Support early reading and spelling with our engaging Phase 3 phonics resources for Reception and EYFS. This collection includes Phase 3 phonics worksheets, games, word cards, sound mats, teaching activities and decodable reading resources designed to help pupils build confidence with blending, segmenting and recognising new graphemes.
During Phase 3 phonics, pupils begin learning a wider range of digraphs and trigraphs including sounds such as ai, ee, igh, oa, air and ear. These practical Phase 3 phonics activities help pupils apply new spellings while reading words, captions and simple sentences.
Explore structured Phase 3 phonics lesson presentations designed to introduce new digraphs and trigraphs, support blending and provide clear whole-class teaching sequences.
Phase 3 phonics builds on the blending and segmenting skills introduced in Phase 2 phonics by teaching a wider range of graphemes, including digraphs and trigraphs.
Pupils learn to recognise and apply spellings such as ch, sh, th, ai, oa, igh and air while continuing to read and spell words, captions and simple sentences.
As confidence grows, pupils begin reading longer words and writing short sentences using Phase 3 sounds and tricky words. Frequent revision and regular decoding practice are important parts of successful Phase 3 teaching.
Our Phase 3 phonics worksheets, games and activities are designed to support structured phonics teaching across Reception and EYFS settings.
Resources include:
For a ready-to-use decoding task, try our Phase 3 read and colour activity, designed to encourage careful blending, decoding and comprehension.
During Phase 3, pupils learn that some sounds are represented using two or three letters together. Regular practice with digraphs, trigraphs and tricky words helps pupils become more confident readers and spellers.
Use our practical phonics activities to support sound recall, oral blending, decoding and sentence reading throughout the week.
Our teacher-made Phase 3 phonics resources are designed to work alongside programmes following the updated Letters and Sounds progression used in many UK schools, including Little Wandle.
Use the resources for whole-class phonics lessons, small-group practice, phonics interventions and independent activities in Reception classrooms.
Phase 3 phonics is usually taught in Reception after pupils are secure with the first grapheme-phoneme correspondences introduced in Phase 2.
Digraphs are two letters representing one sound, such as sh or ai. Trigraphs are three letters representing one sound, such as igh or air.
Phase 3 tricky words vary slightly between phonics programmes but often include words such as he, she, we, me, was and you.
After Phase 3, pupils usually move on to Phase 4 phonics, where they continue blending and segmenting while working with adjacent consonants and longer words.
