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!
- Plus Plan
Finding Phonemes - Spelling Words with DGE, GE, J, and G Interactive
Read and spell words using the j, g, ge, and dge phonemes with an interactive digital learning activity for 2nd Grade.
- Plus Plan
SATPIN Colour by Letter - Chameleon
An engaging activity to consolidate your students' understanding of the letters - s,a,t,p,i,n.
- Plus Plan
CVC Word Building Activity
Practise building CVC words with this 25 slide interactive activity.
- Plus Plan
Phoneme Spotter Story – 'er' Sound
A decodable text featuring various graphemes that make the ‘er’ sound.
- Plus Plan
Literacy Teaching Toolkit - Sight Word Assessments
Track Dolch sight word mastery with this set of printable assessments and data sheets to add to your literacy teaching toolkit.
- Plus Plan
Level 3 Decodable Readers - Worksheet Pack
A set of one-pager worksheet versions of the texts from our Level 3 decodable readers
- Plus Plan
Ant - Decodable Reader (Level 1)
Develop confident, successful readers with this phonics-based, printable decodable book.
- Free Plan
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.
- Plus Plan
Alphabet Letter Match
A fun match-up activity to consolidate your students' knowledge of uppercase and lowercase letters.
- Plus Plan
Word Family Worksheet Pack - CVC Words
Consolidate your students' understanding of onset and rime with this set of 20 worksheets.
- Free Plan
Diphthongs Worksheets
Practice diphthongs with this set of fun and engaging worksheets.
- Plus Plan
Spelling CCVC Words - Worksheets
Develop students’ ability to segment and blend the sounds in CCVC words with this set of differentiated worksheets.
- Plus Plan
Digraph Handwriting - Worksheets
24 digraph worksheets that focus on handwriting and vocabulary activities.
- Plus Plan
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.
- Plus Plan
Colour by Sight Words - 6 Words - Snake
Practise sight words for kindergarten and more with a printable color by sight word worksheet.
- Plus Plan
Suffix Word Building Activity
Build words using the suffixes -ed, -es, -s, and -ing with a printable word-building pocket chart card pack.
- Plus Plan
Level 5 Decodable Readers - Worksheet Pack
A set of one-pager worksheet versions of the texts from our Level 5 decodable readers.
- Plus Plan
Long O Words - Word Search
Explore words containing some of the most common ‘long o’ graphemes with this set of differentiated word searches.
- Free Plan
Initial Sound Peg Cards (Version 1)
An initial sound and fine motor activity for the early years classroom.
- Plus Plan
Decodable Text Worksheets – Single Graphemes (Set 2)
A set of 10 decodable text worksheets for early readers.
- Plus Plan
Segmenting and Blending CVC Words Interactive PowerPoint
An interactive PowerPoint for students to practise reading CVC words.
- Plus Plan
A-Z Picture Flashcards (Lower Case)
A set of A-Z flash cards with lower case letters and matching pictures.
- Plus Plan
CVC Phoneme Manipulation Worksheets - Short U
Manipulate the individual phonemes in ‘short u’ CVC words to create new words with this set of differentiated worksheets.
- Plus Plan
Sh Digraph Lesson Resource Pack
Introduce students to the sh digraph with this set of teaching slides and mini activity book.
- Plus Plan
Ch Digraph Lesson Resource Pack
Introduce students to the ch digraph with this set of teaching slides and mini activity book.
- Plus Plan
Printable Alphabet Colouring Pages
Use printable alphabet colouring pages to boost letter recognition skills.
- Plus Plan
Level 1 Decodable Readers - Worksheet Pack
A set of one-pager worksheet versions of the texts from our Level 1 decodable readers.
- Plus Plan
I Am Stan - Decodable Reader (Level 1)
Develop confident, successful readers with this phonics-based, printable decodable book.
- Free Plan
Phonological Awareness Diagnostic Tool
Basic diagnostic tool to test your students' phonological awareness.
- Plus Plan
Animal Alliteration Activity - Brainstorming Template
A brainstorming template to use in the classroom when learning about alliteration.
- Free Plan
Science of Reading Decoding Strategy Bookmarks and Poster
A decoding strategy bookmark and poster set to help students during reading.
- Plus Plan
Printable Personal Dictionary for Primary Students
A printable booklet with pictures and sight words for students to create their own personal dictionary.