From sounds to words
- Beginning sounds. Hear the first sound of a word and match it to its letter.
- Ending sounds. Listen to the end of the word, which is harder to hear.
- Short vowels. The middle sound: c _ t, p _ g, s _ n.
- Build the word. Write all three sounds, one in each box.
- Rhymes. Hear that cat and hat end the same way.
- Word families. Change the first sound: cat, hat, bat.
- Digraphs and blends. Two letters, one sound (sh, ch) or two quick sounds (fr, st).
Pictures first
Phonics practice works when children say the word out loud. A picture gives them the word without needing to read it, so they can focus on the sounds. Each picture is chosen to have one obvious name, and the letters use simple shapes children learn first, like the single-story a.
Keep going
Pair these with sight words for the words that can’t be sounded out, and withpicture puzzles for spelling whole words with pictures.
Provincial curriculum links
- BC KRecognizing most letter-sound matches, hearing and making rhymes, and breaking spoken words into sounds.
- BC Grade 1–3Using phonics and language patterns to decode words, with word patterns and word families from Grade 2.
- ON KThe Ontario Curriculum, Kindergarten, 2026 adds explicit phonemic awareness and phonics.
- ON Grade 1–3Direct, systematic teaching of phonemic awareness, letter knowledge and phonics in the Foundations of Language strand.
Ontario’s 2023 Language curriculum moved phonics to the centre of early reading. Policy/Program Memorandum 168 asks schools to timetable at least 150 minutes of foundational reading instruction every five school days in Grades 1 to 3, in daily blocks of 30 minutes or more, moving from simpler to harder word reading.
Picture-based phonics pages are useful during those blocks as independent work while the teacher meets with a small group. In BC, the same pages fit the Kindergarten to Grade 2 focus on letter sounds, rhyme and decoding.
Summarized in our own words from BC English Language Arts (K–3), The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1–8: Language (2023), The Ontario Curriculum, Kindergarten, 2026 and Ontario’s Policy/Program Memorandum 168.
