Phonics

Phonics: what you need to know

Phonics is the understanding that letters and letter patterns represent the sounds in spoken words, and that this knowledge can be used to read and spell. It involves connecting graphemes (letters or combinations of letters) to phonemes (units of sound), and working in both directions: seeing a word and identifying its sounds to read it, and hearing a word and representing its sounds with letters to spell it.

In Kindergarten, this begins with the most common and consistent sound-letter relationships, including single consonants, common digraphs such as <sh>, <ch> , and <th>, and short vowel sounds. As this knowledge develops, students use it to blend sounds together to read simple words and to segment words into sounds for spelling.

What’s new in the 2026 Curriculum?

In the 2016 Kindergarten Program, expectations related to phonics were broad and less clearly defined, focusing on general knowledge of letters in different contexts. The 2026 Ontario Kindergarten Curriculum introduces specific expectations that require students to identify letter-sound relationships (A2.4) and use them in word reading and spelling (A2.5).

The Language Foundations Continuum for Reading and Writing provides additional detail about what this knowledge includes. Students are expected to understand the relationship between simple and high-frequency graphemes and the phonemes they represent, including single consonants, common digraphs such as <ch>, <ck>, <sh>, <th>, and <wh>, and short vowels /a/, /i/, /o/, /u/, and /e/.

Importantly, the Curriculum also makes clear that this knowledge must be applied. Students use grapheme-phoneme correspondences to read and spell simple CV, VC, and CVC words. When reading, they identify graphemes, say the corresponding phonemes, and blend them together. When spelling, they identify the phonemes they hear and represent each one with a grapheme.

This shift provides much clearer guidance about both what students need to know and what they need to be able to do with that knowledge to help all students become strong readers and writers

Transitioning to phonics in Grade 1

The 2026 Ontario Kindergarten Curriculum is designed to align closely with the 2023 Grade 1 Language Curriculum, ensuring that students enter Grade 1 with an established foundation in phonics and applying phonics.

In Kindergarten, students are introduced to common grapheme-phoneme correspondences and begin using this knowledge to read and spell simple words. In Grade 1, this foundation is extended. The focus shifts to increasing automaticity with known letter-sound relationships, applying this knowledge to read connected text, and learning more complex and less consistent patterns in the English spelling system.

This progression allows students to move from early word reading and spelling in Kindergarten to more fluent and flexible use of phonics in Grade 1.

Teaching phonics

To align with the 2026 Ontario Kindergarten Curriculum, phonics instruction has moved from “incidental” (only when it pops up in a story) to systematic and explicit. This means activities are now structured in a specific order—building from hearing sounds to reading words.

To be effective, phonics instruction must be:

Systematic

Instruction follows a carefully planned scope and sequence, moving in a logical order from simple to more complex letter-sound relationships so that no gaps are left in a child’s code-breaking skills. Rather than waiting for sounds to appear naturally in texts, educators follow a roadmap that ensures all essential elements are taught.

Instruction typically begins with high-frequency consonants and short vowels such as s, a, t, p, i, n, allowing children to quickly start building and reading words like “sat,” “pin,” “tip,” and “nap.” This focus on high-utility letters helps children experience early success. Each new lesson builds on prior learning through cumulative review, with previously taught sounds continuously practised and integrated so they are not forgotten. Teaching systematically ensures that children develop a complete and connected understanding of the English spelling system.

Explicit

Instruction is clear, direct, and unambiguous. Educators don’t rely on students to infer letter-sound relationships; instead, they clearly state them. For example, rather than prompting students to guess a sound from a picture, an educator might say, “This is the letter A. It spells the sound /a/.” This approach removes guesswork, which is particularly important for students who may struggle with foundational literacy skills.

Explicit instruction often follows an “I Do, We Do, You Do” model: the educator first models the skill, then guides students through practice, and finally supports them in applying the skill independently.

Immediate corrective feedback is also a key component, with errors addressed right away so that misunderstandings do not become ingrained. For instance, if a student makes an error, the educator might respond, “That letter spells /t/. Let’s try again.”

Applied to decodable text

To consolidate their developing phonics and phonemic awareness skills, early readers need opportunities to apply what they have learned in decodable text. These texts are carefully designed so that the words align with the letter-sound relationships students have already been taught. For example, if a child has learned the sounds s, a, t, i, p, n, the text they are asked to read should consist only of words that use those sounds, such as “Pat sat on a tin tap.”

This ensures that reading is “accountable” to instruction and encourages children to rely on their knowledge of the code rather than guessing based on pictures or context. Using decodable text helps build the habit of attending to print and strengthens the connection between instruction and reading practice.

Assessing phonics

Assessment of phonics skills can be done in several ways.

Beginning with universal screening, educators can glean important information regarding their students’ understanding of letter names and their ability to isolate the first sounds of words. As the year progresses, the assessed skills include letter sounds, reading whole nonsense words, and identifying all sounds in words.

Educators could also consider completing a sound inventory to help them determine which grapheme-phoneme correspondences their students can name by looking at a letter and which grapheme(s) they can write after hearing a letter sound.

Through progress monitoring, educators can understand students’ growth across the year, making data-informed decisions about instruction in response to students’ needs.