One of the foundations of reading is knowing phonic rules. However, in order to teach your kids phonics rules, you have to know how to teach phonics rules yourself and some of you may not even know what phonics is.  Phonics is the sound that different words make. When students are first learning how to read they need to know the sound that individual and groups of letters make to be able to start to understand the words that are in front of them. However, teaching phonics and mastering phonics skills seems to be becoming a lost art.

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Why Teaching Phonics Early is Important

I remember when I was a kid one of the games that we often played in kindergarten was The Phonics game. I don’t know if any of you remember this game but it was one of those that was sold on late night infomercial shows, which then maybe makes it weird that it showed up in my classroom. Long story short this game taught me about the different phonics blends and it really helped me read. Sadly this game has been discontinued. However, a good alternative is Hooked on Phonics. They even have a set that covers preschool to second grade.
I recently read an article saying that reading is not taught like this anymore but it should be. The article argued that students are starting to be taught how to recognize words by pictures instead of sounding out the words. So if the word they are trying to say is house and they say horse then it would be wrong but if they say shack or building they may not be marked off for reading the word wrong. This type of thinking is why learning how to teach phonics rules is important. If a kid learns how to read a word they know what word but if they learn the sound of letters and letter blends they will be able to read hundreds of words.

Teaching Phonics Blends

If you are wanting to know how to teach Phonics rules one of the things that you need to know if how to teach blends. Blends are they sound that two letters make together. Sometimes it is about the same sound as if you said them both separately sometimes it is not so your kids need to know the phonics rules when it comes to blends that way they can know exactly how to read these blends when they come upon them. There are several types of blends that you need to think about: Initial blends, consonant blends, vowel blends and ending blends.
Some of the best way to teach these is through the use of task cards. With task cards, you can have children use clothes pin next to the words to read them. You can have them spell out the word with letter pieces. You can even have them put a close pin next to the blended sound that something makes next to a picture. This way they are not only learning how to read specific words they are learning the sounds that go with it. I have put together a set of task cards on consonant l blends for my teachers pay teacher’s store more task cards will be coming.

Teaching Vowel Sounds in Kindergarten and Before

Another thing that you have to think about when wondering how to teach phonics rules is vowels. Vowels may be the trickiest sounds that students have to learn. The reason why they are tricky is because they do make so many different sounds. Individually you have long vowels that sound like the letter they are represented by. For instance, cape the A sounds like A so it is a long A or pie the I sounds like I so it is a long I. You also have short vowels which do not sound like the letter they are represented by but they are still represented by only one letter. For example Cat, the A does not sound like A so it is a short vowel. There are also vowel blends, silent vowels, and vowel and consonant blends, this especially comes up with r controlled vowels (spark, cord, birthday, germ). Since vowels make a lot of different sounds in English it is important to look at them closely when you are thinking about how to teach phonics rules.

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What are Sight Words and Why are They Important

Another way to approach the topic of phonics and how to teach phonics rules is sight words. There are certain words that kids should be able to read by the time they are in certain grades. These are words they should be able to say and write by just seeing them. Sight words when mastered will not have to be broken down by word sound students should just be able to say them. Of course this is something they may have to build up to they will start at a level where they have to sound out the sounds, but eventually, they should just be able to say them when they see them. There are two main lists of sight words that one has to consider when teaching their kids sight words: Dolch sight words and Fry sight words. The Dolch sight words are broken down by grade level so that makes them easier to say exactly which words your students need to be looking at for their grade level. For the Fry sight words by the end of kindergarten, your kids should be able to read the whole first list of 100 words.

Sight Words Pre K and Sight Words Kindergarten List

Like I mentioned above there are two sets of sight words that your preschoolers and kindergarteners should be looking at. One of the great things that I am offering my subscribers is these in an easy to read list where you can have a sight words pre K and sight words kindergarten list. This list will help you make some of the amazing things which I mention in the next section to make learning sight words fun. If you want to get access to this list please subscribe to my blog either at this link or in the form below. Current subscribers this sight words list is available on the Freebies page.

Fun Ways to Teach Sight Words

There are so many fun ways to teach sight words. Especially with preschoolers and kindergartener, it is important that learning feels more like play and like a game to them. It helps bring stress down and also makes them like learning and see it as a fun endeavor. Below are some of my favorite ways to teach sight words. All of these activities are something that you should be thinking about when wondering how to teach phonics rules.

Fun ways to Teach Sight Words #1 Sand Table

This activity is great especially for kids that need a little sensory feedback. If you have a sand table or a sandbox you can use that. If not you can pour a little bit of sand on a cookie tray. Give your preschoolers and kindergarteners their sight words on cards and have them write the word in the sand and then say it out loud. This will help them recognize the words but it is also fun for preschoolers and kindergarteners.

Fun Ways to Teach Sight Words #2 Magnetic Letters and Lacing Letters

Another fun way to teach sight words is through magnetic letters or lacing letters. You can give the same cards to your kids and have then either arrange magnetic letters on a cookie tray or on the refrigerator. Or if you have lacing letters kids can string letter onto string to spell out the sight words. Once again you should have them say it after they spell it. This will help with the reading aspect to say the word. Placing letters or lacing them also will work on your preschooler’s or kindergartener’s fine motor skills which are incredibly important for this age as well.

Fun Ways to Teach Sight Words #3 Teaching with Cups

Styrofoam cups that have a little lip on the edge can be incredibly useful for sight words. If you write one letter on each of the lips of the cups. Then kids have to find the letter they are looking for and put the cups together. You can also do a variation where the cups are already placed together but the students have to spin them until all the letters line up.

Fun Ways to Teach Sight Words #4 Playdough

Another one of the fun ways to teach sight words is to have your students play with playdough to learn the words. There are a couple of ways that they can do this. Either you can imprint the words into playdough with letter stamps, plastic letters, or letter cookie cutters. So students can spell out the words in their playdough. You also can have your kids form the playdough into 3 d shapes of the letters. This will help them with their fine motor skills as well as letter skills, writing skills, and reading skills. Overall, this is a great way to get them learning in a way that is fun for them and have it not seems like a lot of work.

Fun Ways to Teach Sight Words # 5 Hopping Game.

This last fun way of learning sight words also works on gross motor skills as well. One way that you can do a hopping game with sight words with kids is to put either written sight words in a circle and have kids hop to the word that you say. You can also put just letters and have your kids hop from letter to letter to spell their sight words. In this idea the kids can say each letter of the word and when they are done hoping from letter to letter of the word they can say the entire word. Another variation of this game sets up the words or letters in a hopscotch formation and has student hop to the word or letters through hopscotch. If you want to even add more imagination play to these games you can have the kids pretend that they are bunnies, kangaroos, or frogs as they hop in these games.

How to Teach Phonics Rules

When you have preschoolers and kindergarteners learning how to teach phonics rules is important. This will help prepare them for school, reinforce what they are learning in school, or be a great curriculum if you are homeschooling your kids. Phonics rules are the foundation of reading if your kids do not have a good foundation they will not be reading at grade level. Reading at grade level is a major sign of if your child will be successful in school and life. I hope that the tips above will help you create a plan that works for your kids to help them learn phonics rules in a fun way.

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