Phonics Passages by CVC Word Family Phonics Readers

Word Family Phonics Readers for CVC Words include decoding practice, sight word practice, and three passages per word family.  These phonics readers only include short vowel CVC words and sight words that have been taught in previous passages.

My son just finished Kindergarten this past year.  As I was working with him at home on his reading, I discovered that there were a ton of words he just didn’t know how to read.  As a teacher, that wasn’t surprising, but what was surprising was that I couldn’t find reading passages or texts for him to read that focused on specific word patterns.

All the texts I found added in extra words that didn’t follow the phonics pattern.  It was frustrating (for my son and myself) to be working on a passage and then come to words that we hadn’t practiced.  I know that in real life he will come across plenty of words he doesn’t know.  However, when learning to read, he needs highly controlled passages right at his level.

So, what did I do? I wrote some Phonics Passages that he could read.

Overview of the Phonics Passages

These Phonics Readers are perfect for students who are learning to read with phonics patterns. They are highly controlled passages that only contain words within that word family or within a previously taught word family.  For instance, the first set of stories only has -at words and the two sight words introduced for that word family (which happen to be a and I).  Easy, right?

As the passages progress through the Short A word families, they get longer, but they also review previously taught word families and sight words.

Here is an example of a passage for the -at family, which is the first set.  You can see that it is a shorter piece of text with three to four words per line.

Here is an example of a word family that is toward the end of the set of passages.  You can see the passage length is longer and there are more words.  It includes previous word families and sight words along with the new word family words.

What’s Included in the Word Family Phonics Readers

There are three passages per word family, for a total of 21 Short A passages, 18 Short I passages and 15 Short O passages.  Short U passages are coming soon!

Short A Passages include: -at, -an, -ap, -ad, -am, -ag, -ab.

Short I Passages include: -ip, -id, -ip, -it, -in, and -ill  While not technically a CVC word, I have included -ill as a word family for short I, since it does make a short i sound.  The sight words for the -ill word family will be repeated in the first short O set of passages.

Short O Passages include: -ot, -op, -ob, -og, -od.

Word Lists for the Short A, Short I, and Short O Phonics Passages

Here are the word lists for the three sets of passages available right now.  You can see exactly which words are in each passage.

Two new sight words are introduced with most word families and previously taught sight words are practiced and repeated throughout the passages.  There are two-word families that only have one sight word and one-word family that has three.

Phonics Passages Decodable & Sight Word Pages and Comprehension Pages

Each page has a decoding and sight word side and a reading side. The decoding and sight word side is for before-reading practice. Each passage also comes with and without dots under each word.

Included are two comprehension questions per story. There are two questions on the reading page that are oral discussion questions. The same questions are repeated on the comprehension page with primary writing lines. There is also a space for drawing about the story.

Word cards are included for both phonics words and sight words. Phonics words have a picture and include blending cues (dots, lines, and arrows). Both black and white and color versions are available for most images. Cut on the solid line and fold on the dotted line to create a flash card.

Altogether, each word family has color and black and white word cards and three passages with a comprehension page per passage.

How do I purchase the Phonics Readers?

You can purchase the Short A, Short I, Short O, Short U, and Short E Phonics Readers on my website or on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Related Resources

These Phonics Passages compliment my Blending Cards and CVC Cut & Paste Worksheets that turn into review cards.  A similar resource is my CVC Phoneme Blending Cards, which do not have letters on the cards.  Altogether, these resources support early readers as they learn to decode CVC words.