How Books Work

In kindergarten, kids are piecing together all the words and letters they can decode in order to build stronger reading fluency. This is why their understanding of sight words, or commonly occurring words, is so important. This guided lesson familiarizes first graders with the sight words they will most frequently encounter in texts, boosting their decoding and comprehension skills.

Learning how to read fluently includes more than just piecing letters together to form words. Kids also have to read from left to right and notice spacing between words. Help your child become a fluent reader by tackling these skills.

The letters G, B and E are heavily featured in the classic tale of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears". This guided lesson uses the story to teach the letters G, B and E in a focused and fun narrative format. Using a story kids most already know gives them a leg up on letter recognition and boosts reading confidence. Don't miss the accompanying printables that can extend learning opportunities.

This guided lesson in the letters P, W and N will help kids to identify the letters, and also reinforces the sound that each letter makes. The classic story of The Three Little Pigs provides important context for learning these three letters, in addition to a fun, narrative environment in which to learn them. Don't miss out on the accompanying printables below.

In this lesson, preschoolers focus on the alphabet by learning the letters L, R, and K. Kids are guided through the classic children's story of The Lion and the Rat, with an accompanying curriculum that targets each child's understanding of the unique sounds these letters make. Seeing the letters in a fun, engaging environment also reinforces the letter recognition skills crucial for early readers.

Does your child know the story "How the Camel Got His Hump"? If she does, she might also know the letters C, H and Z! This guided lesson uses the famous story of the camel to teach the letter C, H and Z. Not only does this boost letter recogntion and phonics skills, but working with a familiar story can give confidence to early readers.

This lesson guides students in understanding letter-sound correspondence for consonants M, S, B, R, P, K, T, G, F, L. It also introduces other techniques for pronouncing the most frequent sounds that these consonants make, including sound-to-letter correspondence and sound-to-image correspondence. This will help kindergarteners to read more fluently, with enhanced understanding of new texts. The lesson also engages listening skills that are a crucial part of the kindergarten curriculum.

Sight words, common words that help kids build reading fluency, are an important part of the kindergarten curriculum.This guided lesson introduces kids to the sight words and, at, he, on, it, like, go, the, to, you, of, and said. Kids are tasked with identifying the words and understanding the sound that each word makes. Check out the accompanying worksheets at the end of the lesson.

Introduce children to the uppercase alphabet with this guided lesson for kindergarteners. Kids will first learn to identify uppercase letters, one letter at a time. Then, they will be taught the sounds that each letter makes. Not only does this help with early reading skills, but helps kids practice their listening skills, as well. When finished with this lesson, feel free to browse the uppercase letters worksheets for further learning.

Students will start to build their reading comprehension and story recognition abilities with this stories lesson.

The classic song "Down by the Bay" provides a wonderful example for children learning the letters X, V and F. Not only will children be given the opportunity to identify these letters, but also understand the sounds that they make within the context of a familiar story. This fun guided narrative is accompanied by printables that can help keep the learning going.

"Anansi and the Turtle", a popular story for boys and girls, gives kids a chance to practice the letters A, T, Y and O in this guided lesson. Kids will practice both alphabet and phonics skills, as they work on identifying these letters in the story and understanding the sounds they represent. Targeted practice such as this helps with retention of these skills, as preschoolers begin their journey towards reading mastery.

This guided lesson provides an introduction to the letter-sound correspondence for consonants N, D, H, J, C, W, V, Y, Z. It also works sound-to-letter and sound-to-image correspondence, which are different strategies to help students decipher pronunciation of unknown words. Not only does this work important listening skills, but teaches kids to look for context clues in what they are reading.

This guided lesson builds upon kindergarteners' understanding of consonant-vowel-consonant or CVC words. Exercises teach kids how to spell CVC words, in addition to understanding how to pronounce each segment of the word. As children learn to swap out individual letters within words, they will build important phonemic fluency. Don't forget to check out our CVC word printables for further practice.

The letters U, D, S and Q are featured in this guided lesson to help kids learn the alphabet and early phonics skills. The familiar story of "The Ugly Duckling" offers important context for practicing letter recognition. With fun, recognizable stories like this one, preschoolers are able to hear the sounds the letters make which is key to the process of learning how to read.

Bag, cat and cap are all examples of short A words that kindergarteners will be learning to read this year. You can support this learning with a guided exploration of the short A sound. Kids will be taught how to identify the short A within text, in addition to the corresponding sound. Check out our short A printables for more phonics practice.

Knowing how to read short O words like hot, pot, and top takes practice. This guided lesson can help kids master the short O sound. Kids will be taught to identify the short O within common sight words, which will boost reading fluency. Don't forget to check out the short O printables at the end of the lesson to continue the learning.

The story "My Shadow" provides the backdrop for this guided lesson on the letters I, M and J. Learning to read letter by letter allows children to focus not only on letter recognition, but on the sounds that the letters make in context. This technique provides the building blocks for reading fluency to come in kindergarten and first grade. Kids can continue their phonics practice with the accompanying worksheets.

Learning silent E rules is one of the trickiest concepts for early readers. Words such as cube/cub, robe/rob and tube/tub are particularly confusing to decipher. How can one little letter make so much of a difference? This lesson can help smooth the way with guided exercises and examples that bolster your student's ability to recognize, understand and read the letter E.

Kindergarteners will learn all about uppercase and lowercase alphabet pairs in this lesson, focusing especially on learning to identify lowercase letters. Kids will also be asked to listen to the sounds that each of the lowercase letters represent, further boosting their early reading skills. Don't miss out on the accompanying printables that help to provide further practice with the alphabet.