Seeking fun phonic games to boost kids’ reading skills? Discover these 5!

Are you prepared to take your kids on a thrilling journey that will help them develop into competent readers? Let’s delve into the amazing realm of phonic games and understand their importance.

Why are phonic games so important?

By playing phonic games, we use phonics instruction to level up your kid’s foundational reading skills. Phonics instruction is a process that teaches your kid the relationships between each letter and its corresponding sound. For example, the letter c  could represent the sound  /c/, which is the first sound in certain words such as cat, carrot, and so on.

Once you start playing the phonic games suggested below, learning to read may not be a tedious task for your little one. So, let's get started on this epic adventure together to help strengthen your kid’s reading skills!

5 Fun phonic games to improve reading skills

1. Phonics ninja game                     

Think about your kid becoming a ninja as they conquer the phonetic world! They will improve their phoneme blending skills and letter identification abilities with this game. You only need a deck of flashcards with the letters and associated sounds. As you call out a sound, your young ninja must quickly strike the letter card with the corresponding sound. Their reading skills get better the more exact their strikes are!

2. Rhyming olympics

Let’s enroll your kid in a friendly Olympic competition. To play this game, you can invite your kid’s friends over . Divide the kids into teams and collect a range of rhyming word cards. Each team alternately flips a card and then has to generate as many rhyming words as they can in the allotted time. The group that rhymes the most takes home the reward you have set for them! Get ready for a blast of teamwork, creativity, and phonological prowess in this action-packed rhyming Olympics!

3. Newspaper hunt

Get ready for an epic scavenger hunt that will ignite your kid's phonics superpowers! Grab those old newspapers or magazines, and let the hunt begin! Challenge your little detective to spot images that kick-off with a specific sound or letter. It's a quest that'll have them racing through the pages and unraveling the secrets of reading success!

4. Alphabet ball

If your little one is a ball enthusiast who loves to run, kick, and chase, then this game is an absolute winner. Here's how it works: You call out a letter, and your kid responds with a word that begins with that letter. If they nail it, they get to pass the ball to you. Then it's your turn to call out a letter, and the game keeps rolling. It's an engaging back-and-forth that keeps their phonics skills on point while they burn off some energy. Get ready for an alphabet adventure that combines movement, learning, and loads of laughter!

5. Lock with the key

Gather your keys and mark them with the first half of word sounds, and label the locks with the second half. Imagine the excitement as your child matches the right key to the corresponding lock, unlocking a world of phonics magic! Suppose you say the word "cake," the key will have “ca,” and the lock will have “ke.” It's a game that not only sharpens their phonics skills but also ignites their problem-solving abilities. Get ready to unlock endless learning with lock and key phonics!

Remember that learning to read doesn't have to be a chore; it could be a fun adventure filled with laughter and learning. So gather your little ones, encourage them to embrace their inner superheroes, and watch their reading skills improve. Happy reading to you and your little one!

At byjuslearning.com, we provide curriculum-aligned, grade-level learning experiences for kids between ages 4 to 8, helping them build on skills they learn in school.