Phonics Teaching Resources
Make teaching phonics easy with printable phonics worksheets, activities, games and more designed for elementary ELA and ELAR teachers.
This collection of 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 recognizing 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 recognize 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
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
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 over 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 kindergarten, first, and even second grade getting a handle on all phonics elements!
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Summer Word Search Puzzle
Search and spell your way into summer break with a fun Summer Word Search!
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My Spelling Dictionary Booklet
Help young learners build their writing and spelling confidence with their very own Spelling Dictionary Booklet!
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CVCC Word Work Mat
Practice segmenting and spelling simple words with this set of 24 CVCC picture task cards.
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Kn, Ph and Wr Digraph Picture Cards - Free
Use our Digraph Picture Cards to introduce your students to kn, ph and wr digraph words.
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Differentiated Spelling Bee Word Lists
Prepare your students for school spelling competitions with printable Spelling Bee Word Lists for simple, common, difficult, and challenging spelling words.
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Free Spelling Worksheets for Any List
Grab these spelling worksheets for any list and use them to prep your weekly spelling homework with ease!
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Vowel Teams Diphthong Worksheets
Practice diphthongs with this set of fun and engaging worksheets.
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Look, Say, Cover, Write and Check Sheet Templates
Use a Look, Say, Cover, Write, and Check sheet to encourage students to study and practice their weekly spelling words.
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Science of Reading Decoding Strategy Bookmarks and Poster
Help students succeed in reading fluency with this free printable bookmark and poster set of strategies for decoding unknown words.
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Differentiated Spelling Choice Board Pack
Give your students a variety of fun options for spelling homework with Differentiated Spelling Choice Board Templates.
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Rainbow Spelling Worksheet Pack
Brighten up your spelling homework activity toolbox with a Rainbow Spelling Worksheet Pack!
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Alphabet Sounds Picture Puzzle
Dive into letter-sound correspondence with your students using this alphabet picture puzzle.
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Tic-Tac-Toe Blending Phonemes Game
Develop your students' blending phonemes in CVC and CCVC words with a set of 10 Tic-Tac-Toe board games.
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This or That! PowerPoint Game - Vowel Teams
An active PowerPoint game to practice decoding words with vowel teams.
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Alphabet Letter Match
A fun match-up activity to consolidate your students' knowledge of uppercase and lowercase letters.
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Segmenting and Blending Mats
A set of beautifully designed templates for students to practice blending and segmenting words.
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Four in a Row Game - i_e Words
Practice decoding long 'i' silent final ‘e’ words with this set of 18 word cards and picture game board.
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Weekly Spelling Homework Sheets - 5th Grade Spelling Words
Provide your 5th graders with engaging spelling homework activities with our no-prep 5th Grade Spelling Words Worksheet pack.
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2nd Grade Spelling Practice Worksheets - Weekly Homework
Make assigning homework easy all year with Printable 2nd Grade Spelling Practice Worksheets.
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Spin and Spell - Months of the Year Worksheet
Spin and spell the months of the year with a printable spelling worksheet for 2nd Grade.
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Consonant Digraph Cut-and-Paste Worksheets
Reinforce your students' knowledge of consonant digraphs with this set of cut-and-paste worksheets.
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Silent Letters Worksheet Pack
Use these 5 ghost letter worksheets for practicing the use and identification of silent letters in words.
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Thanksgiving Escape Room - Escape the Oven!
Help Urkey the Thanksgiving turkey escape the clutches of the terrible chef who wants to cook him with a fun Thanksgiving Escape Game.
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Quick Phonics Screener- Single Letter Phoneme
Test your students' knowledge of single letter phonemes with this student assessment kit.
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What's Missing? - Alphabet Worksheet
A set of worksheets to practice writing the letters of the alphabet in order.
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Four In A Row Vowel Teams Game — EE, EA, and EY
Decode words with EE, EA, and EY vowel teams representing the long 'e' vowel sound.
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Four in a Row Game - a_e Words
Practice decoding long 'a' silent final ‘e’ words with this set of 18 word cards and picture game board.
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CVC Letters
A sheet of letters to use when making CVC words.
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Spelling Spinner Homework Activity - Differentiated
Have fun practicing spelling words with an engaging Spelling Spinner Game for any spelling word list.
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Word Building Cards
A comprehensive set of phonemes and letter combinations to help your students build words.
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CCVC Word Work Mat
Practice decoding and spelling simple words with this set of 24 CCVC picture task cards.
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3rd Grade Spelling Words Worksheets
Practice 3rd Grade spelling words to strengthen spelling, alphabetization, and sentence writing skills with 30 weeks of Grade 3 Spelling homework sheets,