Looking for some free phonics activities? We've got you covered!

In this post, we'll cover 3 effective types of phonics activities (appropriate for K-2) and share downloadable examples of each! These are perfect phonics activities for parents to do at home or teachers to use at school.

Spelling Words with Sound Boxes

Spelling words is a great way to help students apply their phonics knowledge. For example, if students are learning about the "-ap" word family, you can have them build or write words like "cap," "nap," "tap," etc.

Phonics learning improves spelling, and spelling also solidifies phonics learning - it's a reciprocal relationship!

In the activity below, students write each letter into a sound box. These words are pretty simple, in that one letter goes in each box.

However, as you'll see in some of the downloadable free phonics activities at the end of this article, if there are two or more letters that work together to represent a single sound, then they both go in the same box. Example: the word "sheep" would be sh|ee|p.

Color Coding Words

The human brain loves patterns - which is great, because words are full of them!

When we teach students a word pattern or chunk - like "ank," "onk," "ink," and "unk," for example - we want them to practice applying this knowledge to reading actual words.

In the activity below, students read all of the words, then color code them based upon the pattern they contain. Last, students read all the words again.

Board Games

Everybody loves a good board game! You can create a board game out of any words of your choice.

The one in the image below includes words with s-blends at the beginning. You might also do them with high frequency words students are learning.

Board games are great for centers, or even as phonics activities to do at home!

Download the Free Phonics Activities Printables

Ready to download the freebie? The pdf includes 3 of each type of activity shown above.

Spelling in Sound Boxes:

• short a word family "ap"
• words with beginning l-blends
• long e words

Color Coding Words:

• Sounds of a (short a as in "tap" and vs. short o as in "all")
• -NK words (glued sounds)
• Long i vowel teams and spelling patterns

Board Game:

• Sounds of short a vs. short i
• Beginning s-blends
• Diphthongs aw and au

All of these activities come from our phonics program, From Sounds to Spelling. While many phonics programs provide only a few activities for each week, our program provides teachers with lots of activities for students to practice independently.

You can grab the free phonics printables right here - enjoy!