Today I’m sharing my second set of printable books that teach reading with word families.
(This post contains affiliate links.)
Even though I’ve shared a giant set of sight word readers, I also do a lot of phonics-related activities when teaching my children to read. We center our phonics work around word families. If you haven’t checked out my collection of hands-on word family activities, don’t miss them!
I’m creating a set of phonics readers to use alongside my sight word readers. Each set of books features a particular short vowel. Time for short i! In my first collection (short a books), I explained exactly why I designed these and how to use them. Check out my short a phonics books if you’d like to know more.
Each book’s cover has the name of the word family. I always help my Four figure out the word family’s name before opening the book.
Each book begins the same, with another chance to identify the word family. The page on the right has a new word. I use two different colors so your child can learn to read the word family as a single chunk. This word would be /r/ /ip/ instead of /r/ /i/ /p/. There’s no picture because I want kids to really focus on the letters.
When you turn the page, the word appears again in a sentence. I’ve included only a small group of sight words which are listed on the back cover.
These books can be used to supplement your curriculum, but they work especially well with Reading the Alphabet. The short i readers are designed to be used after lesson 13.
Your child always gets a chance to check his reading when he turns the page.
I add words that begin with digraphs (sh, th, wh, ch) toward the end of each book.
Beginning blends are tough! After working at this one a little while (“/t/ /r/ /ip/”) my Four put the letters together himself! We were both excited that he figured out this toughie on his own.
Another tough one!
On the last page your child can read through all the words one more time.
I am thrilled with how well these are working to help my little guy crack the “sound it out” code. For our first session with the short i books, he read four books and was done. We’ll pull out the rest another time. I hope you enjoy them – we are!
How to assemble:
- Print pages 2-29 front to back (page 1 is my Terms of Use). I like to use light cardstock to make the books durable.
- Separate the stack into each individual book. Each book consists of two pages front to back.
- Cut across the horizontal center of the pages.
- Insert the pages into each other, using the page numbers as a guide.
- Staple with a long arm stapler.
Check out the whole collection!

Get your free phonics books!
You’ll love our updated mats and games!

Short Vowel Word Family Mats & Games
$10.00
This is a set of 35 printable short vowel word family picture mats with corresponding word cards. The mats come in three different versions – full color with a border, color without a border, and black and white. Each mat also comes with a worksheet and two games.
I can’t thank you enough! I was just given a kinder class this year and have nothing! This is a blessing and I cannot thank you enough!
You’re so welcome – I’m thrilled you can use them! Be sure to check out my free printables page and other tabs at the top. There are LOTS of resources here for kindergarten.
Thank you for these. I am printing them out right now to support our teaching at home.
So excited to use these in a few weeks! I’m printing them tonight, along with the “summer” and “patriotic” sight word readers. We’re going through the a-family word books right now. I am so impressed with my 4-year-old’s progress. The best part is, that so far, reading is fun for him. My hope is that learning to read is never an unpleasant experience for him.
Knowing you as I do, I’m sure he’ll always love it!
Thank you for sharing all these.
I cant wait to use these for my son and children in class.
You’re very welcome, Puteri! I hope you get a lot of use out of them.
help. what am I doing wrong? when I print your phonic readers, I end up with four pages on a letter size sheet… so then the booklet doesn’t match up! I can see from your sample pics that you only have two pages per letter size sheet.
Hi Karly,
You DO have four pages on a letter sized sheet. When you print front to back, you cut across the horizontal centers and insert the pages into each other before stapling. Hopefully the tutorial on this page will clear things up for you: https://www.themeasuredmom.com/free-phonics-books/
Thanks! I figured out it was a setting on my printer! Sorry to have bothered you. It was giving me two whole pages on one page… so I ended up with 8 pages on one sheet! But it’s all fixed now, printed, cut and laminated! Thank you so much for sharing this material… I’m looking forward to using it in my K class. 🙂
Hi I want to print all yourphonics family books. They are fantastic.How I download and print them
Click on the word HERE to download. Then follow the assembly instructions in the post. If you’re having trouble downloading, check out this post:
https://www.themeasuredmom.com/how-to-download-free-files/
thank you for sharing!!
I’m so excitedddd
You’re very welcome, Hajar!
Great resource!
So glad you can use them!
Thank you so much for the wonderful stuff. May God bless you.
You’re very welcome!
Good Day,
I am trying to download (Short i Phonics Reader Set 2) but it keeps on telling me download failed or no file. Please can you help me to get the file.
And also thank you so much for these they are so helpful.
Try these tips! https://www.themeasuredmom.com/how-to-download-free-files/
I’m having problems download also. It starts then stalls out and freezes both on my laptop and my desktop. I tried the download link you provided above with the same results. I also tried on both Google Chrome and Internet Explorer.
Did you try the trick where you right click and choose “save link as”?
Thankyou so much for all your handy resources!! I am a graduating teacher this year from Australia and use your tools a lot! Very easy and simple for a teacher who is starting out!
I’m so glad these have been useful for you, Becc!
Hi Anna!
I’m looking for phonics story books.
If you have audio file, please share me!
Thank you so much for your sharing.
Sorry, I don’t have audio files!
These books are amazing! you really deserve to be paid for the hard work you’ve done <3 <3
Thank you for your kind words, Dima!
Beautiful work !! A million thanks for all of these ..
You’re very welcome, Carolina!
Thank you for these amazing free reading materials . These helped me a lot cause we lack resources for books. These help a lot specially my slow readers. Thanks a million!
You’re very welcome, Imelda!
this is the same as set 21
I’m sorry, I’m not sure what you mean. This is set 21: https://www.themeasuredmom.com/free-phonics-books-set-21/
Hi , thank you for the worksheets /ideas and all the supplies. it has been a great help to teach my kid and keep her occupied.
You’re very welcome!
Thank you for these GREAT free reading materials . These helped me a lot teach my kids . Thanks very much!
You’re welcome, Chu!
Dear Anna,
Thank you very much for all printables, especially the free phonic sets. I have download my first 2 sets. I wish I can do more ?
I’m a kinder teacher from Jakarta, Ina. Your blog surely a BIG help. Thanks!
Sincerely,
VJB
You’re welcome!
Hi Anna,
Thank you for the lovely phonics sets. My kids love these.
Good wishes!
Sam
Amazing ….the amount of hard work and sincerity you have put in is beyond words…..keep up the good work.i have few of your files and phonic readers series is truly a blessing.
Thank you for your kind words, Shilpi!
Hello!
I am trying to access the free word family books but, when I click on the green “click here” box, it does nothing. Can you tell me what I’m doing wrong? Thanks!
Hi Kari!
This is Kate, Anna’s assistant. I’m sorry you’re having trouble! When I click on the green “click here” box, I get a box that asks for my email address. After entering that, the file is immediately sent to my inbox. I’m using Firefox, and Anna prefers Chrome. You might want to switch browsers if you’re having trouble viewing everything on this site. Please give it another try!
I didn’t receive any E-mails.
I can’t down these books-Free Word Family Readers.
Hi swj!
This is Kate, Anna’s assistant. I’m sorry you’re having trouble! Sometimes I have trouble with my gmail address, so I enter my yahoo address and it works. I don’t know why the links sometimes work well, and not other times. Please enter another address or retry the same one, and give it another try. Thanks!
Hi! Just wanted to say I absolutely adore your site. It’s been on my bookmarks for a while now and has been my go-to for great reading resources. I just printed the readers for the short I word families and realized there seems to be a page missing from -id. Instead there is an extra -ick page among it.
Thank you for your comment, Kim, and for the edit! It takes me a long time (usually quite a few months) to get to edits on freebies, but I will file this away on my long term to-do list. 🙂
Just checked not -id, but -it. No worries! Thank you for all that you do! (:
Thanks, Kim! (This is Kate, Anna’s assistant.) All the best! 🙂
thank you sooooooooooo much!!!!
Hi there, I am unable to print the books? Maria