Flash cards for sound-letter correspondence are the heart of phonics! Reading Universe offers a free collection of 30+ flash cards organized by skill.
Letter Warm-Up
Watch instructional coach Carla Miller, of Burgess-Peterson Academy in Atlanta, Georgia, lead her students through their letter flash cards, helping them become automatic at matching letters and sounds.
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Carla Miller: So, we're just going to say the name of the letter and the sound. Are you ready?
Student(s): Yes.
Carla Miller: 'Z' ... /zz/
Narrator: Today instructional coach Carla Miller is beginning her lesson with a warmup using letter flashcards. (She shows one for the letter 'a'.)
Student(s): 'A' ... /ă/
Narrator: She asks her students to give the letter name and the sound it makes. This helps them become automatic in sound-letter correspondences, which is necessary for fluent reading.
Carla Miller: Oh. Let's look again. It's a straight back. Big belly 'b'. Let's do it together.
Narrator: Now they're ready to work on blending these sounds into words.
Carla Miller: So good!
Narrator: Enjoyed this video? Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel at RUTeaching. For more information, please visit reading universe.org. Special thanks to Burgess-Peterson Academy and Atlanta Public Schools. Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim and Donna Barksdale, the American Federation of Teachers, the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, and three anonymous donors. Reading Universe is a service of WETA, Washington, DC, the Barksdale Reading Institute, and First Book.
Carla Miller: This is Reading Universe.
List of Flash Cards by Skill
Flashcards are used to introduce new phonics patterns and as part of warm-up routines throughout the year. These warm-up routines take two to three minutes and provide time to review and practice the sounds and patterns students have been explicitly taught. This routine helps develop automaticity by strengthening students’ ability to recognize a letter or spelling pattern and instantly recall the correct sound.
Make the most of your letter flashcards by adding helpful reminders to the back. You might write keywords, examples of words that include the phonics pattern, or brief notes on how to produce the sound. Having these cues readily available makes it easier to model sounds and provide quick examples for your students during instruction.
To use your flashcards to their fullest potential, refer to the Guide to Teaching Letters and Sounds (opens in new window). It provides the characteristics for each sound, including how to make the sound, keywords, and letter formation—perfect for copying onto the back of your cards.
