Teaching phonics can become repetitive when children are repeatedly asked to look at a letter, say its sound and memorise the association. A creative approach can give children another route into the same learning.
What if a child could draw a sound?
That is the idea behind Draw the Sound, a simple expressive arts-based activity that connects phonics with drawing, movement and sound.
The activity can be used by parents, preschool teachers, early-years educators, reading tutors and professionals looking for creative ways to support early literacy.
Why phonics matters in early reading
Phonics teaches children the relationship between written letters and the sounds they represent. Children gradually use this knowledge to decode unfamiliar words.
Research reviewed by the National Reading Panel found that systematic phonics instruction improves children’s reading outcomes, particularly when children are explicitly taught letter-sound relationships and given opportunities to apply them when reading words. (NICHD)
Phonics also works alongside phonemic awareness. Children need to hear and manipulate sounds in spoken words, then connect those sounds with letters and letter combinations. (NICHD)
This is where creative teaching can add something useful.
The expressive arts activity described here does not replace systematic phonics instruction. Instead, it gives children an additional sensory and visual experience through which they can practise the sound-letter connection.
What is “Draw the Sound”?
The premise is simple:
Choose a phoneme → make the sound → create a movement → draw a mark → turn the drawing into something meaningful.
For example, take the letter S.
Instead of simply saying:
“S says /s/.”
invite the child to stretch out the sound:
“Sssssss…”
While making the sound, the child draws a long, curving line.
That line can then become a snake.
Now the child has several connected representations:
S → /s/ → snake → drawing → movement
The teacher can return to this drawing later when revisiting the sound.
How to Do the Draw the Sound Activity
Materials
You need very little:
- Paper
- Pencils or crayons
- A few letter cards or handwritten letters
- Optional coloured markers
- Optional magnetic letters for the blending stage
Keep the materials simple. The focus is the relationship between the sound and the child’s creative response.
Step 1: Choose one sound
Start with a single phoneme that the child is currently learning.
For example:
S → /s/
Write a large S on the page.
Say the sound clearly and allow the child to listen.
Avoid turning the first stage into a guessing game. The teacher can model the target sound before asking the child to produce it.
Step 2: Turn the sound into movement
Ask the child to make a movement that matches the sound.
For S, the child’s finger could move slowly across the page like a snake.
As the finger moves, the child stretches the sound:
“Sssssss…”
This creates a connection between auditory input and physical movement.
The movement can also become part of the memory cue for that sound.
Step 3: Draw the movement
Now let the child put the movement onto paper.
The child can create a large wavy line while continuing to make the sound.
There is no need to demand a particular drawing style.
The purpose is to create a personal visual representation of the sound.
Step 4: Transform the mark
Now ask:
“What could this sound become?”
For S, the child might turn the line into a snake.
Add eyes, a tongue or whatever details the child chooses.
Then revisit the connection:
S → /s/ → snake
The drawing becomes a visual cue for revisiting the phoneme.
Try It With F
You can repeat the process with another sound.
For example:
F → /f/
Ask the child to make a gentle blowing movement while producing:
“Ffffff…”
Then draw a light, flowing line across the paper.
The child could turn it into a feather floating through the air.
Again, the sequence becomes:
F → /f/ → feather → drawing
The creative response can vary according to the child’s ideas.
That flexibility is part of the appeal of expressive arts approaches.
Moving From Sounds to Reading
The activity becomes particularly useful when you connect the creative representation back to actual reading.
Suppose the child has already learnt:
S → /s/
A → /a/
T → /t/
Place the letters together:
S A T
Ask the child to point to each letter and produce the corresponding sound:
/s/ /a/ /t/
Then blend the sounds:
SAT
The creative drawings can sit nearby as visual reminders, while the child still performs the essential phonics task of connecting graphemes with phonemes and blending them.
Systematic phonics approaches commonly teach children to connect letters with sounds and then blend those sounds to decode words. (NICHD)
Create a “Sound Art Gallery”
Once you have introduced several sounds, turn the children’s work into a classroom display.
Create a Sound Art Gallery.
Each page can contain:
Letter: S
Sound: /s/
Drawing: Snake
Child’s creative mark: Their own representation
Another page might contain:
Letter: F
Sound: /f/
Drawing: Feather
The display can become a reference point during future phonics sessions.
Instead of the teacher immediately supplying the answer, the child can look at their own artwork and retrieve the sound association.
Why Add Art to Phonics?
There is an important distinction here.
The artistic component is an instructional support, rather than a claim that drawing itself teaches children to read.
Systematic phonics remains important. The National Reading Panel found strong evidence for explicit, systematic phonics instruction, while also emphasising that phonics needs to be integrated with phonemic awareness, fluency and comprehension. (NICHD)
The creative element can make practice more engaging and give children an additional way to interact with the material.
For some learners, particularly children who enjoy drawing, movement or imaginative play, this can make a phonics session feel more active and personally meaningful.
The Expressive Arts Therapy Perspective
From an expressive arts perspective, the interesting element is the child’s response to the sound.
There does not need to be a single correct artistic representation.
A teacher might expect S to become a snake, while a child might turn it into a wave, a road or something entirely different.
That creative choice can be respected while maintaining the literacy objective.
For example:
“You made that sound into a wave. Can you show me how the wave moves while you say /s/?”
The adult can then bring the child back to the phonics target.
This creates space for creativity without losing instructional clarity.
It is also useful to remember that expressive arts work should not be presented as a treatment for reading difficulties simply because art is involved. This activity is better described as an expressive arts-informed teaching strategy for phonics practice.
Variations Teachers Can Try
Sound Drawing
Give the child a phoneme and ask:
“If this sound were a line, what would it look like?”
The child creates the mark while producing the sound.
Sound Characters
Turn the sound into a character.
For example, the child could create an S-snake or an F-feather character.
Sound Movement
Before drawing, ask the child to invent a movement for the sound.
The movement then becomes a cue during later practice.
Sound Story
Once several sounds have been introduced, use the drawings to create a tiny story.
For example, the snake, feather and other sound characters can appear in a short illustrated story containing words the child is learning to decode.
This provides an opportunity to connect phonics practice with oral language and meaning.
A Useful Teacher Reminder
Creative phonics should still have a clear learning objective.
If the objective is learning S → /s/, the child needs repeated opportunities to hear, say and recognise that correspondence.
If the objective is blending, the child needs to practise blending.
If the objective is reading a decodable word, the child needs to read the word.
The artwork supports the learning rather than becoming the entire lesson.
This distinction matters because evidence supports systematic phonics when children are taught how letter-sound knowledge is applied to reading and spelling. (NICHD)
Resources You Could Use
Phonics and alphabet flashcards
Useful for introducing individual letter-sound correspondences before creating the artwork.
Magnetic letters
These can be particularly useful during the transition from individual sounds to simple word blending.
Children’s washable crayons
A practical option for repeated drawing activities in classrooms or at home.
Dry-erase pockets
These can allow children to practise drawing sound movements repeatedly without using a new sheet of paper each time.
Affiliate disclosure: If you purchase through links on this page, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.
Watch the Activity in Action
Want to see how Draw the Sound works?
I have demonstrated the activity in a short YouTube video so you can see how the sound, movement and drawing come together.
Watch it, try the activity with a child, and adapt the creative response to suit their interests.
Final Thought
Learning phonics involves building precise connections between speech sounds and written symbols. Creative teaching can give children another way to interact with those connections.
A simple “Sssss…” can become a movement.
The movement can become a line.
The line can become a snake.
And that snake can become a visual cue that brings the sound back to mind.
That is the idea behind Draw the Sound.
If you are a teacher, parent or educator, try it with a sound your learner is currently practising and see what they choose to create.
Want more creative teaching ideas? Follow EducateAble for expressive arts-informed activities, child development resources and practical strategies for supporting young learners.
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