What are the best Online Phonics Games for Kindergarten?

Using Phonics games is a superb way of encouraging kindergarten and preschoolers to learn and practice phonics and reading. If you have an interactive white board or access to tablets or iPads, using these games online can be a great motivator for Kindergarten and younger students

Online Phonics games for Kindergarten can include spelling, reading, listening and even writing games, these can be online and offline, free and paid, and quick and in depth, group and individual games. These phonics games will include single sounds and simple word blending which are suitable for kindergarten levels.

If you have children’s or students ahead of the curve will lead on to vowel and blending phonics sounds. Below we cover the best selections for online phonics games that we use in our classrooms and are used in classrooms all over the world. If you are in a rush, click the heading below to go right to the topic you are looking for.

• Teach your monster to read
• Starfall Phonics
• BBC Bitesize Phonics Games
• Phonics Hop and Pop
• Swing and Slide Phonics
• Turtle Diary
• Phonics Bloom
• Read with Phonics
• Literactive
• Spooky Sounds
• Other phonics resources

Online Kindergarten Phonics Games

Whether you are a parent to a toddler at home or a teacher in a class of 30 kindergarteners it is likely you will be using some form of online resources. There are huge numbers to choose from. A lot are hidden behind paywalls or price tags, so where that is a consideration we will mention it, however there are plenty of great free Phonics games online as well. We have a more in-depth article on online phonics resources here if you need more choice as well. Some of these are certainly worth the money and we will point that out as well.

Teach your monster to read.

This is simply the best phonics game there is in our opinion. It follows the SATIPN order of phonics instruction and therefore works through from emergent readers all the way up to more difficult phonics sounds that would be covered in grades 1 and 2. It has design elements to allow children to design their own monsters (and therefore take ownership of them) , it has a reward structure of certificates and ebooks for fulfilling certain stages of instruction and practice and it has monitoring for teachers and parents to see how your children are progressing.

It is a paid resource, but is usually offered free one or two times a year as it is run by a literacy charity in the U.K. however, if you want to play this as a class it offers great minigames for classrooms, or individuals on the desktop version. This version is totally free to access, and if your students are perhaps unable to access mobile phones or technology or the price is to much then you can also access the main paid game free on browsers. The price is usually about 5 pounds, or 6 USD on the stores and you can even pick it up on Amazon.

It really is a great option. we have video instructions for this and if you need more information then we have a more in depth review and teacher tips here as well.

Star Fall Learn to Read and Phonics

If you are a teacher reading this it is likely you have at least heard and probably used this website and its stories, games and videos. Although its phonics does not follow SATIPN order of phonics instruction, it follows the ABC way. In relation to Kindergarten it does teach the sounds of the single letters, but where it shines in the use of Phonics games for CVC blending. Which is a little higher level than the single sounds.

They do this with stories first, simple CVC stories and then with a game to play to help consolidate. we have linked to these more so that the single sounds, but of course you can check both resources and games. The games are simple but they have a large choice with their reading resources. One thing to be aware of is they progress in difficulty quite quickly after the CVC games and readers.

It is free online to use, however they have an app which is has in app purchases.

BBC Bitesize English

The BBC website offers hundreds of educational resources for all subjects and they have a well stocked resource page for English as well. Their phonics section is not quite as large but the games are engaging, and can be played in groups in classrooms as well as by individuals at home. The two games i have found, and linked to here, were small town superheroes and karate cats. However Karate Kats is covering grammar and other English skills as well. Superheroes covers phonics and particularly spelling with multiple choices.

These are for native English speaking children so they can be a little wordy for ESL and second language students to play on their own, although with teacher support it could be a useful resource. The phonics ones are under simple sounds, and there are also games using homophones, tricky words and long vowel diagraphs for the more able students.

Its is free to use, and as of writing is not region locked! As a bonus they also offer hundreds of videos to help introduce phonics and English for you and your students.

Phonics Hop and Pop by Making English Fun

This is one of ours and is in both app and online version. This was made to cover 8 different phonics skills and is split up accordingly. The ones most relevant to kindergarten are the ABC and CVC sections, but of course you will know your children and students better than we ever could so the other sections can be used as are needed. It is a listening game where the player listens and jumps to the correct sound or word. It is great for consolidation.

We also have LOTS of other online games that cover blends, sentences, and vowels but for Kindergarten age it is likely this and the next two are the most suitable.

Swing and Slide Phonics by Making English Fun

This is our full Phonics sound game. It covers the phonics order SATIPN and has three games in each sound. We have made it as both an online game and as a mobile application and like our other apps and games it is free to play on both platforms.

Students must listen and recognize words with the sounds and either press or spell their way to the end. It uses cute child friendly images and is our most popular online game as its suitable for classroom use on white boards. We have it on this site to play so just click the link to try it out, of course this version is designed for computers if you wanted the mobile version the app is in the app store for free as well.

CVC Blitz by Making English Fun

This is the last one of ours on this page and is playable both on app and online here. It is a pure focus on CVC spelling and learning that these simplest of words all have their short vowel sound in the middle. It is great for students to learn and practice both the blending of sounds to learn words and for teaching the meaning of those words and increase vocabulary.

CVC words are the best way to introduce sound letter relationships to kindergarten students. Games like these allow them to hear the relationships and then apply these to other less familiar words, including larger and blended words as they progress. We have a full article with this and other CVC specialized games on the site if you need more games.

Sounds and other Phonics Games by Turtle Diary

I use this website a lot in my Primary second language classes. The word construction game is really good for students to learn both beginning and ending sounds. They have to listen and then replace the sounds as directed to make a new word. It really teaches the relationships between these sounds.

The site its self has a decent selection of phonics games including long vowel and blends. It could be used for primary as well as kindergarten age students for this reason. One word of caution the games are flash which is not support after December 2020. When that happens we will come back and check and update as needed.

Fishy Phonics by Phonics Bloom

This is a word recognition game, which helps to teach vocabulary. However there is no sound recognition in this game. There are others that do have however this is a paid subscription site. I know, from seeing the paid versions, that there are more on offer here. this is useful as a simple consolidation and word recognition game at the end of the lesson, the others are much better but at a price. It is worth looking at the site, and at the videos of the games to see if a all in one solution would suit you.

Read with Phonics

This is another paid resource, and seems to follow a more structured approach than the one above. Splitting their phonics games and activities into levels. they some demo games to try which would work well in classrooms as they are different each level. It also has the sounds actually read out which is a much better approach. It may get a little repetitive after a while but that is a minor issue as there is a lot of content here. It would require you using it a lot to make it worth while, but if you are a parent it could take some of the headache away by having a one stop phonics shop for your children.

Literactive Tidy the leaves game

This is rare in that it asks students to focus on the ending sounds of CVC words. This is not very common and the reason we have put it here. There is limited sound, but if played with a parent or teacher then the students can be asked to read the words before the sort them, this would allow them to practice phonics, more than just matching the letter shapes. Even a sound option could achieve this as well.

ICT Games – Spooky Sounds

I like this game! It allows the teachers and parents to chose the set of sounds that students has to listen for before putting them in the bubbling cauldron. SO it can be aimed at beginning and more advanced students. It includes sounds of letters and is great for a classroom and individual practice. Well done to ICT games for getting what teachers and parents need. It covers SATIPN order and although could be expanded into words with these sounds, it is great for kindergarten right now.

It is also free to use and is playable online.

Other Phonics Resources and related reading

Phonics Workbooks: As much as we go on line with instruction and teaching there will always be a need to pick up that pencil and write things down. We have made these consolidated workbooks to help with this. From 40-80 pages of readers, activities and worksheets for teachers and parents.

Phonics Worksheets: We have a selection of free worksheets here for teachers and parents to consolidate after or before playing the games with your children

Other Online Games: There is more to learning English than phonics and we have made a selection of online games that cover sentences, word recognition and vocabulary as well.

Phonics Theory: We have a large blog of articles that cover the teaching of English and all written by professional teachers. If you are looking for theory or ideas then here is a good place to start.

We have a host of resources and articles on the teaching, theory and resources you can use around phonics. these are both paid and free, but mostly free. e also have editable resources if you need but for those you have to contact us on info@makingenglishfuncom.wpcomstaging.com.

Hi I’m Marc. A teacher of over 15 years, mostly English but dabbled in outdoor pursuits and media. Thought is was about time to sharing both what I have learnt during that time and the resources I have put together. On this site we aim to teach the theory and share our thoughts, but also go that one step further and give you access to the hard resources you need for your class or for you children. Feel free to take a look at our resources, email us on info@makingenglishfuncom.wpcomstaging.com, or jump on the Facebook group to ask questions. Happy learning, teaching or playing!