11 Best Ways To Teach Phonics To Kids And Its Importance
Explore the interesting use of sounds in building children's vocabulary knowledge.
Harshita is a graduate in commerce and holds a PG Diploma in Patent and Copyrights Law from NALSAR University. She has also pursued CA and has more than three years of internship experience in auditing. Her love for travelling has taken her to various parts of the world, and writing the travelogues was what brought out her love for content writing.
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In This Article
Learning the alphabet and the phonics for any language is one of the most important steps. But if you think your children will find it difficult to learn, we have got you covered. In this post, we bring you a list of activities on phonics for kids. Phonics is helpful because it allows children to easily identify the pronunciations and the letters corresponding to them with the help of the sounds. Also, it can help them practice whatever they learn at school and understand it better. Read on for a list of games and activities that will help you teach phonics to your kids at home and make reading a fun and interesting activity.
What Is Phonics?
Phonics teaches children to read and recognize the words by their sounds. The words are broken into the smallest of sounds, referred to as a phoneme, that help distinguish one word from another. Phonemes are comprised of one or more letters that spell or represent the sound in any word.
For example, the letter ‘a’, when used in different words, may have different sounds such as ‘a’, ‘ae’, ‘ai’ or ‘ay’. Examples of words with these sounds include ‘charm’, ‘aerobics’, ‘train’ or ‘play’. Usually, the individual sounds of a word are taught, and then they are all merged to form the whole word.
The Importance Of Phonics In Elementary Learning
As children grow and start learning on their own, they may come across certain unfamiliar words. Phonics makes it easy for them to understand and pronounce such complex words by helping them connect the letter to the sounds associated with it. This enables them to start reading independently and gradually progress into mastering their language skills.
Keep reading to find out how you can teach phonics to your kids at home.
11 Best Ways To Teach Phonics To Kids
There are many ways of teaching phonics to children. It can be through games, activities, or challenges that are interesting and fun as well.
1. Recite poems
Children can try reciting The Phonics song, or rhymes such as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Alphabet song, or other poems they like. When kids read something repeatedly, they tend to improve the pronunciation and accuracy a little each time. Thus, reciting poems aloud will prove beneficial in learning phonics and also in improving fluency in the language.
2. Click a pic/ Label the phonics
This is a fun activity! Ask kids to click pictures of random objects lying around and label them with their names. Or, you can list the names of a few objects. The child will then go looking for objects mentioned in the list and click the pictures. The task is to identify the phonics after labeling the objects. For all you know, this activity could teach the child about phonics and photography too.
3. Hunt for a letter
Introduce letters to them through flashcards, wooden cubes, or any card game. Write down the letters or sounds of a word on a flash card and mix them up in a bowl. The child must pick each flash card and try to identify or spell it. While trying this activity, appreciate children for every right answer, and soon they will develop a liking for phonics.
4. Read books
Reading a variety of stories or fairy tales written for children, along with other books, also helps improve their vocabulary and ability to speak fluently.
5. Picture cards with phonemes
This is an engaging activity that needs the child to make picture cards. Pick a list of words, break them down into smaller sounds, and paste a picture of each of these words. Voila! Your phoneme picture cards are ready for practice.
6. Spell check
If your child struggles to remember spellings, this activity is sure to help. Write down a word but leave some blanks in between, especially to identify phonemes. Example: CLOCK can be given in an activity as CL__ K.
7. Phonic apps:
For the tech-savvy kids, the internet has a plethora of options offering various applications on phonics. You may try apps such as Jolly Phonics Lessons, Oz Phonics, and Phonics genius, etc. to help the child learn it.
8. Listening exercises
Children can also listen to poems, songs of their favorite artists, and watch interesting shows to learn new words and their pronunciation. This will boost their listening skills and also help them learn the right ways to pronounce a word.
9. Speak more
Encourage children to speak more. The more they communicate, the better their accuracy of speech will be. This will also help kids in expressing their thoughts and emotions better.
10. Kinesthetics
Tactile learning or Kinesthetics involves outdoor or indoor physical activities, depending on the mood of the child. It is about using the body to create the shape of a letter, writing letters or words in the air or on the ground, and so on. Children are free to go wild as long as the objectives of having fun and learning are achieved.
11. Phonics games
If your child enjoys playing indoor games, there are many board games, charts, and other interactive tools that you can try. These games are not just entertaining but also challenging.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. At what age should a child learn phonics?
Children may start learning phonics at three, and the type of phonological awareness progresses according to their age (1).
2. Can a child learn to read without phonics?
Yes, a child may learn to read without phonics with the help of methods such as (2):
- Look and say: Based on the memory of the shape of the words
- Language experience approach: Children have to write about their experiences in their own words and read them out
Phonics for kids in preschool and kindergarten is a fun concept to learn. Kids at this age are good at absorbing new concepts at a must faster pace. Their curious minds push them to always be in search of new ideas. Therefore, these activities can be a good break for them from the typical classroom teaching. It is also a great idea to introduce them to phonics early, so they can hone their language skills and pronounce words like they should be, without the influence of the native tongue.
Key Pointers
- Phonics helps children learn pronunciations.
- Reading books or reciting poems can help you teach phonics to your children.
- Phonic apps, listening exercises, and various other ways to teach phonics as you scroll through.
References
- How phonics can give children a head start with reading English.
https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/how-phonics-can-give-children-head-start-reading-english - Methods for teaching reading.
https://www.open.edu/openlearncreate/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=138210&printable=1
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