Start Strong: 5 Fun Phonics Activities for Your 2nd Grade Classroom

Start strong! Fun phonics activities for your 2nd grade classroom at back to school square image

Start Strong: 5 Fun Phonics Activities for Your 2nd Grade Classroom

Ready or not, the new school year is coming! So many fun phonics activities are waiting for your 2nd graders but instruction can’t start until we review those first grade phonics skills.

I know you’re excited to dive into new topics, but you also need to tackle the inevitable “summer slide.” The truth is, a quick and effective phonics review is the perfect way to get everyone on the same page and build confidence.

It’s all about getting your students ready for the more complex reading and spelling they’ll be doing this year. Let’s check out some of our favorite fun, low-prep phonics activities to help you start the year strong and stress-free.

Phonics Four Corners

This fun phonics game gets students moving and is super easy to set up.

Label each of the four corners of your classroom with a different phonics pattern you want to review (e.g., silent e, long a, r-controlled vowels, consonant blends). Call out a word, and students have to go to the corner that represents the phonics pattern in that word. For example, if you say “cake,” they would go to the silent e corner.

Pro tip: to make it more challenging, you can call out a word that doesn’t fit any of the corners, and the students have to stay in the middle.

Phonics Review “I Spy”

This is a fun phonics twist on a classic with a cooperative spin and you can use before you jump into teaching second grade phonics skills. All you need to do is look around your room and think of some clues you can use.

Instead of saying “I spy something blue,” you say “I spy something in the classroom that has a long ‘e’ sound.” Students then have to look around for something that fits the description, like a key, a leaf, or a picture of a bee. This activity encourages them to apply their phonics knowledge to the world around them. You can also have students take turns being the “detective” to make it more student-led.

“Build a Word” with Magnetic Letters or Blocks

Here’s another engaging and fun phonics activity. Provide magnetic letters, letter tiles, or foam letters for a fun phonics review. Call out words with digraphs, consonant blends, silent e syllables or even r-controlled vowel words. Students then build the word or identify the specific sounds. This tactile activity supports segmenting and spelling skills.

Bonus tip: At the end of the phonics review, give students 2 minutes at the end to spell whatever they want. My students love spelling their own name. their pet’s name, “Grandpa”, etc.

Phonics Bingo

Another fun phonics game (and easy to make or get) is phonics bingo! Create Bingo cards with CVC words, digraphs, or images representing words with specific medial/initial/final sounds. Call out words or sounds, and students mark their cards. This game-based approach makes identifying sounds and reading words fun.

Pro Tip: You don’t need to make own from scratch – you can use the My Free Bingo Cards generator for it! There are also plenty of phonics bingo games on TPT.

Keep reading for more fun phonics strategies!

Word Ladders

This activity is a fantastic way to review sound-spelling correspondence.

Give students a starting word (like clam) and an ending word (like spit). Grab these free Word Ladder templates from TPT (I use it with my students and it’s simple but they love this fun phonics activity).

They have to change one letter at a time to get from the beginning word to the end, creating a “ladder.” For example, they might go from clam to clap to slap to slat to slit and so on. This forces them to think about how changing a single grapheme can change the sound and meaning of a word.

Here’s a simpler variation: with my reading students I just dictate the exact words. So I’d say “write clam” and then “change one letter to spell clap”.

You can also give them a blank ladder and a target sound (e.g., a consonant blend like ‘sl’) and have them fill in as many words as they can.

Pro Tip: the first word should be written at the bottom of the ladder. I tell my students that’s because when you first get on the ladder, the bottom step is the first place you step!

Ready-to-Go Activities from Teachers Pay Teachers!

Wouldn’t it be easy if you could have something already created that makes fun phonics review a breeze, especially during the hectic back-to-school season? Something that reverses the summer slide?

Well you’re in luck! There are some fun phonics activities that cover essential first grade skills, perfect for independent work, small groups, or even substitute days. My Science of Reading 2nd Grade Back To School Review includes everything you need to help your students review kindergarten phonics skills.

You’ll find activities that align with the Science of Reading, ensuring your second grade students build a strong foundation without you spending hours brainstorming and creating your own lessons.

Skills addressed include:

tapping and blending sounds in words to read
segmenting sounds in a word
counting sounds in words
reading words with digraphs, r controlled vowels, silent e words and consonant blends
Identifying medial vowel sounds
identifying initial sounds
identifying final sounds
spelling words with digraphs, r controlled vowels, silent e words and consonant blends
word reading fluency
decodable sentence fluency

What is included?

125+ pages of phonics practice
tap and blend practice pages
dot the phonemes and spell the word activities
word and sentence fluency roll and read pages
word reading practice strips
read the word and illustrate activity
sort the pictures by sounds practice (blends, long vowel sounds, r controlled vowels)
read the word and circle the matching picture pages
fill in the missing medial vowel activities
circle the blends and r controlled vowels
answer keys

If you teach first grade or need a review of kindergarten phonics skills for your students or home school, I have one of those too!

Grab the Back to School Phonics Review for 1st Grade (this one reviews kindergarten phonics skills)
Get your Back to School Phonics Review for 2nd Grade (this is a review of 1st grade skills and is perfect for the beginning of 2nd grade or just any older students who need extra help and practice)

Let’s also take a peek at some of the activities in action.

From the left, the first picture is of the r-controlled vowel and consonant blends roll and read pages. Easy peasy to use. The right hand picture includes word strips for practice for tapping and blending words. Clicking on any photo will bring you to more information about the resource at Teachers Pay Teachers.

The two photos below show more phonics review activities, starting on the left. That one has students filling in the missing letters for consonant digraph and r controlled vowel words. Er, ir and ur can be tricky so for most of those words the vowel is already there for them so they wouldn’t have to guess. Then in the right picture, including practice for tapping and blending real words. The dots and arrows help students remember to tap and blend the words. Again, click on any to check them out at Teachers Pay Teachers.