Do you teach phonics in your classroom? Are you always looking for more decodable and targeted phonics worksheets? Is it hard for you to find decodable words and passages that truly only target a specific skill? Do you keep finding phonics worksheets that aren’t decodable?
If you answered “yes” to any of the above questions, you are in the right place!
Teaching phonics has been a huge pain point for me, for a variety of reasons. I never knew the order to teach the skills. No one ever taught me the phonics rules. Do you know when to use ai versus ay for spelling long a words? And I never could find materials that were appropriate for my students.
Thankfully, my district offered LETRS training last year. I’m still learning and growing, but that course gave me a lot of answers to my questions.
However, I still couldn’t find tons of materials that supported what I learned in LETRS. There were many resources created for younger students. They all looked too baby-ish for my kids. 5th grade students who are working on CVC words don’t want to complete a ‘cutesy’ worksheet. A worksheet covered in puppy and flower clipart is not developmentally appropriate for those older students working on below grade-level skills.
So, here are three phonics resources you can use TODAY in your classroom with literally no prep – other than printing! Just click on the picture to check them out.
This is kind of where it all started for me. This file is almost 600 pages long and features word lists and sentences that follow specific phonics patterns. The best part? It is carefully aligned to be 100% decodable. Any lesson you start on can be decoded by students if they know the rules for all of the previous lessons. If you start on lesson 1, you will only have words and sentences from that lesson. But, when you get to lesson 25 the sentences will feature words from lesson 25, with some review words from lesson 1-24 included.
Oh, and I did I mention that this file is completely free? Yep, this isn’t one of my resources but the amazing people at Spencer Learning offer this completely free – not even an e-mail sign up is required!
Once I started using the Ultimate Phonics Book in my classroom, I knew that I needed more phonics resources. I searched high and low for phonics worksheets that only included decodable words. Even though the word ‘stomach’ does feature an s-blend, kids can’t decode that word if they are just starting to work on s-blend words. I needed words that only included short vowel blends. To solve my problem, I created phonics packets that each target a specific skill. I literally use these pages every single day in my classroom!
Finally, if kids are focused and working so hard on READING these words, why in the world are we giving them spelling lists that don’t match? I created these spelling lists with homework assignments, so my kids can practice reading and writing words that target a specific pattern. Because, doesn’t that make so much sense?
What do you think? Do any of my pain points resonate with you? Were you constantly struggling to find materials that were truly decodable and designed to be used by anyone, no matter how old or young? Leave me a comment and let me know!
4 Responses
I would like to have some of the resources for my school.
Thank you
Hey Sela, the resources featured are linked so you can find them! Let me know if you need help 🙂