Teaching Phonics for Distance Learning

I am so excited about teaching phonics for distance learning! I decided to fill a position since my son’s teacher started a new adventure. My start date was March 16, 2020. It didn’t take long for me to realize that we needed digital phonics activities for our kids!

Since I couldn’t use the phonics lessons from the classroom for distance learning, I knew I needed to make teaching phonics for distance learning so that my kids could continue learning at home. And if we’re going to be honest, I didn’t want to waste my time on creating something that I couldn’t use in the classroom.

So I made it for both!

I have been working with our reading specialists on this project, and I am so happy about it. I really want to share how this will benefit you in the classroom, not only that but if the same craziness happens again year, you can use this for distance learning.

It’s that amazing!

Here’s how you can teach phonics for distance learning daily!

These lessons give students a gradual release. Things are pretty basic in the beginning, but then it gets progressively more difficult throughout the week. You can use this for the whole group, small group, literacy centers, or distance learning.

I created these phonics lessons for Google Classroom, but again if you do not use google classroom, and you use Teams or Powerpoint, all you need to do is click “File” and scroll down and hover over “Download”. From there, you will pick the option “Microsoft PowerPoint”.

To use the lesson, you will not click the present button. You will use it just like the picture below.

Teaching Phonics on Monday

You will begin the lesson with the teaching point. You can practice finding it around the room, tracing it with your fingers, or finding students who have a name that begins with the letter.

There will be five slides like the one pictured above. Students will listen for the word and drag the picture in the box with the sound. This builds phonemic awareness.

To make this work for distance learning, you send your students slides 3 – 7. From Google Classroom, they can return their work back to you so that you can check their accuracy.

Teaching Phonics on Tuesday

On this day, students will listen for rhyming words. Students drag the picture to match it to the rhyming picture. This is to solidify phonemic awareness.

I included four words with different vowel-consonant endings. Students will have the pictures to “read” the words.

Dragging the pictures is user-friendly for young students. It’s especially helpful on the iPad or tablet so they can “touch” the screen.

Teaching Phonics on Wednesday

Now that students know the sound, they will begin finding the missing letter. Students will look at a picture and say it. Then, they will drag the missing letter to complete the word. This helps students with decoding and spelling.

I included four different beginning sounds. They each make a word. In the example below, students can make the words cat, pat, hat, and sat.

They must choose the letter that matches the picture. In this case, it would be “h”.

Teaching Phonics on Thursday

This day is my favorite! Students get to create their own words using specific letters. Again, I included letters so that students can make words with the letters.

This makes teaching phonics for distance learning easy with rigor!

Teaching Phonics on Friday

And then finally right here it’s “Type the word”. Students will use the picture to type the word. I’ve included sentences to give context clues about the word. This picture is cab.

Typing the word is a little more challenging for students, but I find it good practice as they will be typing for the rest of their lives.

What I love about these slides, is that students can share these with the teacher once they are finished.

This go along perfect with the Alphabet STEM activities I have for teaching letter sounds. Click HERE to learn about my favorite hands-on activities for teaching letter sounds.

I have them for all the vowels plus a short vowel review. I even added a choice board for students. Click HERE to learn more about this resource. What are some of your favorite word activities? How would this help you with distance learning? Let us know in the comments!

Looking for more activities for going back to school after COVID 19? Tap HERE to learn about these THREE effective tips for teaching rules and procedures during distance learning!