Beginning readers need plenty of practice with CVC words (consonant-vowel-consonant, such as hat). After practicing blending with ‘short a’ words, one can move on to words with other vowels. Looking for resources to do so can take a LOT of time. Below are some I’ve found.
Note: TGATB is a Christian curriculum, but many of the booklets seem to be secular. Still, read the whole booklet through yourself before printing to make sure the content is okay. The rest of the curricula or materials appear to be secular. Still, read the whole booklet/ story through yourself before printing to make sure the content is okay. For all of the options, you’ll likely only want to choose one or some stories and not do the rest.
Structured Literacy with E.A.S.E
A free curriculum (designed for schools). In addition to worksheets, it includes some decodable reading booklets one can print.
The Good and the Beautiful (TGATB)
This curriculum is designed for homeschoolers. I don’t like their free kindergarten curriculum for learning to read because it mixes the vowels from the beginning, and I prefer a more systematic and gradual approach until the child has more practice blending. However, in addition to worksheets, it does come with a variety of little decodable “books” one can download for free and then print. These can be used for practice after blending has been learned.
Core knowledge
Another free curriculum; this one is clearly developed for schools. Also mixes the vowels from the beginning of the story reading. Comes with little decodable stories. The curriculum is split into several units. On their website, filter for subject (language) and level (kindergarten). Then look for the kindergarten skills units. Each unit downloads several files. The stories can be found in what they call “BB” – big book. You can also look through some of their worksheets for additional practice, e.g., word-picture matching.
Tara West
Tara West has tons of freebies on her website – mostly for practice activities, but there are also some decodable passages.
Reach all readers
Reach all readers used to be called “The Measured Mom”. It has tons of freebies, including several decodable readers.
Starfall Readers
Starfall Readers has some free decodable stories.
Phonics Play Comics
Phonics Play Comics has some free decodable comics.
Bob books
This classic is often available from a library.
Phonic readers
Phonics Readers might be available from your local library. Unfortunately, many so-called phonics readers are not actually decodable.
What about leveled books and early readers?
Leveled readers are not necessarily decodable. Some have a repetitive sentence structure like “I see _____”, but what comes after is not necessarily easy to decode at the beginning. One example is Paul Meisel’s “I see a bat”. While some words that come after the “I see” are decodable (like bat), others are non-CVC words (“stars”, “moon”, “bowl”). So these come after your child has already had plenty of practice with CVC words and is ready to move on.
Early readers are also usually geared toward students who are moving on from CVC words. For instance, Laura Gehl’s “Goat wants to eat” is good for practicing -oat words (like goat, moat, float), but that is already a step beyond the CVC word stage.
Read-alouds
Your child can also practice reading individual words s/he can already decode when you read a book aloud to him/her. Even reading just one word per page or spread adds up to quite a lot of practice over time.
