A phonics scope and sequence is the ordered map of which sound-letter patterns are taught, and in what order, from the first letter sounds to multisyllable words. This page is the grade-by-grade version for US classrooms and homes: Pre-K through Grade 3, with example words for every skill, what mastery looks like at the end of each grade, a two-minute check, and how each stage lines up with the Common Core foundational reading standards (RF.K.3 to RF.3.3). If you are a parent or homeschooler, use it to see where your child is and what comes next. If you teach K-3, use it to check your pacing and to spot the gaps that quietly cause trouble later.
Programs differ in the fine detail, and no single chart can speak for all of them. What this one does is follow the order the Common Core standards imply, which is also the order most well-sequenced programs converge on: simple and frequent first, irregular and complex later, and each new pattern built on one the child can already read.
Quick answer: the whole sequence at a glance
| Grade (US age) | Phonological awareness | Phonics focus | Where it ends |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-K (3-5) | Rhymes, clapping syllables, first sounds | Letter names, a few letter sounds, own name | Hears and plays with sounds; knows many letters |
| Kindergarten (5-6) | Isolate and blend sounds in short words | One sound per letter, short vowels, CVC words, first sight words | Reads simple CVC words and sentences |
| Grade 1 (6-7) | Blend and segment every sound in a word | Digraphs, blends, silent-e, vowel teams, two-syllable words, endings | Reads regular one-syllable words and simple two-syllable words |
| Grade 2 (7-8) | Mostly automatic | More vowel teams, r-controlled vowels, long-vowel two-syllable words, prefixes and suffixes | Reads most regular words by pattern, with growing fluency |
| Grade 3 (8-9) | Automatic | Prefixes, derivational suffixes, multisyllable words, morphology | Decodes long unfamiliar words and shifts to reading to learn |
Phonics scope and sequence by grade: the master chart
Read each row left to right in teaching order. The example words are the kind of words a child should be able to decode once the skill is taught; use them as a probe list, not a script. Grade placement follows the Common Core foundational skills standards; where a skill is not named in the standards (for example, soft c and g), it is placed where most programs put it.
Pre-K (ages 3 to 5): getting ready
| Skill (teaching order) | Example words / items |
|---|---|
| Rhyme: hear it, then produce it | cat / hat, sun / fun, dog / log |
| Syllable awareness: clap the parts | ba-na-na (3), pic-nic (2), dog (1) |
| Alliteration and first sounds | "Which starts with /m/: moon or sun?" |
| Letter names, then the most useful letter sounds | s, a, t, p, i, n, m |
| Print awareness: left to right, top to bottom, words vs. letters | Pointing as you read a short book |
Nothing here requires reading words. The goal is a child whose ears are ready for phonics. If you want ideas, see phonological awareness activities and how to teach phonics to a 3-year-old.
Kindergarten (ages 5 to 6)
| Skill (teaching order) | Example words |
|---|---|
| Letter-sound correspondence, one common sound per consonant | b = /b/ as in bat; m, s, t, p, n, d, g, c, k |
| Short vowel sounds, one at a time | a: cat; i: sit; o: hot; u: cup; e: bed |
| Blending CVC words (consonant-vowel-consonant) | sat, pin, mop, bug, red, hen |
| Segmenting: tapping out each sound | dog = /d/ /o/ /g/ |
| Final double consonants and simple endings | fill, miss, huff, bell |
| Early digraphs (ch, sh, th) | chip, ship, thin, much, fish |
| First high-frequency words | the, a, I, to, you, she, my, is, are, do |
| Reading short, decodable sentences | "Sam sat on a mat." |
See the full CVC words list, the kindergarten phonics curriculum and the phonics order guide for the letter order inside this stage.
Grade 1 (ages 6 to 7)
| Skill (teaching order) | Example words |
|---|---|
| Consonant digraphs, firmly | chat, shop, thick, whip, ring |
| Initial and final consonant blends | stop, frog, plan, jump, milk, nest |
| Glued sounds (ng, nk) and -tch / -dge patterns, as encountered | bank, sink, sing, long, catch, fetch, badge, bridge |
| Silent-e (CVCe) long vowels | cake, bike, home, cube, flute |
| Common vowel teams for long vowels | rain, day, feet, beach, boat, light |
| Open syllables and long vowels in short words | me, go, hi, no, she |
| Counting syllables: every syllable has a vowel sound | rabbit (2), picnic (2), basket (2) |
| Two-syllable words with basic patterns | sunset, napkin, muffin, insect |
| Inflectional endings (-s, -es, -ed, -ing) | jumps, wishes, jumped, jumping, played |
| Irregular high-frequency words, by memory with the tricky part marked | said, was, of, have, come, were |
Companion pages: first grade phonics skills, consonant blends list, magic e words and syllable types.
Grade 2 (ages 7 to 8)
| Skill (teaching order) | Example words |
|---|---|
| Short vs. long vowels in regular one-syllable words, mixed | cap / cape, hop / hope, kit / kite |
| Additional vowel teams and diphthongs | coin, boy, out, cow, blue, moon, book, saw, haul |
| R-controlled vowels | car, her, bird, for, fur, start, short |
| Long-vowel two-syllable words | reptile, daytime, maintain, explode |
| Soft c and soft g | city, face, giant, page |
| Silent-letter patterns | knee, write, gnat, lamb |
| Common prefixes and suffixes | unhappy, redo, careful, quickly, sadness |
| Spelling changes when adding endings (doubling, dropping e, changing y) | hopping, hoping, babies, tried |
| Words with inconsistent but common spelling-sound patterns | find, kind, most, both, wild, old |
| Contractions and compound words | don't, we'll, backpack, sunset |
Companion pages: vowel teams list, r-controlled vowels, silent letters list and suffix spelling rules.
Grade 3 (ages 8 to 9)
| Skill (teaching order) | Example words |
|---|---|
| Common prefixes with their meanings | re-, un-, pre-, dis-, mis-: replay, unfair, preview, dislike |
| Derivational suffixes with meanings | -ful, -less, -able, -ness, -ment, -ly: helpful, careless, washable |
| Latin-based suffixes | -tion, -sion, -ture, -ous: station, vision, picture, famous |
| Decoding multisyllable words by chunking | fantastic, September, understand, adventure |
| Syllable division patterns (VC/CV, V/CV, VC/V) | rabbit, robot, lemon |
| Irregular words, plus words whose pronunciation shifts with the suffix | sign / signal, nation / national |
| Morphology: roots and word families as a decoding and spelling tool | act, action, active, react |
By the end of Grade 3 the focus moves from learning to read toward reading to learn, so any remaining gap in the earlier rows now shows up as slow, guessy reading of longer words. See prefixes and suffixes in phonics.
How the Common Core foundational skills map onto the chart
The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts include a Foundational Skills strand for kindergarten through Grade 5, labeled RF (Reading: Foundational Skills). The codes below are the real ones; the wording is a paraphrase. Many states adopted these standards, and others use their own, so check your state's current document. Most state standards follow a very similar progression.
| Standard | What it asks (paraphrased) | Where it sits on the chart |
|---|---|---|
| RF.K.1 | Understand the basic features of print | Pre-K and K: print awareness, left to right, letters vs. words |
| RF.K.2 | Phonological awareness: rhyme, syllables, onset and rime, isolate, blend and segment sounds in simple words, then add or substitute sounds | Pre-K and K |
| RF.K.3 | Letter-sound knowledge: one sound for each consonant, long and short vowel sounds, read common sight words, tell apart similarly spelled words | Kindergarten rows |
| RF.1.2 | Phonemic awareness: tell long from short vowels, blend and segment single-syllable words, isolate initial, middle and final sounds | Grade 1, as the ear-training under decoding |
| RF.1.3 | Common digraphs; decode regular one-syllable words; final-e and common vowel teams; syllable count by vowel sounds; decode two-syllable words; endings; irregular words | Grade 1 rows |
| RF.2.3 | Long and short vowels in regular one-syllable words; more vowel teams; two-syllable words with long vowels; common prefixes and suffixes; inconsistent but common patterns; irregular words | Grade 2 rows |
| RF.3.3 | Meanings of common prefixes and derivational suffixes; Latin suffixes; multisyllable words; irregular words | Grade 3 rows |
| RF.K.4 to RF.3.4 | Fluency: read with purpose and understanding, with accuracy, appropriate rate and expression; reread and self-correct | All grades, once decoding is accurate |
Two things to notice. First, the standards put two-syllable decoding in Grade 1, long-vowel two-syllable words in Grade 2 and general multisyllable decoding in Grade 3; it is a staircase, not a single jump. Second, the standards say little about the order of individual patterns inside a grade. That is the part a scope and sequence supplies, and why two Common Core-aligned programs can look different.
What Common Core does not do
The standards describe what students should be able to do by the end of a grade. They are not a curriculum, a teaching method or a reading list. A product labeled "Common Core aligned" tells you little by itself. Look for an explicit, ordered sequence, decodable texts that match what has been taught, and sound-by-sound blending instead of guessing from pictures or context. Our curriculum comparison shows how to judge that.
What mastery looks like in each grade
Mastery means more than "has seen it." A skill is mastered when the child reads or spells it accurately, quickly and without being coached, in new words and in sentences, not just on the worksheet where it was taught. The check below uses real and made-up words. Made-up (nonsense) words matter because they cannot be read from memory, so they show whether the child is really decoding. The research base here is the National Reading Panel report (2000), which found that systematic phonics instruction helps children learn to read, and its recommendation is why a sequence matters at all.
| Grade | Mastery looks like | Two-minute check (read aloud, no help) | Pass mark idea |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | Rhymes, claps syllables, names most letters | Say a word and ask for a rhyme; clap "banana" | Gets most right with a prompt |
| K | Knows all consonant and short vowel sounds, blends CVC words | sat, mop, bed, cup, fin; nonsense: zim, bup, nep | 7 of 8 correct, little sounding out aloud |
| 1 | Reads digraphs, blends, silent-e and common vowel teams | ship, frog, cake, rain, boat; nonsense: shup, trab, mepe, doat | 8 of 9, plus two simple two-syllable words (napkin, sunset) |
| 2 | Reads vowel teams, r-controlled vowels and prefixed or suffixed words | coin, bird, hoping, unfair, careful; nonsense: stirp, voub, blain | 7 of 8 with natural pace |
| 3 | Chunks and reads multisyllable words | adventure, September, helpful, preview, invisible | Reads the list with few stops and self-corrects |
These are rule-of-thumb checks, not official tests, and the pass marks are a sensible guide rather than a published cut-off. Keep it short, in a quiet room, and stop if the child is upset. For a fuller home check, use phonics assessment at home and the free Phonics Scope & Sequence Poster.
Ages, grades and UK year groups
In the US, Kindergarten is typically age 5 to 6, Grade 1 age 6 to 7, Grade 2 age 7 to 8 and Grade 3 age 8 to 9. Pre-K covers ages 3 to 5 depending on the program.
| US grade | Typical age | UK year group by age | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | 3-5 | Nursery / Reception (3-5) | Informal sound play in both |
| Kindergarten | 5-6 | Year 1 (5-6) | Matched by age, not by content |
| Grade 1 | 6-7 | Year 2 (6-7) | Year 2 is the first year after the Year 1 screening check |
| Grade 2 | 7-8 | Year 3 (7-8) | |
| Grade 3 | 8-9 | Year 4 (8-9) |
Matching by age, US Kindergarten lines up with UK Year 1, not Reception. But the content does not line up neatly. UK schools begin systematic phonics in Reception at ages 4 to 5, and the Year 1 phonics screening check tests children at about age 6 on decoding that includes digraphs, split digraphs and alternative spellings. That is more than the US Kindergarten row covers, and closer to the middle of US Grade 1. So a UK Year 1 child has had a year more phonics than a US kindergartner of the same age. Use the age mapping for general orientation and the content rows for the actual skills.
If your child is behind
Start from the last row they can do easily and teach forward, one pattern at a time. Going back is not a defeat; a phonics sequence is cumulative, so a missing early piece breaks everything built on it. The most common root causes are shaky phonemic awareness, a vowel sound that was never firm, and moving to the next pattern before the last one was automatic.
- Find the floor. Give the probe words from the row above where the child struggles, then the one below, until you find where reading is easy and accurate. Start there.
- Work on one pattern at a time. Teach it, read word lists, then read it in a decodable sentence or mini-story, then spell it.
- Keep sessions short and daily. Ten to fifteen minutes of focused practice beat a long weekend session. See how long phonics lessons should be.
- Fix blending first if it breaks down. If a child knows letter sounds but cannot push them together, work on blending before adding patterns.
- Watch for a pattern in the errors. Guessing from the first letter, or reversing letters or sounds across many sessions, can point to something more than a gap in teaching. Read signs of dyslexia and talk to your child's teacher or a specialist.
More step-by-step help is in phonics intervention at home.
If your child is ahead
A fast reader still needs the whole sequence, because a child who has guessed their way past patterns often hits trouble later with long words and spelling. Check accuracy on nonsense words and on spelling, not just on familiar text. If those are strong, move forward through the rows, then widen with morphology (prefixes, suffixes, roots), harder books and writing. Skipping a grade of phonics on the strength of one good reading level is a common mistake.
Using the sequence at home and in class
| At home | In the classroom | |
|---|---|---|
| Your anchor | The row for your child's current level, plus one row back | The district or program sequence, checked against this chart |
| Pace | A new pattern when the last is quick and accurate; no calendar pressure | Pacing guide by week, with flexible catch-up weeks |
| Daily shape | 10 to 15 minutes: review, new pattern, read, spell | 20 to 30 minute whole-group block plus small groups |
| Assessment | The two-minute check above, every few weeks | Screening and progress monitoring with the program's tools |
| Materials | Flashcards, a printable for each pattern, decodable books | Core program, decodable readers, word lists |
| Biggest risk | Jumping around by interest or app | Moving the whole class on before small groups are ready |
At home, the sequence is a lighter guide. Use the pattern in the row to choose a game, a list and a page of reading, then move on when your child is steady. Free flashcards, printable worksheets and the Phonicademy plan builder can slot into the daily routine. A simple 5-minute phonics routine keeps it going on busy days. In class, the chart is a check: if your program introduces vowel teams before blends are secure, or leaves two-syllable words to the end of Grade 2, you can see the mismatch and decide what to adjust.
Why the order inside a grade varies
Programs disagree on details, and that is normal. Some introduce silent-e before vowel teams; others reverse it. Some teach short vowels all at once, others one at a time. Some bring in digraphs in kindergarten, others in Grade 1. What matters is not a single universal order but a few shared principles: teach the most useful and regular patterns first, make every new pattern readable with only the sounds already taught, review constantly, and do not start multisyllable work until single-syllable decoding is solid. Different, well-built programs reach the same standards by different routes. If you want the logic behind letter order, read which letter to teach first; for how programs compare, see the phonics curriculum comparison.
Common mistakes in sequencing
| Mistake | Why it hurts | What to do instead |
|---|---|---|
| Teaching letters whose sounds are easy to confuse together (b and d, m and n) | Children mix them up and the confusion sticks | Separate them in time; teach one until it is secure |
| Skipping blending and going straight to sight-word memorization | Children guess from shape, and gaps appear in Grade 2 and 3 | Blend sound by sound, and use sight words only for the irregular parts |
| Moving on when the child has seen a pattern, not mastered it | The new pattern lands on a shaky base | Check with real and nonsense words before moving on |
| Giving books with patterns not yet taught | The child falls back on guessing from pictures | Use decodable texts that match the sequence (see our best decodable books list) |
| Teaching spelling rules before the patterns they depend on | Rules feel arbitrary | Teach the sound pattern first, then the rule, e.g. doubling after short vowels |
| Treating silent letters, soft c/g and vowel teams as extras | These are core Grade 2 content | Plan them in Grade 2 with real practice |
| Rushing multisyllable words in Grade 1 with long, hard lists | Frustration and guessing | Begin with compound words and two clear syllables, as most programs do |
| Following a chart's calendar instead of the child | A calendar says nothing about this child | Use the grade row as a guide and the check words as the decision |
Where grade-level sources disagree
Some grade-level guides place silent-letter patterns (kn, wr, gn) in Grade 3 and others in Grade 2, and some call multisyllable decoding a Grade 2 starting point. The standards place two-syllable decoding in Grade 1, which is why this chart does the same. Treat silent-letter spellings as Grade 2 content that gets reinforced in Grade 3; the Common Core standards do not name them, so this is a placement choice, not a requirement. For the Grade 2 detail, see the pattern pages linked above.
Free printable
Download the Phonics Scope & Sequence Poster to keep the whole sequence on the wall, and pair it with the digraphs worksheet and blending practice worksheet as you work through each row.
