10 Fun Hands-On Phonics Activities for Parents and Kids

What is phonics?

Phonics is a method of teaching reading and writing by helping students understand the relationship between letters and their sounds. It focuses on recognizing the sounds that letters and groups of letters make and blending those sounds together to form words. Phonics helps children decode (or sound out) unfamiliar words and improve their spelling. This approach is essential in early literacy because it lays the foundation for reading fluency and comprehension. Through phonics, students also learn patterns in words, such as rhyming and vowel combinations, which makes reading and writing easier to understand and more efficient.

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Helping your child practice phonics at home doesn’t have to feel like extra homework! Hands-on activities make learning fun, interactive, and engaging. Here are 10 creative phonics activities parents can do with their primary-grade children to strengthen their reading skills.

1. Alphabet Sound Hunt

Pick a letter and go on a scavenger hunt around the house to find objects that begin with that sound. For example, for the letter B, find a ball, book, banana, and bag.

2. Play Dough Letters

Use play dough to form letters and practice saying their sounds. For extra fun, have your child roll out “snakes” and shape them into different words.

3. Phonics Hopscotch

Draw a hopscotch board outside or inside with tape. Instead of numbers, write letters or simple words. As your child hops, they say the sound or word out loud.

4. Magnetic Letter Mix-Up

Use magnetic letters on the fridge or a baking sheet. Mix them up and have your child build simple words. Start with CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words like cat, dog, and bug.

5. Sticker Sound Sort

Write different letters on index cards and give your child a set of stickers. Have them place the stickers on the correct letter card based on their beginning sound.

6. Letter Fishing Game

Create paper fish with letters written on them. Use a toy fishing rod (or a string with a magnet) to catch a fish and say the letter’s sound.

7. Phonics Cup Stack

Write different letters or word families on cups. Let your child stack the cups by matching letters to form words (e.g., c-a-t or sh-ip).

8. Silly Sound Soup

Pretend to make “soup” by adding items that begin with a target sound into a pot. Example: For the S sound, put in a sock, spoon, soap, and star.

9. Flashlight Word Search

Write simple words on sticky notes and place them around a dark room. Give your child a flashlight and call out a word or sound for them to find and read.

10. DIY Word Puzzles

Write simple words on index cards and cut them apart by sound (e.g., h-a-t). Have your child put the pieces back together to form words.

Make Phonics Fun at Home!

These hands-on activities make learning phonics an exciting adventure. By engaging multiple senses—touch, movement, and sight—children develop stronger reading skills while having fun. Try a few of these with your child and watch their confidence grow!