phonics-based decodable readers.
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CVC Word Work Mat
Practise segmenting and blending simple words with this CVC word building mat.
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Phoneme Spotter Story – 'ow' Sound
A decodable text featuring various graphemes that make the ‘ow’ sound.
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Phoneme Spotter Story – 'or' Sound
A decodable text featuring various graphemes that make the ‘or’ sound.
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Phoneme Spotter Story – Long 'o' Sound
A decodable text featuring various graphemes that make the long 'o' sound.
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Alphabet Match-Up Cards
A set of upper and lowercase alphabet cards to use as a matching activity.
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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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Level 7 Decodable Readers - Worksheet Pack
A set of one-pager worksheet versions of the texts from our Level 7 decodable readers.
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Spelling CCVC Words - Worksheets
Develop students’ ability to segment and blend the sounds in CCVC words with this set of differentiated worksheets.
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Initial Sound Peg Cards (Version 1)
An initial sound and fine motor activity for the early years classroom.
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SATPIN Matching Activity - Frog and Lily Pads
A SATPIN matching activity using lilly pads.
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Decodable Text Worksheets – Single Graphemes (Set 2)
A set of 10 decodable text worksheets for early readers.
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'EA' Vowel Digraph Board Game
Decode words with the ea long vowel team in this printable board game.
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Long E Words - Word Search
Explore words containing some of the most common ‘long e’ graphemes with this set of differentiated word searches.
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The Pit - Decodable Reader (Level 1)
Develop confident, successful readers with this phonics-based, printable decodable book.
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Phoneme Segmentation Worksheets - CVCC/CCVC Words
Use this worksheet pack to give students practice at segmenting words into phonemes.
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Phoneme Segmentation Task Cards - CVC Words
Segment initial, middle and end sounds with this set of 20 CVC word task cards.
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First 100 Fry Sight Words – Practice Mat
A hands-on resource to enable your students to practise reading and writing a range of high-frequency words.
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Which Word? CVC Decoding Worksheets
A set of 5 worksheets for students to practise segmenting and blending common CVC words.
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Alphabet Bingo – Upper and Lowercase Recognition
Alphabet bingo cards to assist with upper and lower case letter recognition.
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Long Vowel O Teams Interactive Activity
Practise identifying the different graphemes that spell the long /o/ sound with this fun boat-themed interactive activity.
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CVC Word Chain Sequencing Cards
Practise building word chains involving CVC words with these word chain sequencing cards.
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CVC Spell and Write Task Cards
Practise spelling CVC words and manipulating their phonemes to create word chains with this set of hands-on work mats.
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Long O Words - Word Search
Explore words containing some of the most common ‘long o’ graphemes with this set of differentiated word searches.
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OW and OU Words - Word Search
Explore words containing ‘ow’ and ‘ou’ with this set of differentiated word searches.
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I Am Stan - Decodable Reader (Level 1)
Develop confident, successful readers with this phonics-based, printable decodable book.
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Which Letter? Worksheet - K or C
Practise identifying when to begin words with the letter K or the letter C with this printable two-page worksheet.
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Onset and Rime Match-Up Activity
Practise building words by matching the onset and the rime using this match up activity.
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Phoneme Spotter Story – 'oo' Sound
A decodable text featuring various graphemes that make the ‘oo’ sound.