Raising standards in KS1 and Special Needs: helping every child to succeed.
I have taught systematic phonics to all ages and abilities for over 30 years. My teaching degree was in Environmental Studies and I hate to see science reduced to box-ticking when there is so much to discover about the wonderful world we live in.
So, I produce Phonic resources that meet the real needs of children and teachers, along with science resources to engage children in learning about the natural world.
Raising standards in KS1 and Special Needs: helping every child to succeed.
I have taught systematic phonics to all ages and abilities for over 30 years. My teaching degree was in Environmental Studies and I hate to see science reduced to box-ticking when there is so much to discover about the wonderful world we live in.
So, I produce Phonic resources that meet the real needs of children and teachers, along with science resources to engage children in learning about the natural world.
A phonetic reader for those beginning to read longer simple texts - with words that can be sounded out using phonic knowledge and only a few most common sight words.
This book starts to introduce words with more than one syllable. Teach the child to chunk the syllables to sound them out.
This book contains factual information about the life-cycle of a butterfly written in fictional style.
Children will have fun learning science as they read!
Learn about butterflies through a simple story.
Use the Butterflies phonic reader with any phonic programme after a child has learned the basic digraphs and trigraphs, for example, after Phase 5 Letters and sounds, or after RWI Speed Set 3 have been completed.
This book is also part of the Reading Made Simple reading programme - 100% FREE.
This is a fun phonic game to help children learn the sounds ‘m’ and ‘n’ when learning the initial sounds.
Some children have difficulty with these two sounds, so this game can help clear any confusion.
Simple-to-play, print n’ play!
It is a game for 2 players and can be played with either the pictures as baseboards with players collecting their letters or with letters as the baseboard, collecting pictures. Or, of course, it can be played both ways to give even more practice!
The ‘m’ or ‘n’ Game is suitable for:
young learners,
those with special needs,
and ESL/EFL students.
Black and white for eco printing.
Colour your own or get a colour version here.
It can easily be used in class, at home or in a one-to-one situation.
A simple game to help children over the tedium of learning to blend, giving plenty of practice blending CVC words, while having fun.
An updated version of a classic game!
Youc an just play as a board game with the fish cards scattered on the table or add more fu by making your own simple rod with a stick, string and magnet and pop a paperclip on each fish.
Over 90+ words included so you will never get bored!
Target the medial sound that each pupil needs practice of.
This ck reading book is a sample of my graded, systematic, phonic reading books with nearly 100% decodable words for the sounds:
ck,oo, ee, sh, ch, th, ng, ing, ar and or.
Suitable for use with any phonic programme, including Letters and sounds Phase 2 and RWI Speed Sets 1+ 2, once a child cna blends words with a short vowel sound, including those with consonant blends.
You can find the complete Red Level Set 1 books in a package with the simple lesson notes and all you need to help your child learn to read, including the necessary flashcards and phonic word lists here, saving you time and effort:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12863669
Special Features of these graded phonic reading books:
As each new phonic sound is introduced, words from that phonic family are practiced and words met in previous readers revised, while new words from phonic sound families already taught are gradually introduced.
Because of this highly structured nature they are suitable for all children to enable good progress , but particularly for those who are struggling to learn to read.
The books should be read in sound order as above.
They only use the sight words: he, we, me, be, she, so, give, have, says. they, are
The pictures are minimal and do not encourage guessing so that meaning has to be gleaned from the text.
Each book tells a simple story with humour where possible
They have been tried on tested on many children now, including some with profound difficulties.
Matching workbooks consolidate and revise learning.
Vocabulary repeats so aiding reading fluency and building security and confidence.
They are based on the latest research and evidence based methods.
If your child is struggling to learn to read for whatever reason, these books can help.
Who are the graded phonic reading books for?
These books can be used older struggling readers with dyslexia, or any with a processing difficulty of any kind.
Teaching reading
Reading intervention
They were written for Reading MadeSimple but can be used with Letters and Sounds Phases 3 and 4, and RWI Speed Set 2.
You can help a struggling reader today!
An easy phonetic reader for those beginning to read longer simple texts - with words that can be sounded out using phonic knowledge and only a few most common sight words.
Learn about a garden bird - the Chaffinch- through a simple story. Learn Science at the same time!
Use with any phonic programme after a child has learned the basic digraphs and trigraphs, for example, after Phase 5 Letters and sounds, or after RWI Speed Set 3 have been completed.
This book contains factual information about Rooks besting in spring, written in fictional style. Children will have fun learning science as they read!
This is a National Curriculum/Common Core aligned themed mini-unit about EVERGREENS suitable for K to 1 (Years 1 to 2) and mixed Grade classes, covering Science and English: Informational texts.
The Evergreens mini-project lesson teaches:
· To know that evergreen trees stay green all
year through while deciduous trees drop their
leaves in autumn
· To know that some evergreen plants have
flat leaves and some have leaves called needles
· To know the properties of the leaves of
evergreens - strong to withstand wind and
frost
· To know that the needles are different/grow
differently depending on whether the tree is a
fir, spruce or pine.
Key vocab: evergreen, needles, leaves, deciduous, pine, fir, spruce, Holly, Ivy
The pack includes:
A full lesson plan
PowerPoint overview of the subject
Powerpoint with the 3 reading passages in a format suitable for guided reading
Fact sheet - handy easy-to-read facts for teachers to prep before the lesson or to use with pupils where appropriate
Supporting worksheets with:
· 3 de-codable, differentiated reading comprehension passages with matching comprehension activities
· 3 Differentiated worksheets to help children write about evergreens
A set of photos to be used during the lesson and/or for display.
Flashcards of key vocabulary
16 picture cards to sort into deciduous or evergreen
This is a NO-PREP Lesson – straight out of the pack!
The lesson will cover parts of the ‘plants’ element of most science curricula, providing a wonderful opportunity to teach more of/revise/reinforce the science curriculum while teaching English!
Lesson notes for a lesson about evergreens are included with all the resources you need - except evergreen leaves.
handy easy-to-read facts for teachers to prep before the lesson
pictures
19-slide PowerPoint (with a script under each slide in the notes - use in presentation mode - go to slide show, click three dots bottom left and select ‘Presentation Mode’.))
The pack includes a 31-page PDF, one 19-slide PowerPoint and one guided reading PowerPoint of all three comprehension passages.
First reading books for those just learning the initial sounds with an Initial Sounds workbook to reinforce learning.
Say the letter name and/or sound
Trace the letter
Find the things that begin with that sound
These Initial Sounds reading books can be used in two ways:
You can look at each letter as it is introduced and use the page as part of the lesson for that sound.
You can wait until all of the sounds in each book have been taught and use it for revision.
I prefer this last way, as when the child has learned 5 sounds, s/he will be so glad to recognise the sounds that have been taught in the book and it will give him/her a real confidence boost and a feeling of success. Try it and see for yourself. As you present each book, make it a moment to mark progress.
“Now you have learned some more letters, you can read this book!”
These books can be followed with our popular CVC Words reading books:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12636791
For more help teaching phonics, please see Reading Made Simple,
a 100% free phonic reading and spelling programme, written by two teachers with many years experience teaching children to read, especially those with special needs.
A colouring page for every letter of the alphabet. Colour the things that begin with each sound. One object on each page (except A) starts with the previous initial sound. Can the child find it?
Encourage neat colouring to aid pencil control.
Correct phonic ‘i’ sound and ‘q’ written with ‘u’.
I made these sheets for one of my pupils who is delayed in speech. He loved colouring and this was a way to motivate him. They helped him to successfully learn all 26 initial sounds.
They can be used by all children and though suitable for use with all schemes, do progress in order - so if the phonic programme your child/ren is/are using does not follow the order of the alphabet, then maybe wait until all of the sounds have been taught.
If you are teaching your own child, you may be interested in our totally FREE, phonic, reading and spelling programme, Reading Made Simple.
Here is a super bumper pack of 32 pages of lined, spring-themed writing paper for young children (5 to 8).
Everything you could need to make writing attractive this spring!
Original hand-drawn pictures.
Wide-ruled
Full and half page layouts
A variety of themes; choose from:
Daffodils
Bluebells
Rabbits
Butterflies
Lambs
Bees
A mix of black and white and colour - with most designs in both.
Reward good writing with a coloured frame - and watch the children grow ten feet taller!
This is a pack of 12 phonic worksheets to teach ‘U-E’ (silent ‘e’, Magic ‘e’, long vowels, split digraphs) words.
These ‘U-E’ Phonic Worksheets can be used with very young children, although I made them for children who have processing difficulties and need more systematic teaching.
They are:
highly systematic
have a limited amount on each page as these pupils tire easily.
Pupils should be confident blending with consonant blends (Phase 4 Letters and Sounds for example).
I use ‘Sound-it-out boxes’ for new words, where digraphs are grouped together to give the child the visual reminder to make one sound.
The worksheets include activities to:
Develop blending and segmenting
Give needed repetition to to develop word recognition
Develop phonemic awareness - much needed by early learners
Tracking activities - to see and recognise the new sound in words
Comprehension activities
Writing practice
Reading of longer passages
Fluency triangles
Lots of repetition builds confidence and success! Help a struggling reader today.
You will find it hard to find such a comprehensive programme of systematic phonic instruction for a special needs child for such a price.
This is a pack of 12 phonic worksheets to teach ‘O-E’ (silent ‘e’, Magic ‘e’, Long Vowels) words.
These ‘O-E’ Phonic Worksheets can be used with very young children, although I made them for children who have processing difficulties and need more systematic teaching.
They are:
highly systematic
have a limited amount on each page as these pupils tire easily.
Pupils should be confident blending with consonant blends (Phase 4 Letters and Sounds for example).
I use ‘Sound-it-out boxes’ for new words, where digraphs are grouped together to give the child the visual reminder to make one sound.
The worksheets include activities to:
Develop blending and segmenting
Give needed repetition to to develop word recognition
Develop phonemic awareness - much needed by early learners
Tracking activities - to see and recognise the new sound in words
Comprehension activities
Writing practice
Reading of longer passages
Fluency triangles
Lots of repetition builds confidence and success! Help a struggling reader today.
You will find it hard to find such a comprehensive programme of systematic phonic instruction for a special needs child for such a price.
This Silent E set of decodable books forms a continuation of the Reading Made Simple phonic, graded, reading scheme covering sounds a-e, i-e, o-e and u-e. There are 9 books with 4 matching ‘workbooks’, one for each sound.
Popular with home educators, These books can also be used where other programmes have failed.
This set follows:
CVC Readers
Consonant Blends Readers
If your child has been left behind in school or is not making progress in reading, then try Reading Made Simple. It will teach the same things as your child’s school phonic programme but in a more structured way.
This part of the programme follows on from our CVC Words Reading Books and Workbooks and our Consonant Blends Reading books.
This pack of graded reading books further develop reading ability by introducing the Silent or Magic ‘E’ rule
If you are looking for a phonic reading program for your child, look no further, whether you want to give your child a head start in reading, or have a child who has fallen behind at school. As these books are so highly structured they have been tried and tested to help those with even profound difficulties. It just takes an adult to understand the programme, and apply it diligently, with awareness of their child’s needs and every child can read.
These books can be coupled with my free spelling /writing programme which can be found at Reading Made Simple, to form a complete, FREE literacy programme.
Many home educators already use this programme with excellent results.
You will find it hard to find a reading programme like this, for a cheaper price.
It is easy enough for a parent to use and to help their child - many already do.
Special Features of these graded phonic reading books:
The books are graded and therefore should be read in sound order as listed above, as each builds on the one before.
They only use the sight words: he, we, me, be, she, so, give, have, says. they, are
The pictures are minimal and do not encourage guessing so meaning has to be gleaned from the text.
Each book tells a simple story with humour where possible
They have been tested on many children, including some with profound difficulties.
Matching workbooks consolidate and revise learning.
Vocabulary repeats so aiding reading fluency and building security and confidence.
They are based on the latest research and evidence-based methods.
If your child is struggling to learn to read for whatever reason, these books can help.
Who are the graded phonic reading books for?
These books can be used by older struggling readers with dyslexia or any with a processing difficulty of any kind.
Parents
Classroom assistants
Private tutors
Home educators
Reading intervention
They were written for Reading MadeSimple but can be used with Letters and Sounds Phases 3 and RWI Speed Set 2.
Full instructions, including a suggested lesson plan and hints for hearing a child read, are included.
You can help a struggling reader today.
For more help please see Reading Made Simple.
This is a pack of 46 phonic worksheets to teach ‘OO’ as in moon and OO as in book.
These ‘OO’ Phonic Worksheets can be used with very young children, although I made them for children who have processing difficulties and need more systematic teaching.
They are:
highly systematic
have a limited amount on each page as these pupils tire easily.
Pupils should be confident blending with consonant blends (Phase 4 Letters and Sounds for example).
I use ‘Sound-it-out boxes’ for new words, where digraphs are grouped together to give the child the visual reminder to make one sound.
The worksheets include activities to:
Develop blending and segmenting
Give needed repetition to to develop word recognition
Develop phonemic awareness - much needed by early learners
Tracking activities - to see and recognise the new sound in words
Comprehension activities
Writing practice
Reading of longer passages
Fluency triangles
Lots of repetition builds confidence and success! Help a struggling reader today.
You will find it hard to find such a comprehensive programme of systematic phonic instruction for a special needs child for such a price.
A pack of resources to help you teach ‘ck’.
It can be used with any phonic programme, including Letters and Sounds, Read, Write, Inc. and Jolly Phonics.
Suitable for all children but especially those who have special needs or need a slower pace.
(Optional) First watch the free video lesson, (included int he download) then do the activities to reinforce the new sound.
Suitable for use with all phonic programmes including Read, Write Inc…
A great little pack for classroom, home education, private tutoring and special needs/catch-up work.
Ideal to send home for parents to support learning at home.
Pack includes:
How to teach the sound ‘ck’ Lesson Notes
ck flashcard
ck word flashcards
Sentences to read
Speed reading practice sheet
ck Worksheet
Assessment worksheet - help to know what further work needs to be done
Short reading book to practice cvc and ck words.
2 ck games - a matching pictures to words game and a board game for 2 players.
Written by an early years specialist teacher with 30 years experience of teaching systematic phonics to all abilities, especially special needs.
Teachers - see our ‘ck’ worksheets in our worksheet pack for Phases 3 and 4 of Letters and sounds, where we cover ‘ck’ words with and without a consonant blend. https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12009694
A brief guide for teachers as to the kinds of insects that may be seen on an insect hunt - teaching what a true insect is and the different categories of insects for identification purposes.
Includes a spotting sheet which can be given to children as they hunt for insects, and a recording sheet.
Suitable for home or school use.
Help your children to spring ahead in reading with our Spring Phonics Game, designed to help children become more confident at tackling multisyllabic words.
Suitable for children at the end of Phase 5 Letters and Sounds.
As a spin off, children will also learn to identify common spring plants and animals.
See also our Spring Science Snap game
Remember to print out two sets of the word/picture cards!
All you need for a great Weather project in KS1 - plenty of differentiated ideas,
Including:
Weather topic ideas for your science and geography lessons
**Supporting worksheets **and puzzles to help the development of vocabulary.
Our mini-clouds project can be incorporated into your Weather Project, providing differentiated activities for Science, Geography, English and Art with supporting resources.
Clouds Powerpoint 29 slides to help children learn about clouds and how they are formed
**The Seasons and Weather PowerPoint **
57 slides taking pupils through the seasons thinking about the weather and how it affects the things that happen
**The Weather Word Mat ** will be great to help children write up their observations.
25 vocabulary flashcards, phonetically coded to help young learners
Covers all of the KS1 weather components of both the Geography and Science curricula.
114 fully differentiated practice sheets covering all of the digraphs and trigraphs for phase 3 and Phase 4 of the UK Gov. Letters and Sounds phonic programme, except ‘ure’.
Sounds covered:
ck, ch, sh, th, ng, ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ear, air and er, in this order.
Sheets with mixed sounds are included too, as well as plenty of sentences to read and puzzles.
Great for revision, general class work or homework.
I provide up to four sheets at two levels for most sounds: the first set for phase 3, with no consonant blends, and the second for phase 4 including words with consonant blends. Thereby giving plenty of scope for differentiation.
Fully differentiated, they meet the real needs of the average class and are fully systematic: no words are introduced for which the student has not yet learned the necessary skills to decode. They provide ample practice for students in both reading and spelling.
Suitable for use with other schemes as long as you make sure that your children know the sounds necessary to complete the sheet.
Use them for assessment, reinforcement activities; blow them up for whole class/group teaching or send them home for extra practice once taught in class. Copy, reduce, enlarge as much as you like.
Please leave a review if you find this product helpful.
Please see the book of Initial sounds Worksheets, and the CVC/CVCC words Worksheets for Phases 2, early 3 and simple cvcc words in Phase 4.
A complete course for Letters and Sounds taking pupils form initial sounds in Phases 2 and 3, to blending cvc words, in Phase 3, to the new digraphs and trigraphs of Phases 3, plus the consonant blends of Phase 4, ending with the new digraphs of Phases 5.
Four books packed with over 350 fully differentiated worksheets.
The Phase 5 book also contains reading comprehension passages with questions to answer, and short sentences to read suing the new sounds.
These resources cater for all needs and abilities of the average class, and can also be used for special needs education.
All tried and tested on pupils for many years.
For the discerning teacher of phonics who wants to ensure that all children succeed, these books are truly systematic - building upon each other with no nasty surprises.
Written by a phonics specialist teacher with over 30 years teaching phonics to all ages and abilities, and the author of Reading Made Simple, a 100% FREE systematic programme of phonics, teaching reading through writing.