Learning to read is such a fun and special time: it’s a valuable skill, and sparking an early love of reading can make it become a lifelong passion. In order to do so, it is so important early-on to scaffold our students’ learning to help them bridge one concept to the next so that they don’t feel overwhelmed. How do you introduce new phonic sounds to keep the little ones engaged and learn effectively?
Order of Teaching Phonics
In my experience, the following steps worked the best in helping my students to read. With each step, and with enough practice, students are able to transition to the next level seamlessly.
After introducing the beginning letter sounds, we follow this order:
- CVC
- CVCe
- CVCC
- Beginning Blends
- Digraphs
- R-Controlled Words
- Diphthongs
No-Prep Phonics Printables
There is no hard set rule in what order you teach phonics; however, in my experience, certain ways worked better than the other. I will share my preferred way in building phonics skills, and I would love to hear about your experience as well! Please feel free to leave comments down below. 🙂
On top of class activities, games, and center work, it is important for students to practice and review the knowledge they acquired. With that in mind, I created these No-Prep Phonics Printables that follow the listed order.
For students to recognize the words and practice effectively, the aforementioned packet does not include the knowledge necessary for the latter packet. For example, looking at the list above, there will be no digraphs included in the Beginning Blends packet, and no diphthongs in the Digraphs packet.
Example Work
How can I use these printables?
1. whole group instruction review
2. small group work
3. early finishers tub
4. morning work
5. literacy center
6. homework
7. independent work when you have a sub
Get the Bundle
You can get all seven packets in a bundle here. The bundle will provide your students with plenty of opportunities to practice and learn a wide range of sounds. All of the packets have a consistent layout, which makes it easy for students to complete the tasks on their own whilst focusing on each sound. No extra prepping is necessary, other than to print and give them to your students.
Free No-Prep Phonics Printables
Integrating Reading Comprehension With Phonics Skills
In my experience, students love the learning through stories. Doing so helps them remember what we’ve talked about, and to apply it further. Because of this, I have found that these fun phonics passages are a really good aid to teach phonics skills and concepts to them. In addition to helping them practice letter and sound patterns, the passages also highlight words with new patterns to them. This always gets the little ones motivated and excited to expand their vocabulary and do cool, new things!
These passages use developmentally appropriate sight words and vocabulary, with the goal of helping to build student’s fluency. It also allows extra focus on the phonic sounds they are already practicing. The passages are followed by sets of text-based questions, in order to check and confirm the students’ comprehension. As you will see, the aforementioned questions are written in kid-friendly language, which make them more relatable and fun to complete.
To let the students build knowledge gradually, the printables increase in complexity as they progress. This will allow students to go at their own pace, and for a more complete learning experience.
I am sure you will find these resources useful for your classroom when taking on the challenge of teaching phonics, and am always open to hearing feedback on what you do, or what you think could be done differently with them to get better engagement and outcomes.
That’s all for now. Have a great day!
