Phonics & Reading Resources for Kindergarten

Is your child showing signs of being ready to blend sounds together? Help your young learners to build a strong reading foundation with these free phonics & reading resources for kindergarten.

What is phonics?

Teaching phonics or phonemic awareness is a way of teaching kids how to read and write. With phonics teaching, kids learn to identify, hear, and then use different sounds to learn the differences between words.

There are different approaches to teaching phonics; some kids thrive with phonics workbooks whereas others learn phonetic sounds easier with hands-on activities and manipulatives, or something like a letter tile app.

Is phonics useful?

Some people feel like teaching phonics helps kids read words, but leaves out the comprehension part of teaching words. They say that learning phonics results in a lack of knowledge of the “meaning” of words. This is considered the “whole” language approach.

I see the benefits of both approaches. Whole language learning helps kids develop reading skills with sight words and memorization.

While a phonetic approach to teaching helps kids learn each sound and syllable pattern individually.

Thankfully, with the freedom in teaching our own way in homeschool, we can use a combination of these two approaches to maximize our children’s learning.

So a whole language approach to reading is useful, and phonics is useful as well.

Here are a few important benefits of phonics:

• Unfamiliar words can easily be read by sounding out the word.
• Multiple syllable words are easier to read because of the learned spelling patterns.
• Phonics learning helps kids develop reading comprehension skills, decoding skills, and phonemic awareness.

If you aren’t quite sure where to start, then give your kids this simple and free phonics assessment or this phonics assessment for k-3rd grade from This Reading Mama. After an assessment, your kids will need plenty of phonics practice.

These free phonics & reading resources for kindergarten are perfect to begin teaching phonics for your early learners:

Free Phonics Games:

4 in a Row Phonics Game – Help your kids practice phonics and develop strategic thinking with this phonics game. Sounding out words will be fun for kids as they try to block their opponent or strategize to come up with four words in a row.

Over 20 Kids Phonics Games – Kids learn so well with games. These 20 games are a great way for kids to learn phonics through games and fun. From missing vowel games to popcorn fun and water balloon games, kids will get active while improving their phonics skills.

Interactive PowerPoint Phonics Games – Your phonics practice doesn’t always have to include worksheets. Kids will enjoy this interactive and engaging game on the computer to practice basic phonics skills.

Beginning Blends Free Bump! Game – These Bump! games really only need a gameboard,  two dice, paper, and a writing utensil to start the phonics fun. Kids will match beginning sounds, simple and fun enough that kids won’t even realize they are learning so much.

Free Phonics Activities:

100+ Phonics Clip Cards Activity – Not ten, not 20, or fifty clip cards but 100 phonics clip cards can be used for you to teach phonics in your homeschool. Print out the clip cards and use paper clips for this fun activity. You can even make the clip cards self-checking by writing the answers on the back of the cards.

Make a Phonics Sounds Folder – Use this resource to help your kids make a phonics folder as kids learn how to sound out letters and words. Add the free printable phonics charts inside the folders to help create a reference for reading sounds alongside your lessons.

Phonics Sound Cards and Sound Charts – Grab this super useful resource to help your kiddos learn sounds of, brace yourself, 84 different letter phonetic combinations. You will also find freebies for consonant blends and sight words.

Mini-Course and 30+ Phonics Activities – You will not want to miss this free primary phonics email course to help you with your lessons when teaching phonics to little ones. Grab these phonics activities for first sounds, CVC words, last sounds, consonant blends, and more.

Free Phonics Reading Passages and Sentences:

Kindergarten Phonics Reading Passages – If you are planning to teach phonics at home then phonics reading passages can build the foundation for the development of literacy for your kids. These reading passages are very low prep and can be adjusted to meet the needs of every young learner.

Sentence Activity for Phonics Mastery and Fluency – This resource holds over 100 free phonics sentences to practice word decoding and reading words in context. Help your kids improve their phonics skills and work towards phonics fluency.

Phonics Passages Your Kids will Enjoy Reading – These engaging phonics passages will help kids practice their phonics skills reading fluency, and comprehension. Your kids will enjoy these adorable stories while they learn.

Reading Comprehension Passages for Short Vowel Sounds – Reading passages have big benefits when kids begin reading. This resource can help. This 12-page free reading comprehension passage and activities help kids practice their short vowel sounds with vocabulary and story sentences.

Write a Sentence Phonics Printable Book – Use this printable set to help your young learners to perfect their beginning sounds phonetic skills. They will learn new sight words and help them understand the formation of simple sentences.

Free Printable Phonics Books 

If you are looking for printable phonics books that your kids can color and decorate, these pdf downloads are good to add to your homeschool library. There’s also even more phonics activities and worksheets that you can print and use with your kindergartener.

Free Phonics Printables and Worksheets:

Phonics Download for Struggling Learners – If you identify that you have a child with gaps in their phonics knowledge this resource can help. It is a phonics intervention download to help you to close that gap. Also, get some tips on what to do for review to improve your child’s phonics development.

130+ Printable Phonics Readers – Each of these phonics books is made of a collection of sentences in phonics patterns. There is a total of 24 sets of phonics books for your beginning readers to enjoy.

150+ Phonics Worksheets for Kindergarten – When your kids are ready to read, equip yourself with plenty of practice to build their fluency. The worksheets are organized by word families and include cut & paste word-making sheets, read & color activity sheets, and more.

Teaching your kindergarten kids and early learners a phonics approach will help them exponentially in reading, spelling, and eventually writing sentences.

Whether you choose to teach whole language, phonics, or a combination of the two, both can play excellent parts in how a child learns and understands words and how they part together for comprehension.