Decodable Books for Jolly Phonics Classrooms

There are 42 Jolly Phonics sounds. They include single letter sounds, such as s, a and t, and digraphs, where two letters make one sound, such as ai, ee, ch, sh, oi and ar. Two digraphs count twice, because oo has a long and a short sound and th has a voiced and an unvoiced sound. It is a synthetic phonics approach, so children blend these sounds to read words from the start.

The Jolly Phonics groups teach the letter sounds in this order: s, a, t, i, p, n; then c, k, e, h, r, m, d; then g, o, u, l, f, b; then ai, j, oa, ie, ee, or; then z, w, ng, v, oo; then y, x, ch, sh, th; and finally qu, ou, oi, ue, er, ar. The first group lets children build simple words like sat, pin and tap straight away. Books here start at Group 5 and run into Steps 2 and 3.

Jolly Phonics is usually started when children begin school, at around four or five years old. The later steps, which cover alternative spellings and choosing the right spelling, follow once the letter sounds are secure. Older children who missed some sounds can use the same order to fill gaps. The stories here are original decodable books rather than Jolly Phonics books, and they suit any child learning to read, because each one is matched to a specific sound.

Pick the group or step your child is working on in class, starting from Group 5, then open that sound and choose a story. Each book uses the sounds taught up to that point, plus a few tricky words, so most words can be sounded out. The National Reading Panel (2000) found that reading aloud with guidance and feedback builds fluency. Many titles are free to read online, and some offer read-along audio or a printable PDF, depending on the title.