Fun Educational Games that Teach Kids Phonics
Aug 23, 2023 | 0 Votes
by Mel
-
rate
Currently, one of the most popular methods for teaching reading to young children is phonics, with many educational curricula and teaching programs incorporating phonics as an integral part of early reading instruction. With knowledge of phonics, children’s confidence in reading improves because they are better able to decode unfamiliar words and recognize patterns in language. What’s more, a very effective way to teach reading using phonics is by making use of educational games and activities that engage children in learning.
There are several widely accepted methods when it comes to teaching reading skills to individuals. Currently, one of the most popular methods for teaching reading to young children is phonics, with many educational curricula and teaching programs incorporating phonics as an integral part of early reading instruction. The principle of phonics was first presented by John Hart in 1570. Prior to that, children learned to read through the ABC method, by which they spelled out the letters used in each word. It was John Hart who first suggested that the focus should be on the relationship between what is now referred to as graphemes (made up of letters, groups of letters, and syllables) and phonemes (made up of sounds) so that children learn how to put these sounds together with letters to build words.
With knowledge of phonics, children’s confidence in reading improves because they are better able to decode unfamiliar words and recognize patterns in language. What’s more, a very effective way to teach reading using phonics is by making use of educational games and activities that engage children in learning.
What is Phonics?
Phonics is a method of teaching and learning reading and writing that focuses on the relationship between sounds (phonemes) and their corresponding letters or letter groups (graphemes). It's an essential approach for helping individuals, particularly young children, understand how letters represent sounds in spoken language.
The primary goal of phonics instruction is to help learners develop the ability to decode words by sounding out the individual phonemes and then blending them together to form recognizable words. In short, phonics means using letter sounds to help you read words and develop spelling skills.
Phonics instruction typically involves teaching the following key concepts, such as Letter-Sound Correspondence; Blending; Segmenting; Word Families and Patterns; and Sight Words.
From mastering phonics, children will also be able to develop language skills, including: Word Recognition; Decoding Skills; Spelling Skills; Reading Fluency; Vocabulary Development; Early Literacy Foundation; and Phonemic Awareness.
What is Phonemic Awareness?
Sometimes confused with phonics, phonemic awareness is a fundamental skill related to phonological awareness and is the distinct ability to recognize, hear, identify, and manipulate the individual spoken sounds of language, unrelated to writing. Specifically, phonemic awareness refers to the ability to identify and manipulate individual phonemes within spoken words. It is considered a crucial precursor to successful reading and writing, as it helps learners understand the building blocks of words and their sounds.
Phonemic awareness activities do not involve printed text or letters; instead, they focus solely on the auditory aspect of language and is typically taught before formal phonics instruction begins. Developing phonemic awareness helps learners understand the concept that spoken words are made up of individual sounds, which is essential for learning phonics and becoming proficient readers and spellers.
Phonemic awareness can be developed during early childhood through playful activities and educational games that involve listening, rhyming, clapping out syllables, and other exercises that encourage the recognition and manipulation of sounds in spoken language.
Recommended Phonics Games
Phonics is important to building a child’s foundational early reading and writing skills, and that's why there's no shortage of phonics apps, games, and websites in the market today. Below, we enumerate some of the more popular and educational expert-favored phonics games, both free and paid, that help children improve their reading, vocabulary, and spelling proficiency through building phonemic awareness and spelling skills.
All of these games are well-suited to kids, both in and out of the classroom, and offer engaging experiences that will excite and encourage them to explore words and increase their literacy. They also leverage the interactivity and audiovisual perks of digital media, helping kids play and experiment with and listen to letter sounds.
Reading Eggs. Designed by literacy experts and educators and featuring over a hundred activities to choose from, the hugely popular Reading Eggs subscription-based digital literacy program addresses the learning needs of children ages 2-13 and covers all aspects of learning to read, from phonemic awareness, phonics, and vocabulary to reading comprehension and fluency. Children are guided through a series of fun and interactive online activities that progress at their own pace.
Reading Eggs is structured in such a way that if a child uses it daily for approximately two weeks, they will be able to read their very first book. Lessons average around 15 minutes long, and the program also comes with a parent dashboard so you can track your child's progress.
Phonics Genius is one of the more comprehensive phonics apps available to help kids identify letter sounds and their relationship to words. Featuring over 6,000 words grouped by phonetic sounds, Phonics Genius is an excellent resource for building phonemic awareness and is best for children who are emergent readers with previous reading experience.
Phonics Genius provides three different modes of learning in addition to multiple quiz modes designed as fun and interactive games. The quizzes are designed according to different levels of learning, beginning with two words and ranging from easy to challenging. Furthermore, the app includes several pages through which you can scroll and find the particular sound you want to work on.
Pocoyo First Words is a free app for Android that features a series of very simple tasks that pre-school age children may complete in order to learn their first words. The app is aimed at children who are speaking and writing their first words, with assistance from a parent whose presence is required to complete the app’s games.
With Pocoyo First Words, preschoolers can learn the names of different animals, everyday objects, vehicles, meals, etc., as they draw the letters of the words and learn by following along with their favorite Pocoyo animated characters.
Read with Phonics is a phonics-based app developed by professionals that helps young people to learn synthetic phonics colorfully and interactively by following standardized curricula and synthetics phonics programs such as practice segmenting and blending skills, grapheme recognition, pseudo words, word comprehension and more.
With the Read with Phonics app, kids can practice their phonics sounds for just 5 minutes a day, which has been proven to be the best way to improve early reading skills, whether in the car on the drive home from school or snuggled up on the sofa. In addition, the program offers different ways to challenge a child to think about each letter (from recognizing the grapheme to putting it into a word) as well as a positive reward system for extra motivation.
Kids Piano is a music game for kids and toddlers, giving them access to various instruments like the guitar, keyboard, flute, and xylophone. It also has other phonics-based activities and lessons, such as teaching kids how to pronounce the names of various objects as well as say numbers, country names, the alphabet, and sounds out loud.
Hooked on Phonics. This world-renowned curriculum now comes in a fun, easy-to-use app version available for Apple, Android, and Microsoft devices.
Its highly acclaimed program for children ages 3-8 or those reading between a Pre-K and 2nd-grade level provides an enjoyable and captivating learning experience for young learners.
First introduced to the market in 1987 and now in digital form, it continues to be a tool that both families and teachers use to teach kids to read. Your child will love the variety of videos, songs, and games available, which will help them practice their phonics skills and improve their reading ability. The program is user-friendly, efficient, and perfect for anyone seeking to give their child a head start in reading.
The step-by-step approach, with reviews built in via songs and e-books, is very practical for teaching reading. Teachers and parents will appreciate the mix of phonics and sight words, and kids will enjoy the variety of delivery -- songs, games, and books -- and the predictability of how each step advances. Children can work at their own pace, allowing advanced readers to move more quickly, or teachers/parents could build a semester-long curriculum covering one step per week.
Teach Your Monster to Read is an award-winning free phonics game that's helped millions of preschoolers and kindergartners learn phonics in a fun way. Teachers highly recommend the app, and it easily complements the phonics programs used in schools.
The game covers everything from letters and sounds to reading complete sentences. Kids can enjoy animated phonics songs for both revising and teaching letter sounds. The songs are catchy and easily adaptable, and children will want to sing.
Featured Games
ABCya.com
ABCya.com is a brilliant educational website that uses gamification to encourage and promote fun learning. The site offers entertaining lessons from Kindergarten to Grade 6 based on the Common Core Standards, covering wide-ranging topics under all the important subjects like English, Maths, Science, and Social Sciences.
IXL
IXL is an educational site which contains quiz-like games for your children aged around 2 to 18. It covers a wide range of topics from math to languages; from the sciences to social studies, making it a suitable supplementary tool for educators, especially those involved in homeschooling.
Stride K12
Stride K12 is an online educational program offering personalized public and private school curriculum that is perfect for homeschooling and online learning, as well as a host of other features, giving kids the tools they need to learn in their own unique ways, at their own pace, and at their own place!
Muzzy BBC
Muzzy BBC is a fun language course designed for kids using animated stories, fun activities, and games. It opens the path for kids to become bilingual, teaching them various languages like Spanish, German, French, and Korean.
Petra's Planet
Petra's Planet teaches social studies, geography and culture within a virtual world setting.
Animal Jam
Learn about animals of all kinds and watch educational video spots narrated by animal experts.
