Easy Phonics Activities to Try at Home!

At Astor International School, phonics is at the heart of how we teach children. Building strong phonics skills is the key to your child becoming a confident, independent reader and writer. Phonics activities can be educational and fun at the same time.

Here are ten easy educational activities to try at home with your children:

1. Use old newspapers and magazines to form letters from the alphabet. Also, choose a letter from the alphabet and spot images in the magazine/newspaper that has the same phonetic sound.

2. Use sand or flour and spread it out on a smooth surface. Have children form the letters of the alphabet as you call out the sounds.

3. Invest in a set of magnetic letters for the fridge. Have children arrange different combinations of letters to form words. Have them sound out the letters to make the sounds.

4. Use bubble wrap and write different blends and graphemes on the bubbles. Call out a word and have your children “pop” the right bubble that spells the word. For example, if you called out the word ‘shop,’ your child will need to pop three correct bubbles; sh, o, p.

5. This one will keep children active and moving as well. Use chalk and write words on the sidewalks, then have your child walk, hop or skip along with the letters, sounding the word out along the way.

6. 'I Spy the Sound' is a fun way to build phonemic awareness. In this classic game, 'I Spy', ask your child to spy words that begin with a certain sound, rather than a letter.

7. Grab some plastic cups and ping pong balls. Label the cups with different blends and diagraphs. Set the cups out on a table, have the children toss the ball into a cup, then come up with a word that used that blend/digraph.

8. Go on a scavenger hunt and create a photo album, either digital or physical with a photo of an item for every letter sound: “a” for ant, “z” for zoo. This can be done using blends and diagraphs.

9. Have your child build Lego letters and words. Have them make the letters of the alphabet with Lego, this can even be done by asking them to make sight words out of Lego.

10. Children love water balloons! On each water balloon write a word ending ( -at, -in, -an). Write a letter on an index card and pin it onto a wall. Ask your child to read out the word and if it is not a ‘real’ word, they can throw the balloon at the letters.