Favorite Phonics Games, Apps, and Websites

ABCs and phonics integrate with fun images, animations, and activities

Bottom Line: Great -- and free -- way to give students clear, engaging examples of the ABCs in action.

Early learners explore fun activities to gain literacy skills and more

Bottom Line: Top-notch phonics program effectively coaches students, but lacks some standard features useful for the classroom.

Phonics adventure oozes charm, has limited learning potential

Bottom Line: Great style and character that'll get young children exploring letter sounds and sentences, but games could grow old quickly.

K–2 literacy program offers comprehensive, adaptive activities

Bottom Line: An easy-to-recommend tool thanks to its broad coverage of key skills and nice balance of student-driven and teacher-differentiated learning.

Rhymes, phonetic approach, silly animations help kids construct words

Bottom Line: Good, holistic approach to the nitty gritty of constructing words.

Word construction and silly animations stress phonics and vocab

Bottom Line: Silly graphics and some odd defining sentences sometimes distract from a respectable teaching approach.

Well-known curriculum adapts well to fun, easy-to-use app

Bottom Line: Thorough phonics program offers a nice mixture of learning, practicing, and reading.

Well-crafted app helps emerging readers and writers build words

Bottom Line: This app will work best for students who already know their letters and can then work on word building, word play, and letter-sound recognition.

Fun with simple words, language sounds best for emerging readers

Bottom Line: This app may be best for quick learners who need little help to push them over the reading horizon.

Thoughtfully designed, self-paced games bring letters, sounds to life

Bottom Line: A warm, wonderful tool for teaching pre-readers and young language learners solid literacy skills.

Dig into unique writing textures for letter tracing and phonics fun

Bottom Line: Provides a creative way to make phonics practice and letter tracing more fun.

Adorable animated monsters teach sophisticated vocabulary

Bottom Line: Animated words and definitions grab kids' attention and introduce challenging and unique vocabulary.

Comprehensive, serious phonics program has great supports, some fun

Bottom Line: Though it’s effective, this straightforward phonics review and practice tool could offer more fun.

Kid-centered early reading game leans into discovery and delight

Bottom Line: This is a smart spin on phonics with a deep commitment to a kid-driven, fun-first experience.

Gently ease kids into phonics with superb Montessori-inspired puzzles

Bottom Line: The surprisingly great combo of Montessori principles and technology helps kids learn phonics without overstimulation.

Blended reading program offers individualized growth

Bottom Line: This is a research-backed blended reading platform that builds literacy skills and helps teachers plan and deliver targeted instruction in the classroom.

Delight early readers with lively if only supplemental phonics lessons

Bottom Line: This app's plentiful phonics activities should keep emergent readers engaged, but teachers will need to figure out assessment.

Quality flashcard-style phonics app missing some basics

Bottom Line: Phonics Genius is a great resource for building phonemic awareness and a library of sight words.