Short Stories for Phonics - illustrated
Welcome to our illustrated phonics story page. These stories are great for practicing the short and long vowels. They are very short stories of about 5 to 6 sentences each, which can be easily absorbed by the students. Print out the stories, cut out the illustrations and sentences. Read the story in order and ask the students to rearrange the stories. That is just one idea on how to use them. If your students have been following our Phonics Program, they should be able to read these stories unaided. This is a good test of how much progress they have made. The stories are suitable from Kindergarten to 2nd Grade.
Phonics Story Media Player:
The media player contains the audio for all stories. Please pause the audio. Let kids attempt to read first before you play the audio. You can print the stories below.
Stories Based on the Short Vowels
Fat Cat & Rats Story
Story based on short 'a'
Ben, Vet, Pets
Story based on short 'e'
Tim, Kitten, Fish
Story based on short 'i'
Dog, Fog, Log
Story based on short 'o'
Bunny, Bug, Buzz
Story based on short 'u'
Stories Based on the Long Vowels
Kate, Snake, Lake
Story based on long 'a'
Sweet Peach Tree
Story based on long 'e'
Mike Rides a Bike
Story based on long 'i'
Joe, Goat, Coat
Story based on long 'o'
Cute Mule, Tune
Story based on long 'u'
Phonics Story Videos
Mouse Cow
Diphthongs ‘ou’ and ‘ow’ making the sound /au/ will be learned in this funny story. A mouse learns to deal with a noisy cow.
Fox, dog & log
Short ‘o’ Phonics story – og, ox, word families. See the short ‘ o’ in action in this story. Also a great way to learn sight words. A fox and a dog battle it over who sits on a log.
Bunny & Bug
Short ‘u’ story – ug, uzz, uff word families. See the short ‘u’ in action in this story. Also a great way to learn sight words. A bug bugs Bunny.
Mike Rides a Bike
Long ‘i’ word families – ike, ide, ite, igh and ‘y’ as long ‘i’ will be learned. Mike learns to ride a bike properly.
Rat Attack
Short ‘a’ Phonics story – at, atch, ap, ack, word families. See the short ‘a’ in action. Also a great way to learn sight words. An army of rats go head-to-head with a mouse.
Ben, Pets & Vet
Short ‘e’ Phonics story – et, en, ell, elp, word families. See the short ‘e’ in action in the story. Also a great way to learn sight words. Ben learns what it takes to keep his pets healthy.
Tim, Kitten & Fish
Short ‘i’ Phonics story – ish, im, word families. Also a great way to learn sight words. Tim’s kitten eats his fish.
Sing King! Sing
Endings digraph ‘ing, ong’, ending blends ‘nd’ and more sight words will be learned in this story. A king saves his kingdom with a song.
Stacy & Star
Consonant blends ‘st, sk, sl’ and a few other consonant blends. Also great for practicing sight words. Stacy rides in a star.
Chickens & Fox
Consonant digraph ‘ch’ and sight words are practiced in this story. A fox is taught a lesson when he tries to steal eggs.
Shane the sheep
Consonant digraph ‘sh’ and sight words are learned in this story. Shane the sheep learns to put on his shoes.
Kate & Snake
Long ‘a’ and word families, vowel digraphs – ain, ay, ake, ate, ase, ape and sight words to learn. Kate is chased by a snake.
Pete, Peach & Bees
Long ‘e’, vowel digraphs and word families are learned – ee, ea, ete. Pete comes up with a new way of dealing with menacing bees.
Joe & Goat
Long ‘o’ vowel digraphs and word families – oat, oe, ow, ome. Joe shares his coat with his goat.
Cute Mule
Long ‘u’ with the letter ‘u’ – ute, ule, une, ude. Jude the flute player fans a fan in a mule.
Good Cook
hort ‘oo’ story. Practice the short sound of ‘oo’ and sight words. A good cook is tormented by three mischievious monkeys.
Using Phonics Stories and Books to Develop Early Reading Skills
Phonics stories help children learn to read words in entire coherent sentences. Phonics story books usually have a few simple rules that can help children build confidence in reading. A phonics short story can focus on a particular sound or combination of sounds such as a particular short vowel or vowel consonant combinations in word families. Kiz Phonics currently offers 21 short stories to help children build early confidence in reading. It is important you do not start by giving a child complicated text with several unfamiliar phonemic structures. That way, reading can soon been considered a nightmare. Our phonics stories are short and fun for children to read, as they contain a mixture of consonant and vowel sounds aligned with their level of development. We have phonics stories for kindergarten, first grade and second grade which get slightly more challenging as the child develops.
Take the story 'Fox and Dog' focus on the 'O' sound. The story helps children read by focusing on word families 'og', 'op' and 'ox' along with a few high frequency sight words.
Decodable phonics stories target specific phonics skills and Kiz Phonics does an excellent job in this domain. But do not stop here. You should also use a variety of books from other phonics publishers. In fact, we recommend having a library of easily accessible phonics books and short stories that kids can reach out and grab at any time.
When children are at the very beginning of their literacy journey, phonics books should be around to help them develop print awareness. Books can be embedded with toys to gently nudge children towards reading. Such an approach creates a positive attitude towards books which leads to lifelong learning. The early experiences of a child stays with them through adulthood and forms a core part of their personality and attitudes.
In sum, phonics stories and literacy books are a fun way to encourage children to learn to read. Stories that entertain and educate will lead to the development of early reading comprehension skills. Comprehension is the next step after learning to read. At the very beginning it is more important that children sound out sentences. As they get more confident we can test comprehension.
I Want Hard Copies of this Program (Sold Out)
You may choose to instead buy the contents of this website as books and CDs. In that case, you can buy sets of our course from the store. Click on a set to purchase all the courseware. Please note that the contents of the hard copies are the same as the online materials, but without updates. If you would like both online access and books, contact us for discounts.
Pre-K & Kindergarten Books
Want hard copies of our products? No problem. You may order our phonics activity books and more from our store - for Preschool & Kindergarten. Each set comes with CDs and the playing card sets and board game.
1st & 2nd Grade Books
Want hard copies of our products? No problem. You may order our phonics activity books and more from our store - For 1st Grade & 2nd Grade. Each set comes with CDs and the playing card sets and board game.
Board Games & Playing Card Sets
The teaching set is complete with board games and phonemic cards. we have grapheme cards, phoneme cards, alphabet cards which can all be used with the board game for fun phonics learning.
