Today I’m sharing set four of my free phonics readers. This set features short e words.
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My preschooler is really starting to catch on to short vowel words by reading my phonics readers. I pull out the box of short a, short i, and short o books and he reads about 5-6 in one sitting. They’re quick and colorful – but best of all, they’re readable.
Most of the phonics readers I’ve found are just too tough for kids who are just starting to sound out words. It’s no fun to learn to read when you have to stop and sound out each and every word. Talk about exhausting! That’s why I created my own beginning phonics readers.
Each book starts with a chance to identify the word family and read the first word.
When your child turns the page, he’ll see if he read the word correctly. You see that the word, bell, is in a short sentence with sight words.
While the books don’t tell actual stories, they do give your child practice reading phonetic words in real sentences that make sense. These books build both skills and confidence. Win-win!
“Little” is a new sight word for this set.
This page has several words your child should be able to sound out after reading previous sets. “Man” and “hot dog” are not sight words, but they are easy to sound out.
I always leave words with beginning blends for the end of the books, because they’re quite tough. If your child can’t quite get the “sm” to say its sound, that’s not too surprising. Just keep emphasizing that s and m come together as /sm/. Add that blend to the word ending (“ell”) and you get the word smell.
Again, this page has sight words (it, is, a) and a word from a previous set (bad). The final page gives your child practice reading all the words again.
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.

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