Creative Art Activities To Help Your Child With Phonics

Creative Art Activities To Help Your Child With Phonics

The spoken word and the written word are very different; however, you can teach your little one to read and write quickly through the use of phonics. While your child is learning the basic sounds, you can teach them to form the letter symbols too on paper. In fact, research has shown that just the physical act of drawing the sounds can help you to learn them quickly. You can do this even with very young children, creating fun works of art that are not only creative, but also helping them improve their fine motor skills. 

Sandpit shapes for toddlers

Beginning to learn the phonics alphabet is easy and can be done as soon as your little one starts to speak. An informal learning environment is best for children aged 2-3 years old, they generally don’t have the concentration span to sit at the table for very long. Making art using letter shapes and phonics in sand, at the beach, at the park sandpit, or even in a tray of sand at home, is a wonderful way for small children to create art, learning along the way.

Start by making patterns using just the vowels, as these are easy to draw. Show your child how to draw a long train out of the letters 'o' and 'u,' then make the phonic sounds as the train chugs along through the sand. Or have a go at drawing faces by using the letters 'a' and 'i' for the features. You can also create sand fireworks with the curly letter 'e.' Then when you are finished, simply rub it out and try something new. 

Hand phonic pictures

With children aged 4-6, the hand can be used to create some wonderful pictures featuring letter shapes. Drawing around your hand is one the first ways that children learn to make the shape of a hand. Then, ask your child to see how many letter shapes that they can make out from the palm and fingers — they can mark these using different colours. They should be able to identify a 'c' in the palm, along with an 'n,' 'm,' 'l,' 'i,' 'v' and 'w' in the shapes of the fingers. Each time they find a new letter, practise sounding these using phonics. Ask your child then to draw the five vowels, putting one on each fingertip in a bright colour. They can then enjoy colouring their hand art. 

Create a phonics tree

For children aged 5-7, creating a beautiful phonics tree is a wonderful way of helping them to understand the different sounds that can be made from letter groups. Ask your child to draw the basic outline of the tree first, including branches. From the first set of branches you could start by drawing the sounds that originate from the letter a, such as ‘ai’ as in ‘train,’ then ‘air’ as in ‘fair’, and ‘ar’ as in ‘far.’ From the next set of branches then ask them to use their best swirly writing to try word groups formed from a different letter. Once they have filled the tree branches, they can draw in vibrant leaves. 

Art projects can help your child to pick up phonics sounds quickly. A little drawing and painting adds creativity to the learning process and makes it great fun.  

Guest Blog - Written by Jennifer Dawson