Decodables are books that are simplified to mainly include words with phonics concepts your child has already learned, and irregular words that have already been covered. The best decodables are of course the one that come with the reading curriculum you use, as they will meet your child just where they are and allow them to practice the skills they've just learned.
But sometimes it's nice to have something to read related to specific seasons or holidays. Below is a list of free printable decodables from various sources, including general winter themed decodables, as well as printable books for winter holidays and events such as Christmas, New Years, Valentines Day, and more.
To make it easier to align these to the skills your child is learning, I've organized these by phonics concept, and noted other concepts included in the decodables, since not all programs teach concepts in the same order (sometimes I will just list the word with that concept if there's only one or two words that use that concept). However, since nearly all programs start with CVC words, digraphs th, sh, ch and/or blends, I don't usually list these in later concepts. I also only usually list "a," words ending in double letters, and words that end in an s sound but say "zzz" in the CVC, Digraphs, and Blends sections as these concepts tend to be learned fairly early.
Some books include a "FOCUS." This is a concept or word that is used frequently in the book, or highlighted by underlining or in some other way. Assume if a book is listed under a certain concept, that that concept is a focus of the book even if it's not listed as such.
TIP: If a decodable has a few words with concepts your child hasn't learned, here are a few ways to handle that:
- If you catch a hard word while reading, just step in and read it for them.
- Highlight or underline those words beforehand, and let your child know you'll read the underlined/highlighted words.
- Go over the words beforehand. Point out the parts they can read regularly, and the irregular or advanced parts.
- Let them read it, and when they do, ask if it sounds close to any words they know. For example, in the word "was" the a has a u sound, but a child might be able to figure out the real word even if they pronounce it with a short a, as it's spelled. So you can ask, is that close to a word that would make sense here? This strategy is called set for variability. I don't suggest this strategy for kids in the earliest stages of reading, where they are still mastering sounding out basic CVC words and blends, but once that is solid, this can be a valuable strategy to teach kids.
- If a book contains multi syllable words and your child hasn't learned to read those yet, you can help them by drawing lines to divide the syllables for them.
- Just skip that page. In some of these books, not all the pages are necessary to the story. Sometimes it's easier just to remove a page.
CVC Words (basic phonetic 2 and 3 letter words)
- (Christmas) Tree Farm and The Man by Natalie Lynn
- 1st 2 books in set. The Man is about Santa.
- Both books includes: will, the, a.
- Christmas by Even THAT Kid
- (Christmas) The Big Red Hat by Think&Grow.com
- This is part of a multi-resource set with other holiday decodable and games. Find it under the name Hanukkah Digraph Decodable
- Includes: a, the, and, can*, sees, toys, has, of
- (Groundhog Day) Pat Pops Up by Down in Kinderville
- Includes: a, the, to, is, am, look, see, and, his, go
- (Groundhog Day) A Nap by Trisha Hyde
- Includes: a, his, the, was, for, he, more, weeks
- Valentines Day by Even THAT Kid
- (Valentines Day) The Big Red Love Bug by Lauren's Lil Learners
- Includes: a, love
- Includes an additional story
- (Valentines Day) The Big Red Box by Lauren's Lil Learners
- Includes: a, for, with (th)
- Includes an additional story
- Valentines Puppet Play by Little Kinder Creations
- This is not a book, but a puppet play with two parts.
- PART 1 (Val) includes: do, the, you, see, has
- PART 2 () includes: do, we, the, is, a, I, look
- The Dog In the Snow by Miss Hodgman's Kindergarten
- While this is a "predictable book" the only non-decodable words in the parts that change can all be skipped by omitting those pages. The words "the" and "snow" can not be omitted because they are on every page.
- Includes: ending s, the, snow, look*, plays* (easy to skip pages with these words).
- Fun in the Snow by Paige Maguire
- Includes snow, snowman, the, and, my, with, all, hill, like, me, go, of
- Grammar error on page 5 (My pal pat the snow - should be "pats" but they were probably trying to avoid an s ending).
- Snow Day by
- Focus words: the, snow
- Includes ending s, -ck, -ll, snow, snowball, can*, of, the, to, too, he, has, wall, them, no, look
- The words snow and snowball have pictures above them in the text to help identify them
Digraphs (th, sh, ch)
- Hot Cocoa by Natalie Lynn
- 3rd book in set. Includes: -ll words, the, a, pack, whip, to
Blends (st, br, fl, etc.)
- (Christmas) Wish List by Natalie Lynn
- 4th book in set.
- Includes digraph sh, the, I, a, to, my
- Tess and the Big Chill by LitLab.ai
- Focus: Floss rule
- Includes double letters, the, was, of, said
- The Best Sled by Pioneer Valley Books
- Focus: e sound
- Includes digraphs, -ing, double letters, is, can*, the, go, going, day, down, like, look, my, said, snow, ice, wheee
- (Christmas) Fen the Elf by Coda Books
- Includes a, the, are
- (Gingerbread Man) Lost Gumdrops by Lucy's Little Learners
- Includes a two syllable word (gumdrops), find, can*, look, the
- Tess and the Big Chill by LitLab.ai
- Includes the, was, of, said
- The Empress of Frost (Snow Queen retelling) by Endless Phonics
- Includes blends, digraphs, two syllable words, a, he, I, is, of, she, so, the, too, to, you, they, name, ending s, which, -ed (missed)
- My Hat by Even THAT Kid
- Includes: you, my, is, digraphs and blends
- (Christmas - Religious) Alices Decodable Stories: Book 3 by Illustrated Decodables
- This printable contains several decodables. See below for the specific one.
- Chapter 7: Can it be? (Christian Nativity Story)
- Includes: blends, digraphs, -ing, -ink, true, here, see, leads, here, by, manger, could, by, should, says, shepherds, to, her, the, can*
- Snow Day by Miss Catherine's Kindergarten
- Focus word: the, snow
- Includes: snow, -ee, blends, digraphs (th), can*, to, -ll, you, my, like, I
_________________________________________________
All sections past this point may not note inclusion
of digraphs, basic blends (ch, sh, th), double letters,
or s making a z sound at the end of words
_________________________________________________
VCE (Silent E) Words
- White Whales (Summer Olympics) by LAPREA Education
- This is part of multi-book resource
- Focus: wh-
- Includes: wh-, their, to, what, talk, see
- A Fun New Year's Eve by Reading With Mrs. Richards
- Includes al word (small), 2 -ed ending words, and was, they, said, have, down, saw.
- A Gift For Mom (Valentines) by Reading With Mrs. Richards
- Includes: have, some, one, cupcake (compound word), to, for, icing (2nd sound of c), white (wh), said, smiled.
- (Valentines) Ben and Jen by Miss Becca's Classroom
- Includes a, the, to, are, was, you, she, he, so, of, for, have, said, put
- Includes apostrophe's and quotation marks
- Alices Decodable Stories: Book 3 by Illustrated Decodables
- This printable contains several decodables. See below for the specific one.
- Chapter 13: The Star
- Focus ar (also includes er)
- Includes: ending a (Ara), 2-3 syllable words, vowel teams (ai, ay, ea), -ng, -ght, silent e, ee, ending y (long i), open syllables, -ed, always, lives, because, others, of, one, new, ever, before, from, who, her
-al / -all Words
- The Snowball Fight by Heather Floodman (Flood of Fun in Primary)
- Focus: al words, oo words
- Includes ow words, oo words, compound word (snowball), of, can*
Vowel Teams/Dipthongs (ee, oo, ea, ai, ay, ow, oi, etc. .)
Also see Advanced/Review section for more difficult passages to review vowel teams and advance vowel teams such as -eigh and -ei
- Christmas Snack by Natalie Lynn
- 5th book in set
- Vowel Team: ee
- Includes the, a, by, milk*
- It's a Leap Year by Reading With Mrs. Richards
- Vowel Team: ea
- Includes: the, r-controlled, -ay, -ed, (+ -ear), there, once, one, have, are, every, February
- (Groundhog Day) Can a Groundhog Tell the Weather by LAPREA Education
- This is part of multi-book resource
- Vowel Teams: oi/oy, ou/ow
- Includes: Multi-syl, -ol, -al, r-controlled, -ed, -ng, -y (long e), VCE, vowel teams (ay, ee, ea, oe, oo), are, of, live, February, other, people, always, another
- (Super Bowl) The Big Game by Learning a Latte In First
- Vowel Teams: ee, oo, ea, ie, oi, ey (they)
- Includes: silent e, r-controlled, -all words, are, to
- The Mitten Mix Up by Pioneer Valley Books
- Readers Theater: I've listed the parts below as different parts cover different skills
- Narrator:
- FOCUS: -ow words
- Includes: 2-syl, -er, -ur, -ol, -ull, -ay, -ow, -ild, -ile, -tch, -ea (ready), -ear (bear), VCE. a, the, one, does
- Child:
- Includes: 2-syl, -ay (play), VCE, that's, the, no,to, want, my+, gone, there, again. (Pg 11: could change "make in again" for "fix it"
- Wind:
- digraph sh, oo, ow, I, again, once, more
- Rabbit:
- digraphs sh, -ng, -aw, -ol, -ay, what, are, please, do, little, mouse, come
- Fox:
- 2-syl, -ng, -ol, ee, oo, go, ears, little, mouse, come, hey, move,
- Bear:
- ee, oo, VCE, want, I, little, mouse, come, (grumbles - in "stage direction" only)
- Mouse:
- 2-syl, ee+, oo, ending y, there, for, me,
Closed Syllable Words (2 Syllable)
- The Mitten by Reading With Mrs. Richards
- FOCUS HFW: go, said
- Includes: compound words, the, go, said
- (Valentines) Yasmin's Quest by LitLab.ai
- Includes one 3 syllable word ("Valentines") and some two syllable words where both syllables make a short sound when there is only one vowel after the first vowel.
- Includes silent e words, -y (my), -er words, -ay (day), -ed suffix, the, you, your, what, said, to
- Has both a blank story where kids draw their own picture, and one with pictures (cute but high printer ink).
- Visit and Ice Hotel (Summer Olympics) by LAPREA Education
- This is part of multi-book resource
- Most VCV 2 syllable words are open syllable (1st syllable), but "visit" is closed syllable and used several times.
- Includes: of, are, you, can*, would, because, are, what, from
- Santa's Workshop by 2nd Grade Snickerdoodles
- (Hanukkah) The Lamp that Did Not Quit by Think&Grow.com
- FOCUS: -ight
- This is part of a multi-resource set with other holiday decodable and games. Find it under the name Hanukkah Digraph Decodable
- (Christmas) Santa's Lost Reindeer by Illustrated Decodables
- FOCUS: Long a vowel teams: ei, eigh, ey, ea
- (Lunar New Year/Chinese New Year) Sue Observes New Year by LitLab.ai
- FOCUS: Vowel Team Review (various vowel teams)
- The Reindeer Who Lost Her Way by Pioneer Valley Books
*Asteric words are words that may be tricky words because of how they are pronounced in some regions. I won't know all of these, but know about some.
