Learning more about the science of reading and how children really learn to read, I know now how important decodable books are for young readers. This blog post is all about kindergarten decodable books, how to use them, and where to find them.
Why Use Kindergarten Decodable Books?
Children need explicit phonics instruction in order to learn how to read. They need to learn how the letters sound and how to blend the sounds together. Then, they need to learn the different rules that English has so they can read all kinds of words. Decodable books help isolate these skills for students so that they can successfully and independently read books. Kindergarten decodable books should start with very simple consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words that children have been taught to blend and sound out. Decodable books give the students the chance to practice the phonics skills they have learned by reading words with those exact phonics rules. I’ve seen my students read kindergarten decodable books and they are so proud of themselves that they can sound out the words themselves.
Do All Students Need Kindergarten Decodable Books?
Not all students will need the simpler CVC kindergarten decodable books, like your more advanced readers. However, I would argue that all students can benefit from reading decodable books. Teachers need to see what phonics skills their students are missing – what words are tricky for them to read independently. Then they can teach that phonics skill in a small group with the more advanced readers and then give them a decodable book that features that phonics skills to practice it. Decodable books are a great way to bridge the more abstract phonics skill to the concrete words in front of them. This will help them be able to read them correctly and independently in other books.
Not sure what else to do with advanced readers? Try a kindergarten book club!
How Should Decodable Books Progress?
Kindergarten decodable books should follow the phonics scope and sequence that the children are learning. They should start with very simple CVC words that focus on one short vowel and then progress to mixing up CVC words with short vowel sounds. After successfully reading short vowel CVC words, children can try decodable readers with glued sounds, like -an, -am, -all, and blends. Then students can try blends, and then move on to digraphs and then the silent-e words. After those words, decodable readers, would include words with r-controlled vowels and then vowel digraphs and dipthongs. These books would be more for first or second grade at this point. The words that feature the later skills, like silent e or r-controlled vowels, shouldn’t show up in earlier kindergarten decodable books, because the children won’t be able to successfully read them.
You can get my free phonics scope and sequence for kindergarten and first grade here.
Where to find decodable books?
I was tired of waiting around to be given decodable readers for my classroom, so I made some! You can get them here! I like how they follow the decodable readers progression. I love how you can use the provided letter tiles to make words before reading the book. Because they are printable, each child can get a copy and read it again and again and again! More on how I teach my decodable books below!
Kindergarten Decodable Readers Bundle | Phonics-Based Printable Books for Progressing Skills
High-Frequency Decodable Books BUNDLE | Read & Write 50 Sight Words
I also created high frequency decodable books that teach students high frequency words in a progressive way!
There are lots of other great places to get decodable books. Here is my ranking of top decodable books (besides my own printable decodable books) that I use in my classroom:
- Geodes Decodable Books – These are my absolute favorite decodable books for small groups. They are aligned with the phonics curriculum my school uses (Fundations) and they help build a lot of knowledge for my students of different important people or places or historical eras they might not know about! They are very pricey, but we used a grant to purchase a set for the school that we all share.
- Junior Learning is the most affordable pricing for sets that I can use with my whole class, and they are really well-done. They are the favorite from my classroom library! There are so many different books in each set (and there’s non-fiction and fiction versions too) that they are perfect to have in my classroom library and for kids to rotate through their book bags with. They have books grouped in sets, and set 1 is all either wordless or just one letter, which are perfect for starting out with! Then they progress into books that only have CVC words and then add in blends and digraphs and so on… they follow my suggested progression very nicely! You can also check them out on my Amazon storefront.
- Decodable Adventure Series by Droppin’ Knowledge with Heidi also has a very effective progression of skills grouped together in different sets. The books are engaging, have diverse images, and includes digital versions and comprehension questions!
- Daffodil Hill Press Decodables – my school purchased a beginner set of these for our classrooms and I use these with my very beginning readers, because they are very short, so even if every word is a struggle, it won’t take too long to read the whole thing. They are very simple and follow an effective sequence of adding in sounds and high-frequency words. The characters also repeat throughout the stories.
- Half-Pint’s books are perfect to use with my whole class by projecting the digital book on the screen and then we decode it together. They have great decodable books, and it is such a bonus that their digital books are free to use! Within each set and series, the characters come in and out of the books and most of the the sets have a theme that runs throughout the set.
- Bob Books are great to have for book bags for kids to read independently. These are some other decodable books that I have bought on Amazon for my classroom for independent reading time (linked to my Amazon storefront). Bob Books are grouped with similar skills, so make sure you read what’s included in each set to make sure the phonics skills match your students’ needs. The books aren’t the best quality or all that long, but they are a great economical option for adding decodable books to your library.
- Jump Rope Readers were purchased by our school to use in small groups. I use them starting in the winter, maybe January/February, once students have had good practice and exposure with decodable books. These are from the Units of Study. The students love that they are chapter books (it makes them feel older to be reading their own chapter books!) and each set features a different character, but the characters come in and out of each other’s books and the kids love that. The books aren’t 100% decodable, but they have a list of words to point out before reading, and a snippet in the back of the book to build important knowledge for comprehending the story. The books feature diverse characters and storylines.
- Flyleaf Publishing is another set of decodable books my school purchased for my classroom. They are very sturdy and each book is a new plot. They follow a phonics sequence, where the books are numbered and build off each following book.
What Does a Kindergarten Decodable Book Lesson Look Like?
When I am teaching a new decodable book with my students I either teach the phonics skill or give my students a chance to build words with the phonics skill that is practiced in the book. For example, for the book Jud the Bug, I have the students cut out the letter tiles and make CVC words with the short-u.
If they need more guidance, I tell them the word to start with. Then we tap out the three sounds in the word and then they find those letters. When they make the word, we read the word and then they write the word in their word bank. I often then tell them to make a new word by switching one of the sounds. For example, they have the word “bug” and then I’ll say, change “bug” to make “mug” and they have to figure out to change the first sound to an “m”.
After exploring with the phonics and making the words, the students are ready to start reading! They are warmed up to sound out the words in the book because they already built, read, and spelled so many of them! They read individually and I listen in to them reading. I help them remember to sound out the word if they are stuck. After they are done, I show them some of the words that were tricky to the group, and we sound them out together. Then, I ask them a few questions about the book to work on comprehension. After we are done reading, I like to give the book to the students to keep practicing on their own.
Conclusion
Kindergarten decodable books are a must have to teach reading in kindergarten because they let students read successfully, independently, and correctly. Kindergarten decodable books should be an integral part of reading groups. They should be used to reinforce the phonics skills students have been learning in class.
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