Phonics Play Ideas

phonics games and activities

Remember to check our our new FREE online phonics games!

Coming up with free phonics play ideas is actually easier than it sounds! Since children who are learning phonics are usually in the 3-7 age range, it also makes total sense to make any phonics learning activities as fun and playful as possible. But how to do it – how can you make phonics fun and ensure that learning takes place too? We’ve come up with some great ideas that might help! Since the arrival of letters and sounds a few years ago, there have been various approaches to phonics, and we’re excited to let you know about the  free interactive phonics games on our sister site, Time for Phonics – with fun phonics activities and much more! Keep an eye on our phonics resources to be the first in the know and check out our book – Learn to Read the Easy Way for 60 easy to follow hands-on phonics activities!

Phonics play free online phonics games for children kids EYFS KS1 KS2

What is phonics?

For the uninitiated – what is phonics? Put simply, it is a systematic approach to learning to read, write and spell words. If you’re a parent,  you will probably have heard the word “phonics” used when talking about the way that children learn to read. When you were a child, it’s possible that you were taught to read through learning flashcards and learning by sight. These days, children are encouraged to break down the sounds in words in order to “decode” them and work out what they are. Here are some of the key aspects of phonics that are useful to both parents and teachers.

What are phonemes

Phonemes can be explained as the smallest unit of sound in a word. These can be :-

  • Single sounds such as r, m, n
  • Digraphs (this means two letters in a sound) such as ch, sh, ai
  • Trigraphs (this means three letters in a sound) such as igh
  • Split digraphs – these are made up of two letters that are “split” by having another little in the middle of them. For example a_e in “game”  or i_e in “tide”

The English language has 44 phonemes. Children are taught to read and write each phoneme, forming them accurately. When children read these phonemes, they are taught to pronounce them in a way you may be unfamiliar with. The sounds are very short and snappy, e.g. there is no “uh” sound at the end of the phoneme “d”. The same goes for “g” and “p”, amongst others.

Children also need to know the names of letters (the alphabet)  and also alphabetical order. You can help with this by playing “I spy” using both the phonetic sound of the first letter of a word and the alphabet name of the first letter of the word. You can also ask children to tell you the sound and name of the first letter of words around the house.

This phase 2 cutting caterpillars game is a great way to get children used to the different phonemes – encourage them to pick the correct picture for the phoneme on each sheet.

Phase 2 Cutting Caterpillars Activity - Phonics Family Range

What are graphemes?

The simplest way to explain a grapheme is to say that graphemes make up the way a word looks, whereas a phoneme tells us how a word sounds. For example ee/ea/ey are all the same phoneme (sound) but have different graphemes.

We have some great resources for helping to teach children about graphemes, including this fantastic fingerprint alphabet activity.

Fingerprint Alphabet Activity - Phonics Family Range
Fingerprint Alphabet Activity – Phonics Family Range

Segmenting and blending ideas

Once children have started learning some phonemes, they will quickly move onto segmenting and blending them. Blending is when children use their knowledge of phonemes to read words.

For example

c -a-t

g-oa-t

sh-ee-p

Segmenting is when children use their knowledge of phonemes to spell out and help them to write words, it is the opposite of blending. For example they might identify all the phonemes in c-a-t to help them write it down.

For blending, we have some really useful resources to help children get the hang of the skills needed for blending and that link into phonics play.

This phonics paper plate blending activity is super fun, and is a great way for children to practise blending a new INITIAL sound (the first letter of the word) with the same word ending.

Phonics play free online phonics games for children kids EYFS KS1 KS2
phonics blending activity ideas

We love this alien words maze activity from our Phonics Family resources range, that also helps prepare children for the phonics screening check! Encourage children to find the real words in the maze through blending the sounds together.

alien word maze phonics family resources
alien word maze phonics family resources

For additional practice, you could also try our phonics slider activity, which uses the same principle as the phonics paper plate blending activity, but in a different way. Again, one children have got the hang of the word ending, they just need to change the initial letter each time – brilliant for building reading confidence.

Phonics play free online phonics games for children kids EYFS KS1 KS2
phonics blending activity

Common exception word resources

As you might have guessed, the English language can be quite complicated, and not every word can be decoded into phonemes – as they just wouldn’t sound right. If you try to decode words like “was” and “said” they would sound very different to how we usually say them! Words like this are called “common exception words” – they are exceptions to the rule. For this reason, we have to teach children to read common exception words by sight, e.g. from memory. We have some really useful Common Exception Word resources too!

Year 1 Common Exception Words Assessment
Year 1 Common Exception Words Assessment

Phonics play for kids

Here are some great free phonics games and activities that children really enjoy, and are easy to set up too.

  • Read together! Listen to your child or children in your class read and let them see you reading too. Encourage children to visit the library to try out books for free.
  • Write common exception words on bubble wrap and then, as you call out each word, encourage children to “pop” the right bubble!

Phonics play free online phonics games for children kids EYFS KS1 KS2

  • Use an old egg carton and milk carton lids to make a fun phonics game! Perfect for phase 2 phonics, ask children to choose the right bottle cap, and match it the same letter written in the egg box. Great for letter recognition.

Phonics play free online phonics games for children kids EYFS KS1 KS2

  • Use cars or unicorns and “park” them in their spaces or stables. Write a letter sound or tricky word in each space, and challenge the children to “park” in the right place! One of our unicorn stabling games is right here.
  • phonics car park game
    phonics car park game
  • Make yuck phonics soup! From Edpire.
Phonics play free online phonics games for children kids EYFS KS1 KS2
Photocredit: Edspire
  • If a child is really struggling, it’s possible that they may benefit from more input and exposure to phase 1 phonics activities. Our silly soup rhyming provocation activity is perfect for this!
  • Phase 1 phonics silly soup tuff spot tray
    Phase 1 phonics silly soup tuff spot tray
  • Use Duplo or Megabloks to encourage children to write common exception or tricky words using individual blocks (another activity from “Learn to Read the Easy Way” book!).

Phonics play free online phonics games for children kids EYFS KS1 KS2

  • Use playdough to spell out words – fun, good for fine motor skills and reinforces everything. From Pears and Chocolate Sauce.
Phonics play free online phonics games for children kids EYFS KS1 KS2
Photo credit: Pears and Chocolate Sauce
  • Ask children to sound talk each phoneme in a word, then blend them together.
  • It’s really important that children have a good understanding of each phoneme to enable them to blend and segment effectively. Try using little actions like ”robot arms” to help children ‘hear’ the sounds in each word.
  • Play “tricky words detectives“. Tell your children that they have to say the secret password to e.g. get a treat, go for playtime, pass through a doorway. Get them to splat the word too with their hand! Use our tricky words detectives resources to help.
Phonics play free online phonics games for children kids EYFS KS1 KS2
Phase 3 Tricky Words Secret Password Instant Display Pack
  • Try this plastic egg activity idea from Edspire.
Phonics play free online phonics games for children kids EYFS KS1 KS2
Photo credit: Edspire
  • Kids, Cuddles and Muddy Puddles suggests using a glue stick to write words, then covering what you’ve glued in glitter – love this idea!
  • Play tricky words jigsaws! Write tricky words onto sheets and cut them up – write the full word at the top of each section. Then challenge children to put them back together again.
Phonics play free online phonics games for children kids EYFS KS1 KS2
Phase 2 tricky words jigsaw cards
  • Practise common exception words and tricky words by writing it backwards and challenging children to use a mirror to use the word (one of the activities from our  “Learn to Read the Easy Way” book!).
Phonics play free online phonics games for children kids EYFS KS1 KS2
Phase 4 Mirrored Tricky Words
Phonics play free online phonics games for children kids EYFS KS1 KS2
Photo credit: Kids, Cuddles and Muddy Puddles
Phonics play free online phonics games for children kids EYFS KS1 KS2
Photo credit: Pears and Chocolate Sauce
  • Play an Obb and Bob sorting game! Challenge children to decode both real and alien words and post them in the right “alien” or monster. Take it in turns to decide what goes where.
Phonics play free online phonics games for children kids EYFS KS1 KS2
Obb and Bob sorting game idea
Phonics play free online phonics games for children kids EYFS KS1 KS2
CVC Letter Shape Phoneme Frames
  • Make word sliders to help children blend CVC words. We’ve got a brilliant template for this!

Phonics scheme of work

Are you looking for play-based phonics ideas? Why not explore the play-based, multi-sensory synthetic phonics programme over on our sister site Time for Phonics?

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