See below for a free Christmas phonics book for first graders. The attached book includes long vowel sounds, the cornerstone of first grade phonics. Christmas phonics activities are lots of fun, and you can enliven the story with discussion questions and tales about Santa. Your first grader can also color the book. Here it is:
Christmas Phonics Activities for Early Readers
If you’re interested in a free Christmas phonics book for Kindergartners, check out my earlier post. I’ve leveled the attached book to reach two different levels. The printable Kindergarten book in my earlier post focuses on short vowel sounds.
In the first grade version (attached above), students can practice some sight words and a handful of long vowel sounds. First graders can also build fluency with consonant blends and short vowel sounds too.
Two Different Levels
There are two different versions of the same story: one for Kindergartners and the other for first graders. This way, you can give all your students the book and level accordingly. To help you distinguish between the Kindergarten book and the first grade book, here’s what I did:
The free Kindergarten book pdf “Ken the Elf”
The Kindergarten book is called “Ken the Elf.” In this book, there are no long vowel sounds. Kindergartners can engage in Christmas phonics activities at their level.
The free First Grade Book pdf “Ben the Elf”
The first grade book is called “Ben the Elf.” This is a slight change in title. Also, the first grade book has “Long Vowel Sounds” written in the upper right corner.
Why are there two levels?
If you’re a special education teacher or K-2 reading teacher, it’s very likely you have a wide variety of reading levels in your classroom. Struggling readers like to feel included in all activities. With two versions, you can include the whole class in story discussion.
You can print out the two versions, hand the Kindergarten version “Ken the Elf” to your kids who are earlier in the reading process. Then, hand the first grade version “Ben the Elf” to your kids who are working on long vowel sounds.
Story Discussion Questions:
To enliven Christmas phonics activities, engage students in discussion. Here are some sample discussion questions for the free phonics stories:
-Have you ever made a gift for someone? What was it? (Obviously, kids usually make cards for their loved ones. Maybe your student has made a card for mom, dad, grandpa or grandma?)
-Have you ever made a gift last minute?
-Would you want to ride in Santa’s sleigh? Why or why not?
First Grade Phonics
The printable phonics book at the top of this post includes long vowel sounds. Some long vowel sounds included in the story are final e (also called bossy e and magic e). Has your student learned the final e sounds? If so, the first grade version is perfect for her.
The first grade version also includes the ee/ea sounds units as in words like “green” and “team.” For another free ee/ea book, check out The Eel.
Overall, encourage sound-by-sound reading. Since it’s a decodable text, your student should be able to decode most of the words.
Lastly, there are more sight words in the first grade version. If your student makes an error on a sight word, don’t encourage sound-by-sound reading, since sight words break the phonetic code in some way.
More Printable Phonics Books
I hope your students enjoy the story! I look forward to offering more free printable phonics books and activities. Discover a complete printable phonics books library in my shop.
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