Short “a” words are often used towards the beginning of teaching a child to read.
It’s easy to spend hours looking for practice resources. And often, I was disappointed because a supposedly phonics-based resource or decodable reader contained so many ‘other’ words.
What would be examples of ‘short a’ words? Here are some:1
| -at | -an | -am | -ab | -ag | -ap | –ad | -ax | -as | other words |
| at | an | am | cab | bag | map | Dad | ax | as | a |
| cat | fan | dam | lab | tag | cap | mad | wax | gas | |
| rat | man | jam | tab | rag | nap | sad | has | ||
| bat | ran | bam | dab | wag | tap | pad | |||
| mat | can | ram | sag | gap | bad | ||||
| sat | van | yam | lap | had | |||||
| fat | pan | sap | |||||||
| pat | tan | ||||||||
| Mat | Sam | ||||||||
| Pat | Pam |
Young beginning readers need lots of practice with these words, yet many sets (such as the popular Bob books) only contain one or two texts before moving on to other vowel sounds. Other free sets, like the readers included with the free Core Curriculum’s CKLA kindergarten skills units mix short vowels from the beginning.
Below is a collection of resources for practicing ‘short a’, after you have introduced blending with activities such as letter magnets and blending mats. I hope you find this resource useful as you look for practice materials for your own learners.
Decodable readers
Popular characters
There are a lot of so-called “phonics” readers with popular characters. I looked at examples from the library in a separate post. The vast majority contained a lot of other words and thus were not decodable at the beginning.
Bob books
Book 1 from Set 1 “Mat” has the following words:
| -at | -am | other words |
| Mat | Sam | on |
| sat | the | |
| end |
Book 2 from Set 1 “Sam” has the following words:
| -at | -am | -ad | other words |
| Mat | Sam | sad | on |
| Cat | and | ||
| sat | the | ||
| end | |||
| O.K. |
Some sites offer additional practice material to accompany the story. Examples include 3dinosaurs (e.g., mark a path with dot markers), the official BOB-books site (e.g., coloring page – just cut off Dot), TeachMommyTeach (e.g., words from the story and a few more picture-supported short sentences, finding the word)
TheMeasuredMom
TheMeasuredMom has free decodable readers (sign-up to her mailing list required). Here are two examples (she has more):
The book “Pam and the Mat” has the following words:
| -at | -am | -ad | -an | other words |
| mat | Pam | had | ran | on |
| sat | bad | the | ||
| cat | and | |||
| a |
The book “Sam” has the following words:
| –ap | -am | -ad | other words |
| tap | Sam | mad | and |
| jam |
Pam and Sam are anthropomorphized bears.
PhonicsPlayComics
The site PhonicsPlayComics has free decodable readers.
The comic “Pat” has the following words:
| -at | -ap | -as |
| Pat | tap | as |
| sat |
Pat is an anthropomorphized purple elephant.
Bethany Gardner
Bethany Gardner has a set of free decodables on TPT (free account required).
The book “My Cat Sam” has the following words:
| -at | -am | -an | –ap | –ag | -as | other words |
| cat | Sam | fan | cap | bag | has | my |
| bat | pan | rag | a |
As the title suggests, Sam is a cat.
Whitney Shaddock
Whitney Shaddock has some free resources on TPT, including a “short a” decodable reader called “Dad and Tam“. While this is formatted as a reader with a picture for every sentence, the pictures offer hardly any support. For instance, for the sentence “Dad can tag Tam”, there is just an image of a man standing there (which is the same as for other sentences in the reader), with no hint of “tagging”. Therefore, it’s not a useful support for beginning readers.
| -ad | -am | -an | –ap | –ag | -at | other words |
| Dad | Tam | can | tap | tag | pat | and |
| Nan |
ThisReadingMama
ThisReadingMama offers a free “-at family” download that contains the booklet “On the Mat”. While this has a clear focus on -at words, it contains a lot of other words as “helper words”. Come is not a word that is frequently used in other decodables.
| -at | other words |
| mat | on |
| rat | the |
| cat | come |
| bat | see |
| hat | I |
| not | |
| is |
Learn to Read – Phonics Storybook
“Learn to read. Phonics Storybook” by Laurin Brainard (Rockridge Press) does not start with short a, but with the -et word family. The first story, “My Pet”, has words such as pet, wet, bet, jet, set, and vet, but also plenty of other words, such as can, at, said, all, help, etc. Each story has some activity sheets. For the first story, there are a tracing sheet and a maze. The second story is “The big pig” with the -ig word family. The third story is called “The map” focusing on the -ap word family:
- V, VC, CVC, or VCC short “a” that beginners can sound out: a, map, gap, cap, rap, zap
- common “helper words”: look, go, is, the, it
- words in the -et or -ig family (previous two stories):
- other words: find, now, red, here, give
So the story doesn’t seem to repeat words from the -et or -ig family dealt with previously, i.e., it could be read as the first story. But there are several words that are not easily decodable (like give or now).
Starfall
Starfall has some free decodable readers. For “a” they have “Zac the Rat”9
| at | -am | -ad | -an | -ap | other words |
| rat | jam | had | can | nap | Zac |
| sat | ran | is | |||
| pan | a | ||||
| fan | on | ||||
| the | |||||
| ants | |||||
| to | |||||
| and |
The Reading House
The local library had a whole series of these boxes written by Marla Conn. Book 1 in Set 4 is called “Alligator can see it”.
| at | -am | -an | -ab | -ap | other words |
| hat | jam | can | cab | map | alligator |
| cat | fan | see | |||
| rat | man | the | |||
| van | |||||
| can | |||||
| pan |
There is absolutely no storyline here. It’s all just about what the alligator can see. Why an alligator was chosen instead of a decodable animal (like a bat or cat) is a mystery.
Book 2 in the same box is called “Who can have an apple?” Again, there is absolutely no storyline, it’s all “_____ can have an apple”.
| -at | –ak | -ant | -an | -am | -ab | other words |
| cat | yak | ant | can | ram | crab | have |
| gnat | an | apple | ||||
| alligator | ||||||
| alpaca | ||||||
| rabbit | ||||||
| kangaroo | ||||||
| jaguar |
The animals chosen are a mystery, as jaguar, kangaroo, etc., are not decodable at such an early stage.
Little Patches Learning Club
This is another TPT seller that offers a freebie for a “short a” reader. “The fat rat” has the following words:
| -at | –a | -an | other words |
| fat | a | ran | the |
| rat | oh | ||
| cat | no | ||
| sat | he | ||
| hat | saw | ||
| that | on | ||
| bat | Pip | ||
| is | |||
| where | |||
| said | |||
| hid | |||
| behind | |||
| but | |||
| was | |||
| too | |||
| to |
So, there is a large number of “helper” words in this one that would either need to be introduced (likely at least some of them before) or read by the adult.
Literacy Lady
Another TPT seller with a free decodable reader for “short a”. The story “Pam and Ben” has the following words:
| -at | -am | –as | –ap | –an | –a | -and | other words |
| cat | Pam | has | cap | can | a | and | Ben |
| mat | this | ||||||
| sat | is | ||||||
| on | |||||||
| the | |||||||
| play |
Classroom decoadables
What about decodable books used in classrooms? Many are available to purchase even if you’re not a classroom teacher, but they are often expensive. TheMeasuredMom created an overview of different decodable books, with price points often around $3-5 per individual book, some even going for over $10 (yes, for one individual little booklet). This would start to add up quickly, as one needs quite a bit of practice material at the beginning. Moreover, many are sold in sets, not individually, so one can’t just get one story one likes. Some even only come in classroom sets – even though, as a parent, one does not need 6 copies of the same book!
Printables for individual word families
For additional practice, there are some printables. Examples for -at words include ThisReading Mama (e.g., picture-word match, picture/ word puzzle, and on a different link: word family cards). SoundcityReading also has practice sheets for the -at family (e.g., match word to picture, short sentences match to picture). However, they include, e.g., ‘Matt’ and the not-very-common word ‘vat’. Their file also includes similar practice sheets for -ag, -ad, -ap, -am, -an, -ab, -ax, etc. Note: in contrast to other programs, they start with the short -u sound first, so these words sometimes appear in the ‘short a’ sentences, such as “A rat sat up”.
LittleMindsAtWork has several freebies, including cards where students are supposed to clip or put a marker on the missing letter, puzzles, and ideas, e.g., for putting markers on words or using a toy car to trace them.
Bo and Mo
One thing I noticed was the lack of systematic resources that were easily accessible to homeschooling parents. Instead of spending even more hours trying to find something that might not even exist, I started to create my own.
The Bo and Mo book features recurring characters. Each unit also comes with some practice activities (such as blending mats, mazes, sorting, matching, rhyme) and ideas for discussion. Helper words such as ‘the’ or ‘is’ are introduced gradually. The stories are purposefully short so that they can work with the attention spans of even young beginning readers.
Overall, there are 7 units with over 200 pages.
Unit 1: consonant + o, and
Unit 2: consonant + at, a, on
Unit 3: consonant + am, has
Unit 4: consonant + ad, is, this, that
Unit 5: consonant + an, the, not
Unit 6: consonant + ap, there
Unit 7: consonant + ag, consonant + ab, in
First, there are two stories focusing on blending two-letter words (such as “no” and “go”). Then there are 18 short readers to practice blending with ‘short a’ before having to move on to another vowel!
There is also an educator handbook, including answer keys and ideas.
References
- https://www.kizphonics.com/short-a-word-families-game-at-an-am-ab-ag-ap-ad/, https://thisreadingmama.com/short-vowel-word-family-cards/, https://chargemommybooks.com/reading/short-a-words, https://www.soundcityreading.net/uploads/3/7/6/1/37611941/rhshv-wb-u-first-nov-2019-2-cns.pdf , https://www.abcmouse.com/learn/printables-and-worksheets/short-a-words-list/24996 ↩︎
