Year 1 phonics games

Ages 5–6

Teaches sounds spelt with two or three letters, like "sh", "ai" and "ow".

Play Year 1 words

Opens Tick or Fix.

Your child learns a new set of sounds this year — "ay", "ee", "igh" and "ow" (as in "blow") first, then "ar", "or", "ir" and "ou". Later in the year, a silent "e" that changes a word ("cap" becomes "cape"), plus sounds like "ea" and "oi", are introduced. It's the same phonics approach, simply stretched into longer words with four and five sounds. This is standard Year 1 phonics teaching in England.

Checked against the National Curriculum in England, published by the Department for Education.

Games that match Year 1

• Fredle — phonics word puzzle.
• Tick or Fix — fix the word, win a star.
• ABC Gap — find the missing letter.
• b or d — which way round? b d p q.
• Number Words — spell the number, win a star.
• Make a Rainbow — drop the colours in order.

Opening a game from this page sets the school year to Year 1, and every game then keeps the words at that level — so a Year 1 child gets Year 1 words, not a guess. The school year is a tap away inside the game, so a child moving up a year, or a younger sibling taking a turn, changes it in seconds.

Same ages in the US: Kindergarten (ages 5–6).