American Library Association
Great Early Elementary Reads
Here is an excellent reference list of over 60 recommended book titles for early readers, each of which includes the author, title, number of pages, and brief summary.
Curated OER
Stepping Stones for Early Readers
Designed for parents to help their children prepare for school, this eBook is packed with worksheets, games, and activities that can be used by teachers as well.
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonological Awareness: Phoneme Matching, Sound Train
Make a phonics train filled with matching initial phonemes. Early readers say the name of the objects on each of their cards, identify the initial letter sounds or phonemes, then paste them on a train. They make three trains, which means...
Curated OER
Vowel Sounds: /air/ and /er/
All the best readers started out the same way. Build the foundational skills needed to recognize vowel sounds like /air/ and /er/. Early readers write a word to label each of nine images. Each image focuses on a different spelling...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonics: Varient Correspondances, Silent "e" Changes
Engage early readers in a silent e activity to help them understand the changes the letter can make to a simple word. With the provided cards, learners read and write each word as it appears without the silent e. Then they read and write...
Little Book Lane
"Sh" Words
Sh, sh, sh! When two letters together always make the same sound, they're called a consonant digraph. Get those early readers ready to use the sh sound with confidence. This packet contains printable wall cards, a miniature sh book for...
Curated OER
America’s Early Colonies: John Smith and Jamestown, Va
John Smith's 1616 letter to Queen Anne of England offers ELLs an opportunity to learn about a bit of early American history. The four-page packet includes the full text of the letter. In addition, the packet includes a worksheet that...
Curated OER
-air Spelling Pattern
What do hair, chair, and fair all have in common? The -air spelling pattern! Each slide provides both an image and a word that contains the -air sound. Perfect for early readers or to boost spelling success.
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonological Awareness: Phoneme Isolating, See It-Sound It
Working pairs, early readers put their hands into a mystery box, pull out an item, then name and identify its initial phoneme.
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonemic Awareness: Phoneme Segmenting, The Phoneme Game
Early readers play a board game to practice segmenting phonemes. Players determine how many spaces to move by choosing a picture, saying the object's name on the card, then counting the phonemes they say.
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonological Awareness: Phoneme Matching, Medial Match
Early readers get together and match medial phonemes. They take turns picking picture cards from a pile; they say each word, then determine whether the pair has matching medial sounds.
Curated OER
Practicing Letters W and X
Match initial phonemes to practice recognizing the sounds made by the letters w and x. Early readers circle all of the objects that begin with either an x or a w, then trace each letter several times. Try a fun variation by having...
Curated OER
Vowel Sounds: I and O
Early readers put their short vowel know how to the test. They read a series of simple cvc words, circle all the words that contain the medial short vowel sound indicated, then write those words in the space provided. Phonics, reading,...
Curated OER
What's in Front?
Front and back are common prepositions. Early readers will practice understanding relative positions while using common prepositions by placing a check next to objects in front. Then they draw a cat in front of the house. Tip: Discuss...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Fluency, Connected Text, Partner Reading
This lesson plan pairs high and low leveled readers together to make partner reading beneficial for both. Learners read a selected text as a team, when the lower leveled reader is stuck, his partner is there to help him out. And by...
Japan Society
The “I” Novels in the Context of Early 20th-Century Japan
Although this lesson plan covers the rather obscure topic of the Japanese "I-novel", it also includes a great deal of historical information and material for an in-depth discussion of universal literary concepts. Specifically, young...
Santa Ana Unified School District
Early American Poets
The poems of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson are the focus of a unit that asks readers to consider how an artist's life and changes in society influences his or her work. After careful study of Whitman's and Dickinson's perspectives on...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonics: Encoding and Decoding, Letter Cube Blending
Emergent readers use a letter cube to identify, blend, and make words. They roll each of the three-letter cubes, mark down the letters they rolled, then blend the letter sounds together to make a word. They record each word on a...
MENSA Education & Research Foundation
Early American Novel: Exploring the Emergence of a Genre
Need an extra challenge for your best readers? Check out a unit that uses Hannah Webster Foster’s epistolary novel, The Coquette, published in 1797, as the anchor text. The resource is packed with project ideas; each with its own...
1 plus 1 plus 1 equals 1
I Can Read! Sight Words Set #16
Now, there, of, and say are the sight words in focus in a printable packet in which you can use all, or some, of the activities to reinforce your early readers' sight word proficiency.
Curated OER
Count the Sounds
Sing along with this phonics song. Your early readers will count the sounds using their fingers as they sing or say the sounds of four simple words. Tip: Use this song with other words, make connections by using words from the class word...
Curriculum Corner
Digraph Boggle
Th, wh, ch, and sh are only some of the consonant digraphs early readers need to master. Increase skills and digraph recognition with a fun game. Children find words containing an initial or final digraph, circle them, and then write...
Curated OER
Phonological Awareness: Phoneme Manipulating, Name Changes
Set up a listening center, record the provided script, and see how well your class can manipulate phonemes based on the instructions you've provided. This center-based activity builds the phonological awareness and phoneme manipulation...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonological Awareness: Phoneme Matching, Final Phoneme Pie
Words are interesting things—you can change them by adding or subtracting phonemes. Here, emergent readers change the pictures on their phoneme pie by removing or adding various final phonemes. A fun way to build phonetic competency!