Phonics Videos for Kids: 9 of the Best Youtube Channels for Teaching K-2 Phonics
If there's one thing, I've been hooked on since 1st grade-- it's phonics. Does anyone else remember that Hooked on Phonics jingle?! Don’t worry, I won’t sing it for you.
Explicit phonics instruction is the key to helping our students unlock the English language, helping them truly understand the relationship between sounds and letters. Phonics equips our young learners with the tools they need to decode words with confidence. So let's embrace the power of phonics and guide our little readers on their exciting journey towards literacy success!
But how do we teach phonics? Throwing up some digraphs and diphthongs on the whiteboard isn’t going to hack it. We're living in the digital age, my friends, where YouTube channels are serving up more than just School of Rock tunes from our own childhoods.
I present to you nine fabulous YouTube channels packed with phonics videos. These videos won't replace your instruction, but they'll support and reinforce the concepts your students are learning during whole-group lessons. You can use them during reading rotations, as a review or preview of a concept during whole-group instruction, or even recommend them to parents for home learning. Get ready to add a dash of variety to your phonics lessons and make your life a little easier, thanks to these dedicated content creators. Let's dive in and rock those phonics skills together!
Mr. T’s Phonics
Join Geraldine the Giraffe on a phonics adventure like no other, brought to you by Mr. T's Phonics channel. Get ready to witness the magic as Geraldine, a lovable (and often mischievous) puppet, explores the world of sounds and letters. But that's not all! Mr. T has a treasure trove of playlists to explore, including alphabet letters and sounds, an introduction to phonics, and high-frequency words.
Nessy
This YouTube channel was specifically designed as a powerful tool to support children with dyslexia, but ALL students can benefit from these amazing videos. Your students will learn about syllables, suffixes, prefixes, tricky words, and phonics sounds through immersive, multisensory instruction. Nessy has a website and a subscription too, so you and your parents can access even more helpful resources.
Make It Multi-Sensory
For most of our phonics lessons, our students have to engage their senses of sight and hearing. They look at what we present to them and listen to what we’re saying in order to process information and store it for later. Multi-sensory learning, on the other hand, engages many of our students’ senses at once. Read my post all about multi-sensory learning here!
I wanted an easy, quick way to incorporate multi-sensory learning into my phonics lessons, so I created these kits! Grab them for FREE below.
Go Hairy Phonics
This channel is a goldmine for new readers, covering everything from syllables and CVC words to tricky words and phonics sounds. But here's the deal—I initially got a bit antsy with how slow they speak and sing in the videos. I'm not going to lie-- I got impatient! The content was still excellent, though, so I decided to go ahead and use them with my students. I realized that the creators knew exactly what they were doing because while some videos leave my beginning readers in the dust, these videos engaged all of my students. The pacing wasn't too fast for my beginning readers, and my more advanced readers weren't bored with it either.
Scratch Garden
Your students are going to love Scratch Garden. With an adorable dot character leading the way, they explain those pesky digraphs in a way that even our littlest learners can understand. The videos are interactive, too! They’ll ask a question, and then give lots of wait time for students to come up with answers. Unfortunately, there aren't a ton of phonics videos on this channel (YET! I hope they’ll add more), but the ones they do have are top-notch. Don’t forget to check out their science, art, and math videos while you’re there!
Badanamu
Get ready to groove with Badanamu, the go-to channel for our youngest learners! You’ll find videos for all letter sounds with animated creatures in the shape of each letter. The also have several videos that cover short vowel sounds (linked below!). These videos don’t directly teach the phonics skills, but they are perfect for brain breaks after your direct instruction! You’ll also find tons of animated nursery rhymes that my students LOVE for snack time or indoor recess.
Get Squiggling
Get Squiggling is ideal for kindergarten classrooms! Check out their awesome playlist called Get Squiggling Letters, where each letter of the alphabet gets its own special video. These videos kick off by giving a quick reminder of the entire alphabet, and then they jump right into the featured letter. They practice saying the letter sounds and brainstorm examples of words that start with that letter. But here's where the creativity kicks in—using those word examples, they spin a fantastic story to show how those words are used. And that's not all! Towards the end of the video, real kids take center stage, drawing the letters in real-time and giving tips on how to do it properly. It's a fantastic opportunity for students to practice their letter writing skills. And let's not forget the magic ingredient—seeing other kids on the screen!
Alphablocks
Alphablocks is a channel starring 26 alphabet friends who realize if they hold hands, something incredible happens--they make a word! Need a video to teach about rhyming words? Look no further than Alphablocks. Long vowel sounds giving you a headache? They've got you covered too! The options are endless. What sets this channel apart is their commitment to differentiating instruction. They offer various levels of instruction for certain concepts, making it a valuable resource when you have a mix of students at different places in their journey as readers.
Kids vs Phonics
Get ready to join the epic battle of Kids vs. Life, where learning phonics becomes an exciting adventure! This channel has an awesome Kids vs. Phonics playlist that dives deep into letter sounds, combinations, and a whole lot more. Now, don't expect high-quality animation here, but what these videos lack in flashiness, they make up for in solid examples and repetition. The videos don’t provide direct instruction, but are perfect to use after your phonics lesson to reinforce new skills in a fun, visual way.
Pocket Preschool
Pocket Preschool has a wonderful series of videos that covers the letters of the alphabet using claymation. Your students will be hooked on these videos and their engaging animation and sound effects!
