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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Letter Nn - Alphabet Worksheet
An activity worksheet to use in the classroom when learning about phonics and the letter N.
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Letter Mm - Alphabet Worksheet
An activity worksheet to use in the classroom when learning about phonics and the letter M.
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Letter Ll - Alphabet Worksheet
An activity worksheet to use in the classroom when learning about phonics and the letter L.
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Letter Jj - Alphabet Worksheet
An activity worksheet to use in the classroom when learning about phonics and the letter J.
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Letter Ii - Alphabet Worksheet
An activity worksheet to use in the classroom when learning about phonics and the letter I.
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Letter Hh - Alphabet Worksheet
An activity worksheet to use in the classroom when learning about phonics and the letter H.
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Letter Gg - Alphabet Worksheet
An activity worksheet to use in the classroom when learning about phonics and the letter G.
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Letter Ff - Alphabet Worksheet
An activity worksheet to use in the classroom when learning about phonics and the letter F.
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Letter Ee - Alphabet Worksheet
An activity worksheet to use in the classroom when learning about phonics and the letter E.
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Letter Dd - Alphabet Worksheet
An activity worksheet to use in the classroom when learning about phonics and the letter D.
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Letter Cc Alphabet — Kindergarten Reading Worksheet
A kindergarten reading worksheet to use in the classroom when learning about phonics and the letter C.
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Letter Bb - Alphabet Worksheet
An activity worksheet to use in the classroom when learning about phonics and the letter B.
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Letter Aa - Alphabet Worksheet
An activity worksheet to use in the classroom when learning about phonics and the letter A.
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Alphabet Puzzles - Upper and Lower Case Letter Recognition
Alphabet puzzles to assist with upper and lower case letter recognition.
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CVC Spinner
A set of 22 CVC spinners for students to practice Consonant Vowel Consonant words.
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Letter Confusion Poster - b and d
A poster highlighting the difference between b and d letterforms.
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Letter Puzzle Pieces
Puzzle pieces with letters of the alphabet in two shapes.
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CVC Words – Playdough Mats
A set of three-letter consonant-vowel-consonant words for students to practice writing and forming in playdough.
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CVC/CCVC/CVCC Word Flashcards
A comprehensive set of flashcards for CVC, CCVC, and CVCC words.
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Alphabet Bubbles
An alphabet activity using pictures and corresponding words.
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Ie Diphthong Poster
A poster with examples of ie diphthongs
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Ue Diphthong Poster
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Spelling Center Rotation Board
Set up a spelling stations rotation chart for your students to reference with this display kit.
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Connect the Dots Printable Alphabet Worksheet (Robot-Themed)
Download the free connect the dots printable for your students to practice putting letters in alphabetical order.
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Dot-to-Dot Drawing - Alphabet - Dinosaur
Join the dots and letters to make a picture.
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Dot-to-Dot Drawing - Alphabet - Monkey
Join the dots in alphabetical order to make a picture.
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Alphabet Craft Activities Teaching Resource Pack
Assist young students with letter recognition, phonemic awareness, and fine motor development from A to Z with this set of craft activities.
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Toggle Spelling Game
Create a random letter grid and make as many words with your class as you can before time runs out!
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Color by Sight Words Teaching Resource Pack
A collection of coloring worksheets that use sight words as indicators.
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My Little Sight Word Book Resource Pack
A set of little books with activities for 20 different sight words along with an editable Word version to make your own.
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Active Learning Resource Pack
A set of 22 active games that encourages learning in a physical manner.
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Celebrating Poetry Month in the Primary Grades – Weeks 4 and 5
Celebrate National Poetry Month in the primary classroom with this planning guide and set of resources.