Reading Elephant

Helping children reach their reading potential.

Login / Register
  • Home
  • Printable Phonics Books
  • Phonics Blog
  • Success Stories
  • About Us
    • Our Mission
    • Message From the Founder
  • Contact Us

Phonics for Primary School is Important for Reading Success

July 1, 2020 By: B Markercomment

Phonics for primary school is important and can help all children become independent readers. Some kids need a step-by-step approach to learning to read. Most children begin saying letter sounds first and then painstakingly string them together to read a word: “b-aaaaa-t… bat!” Sometimes a child’s slow decoding feels endless and we may wonder if he’ll ever read fluidly and effortlessly like us literate adults. This tedious process of sound-by-sound decoding shows just how much work learning to read really is.

short u book
Reading Elephant offers printable phonics books that guide kids through the code.

We’ve forgotten how hard learning to read was, and we take for granted (hardly giving any thought at all) to the fact that it took us 13+ years to become excellent, engaged readers. Kids learn to decode (or read the words) in k-3 through a process of systematic phonetic analysis, starting with letter sounds and proceeding through the 44 phonics sounds.

If you have a beginning reader, you may want to read best ways to teach alphabet recognition.

Unfortunately, phonics for primary school is not universal. Many reading programs expect kids to “catch on.” Even worse, some reading programs encourage guessing, looking at pictures and memorizing- all deleterious strategies. These methods can create reading failure later on.

Phonics for primary school kids can help them learn to read. That doesn’t mean it’s easy though.

As an adult, the slow pace of decoding in beginners can come as a surprise. We may think we can recall being 5 or 6 years old, but our memories at this age are blurry at best. We don’t remember saying the sounds slowly “Ssss-aaaa-mmmm” and then blending them together “Sam!” Research unequivocally shows the importance of sound-by-sound reading and systematic phonics teaching practices. Encourage your beginning reader to go slow so he can read accurately. When teaching, always prioritize reading accuracy over reading speed.

ai phonics stories
Reading Elephant offers printable phonics books, like this page in an ai/ay story.

Always encourage your student to read accurately, even if slowly.

In fact, never tell your student to read fast.

The fluency (reading speed) will come naturally with practice. Reading accuracy does not come naturally for most children. Most kids need to learn one phonics sound at a time, review that phonics sound (and old sounds) until mastery and then finally, learn another. While reading phonics books, most kids need to focus on reading one sound at a time; then, they must go back and blend the sounds together. Thus, when your beginning reader reads a sentence like, “Ted pet the dog” he should actually say: “T-eeee-d Ted p-eeee-t pet the d-oooog dog.” He should say every word 2x except “the” because the is a sight word.

In sum, beginning readers need to crack the code one sound at a time. Don’t rush them along. Never encourage reading speed. Always, always encourage your student to read accurately.

Reading Elephant offers printable phonics books that introduce one phonics sound at a time.

oo phonics books
Our oo/ew phonics books are our latest addition to our printable phonics books library.

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Phonics Books

  • phonics books for preschoolers Bundle Special - Includes EVERY Phonics Books Series
    Rated 4.85 out of 5
    $69.00
  • Series 1-5 - Short Vowels - 20 Books
    Rated 4.86 out of 5
    $20.00
  • Printable Phonics Books Series 2 Series 6 - Consonant Digraphs - 22 Books $25.00
  • consonant blends words Series 7 - Consonant Blends - 5 Books
    Rated 5.00 out of 5
    $5.00
  • Series 8 - Silent e - 8 Books
    Rated 3.00 out of 5
    $8.00
  • ea phonics stories Series 9-13 - Long Vowel Series - 16 Books $25.00
  • printable phonics books set 14 Series 14 - oo/ew Series - 8 Books $8.00
  • phonics book - best tiger dad Series 15 - R-Controlled Sounds - 15 Books $20.00

Blog Categories

  • First Grade Reading Passages
  • How to Teach Phonics
  • Long Vowel Sounds
  • Phonics Activities
  • Phonics Books pdf
  • Phonics Grade 1
  • Phonics Stories
  • Printable Books For Kindergarten
  • Printable Phonics Books
  • Reading Disabilities
  • Short Vowel Sounds
  • Sight Word Activities
  • Struggling Readers

Blog Archives

  • January 2021 (1)
  • December 2020 (2)
  • November 2020 (4)
  • October 2020 (4)
  • September 2020 (4)
  • August 2020 (4)
  • July 2020 (4)
  • June 2020 (3)
  • May 2020 (3)
  • April 2020 (3)
  • March 2020 (4)
  • February 2020 (2)
  • January 2020 (1)
  • December 2019 (1)
  • November 2019 (3)
  • October 2019 (4)
  • September 2019 (1)
  • July 2019 (2)
  • May 2019 (1)
  • April 2019 (6)
  • March 2019 (5)
  • February 2019 (7)
  • January 2019 (4)
  • December 2018 (2)
  • November 2018 (6)
  • October 2018 (5)
  • September 2018 (5)
  • August 2018 (6)
  • July 2018 (4)
  • June 2018 (4)
  • May 2018 (5)
  • April 2018 (3)
  • March 2018 (5)
  • February 2018 (3)
  • January 2018 (5)
  • December 2017 (5)
  • November 2017 (5)
  • October 2017 (4)
  • September 2017 (6)
  • August 2017 (4)
  • July 2017 (3)
  • June 2017 (5)
  • May 2017 (4)
  • April 2017 (4)
  • March 2017 (6)
  • February 2017 (5)
  • January 2017 (4)
  • December 2016 (3)
  • November 2016 (4)
  • October 2016 (4)
  • September 2016 (4)
  • August 2016 (4)
  • July 2016 (1)
  • February 2016 (1)
  • January 2016 (1)
  • December 2015 (3)
  • November 2015 (1)

Recent Journal Entries

Homeschool Resources for Elementary Reading and Math

January 10th, 2021

Homeschooling can provide parents with flexibility and the ability to curate the curriculum to meet[...]

Holiday Long Vowel Worksheets

December 13th, 2020

In our last post, there was an error in our holiday tree. The error has been corrected and in this [...]

New Consonant Digraph Books

December 6th, 2020

Reading Elephant released 10 new consonant digraph books to our series. Kids usually learn consonan[...]

Silent e Holiday Worksheet

November 29th, 2020

Kids usually learn the silent e sounds at the end of Kindergarten or beginning of first grade. Here[...]

Reading During School Breaks

November 22nd, 2020

Students have many breaks throughout the year, including summer, a week off in November, 2 weeks of[...]

Recent Twitter Activity

Phonics Book Shop

  • Visit the Shop
  • My Account
  • My Orders
  • My Downloads

About Us

  • Our Mission
  • A Message From Our Founder
  • Phonics Blog
  • Success Stories

Contact Us


E: info@readingelephant.com

Get in touch with any questions about our printable phonics books.

Copyright © 2021 · Modern Blogger Pro Theme By, Pretty Darn Cute Design