Build your collection of phonics resources with these 25 fantastic phonics activities. Rather than attempting to explain confusing language rules, try devising a unique learning experience that allows students to gradually be exposed to the rules and structures that make up sounds.
Allow your future phonics lessons to be guided by our fun ideas below!
1. Phonetic Spelling Activity
This activity is intended on aiding learners in the area of phonics recognition and overall reading fluency. Spelling words phonetically really help your learners sound out and pronounce a word whilst forgetting about conventional spelling rules.
Learn more: Very Well Family
2. Play Dough Phonics Mats
This mess-free activity affords students an opportunity to craft 3D letters- what bright ideas! They are guided in how to form them with the help of their very own play dough mat which depicts the outlines of letters well.
Learn more: Education to the Core
3. Rainbow Hop
This easy-to-organize activity helps build sound and letter recognition and is a fun way to get your children warmed up and in the mood for learning.
Learn more: Fun Learning for Kids
4. Sound Cups
Label 26 cups with a different letter of the alphabet. After collecting an assortment of small objects ask your child to sort the objects by placing them into the correct cups.
Learn more: Pre-Kinders
5. Spin and Rhyme
This spin and rhyme are wonderful for learning how to sound out phonics and combine them to form words. Challenge the learners to create a silly rhyme and come up with a similar-sounding word.
Learn more: No Time For Flash Cards
6. Four In a Row
The perfect activity for pairs! Each learner receives a different colored pen marker and takes turns coloring in a picture once they've said the word. The first to find 4 in a row that begin with the same letter or have the same sound, wins.
Learn more: The Measured Mom
7. Alphabet Ball
The perfect activity for pairs! Each learner receives a different colored pen marker and takes turns coloring in a picture once they've said the word. The first to find 4 in a row that begin with the same letter or have the same sound, wins.
Learn more: Hands-On As We Grow
8. Stretch It Out
In order to help learners better pronounce a word, we should encourage them to stretch it out, first sounding the letters individually before blending them together.
Learn more: Hands-On As We Grow
9. Kaboom
Kaboom is a simple activity that is useful in solidifying phonics knowledge and increase vocabulary. Ice cream sticks with letters written on one end are placed inside a cup. They are then pulled out and students are prompted to think of a word beginning with that letter.
Learn more: Fun Learning for Kids
10. Which One Doesn't Belong
Build phonological awareness by asking your learner to look at the card and specified letter. They then need to make a decision on which picture doesn't belong and explain what letter the wrong item begins with.
Learn more: Teachers Pay Teachers
11. Phonics Hopscotch
Take learning out onto the playground or even into your driveway at home. Have your students correctly sound out the letters or phonics combinations in the squares they land on, before hopping onto the others.
Learn more: Reading Eggs
12. Letter Sound Race
This works well as an in-class competitive activity in which teams race to select the letter or phonics combination.
Learn more: Inspiration Laboratories
13. Phonics Hunt
Build phonemic awareness by hosting a phonics hunt around the house. This active game is sure to make online learning more fun by getting students up and out of their seats.
Learn more: Very Well Family
14. Phonics Discovery Bottle
This I-Spy game encourages students to shake the bottle and describe the trinket or toy they see by telling their partner what letter the object starts with. The partner should then guess the object correctly before their turn begins- what a fun game!
Learn more: The Imagination Tree
15. Write the Room
These write-the-room activities are the perfect print resource for classroom teachers! This engaging resource requires students to utter the sound a picture starts with and then proceed to mark it off on their activity sheet.
Learn more: ABCs of Literacy
16. Mystery Mitten Matching
Phonics learning is embedded in this simple matching activity. Hide a foam letter or magnetic letter under a mitten and call out 4 words that start with the letter. Students should listen and say the sound they heard repeated. Then ask the learners if they can further guess the letter.
Learn more: Growing Book By Book
17. Play in Pairs Phonics Activity
This fun phonics activity is perfect for older learners and requires that students work together in pairs in order to decode two-syllable words.
Learn more: What I Have Learned Teaching
18. Sound Matching Popsicles
Create A-Z alphabet popsicles and laminate them so that they remain in good shape for the years to come. Scramble the letters and picture halves up on the table and encourage time students to see how long it takes them to match up the pictures to create popsicles.
Learn more: Play Dough To Potato
19. Counting Syllables
Build Phonics recognition with this counting syllables game that will soon become one of your child's favorite phonics activities.
Learn more: education.com
20. Fish For Phonics
This is the perfect low-level activity for having fun with phonics at home. Students need to fish for specific phonics sounds and then capture them with a net.
Learn more: Well Green Primary
21. Invest In A Phonics Box Set
These simple activity cards work well for Peppa Pig fanatics! This basic phonics activity allows students to become acquainted with phonics in a fun way and is best suited for learners between the ages of 3 and 5.
Learn more: Amazon
22. Phonics Flower Garden Problem Solving Game
This phonics problem-solving activity allows learners to improve their phonics skills in the areas of blending sounds and creating word clusters, and suffixes.
Learn more: Twinkl
23. Phonics Crosswords
Phonics crosswords are fantastic follow-up activities to help expose students to example words that contain specific phonics sound that the student is studying.
Learn more: Monster Phonics
24. Blending Sounds
This simple game builds word-picture association and allows students to practice consonant blends after first identifying consonant sounds.
Learn more: Youtube
25. Use Phonics Sheet Activities
These enjoyable activities are wonderful for learning new sounds and practicing letter formation to help foster emergent writing skills.
Learn more: Jolly Learning
Alphabet and letter-sound relationships should be introduced from a young age. The activities above can all be adapted for at-home use and can be incorporated into a child's education journey as a means of enhancing their vocabulary and improving phonetic awareness. Having a collection of resources on hand makes childhood education prep a whole lot easier so be sure to revisit the activities above and note your faves!
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I implement phonics activities during hands-on lessons?
Attempt to pair phonics learning with movement-based activities such as our alphabet ball or rainbow hop activity ideas above. Furthermore, you could engage students in art-based activities in which they get to create something with the knowledge they have absorbed from the lesson.
28 Awesome Alphabet Activities for Pre-schoolers