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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How Does It End? – Final Sounds Match-Up Activity
Consolidate your students' understanding of end sounds with this set of 15 task cards.
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SPLAT! CVCC Word Game
A set of 36 task cards to practise decoding CVCC words.
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Uppercase and Lowercase Matching
A set of four pages for practicing uppercase and lowercase letter recognition.
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Phoneme Spotter Story – Long 'u' Sound
A decodable text featuring various graphemes that make the long 'u' sound.
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Alphabet Playdough Mats
A set of playdough mats where students write and form letters in playdough.
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Consonant Digraph TH Interactive Activity
Engage students in practising their learning around the consonant digraph of ‘th’ with this fun sloth-themed interactive activity.
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Word Twist – Word Building Game
Encourage word building in your classroom with this fun Boggle-style game!
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CVCC and CCVC Word Chain Ladders - Worksheets
Build word chains with CVCC and CCVC words using this set of printable phonics worksheets.
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No Naps, Nan! - Decodable Reader (Level 1)
Develop confident, successful readers with this phonics-based, printable decodable book.
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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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OI Graphemes - SCOOT! Task Cards
Explore words containing graphemes that make the diphthong ‘oi’ with this active classroom game that will get your students moving!
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CVC Phoneme Manipulation Worksheets - Short O
Manipulate the individual phonemes in 'short o' CVC words to create new words with this set of differentiated worksheets.
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Word Study List - Long A Graphemes
Introduce and explore words containing graphemes that make the ‘long a’ sound with this extensive list of words.
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Rhyme Time – Match-Up Activity
A set of 32 match-up cards for students to practise rhyming.
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A Whale's Tale - Simple Rhyming Poetry Poster
A simple rhyming poem perfect for developing knowledge of phonics and a love of reading and writing poetry.
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Phoneme Spotter Story – 'oy' Sound
A decodable text featuring various graphemes that make the ‘oy’ sound.
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Initial Sound Recognition Worksheets (Lower Case) – Complete Set a–z
A set of colouring activities to develop letter recognition and phonemic awareness.
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Science of Reading Decoding Strategy Bookmarks and Poster
A decoding strategy bookmark and poster set to help students during reading.
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Beginning Sounds Bingo
30 different bingo cards using beginning sounds.
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Vowel Team Digraph Poster Set
Display this poster set in your classroom when teaching children about different vowel team digraphs.
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Long I Vowel Digraphs Interactive Activity
Practise identifying the different vowel digraphs that spell the long /i/ sound with this fun iceberg-themed interactive activity.
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Consonant Digraph NG Interactive Activity
Engage students in practising their learning around the consonant digraph of ‘ng’ with this fun playground-themed interactive activity.
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Ch Digraph Lesson Resource Pack
Introduce students to the ch digraph with this set of teaching slides and mini activity book.
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Missing Letters - Letter-Sound Recognition Task Cards
Buzz into letter-sound correspondence with this honey-themed missing letter task card set.
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Sight Word Lists – Teacher Resource Binder
Use this collection of checklists, student pages and quick-check assessments when reviewing Dolch sight words spanning from pre-primer to year 3.
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Th Word List and Flash Cards
Practice reading and spelling words with the Digraph TH with a list of 50 words and accompanying illustrated flash cards.
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Robot Hide and Seek - Decodable Reader (Level 5)
Develop confident, successful readers with this phonics-based, printable decodable book.
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Cash to Spend - Decodable Reader (Level 4)
Develop confident, successful readers with this phonics-based, printable decodable book.
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Long OO Words - Word Search
Explore words containing some of the most common ‘long oo’ graphemes with this set of differentiated word searches.
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Nanna and Pop's Cabin - Decodable Reader (Level 3)
Develop confident, successful readers with this phonics-based, printable decodable book.
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My Dog Don - Decodable Reader (Level 2)
Develop confident, successful readers with this phonics-based, printable decodable book.
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The Pit - Decodable Reader (Level 1)
Develop confident, successful readers with this phonics-based, printable decodable book.