Teaching phonics to a room of students can be a bit challenging, especially if students are on different levels of being able to comprehend the rules of phonics. That is why it is so important for your classroom to be "phonics-friendly," in terms of the materials you have displayed and the activities that you have to offer. Take a look at some of these ideas for your classroom. You can find many resources online that all you have to do is print them off and they are ready to use

Phonics Posters

Displaying fun and entertaining posters that display phonics rules is essential. Visual aids help children to look at the same material repetitively, thus enabling them to be able to remember what they see. For example, it is not enough to cover rhyming words and expect students to remember what they learned from worksheets. Some students may never look at their worksheets again. But, having rhymes displayed in your room will help them remember everything they learned for a long time. Other phonics posters could include word parts, such as diphthongs and digraphs, etc. There are endless possibility for putting up posters in your classroom to reinforce important phonics rules.

Phonics Wall Words

Wall words are another great thing to have in your classroom. The words can be easily put up and taken down as new concepts are taught to your students. Wall words are another way for students to have what they learned in front of their faces at all times. You can buy the wall words at a local educator's store, order them online, or make your own.

Interactive Bulletin Board Ideas

Interactive bulletin boards are fun for students, especially younger ones. Make your bulletin boards lively and inviting. For example, if you are teaching beginning sounds, use pictures of animals to represent those sounds, such as "b" for bear, etc. Kids love to look at friendly animals. To make bulletin boards interactive, include pocket charts and games that can be stapled to the bulletin board for students to use during break time. Perhaps you can incorporate pictures of your students on your bulletin board as well.

Students Work

Be sure to display the work of your students around the classroom. This not only helps boost their confidence, but also helps other students be challenged enough to get their work displayed. You can have fancy borders for their papers and make it look like a gallery, if you desire. When a new concept is introduced pick new papers to go up around the classroom to keep current with what you are teaching.

Reading Corner

Most teachers do have reading centers in their classroom. The emphasis is that you have relevant books to what you are teaching about phonics. Students should be able to easily connect what they are reading with a concept that you have taught in the last week or so.