5 Fun Ways to Teach Phonics In Your Classroom

If you're working on phonics skills, it's fun to shake things up a bit. Doing the same thing over and over and over again can get tedious for your students and for you.  

Here are five fun ideas for your classroom to get your students moving, working, and engaged during phonics time:

1. Read the Paper!

It's amazing how fun a newspaper can be, especially since newspapers and magazines are now novelties for many students.  When you learn a new phonics skill, grab a newspaper and go on a word hunt!  How many 'ay's can you find in the article?  What about 'ai's or 'a_e's?  For extra fun, use a magnifying glass to really feel like a detective! 

2. Go on a Word Hunt!

What do your school hallways look like?  Hopefully there are a few more bulletin boards than this one:

If your school has well decorated/word covered hallways, go on a word hunt!  Search your school for words or take pictures of objects that match the phonics skills you're working on.  Practicing the /or/ sound?  How about a picture of a door or the floor or the student store?


3. Try Some New Seat Work!

Core curriculum often has students doing the same activities every week, which can get boring.  Spice up your lessons with new and engaging ways to practice your phonics skill of the week with these NO PREP Phoincs Packets from iHeartLiteracy.  

Packets are available for Short Vowels, Long Vowels, R-Controlled Vowels, Blends, Silent Letters, Digraphs, Trigraphs, and Diphthongs. Plus, you can try the "ate" word family and the "ag word family packets for free:

      

5. Scrabble!

Break out some scrabble pieces and let students play around with them to make new words all week long. Students can play with them during recess or free time.  Keep a list of words created on the board and see how many the class can come up with during the whole week.

4. Word Clouds

If you generate a list of words for your phonics skill from scrabble tiles or by any other means, then it is really easy to use a website like https://tagul.com or http://www.tagxedo.com/ to make word clouds with your list.  It's a fun way to see all of your words in action.  You can even use shapes that match your skills like this dog for short O words.  

What are your favorite phonics games and activities?  Let us know in the comments section below.