Prior to virtual learning, phonics could be practiced so many ways in your kindergarten, first grade, and second grade classrooms. Previously, students could easily meet in small groups with the teacher, read decodable books with a partner, or practice word work activities independently. Likewise, they could even come together as a whole group to practice sounding and blending. Now with hybrid schedules, concurrent teaching, blended models and other modes and methods of digital learning, phonics can be a struggle to teach. You know what I mean… Teaching kids how to sound and blend those letter sounds to make new words is tough in a normal setting. Now we’ve got to teach it online? What?!?! However tough it is, it must be done… Decoding with fluency is necessary for students to read and comprehend, and teachers have never been ones to step down from a challenge. 
Hands-On with Digital Phonics
Just like with so many other things, young children need a hands-on approach to phonics instruction. In other words, they need to be able to see and move the letters that make up the sounds in words. You may have found yourself wondering, “How am I going to provide hands-on learning virtually?” Despite our transition to digital learning, students still NEED explicit, intentional, AND systematic phonics instruction.
This got me thinking, how can teachers keep kids engaged in learning when they aren’t right there with them while practicing something that isn’t all that exciting to most students? From my own experience as a first grade teacher, six and seven-year-olds get bored pretty quickly with monotonous activities. I KNEW teachers were going to need a systematic approach to phonics practice that would keep the little kids’ attention!
Digital Phonics for Digital Learning
Boy, oh, boy… do I have something to share with you! I’m seriously so excited about this resource! I have poured hours into this DIGITAL PHONICS BUNDLE for busy teacher like yourself. These phonics activities will undoubtedly keep students actively engaged, even if they’re learning online. The especially great part is that this bundle can still be used IN the classroom as well. Even if you’re delivering instruction to face-to-face learners, this bundle is still meant for you!
Absolutely amazing. This resource has saved my life. I was struggling to find different phonics materials to help my traditional and virtual students master the sounds and these have helped tremendously. There are sentences, reading, ladders, and word building. I am so thankful you made these! I want some for alllll sounds we teach here in MS.
How to Use Digital Phonics
The activities in this digital phonics bundle can be utilized in a variety of ways. There are seriously SO MANY OPTIONS!
- Assign activities for the week
- Break up and assign activities each day
- Use during small intervention groups
- Teacher-led whole groups
- Independent Practice
The bundle includes 34 different phonics skills that students have to know! With a wide variety of different activities in each set, your students will never lose interest! So, you may be asking yourself now… how can I use this resource in so many different ways? Specifically, what types of activities will my students be asked to do? I’m so glad you asked!
Digital Phonics Activities
The Digital Phonics Word Work Activities Include:
Letter tiles to build words Matching words to pictures Missing letters from words Sentence Building with Word Tiles Reading Fluency Passage Word building puzzles Sound Sorts Word Ladders Picture Graph Word Search Sentence Writing
Of course, the activities actually progress in difficulty as students work though each slide set. In other words, the slides follow a gradual release of responsibilities for the student. They begin with easier tasks and work through to the most difficult tasks toward the end.
I absolutely love this resource! Students are able to practice their phonics skills while I pull small groups. I also appreciate how the work gets more challenging as students work through the slides, requiring them to apply the phonics skill in reading passages and writing. Thank you!
To elaborate a little further, these Digital Phonics Google Slides activities are perfect for on-level first and second-grade students! The short vowel sets are even great for Kindergarten kiddos! Students can practice phonics and spelling word work using this interactive Google Slides resource. In the slide decks, students will practice word recognition and phonics skills with these engaging slides. The slides include typing, matching, as well as drag and drop formatting.
Free Digital Phonics Set
I have created a sample digital phonics lesson that you can grab for FREE! This activity is perfect for distance learning or face-to-face instruction. Whenever students sign on, they will be given multiple ways to work with words containing Long u spelled with Silent e. This Google Slides resource is an excellent and ENGAGING way for students to strengthen their spelling and reading fluency skills!
This is just what I was looking for. We are going to be following our district's curriculum scope and sequence, but there are no digital materials that go with it. These will allow us to give students the independent practice they need each week. They like the activities so far and they are appropriate and engaging for 1st graders.
Fun Idea for a Phonics Extension Activity
If you’re looking for a fun phonics extension, check out this video! It presents silent e in such a fun, interactive way that students will love. Of course, this is my absolute favorite silent e video ever! I hope you love it as much as I do.
Did you recognize the artist in the video? #hamilton #fangirl I loved Lin-Manuel Miranda even before he had the Broadway hit!
I used Electric Company videos ALL THE TIME in my first grade classroom to “hook” my kids into our phonics lessons! The Electric Company actually has a channel on YouTube that you can subscribe to! Check them out!
A Few Highlights of the Digital Phonics Bundles
Do you remember I told you that the bundle has all of the phonics skills you need? Let me share a little bit about some of the sets. This HUGE Bundle covers Short Vowel CVC words, Consonant Blends and Digraphs, Long Vowels with Silent e, Long Vowel Teams, Diphthongs, R-Controlled Vowels, and Stable Syllable -LE.
Indeed, there are a ton of resources included in this bundle and I know you don’t have ALLL day… so let me share a just few highlights with you now. This is by no means all-inclusive of what’s in the bundle. The BUNDLE has SOOO much MORE!
Students can practice short e CVC skills in so many ways with this Google resource. This activity gives students the opportunity to strengthen both reading and phonics skills with short vowel cvc words. Moreover, interactive slides are perfect for not only virtual whole-group instruction but small groups as well.
In the picture below, you see just one of the many fun activities included! Here students use the letter tiles to spell the words for the pictures provided on the slide. Students are only given the letter tiles they need to spell the words. Therefore, there’s no wasted time sorting through a bunch of unnecessary letters.
This was a great resource to put on my 1st graders word work choice board they loved being independent and the tasks were simple enough for them to do on their own! I look forward to using them all year long, Thank you!
Use this R-Blends Digital Phonics Google resource in your virtual classroom or traditional classroom! Students will have fun with this engaging 28-slide activity. First and second-graders can strengthen their spelling and reading fluency skills with consonant blends.
Focus Skills Include:
⭐️ R-blends in words with short vowel sounds
⭐️ R-blends in words with long vowel sounds
⭐️ High-frequency words (sight words)
In this screenshot, you see an activity where students have to unscramble a mixed up sentence. This activity has built in visual supports which are critical for students with special needs, like a diagnosed learning disability, or for those students who are English Language Learners. Additionally, this is a way to reduce frustration in writing due to students not struggling as much to produce the correct spelling for words. These sentence unscramble activities precede the sentence writing activities in the slide deck, so students have practice with the error-free writing before they have to produce their own writing in a later activity.
I've been using this as a weekly distance learning assignment. It is user friendly. I haven't had a single parent contact me concerning technology usage problems. That's a total win for me!
Your students will be so engaged when practicing words with Final, Stable Syllables. Don’t forget that this resource allows you to easily assign and review students’ work all within Google Classroom! As a result, there will be no need to have students share files with you through Google Drive or through your email. Just check the assignment in Google Classroom. Easy-peasy, lemon squeezy!
Focus Skills Include:
⭐️ Stable Syllables -ble, -cle, -dle, -fle, -gle, -kle, -ple, -tle, -zle
⭐️ Multisyllabic words
⭐️ High-frequency words (sight words)
In this activity, students again have visual supports to unscramble a word spelled with the focus phonics skill. Now, of course students just think they are playing a game and putting together a puzzle. Of course, we know that they are actually spelling words correctly that they will continue to work with throughout the other activities. One thing is for sure, they will be begging you to “play” it again and again!
This is fantastic! This would have taken hours for me to attempt to make. It is colorful, engaging, and easy for students to complete. It is great independent practice for students! Thank you!
Go Check Out the Digital Phonics sets!
Finally, be sure to check out the DIGITAL PHONICS BUNDLE. It will surely keep students actively engaged in your traditional face-to-face classroom setting or your virtual classroom! It’s perfect for integrating technology into your already established literacy stations or providing digital learning because that’s just the way of the world. The bundle includes the 34 phonics skills that students must know in order to be fluent readers! Each set is packed with different activities to enhance decoding and spelling skills that students will LOVE! With a wide variety of differentiated activities, your students will never lose interest!
Moreover, I hope that it helps save you time in planning and preparation. Likewise, I hope it helps you to provide meaningful instruction and practice for your kiddos to become fluent readers. If there’s a skill that you’d like to see added, that is not currently included in the Bundle, drop me a comment below, and I’ll see what I can do!
If you do not want to miss any of the upcoming lessons, you can join my email list to be notified of all the new interactive lessons! By joining the email list, you will also receive freebies for blog exclusive subscribers!
