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!
- Free Plan
CVCC Word Work Mat
Practice segmenting and spelling simple words with this set of 24 CVCC picture task cards.
- Free Plan
Digraph Coding Robot Mat
Practice identifying digraphs with the help of a coding robot and mat.
- Free Plan
Alphabet Sounds Picture Puzzle
Dive into letter-sound correspondence with your students using this alphabet picture puzzle.
- Free Plan
Kn, Ph and Wr Digraph Picture Cards - Free
Use our Digraph Picture Cards to introduce your students to kn, ph and wr digraph words.
- Free Plan
My Spelling Dictionary Booklet
Help young learners build their writing and spelling confidence with their very own Spelling Dictionary Booklet!
- Plus Plan
Alphabet Initial Sound Recognition Worksheets
Explore alphabet beginning sounds with this set of alphabet sounds worksheets to develop letter recognition.
- Free Plan
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.
- Plus Plan
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,
- Free Plan
Alphabet Playdough Mats for Fine Motor Development
A set of alphabet playdough letter mats to help children develop their fine motor skills and identify the letters of the alphabet.
- Free Plan
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.
- Free Plan
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.
- Plus Plan
CVC Words – Playdough Mats
A set of three-letter consonant-vowel-consonant words for students to practice writing and forming in playdough.
- Plus Plan
Spelling Detectives Worksheets - Fixing Spelling Errors (3-4)
Build spelling and editing skills with printable ‘Find the Spelling Errors’ Worksheets.
- Free Plan
Vowel Teams Diphthong Worksheets
Practice diphthongs with this set of fun and engaging worksheets.
- Plus Plan
Diphthong Vowel Teams Mini-Book Pack
Learn and practice the different diphthong vowel teams with this set of mini activity books.
- Free Plan
Sign Language Alphabet Poster
Display this poster in your classroom as a reminder of how to represent the letters of the alphabet when spelling words in ASL (American Sign Language).
- Free Plan
Alphabet Letter Match
A fun match-up activity to consolidate your students' knowledge of uppercase and lowercase letters.
- Free Plan
Th Word List and Digraph Flashcards
Practice reading and spelling words with the Digraph TH with a list of 50 words and accompanying illustrated flash cards.
- Plus Plan
Double Consonant Rule - Word Building Cards
Practice spelling and building words that need double consonants when adding suffixes with a word-building center.
- Plus Plan
Multisyllable Words Worksheets
Build multisyllable word decoding skills with a Science of Reading based worksheet pack.
- Free Plan
Segmenting and Blending Mats
A set of beautifully designed templates for students to practice blending and segmenting words.
- Plus Plan
Days of the Week Spelling Worksheets
Use these Days of the Week Spelling worksheets to help your students practice reading, writing, and spelling the Days of the week.
- Plus Plan
Months of the Year Worksheets
Read, write, and spell the months of the year with a set of printable Months of the Year worksheets for kindergarten.
- Free Plan
Consonant Digraph Cut-and-Paste Worksheets
Reinforce your students' knowledge of consonant digraphs with this set of cut-and-paste worksheets.
- Plus Plan
Spelling Rules Posters – Plurals and Suffixes Anchor Charts
Display the common spelling rules for suffixes and plurals with a set of printable spelling rules charts.
- Plus Plan
Learn to Read Short A - Daily Phonics for Kids
Teach your students to read short a words with a daily digital phonics instructional slide deck.
- Plus Plan
Initial Sound Sorting Activity (s, a, t, p, i, and n)
A sorting activity to practice initial sounds regarding the letters s, a, t, p, i, and n.
- Plus Plan
Initial Sound Clip Cards (Version 2)
A hands-on activity to practice initial sounds.
- Plus Plan
Spelling Suffixes Anchor Charts - Plurals
Help students understand when to apply the right plural spellings based on the ending of any word.
- Plus Plan
Name Tracing Worksheets - Auto-Fill Handwriting Sheets
Use our Auto-Fill Name Tracing Worksheets PDF to easily create name tracing worksheets.
- Plus Plan
Digital Escape Room for Kids - Alphabet Sounds
Explore the letters of the alphabet and their main sounds using this fun digital escape room for kids.
- Plus Plan
I Spy Alphabet Sounds Mat
Use these ‘I Spy’ Alphabet Sounds Mats to explore the different letter-sound correspondence of the alphabet.