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!
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Segmenting and Blending Mats
A set of beautifully designed templates for students to practise blending and segmenting words.
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Word Family Worksheet Pack - CVC Words
Consolidate your students' understanding of onset and rime with this set of 20 worksheets.
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Printable Alphabet Colouring Pages
Use printable alphabet colouring pages to boost letter recognition skills.
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Vowel Digraph Dominoes - AI and AY
Decode words with vowel team conventions for representing long vowel sounds using this set of 26 dominoes.
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Vowel Digraph Dominoes - OA, OW, and OE
Decode words with oa, ow, and oe vowel team conventions for representing long vowel sounds using this set of 28 dominoes.
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Count and Colour Sounds - Phoneme Counting Worksheets
Count and colour the images that have 3 phonemes, 4 phonemes and 5 phonemes in this worksheet set.
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Long I Words - Word Search
Explore words containing some of the most common ‘long i’ graphemes with this set of differentiated word searches.
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No Naps, Nan! - Decodable Reader (Level 1)
Develop confident, successful readers with this phonics-based, printable decodable book.
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Sounds of 'OO' - Cut and Paste Worksheet
Sort words according to whether they contain a long or short ‘oo’ sound with this cut-and-paste worksheet.
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Alliteration Poster For Young Students
A poster to use with young students when teaching alliteration.
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Initial Sound Recognition Worksheets (Lower Case) – Complete Set a–z
A set of colouring activities to develop letter recognition and phonemic awareness.
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Science of Reading Decoding Strategy Bookmarks and Poster
A decoding strategy bookmark and poster set to help students during reading.
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Consonant Digraph Phonics Journal
Help students remember and record words and examples of different consonant digraphs during your phonics lessons.
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Sh Digraph Lesson Resource Pack
Introduce students to the sh digraph with this set of teaching slides and mini activity book.
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Diphthongs Sound Wall Cards
Use these diphthong cards as visuals on a sound wall or as flashcards during your phonics lessons.
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Vowel Digraphs Worksheet Pack
Practise writing and enhancing knowledge of vowel digraphs with this worksheet pack.
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Level 7 Decodable Readers - Worksheet Pack
A set of one-pager worksheet versions of the texts from our Level 7 decodable readers.
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CVC Word Chain Sequencing Cards
Practise building word chains involving CVC words with these word chain sequencing cards.
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Long E Words - Word Search
Explore words containing some of the most common ‘long e’ graphemes with this set of differentiated word searches.
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Long OO Words - Word Search
Explore words containing some of the most common ‘long oo’ graphemes with this set of differentiated word searches.
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Ant - Decodable Reader (Level 1)
Develop confident, successful readers with this phonics-based, printable decodable book.
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I Am Stan - Decodable Reader (Level 1)
Develop confident, successful readers with this phonics-based, printable decodable book.
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CVC Word Chain Task Cards
Manipulate the individual phonemes in CVC words to create new ones with this set of differentiated task cards.
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CVC Word Work Mat
Practise segmenting and blending simple words with this CVC word building mat.
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R-Controlled Vowels Poster Pack
Supplement your phonics curriculum with an r-controlled vowel poster display.
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Onset and Rime Match-Up Activity
Practise building words by matching the onset and the rime using this match up activity.
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Rhyme Time – Match-Up Activity
A set of 32 match-up cards for students to practise rhyming.
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Decodable Text Worksheets – Single Graphemes (Set 2)
A set of 10 decodable text worksheets for early readers.
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Rhyming Match – Worksheets
Identify rhyming words through images with this set of 5 worksheets.
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Frog Fun Game - Beginning, Middle and Ending sounds
Game cards and instructions for a frog-themed CVC word combination game.
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CVC Beginning and Ending Letters Worksheet Pack
Practise identifying missing beginning and ending sounds and letters in this set of 10 CVC worksheets.
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SPLAT! Phoneme Segmentation Game
Practise segmenting one-syllable words into their phonemes with this fun game!