Educational and Interactive Phonics Games for Kids

Blending for reading is when you decode a word in print by sounding out the individual letters and groups of letters in the word, then ‘blend’ those sounds together to say the word. These games are designed to help support children and learners practise this skill with individual words and phrases. The games cover Phases 2-5 of a Letters and Sounds phonics learning programme.

When we talk about learning GPCs, we mean the correspondence between the written letter (grapheme) and the sound it makes (phoneme). A child that has a good grasp of their GPCs will be able to identify the sound that corresponds with a letter in print, and also be able to identify or write the correct letter when given a particular sound. These games are designed to help children learn this skill. New GPCs are introduced in Phases 2,3 & 5 of a Letters and Sounds phonics programme, so the games can be set and played at these phases.

Segmentation for spelling is the skill of being able to spell a word by breaking it down into its smallest units of sound (phonemes) and then writing down the letter or groups of letters (graphemes) that represent that sound to spell out a word. For example, the word “shop” would be broken down into “sh” – “o” – “p.” These games are designed to support the learning of segmentation for spelling and can be played at Phase 2-5 of a Letters and Sounds phonics programme.

Like in many languages, there are also some words in the English language that do not seem to follow the rules! These are words that children cannot apply their phonics knowledge to, and if they did the word would not be pronounced as intended. Examples of this are the words “said” and “one.” Sounded out, these words would not sound anything like how they are supposed to be pronounced. These ‘ exceptions to the rule’ words are known as Tricky Words, and just need to be learned and remembered. The games below will help a child to learn tricky words. There are new tricky words introduced in phases 2-5 of a Letters and Sounds phonics programme.

High-frequency words are those that appear most commonly in the English language. It is useful for children to learn these as they are likely to come across these words as they read their assigned reading books. These words may or may not be phonetically decodable.

In the summer term of Year 1 (age 5-6), children are required to take part in a Phonics Screening Check. This consists of both real and nonsense words that consist of the graphemes learnt in phases 2-5 of a Letters and Sounds phonics programme. The test is intended to be able to see how well children can apply their phonics knowledge to familiar and unfamiliar (nonsense) words. The test consists of lists of words in isolation and not contained in a sentence. The games below are designed for children to revise and prepare for the test.