Here is a comprehensive list of topics typically covered in grade 3 phonics.
Review of basic phonics concepts
Single letter sounds: Reinforce knowledge of consonants and short vowel sounds.
Consonant blends and digraphs: Review common blends (e.g., bl, tr) and digraphs (e.g., ch, sh).
Long vowels and vowel teams
Long vowel sounds: Teach long vowel sounds (a, e, i, o, u).
Vowel teams: Introduce common vowel teams (e.g., ai, ay, ee, ea, oa, ow, ue).
Diphthongs
Diphthongs: Teach diphthongs such as oi, oy, ou, ow (e.g., coin, toy, cloud, cow).
Silent letters and complex consonants
Silent letters: Discuss words with silent letters (e.g., kn, wr, gn).
Complex consonants: Introduce trigraphs and complex consonants (e.g., tch, dge).
Prefixes and suffixes
Common prefixes: Teach the meanings of prefixes such as un-, re-, dis-.
Common suffixes: Introduce suffixes like -ed, -ing, -ly, -er, -est, and their impact on base words.
Spelling rules
Doubling consonants: Explain rules for doubling consonants (e.g., running, stopped).
Dropping the final 'e': Teach when to drop the final 'e' before adding a suffix (e.g., make → making).
Changing 'y' to 'i': Cover the rule for changing 'y' to 'i' before adding a suffix (e.g., happy → happier).
Homophones and homographs
Homophones: Teach pairs of words that sound the same but have different meanings and spellings (e.g., their, there, they’re).
Homographs: Discuss words that are spelled the same but have different meanings and sometimes different pronunciations (e.g., lead as in "to lead" and lead as in "the metal").
Multisyllabic words
Decoding strategies: Teach strategies for breaking down and decoding multisyllabic words.
Syllable stress: Introduce the concept of syllable stress in multisyllabic words.
Grade 3 phonics worksheets
We have added a new section of worksheets for students to practice grade 3 phonics.
Diphthong worksheets
Students fill in the blank with diphthongs to make words in these worksheets.
Practice consonant digraphs
The next set of worksheets focus on consonant pairs.
Consonant blends
Students practice s-blends, l-blends and three consonant blends in this set of worksheets.
Identifying common trigraphs
Students practice identifying and using common trigraphs next.
Practice deconstructing words
Students look for smaller words in larger words in these worksheets.
Constructing words worksheets
Next, they construct words from patters of letters: CVC, CVCe, and CVVC words.
Syllable matching
In these matching exercises, students create two- and three-syllable words.
Silent letters worksheets
The final set of phonics worksheets ask students to identify the silent letters in words.
