It is difficult for children to put each individual letter of the English alphabet together and form a word. Therefore, it is important that we teach them the sound of letters, which will not only help them to pronounce the letter but also understand the relationship between the letters that form a word. This is where the role of phonics comes into play. Children need to understand phonics for reading and writing.
In this article, we have covered the information on phonics and some fun activities to teach them the same. Let’s read!
What Are Phonics?
The relationship between the letters and the sounds that they make is phonics. For example, the sound of the letter “a” sound like /ə,eɪ/.
Learning phonics is really important for kids, as it helps them decode words to learn how they’re pronounced and what they mean. Let’s take a look at some more benefits of phonics for children below.
What Are The Benefits Of Teaching Phonics To Children?
In this section, we have covered some benefits of teaching phonics to children. Let’s read!
1. Fluent Readers
The old saying “practice makes you perfect” ties in well with phonics, as it is an important tool for kids to develop reading fluency. Over time, children can develop into fluent readers who can quickly recognize familiar words and easily sound out new words they encounter.
2. Better Phonemic Awareness
When a child learns reading through phonics, they get better at hearing, identifying, and manipulating letter symbols with their appropriate sound, building their phonemic awareness.
3. Improves Vocabulary
Reading helps children broaden their vocabulary as they decode new words while they read. With practice, this habit becomes automatic, and the children can easily understand words’ overall meaning while reading.
4. Helps Children Be Imaginative & Empathetic
When children read about people, places, and events outside their own experience, they imagine how they would feel in that situation. Thus, they see the world with new eyes and better visualize the descriptions of what they read.
5. Builds Patience & Concentration
When children read, they have to sit still and quiet to focus on the task at hand. Therefore, learn to concentrate on a particular task while reading.
When Should You Start Teaching Phonics to Your Kids?
The ideal time to start teaching phonics to your little one is when they can recognise all the letters. This happens somewhere between the age of 3-4 years. Also, kids are ready to learn phonics when they are aware of phonological awareness, which is the ability to recognise and manipulate the spoken parts of sentences and words.
Children can also be taught phonics when they can confidently grasp the idea of how reading works. So, when adults read books to children, the children develop an understanding that the combinations of letters represent words.
Phonics Activities And Games For Kids
Let’s take a look at some fun phonics games for kindergarten kids that will help them build phonic skills.
1. The Alphabet Game
This is a simple yet fun game where you will give your child a letter, and they have to respond with a word that begins with that letter. This game will also help your kids to use the vocabulary they have built over the years. You can make this game more fun by asking your child to respond with a rhyming word for each letter you say.
2. Flip The Pizza
If your little one loves pizza, then they’re sure to love this phonics game. Using some coloured paper, cut out 8–10 circles of pizzas and write out the letters you want to teach your child. Grab a silicon spatula and ask your child to toss over each pizza and say the letter name on the back.
3. Construct The Letter
All children love to play with clay. So why not make their playtime learning time? Ask your little munchkin to take some clay and make the shape of the letters that you will be calling out. This activity will not only help your child with phonics but will also help to strengthen their fine motor and hand-eye coordination skills.
4. Story Book Scavenger Hunt
Give a child a storybook and ask them to take out any one page. Now, give your child a letter sound and ask them to find and circle all the words on that page that starts with that sound. Kids will love reading and finding words, enhancing their phonic skills. This activity will also help them improve their reading skills.
5. Hopscotch Sound Game
Using chalk, make hopscotch on the floor, but in place of numbers, write letters on the floor. Ask your child to start playing the game and tell the letter sound written in the box they hopped on. Children will love playing this hopscotch game with a twist while learning phonics.
6. Letter Pong Game
For this fun phonics activity, all your needs are some plastic cups and a ping pong ball. Start by labelling the cups with different letter blends that your child is aware of, such as bl, sn, br, or st. Arrange the cups into a triangle shape and let your child toss the ping pong ball into a cup. Each time they get the ball into the cup, they have to say a word with a letter blend written on it. For example, bl could be black, whereas br could be bread. Try and see how many words can your little one come up with!
7. Sound Walk
Ask your child to take a walk around the room and look for objects with the sound that you will give to them. For example, if you will give them the /m/ sound, you can ask them to point out to things like mat, mirror, mop, mug, microwave, and more. Help them with the name of things with the/m/ sound that your child may not be aware of and add some new words to their vocabulary.
8. The “I Spy” Game
Teach your child phonics with the traditional game of I Spy. In this game, you will give your child a sound, and they have to blend the sounds to know what you are spying on. For example, you can say, “I spy with my little eye a c-u-p.” Your child has to blend the sounds together to get cup. Repeat with objects around your child, such as bat, cat, dog, book and more.
9. Flip & Match
Make two sets of cards with phonics words. Shuffle these cards and lay them out face down. Ask your child to turn over any two cards at a time. If the words on the cards start with the same letter sound, they have to leave them as it is. If not, they have to lay them face down again and flip the new cards
10. Guess The Word
Write a set of common words that share a letter sound on the board. Ask your child to fill in the missing letter to make a word. For example, you can give them words like mug, mat, tap, pat, etc., in the below format:
- _AT
- _UG
- _AP
11. Colour The Phonic Sound
Take a print of different objects on multiple sheets. Give one sheet at a time to your child. Ask them to colour in the objects that start with the matching sound that you will give to them. For example, if you will give the sound /t/, they have to colour objects that start with that sound given on the sheet, like a truck or a tap.
12. Rhyme Time
Singing phonic rhymes can help kids to learn phonics in a fun way. Here is one such alphabet phonic rhyme for kids.
- A is for apple a a apple,
- B is for ball b b-ball,
- C is for cat c c cat,
- D is for dog d d dog,
- E is for elephant e e elephant,
- F is for fish f f fish,
- G is for gorilla g g gorilla,
- H is for hat h h hat,
- I is for igloo i i igloo,
- J is for juice j j juice,
- K is for kangaroo k k kangaroo,
- L is for lion l l lion,
- M is for monkey m m monkey,
- N is for no n n no,
- O is for octopus o o octopus,
- P is for pig p p pig.
- Q is for question q q question,
- R is for ring r r ring,
- S is for sun s s sun,
- T is for train t t train.
- U is for umbrella u u umbrella,
- V is for van v v van,
- W is for watch w w watch,
- X is for box x x box.
- Y is for yellow y y yellow
- Z is for zoo z z zoo.
So many things for you to learn about,
So many ways to sing a song.
Best Phonic Books For Children
Teaching phonics to kindergarten kids is not easy. It is not always necessary that kids will learn with the help of phonics sound activities mentioned above. Therefore, we have mentioned a name of a few phonic books for children below that will help them understand this concept. These are story books, rhyming books, alphabet books, workbooks, and other types of books, etc., that target a particular letter or phonics sound.
1. Letterland Phonics
A highly popular book to teach phonics. The book helps to learn phonics in a fun way through letters. Children can learn phonics sounds through letters shaped like animals that are attractive to look at and will keep the children engaged while they learn phonics.
2. Oxford Learning Tree Floppy’s Phonics
Another famous book series that will be an excellent addition to your child’s library. The series comes with 48 storybooks on phonics sentences.
3. A Beka Phonics Readers
A series of phonics books for children that is ideal for introducing them to phonics. The highlight of these books is their large fonts and simple words/sentences that focus on the CVC (consonant vowel consonant) pattern to introduce phonics in words.
4. Pete The Cat Phonics
Pete the Cat Phonics books is a series that focuses on a specific phonics sound. The book is recommended for children who have developed early reading skills as the stories and sentences are a bit longer than simple 3-letter words.
5. Bob Books
Very simple and effective series of phonics books for little ones. Bob books are small books with basic sentences and simple drawings that will not distract children from learning sentences and words.
We hope this article helped you clear all your doubts about phonics and how teach it to your child. Don’t forget to try the fun activities we have mentioned above to help your child develop phonic skills.
Also Read:
Phonological Awareness for Preschoolers
Concept of Inside Outside for Kindergarteners
Teaching the Concept of Print Awareness to Preschoolers
