Phonic Books UK

Home Basket
Item(s) added to your cart
Check out (1)
Shipping, taxes, and discount codes calculated at checkout.

Fun Phonics Activities to Boost Early Reading Skills by Rianna Le

Rianna Le

Rianna Le is an Australian Primary School Teacher with 7 years of teaching experience. She studied a Bachelor of Primary Education at the University o...f Wollongong as a Dean's Scholar, and began her career teaching in Central West NSW as a Teach Rural Scholar. In her second year of teaching, she was nominated Early Career Teacher of the Year and was the only public school state finalist. In 2021, Rianna was awarded with a World Teachers' Recognition Award for her contribution to education, support teachers around the world through social media. In 2023, Rianna taught as a relief teacher, while leading guided Tours around Europe. In 2024, Rianna travelled to Indonesia through a Global Teacher program to teach in various schools, and deliver professional development to local teachers. This year, she has returned to teaching part-time at one of Australia's oldest independent schools. Read more

Fun Phonics Activities to Boost Early Reading Skills by Rianna Le

Phonics is a key component of early literacy, that helps children understand the relationship between letters and sounds. It forms the foundation for reading, spelling and writing. But, phonics does not need to be boring simply because it's essential! There are numerous fun phonics activities that can engage young learners and make their reading journey more enjoyable.

One great way to enhance your phonics teaching is through games.  

Incorporating these fun, hands-on phonics activities can help children not only master phonics, but also develop a love for reading.

Phonics bingo is a fun and interactive game that reinforces letter-sound correspondence. To play, children match the initial sounds of words to the corresponding letters on their bingo cards (e.g. ball for /b/). By adding images to the cards, it makes the game more visually stimulating and easier for young learners to connect sounds with real-world objects. Boost engagement by having the learner create their own ‘tangible’ bingo board with found items! For example: a pencil /p/, leaf /l/, ball /b/, crayon /k/, yoyo /y/. Put all of the letters of the alphabet into a bag and pull out one at a time. If they have an item that begins with that letter sound, they can remove it from their board. The first player to remove all items WINS! 

Another exciting game is the phonics hop. This activity is perfect for kinesthetic learners. Draw large letters (of learned sounds) on the ground and have children jump from one to another while saying the corresponding sound aloud. Not only are they reinforcing their phonics knowledge, but developing gross motor skills and coordination simultaneously! Make it even more engaging by incorporating clues e.g. “Jump to a letter that spells the sound /s/”.

For those who love art, creating phonics puzzles can be a fantastic and creative way to practise phonics! Cut out pictures of objects that begin with various letters or phonemes, then cut the images into puzzle pieces. Children can put the puzzles together and say the word aloud once they’ve completed the image. This hands-on approach allows for the visual and tactile reinforcement of phonics sounds.

Sound sorts are another effective way to develop phonics knowledge and phonemic awareness! This game involves providing children with a variety of objects or pictures representing words with different beginning, middle or ending sounds. Children can sort the items into categories based on their sounds. For example, they could sort pictures of a cat, cup and car into the “/k/” sound category. This activity helps children practise listening and distinguishing between different phonetic sounds–essential skills for reading!

Don’t forget to sing songs and rhymes! Phonics songs that highlight specific letter sounds or word families are both memorable and engaging, and thus great for auditory and visual learners. Rhyming games also encourage children to identify patterns in sounds, boosting their phonemic awareness.

Incorporating these fun, hands-on phonics activities can help children not only master phonics, but also develop a love for reading. By changing the way you teach and practise phonics, you are more likely to make learning enjoyable so young learners will stay motivated and engaged as they build the essential skills needed for successful literacy.

Previous Next