Winter long vowels reading practice is one of my favorite concepts of the year! Firstly, what's cuter than penguins and polar bears? Move over reading passages - these little phonics readers (books) for long a, i, o, and u are my favorite way to practice comprehension skills, long vowel patterns, and fluency all in one!
I wrote a little reader for each vowel sound. For example, this is the Long A reader to practice the a_e sound. The a_e sound is when there is a silent E at the end of the word so the a makes the long a sound (example: lake).
"Let's Skate at the Lake" is filled with words with Long A silent E for tons of practice! You could have students underline/highlight the long A words while reading. These are AWESOME for small groups reading practice!
I love this little story and try to have a kind, positive message in each of my readers if it's possible to do so while squeezing in as many words with the phonics sound as possible. I love this one because it's a story about helping your friend when they need you and little Kate in the story gets to illustrate both kindness and friendship when a group of friends go ice skating. :)
I also made a black and white version of each book!
Having black and white versions are wonderful for:
- Coloring the pictures to help them feel a sense of ownership over the books (plus it's fun!) then keeping a copy (yay!) at their seats to read whenever they have extra time
- Have their own copy to take to their seats to read to a partner or their group during centers
- A center activity all on its own! Read and color the book, highlight/underline the words with the sound they're practicing, read to a friend, read to yourself - there are so many ways you can make these a center activity
- Sending these home to read with their adults (They can also read to their stuffed animals like I did as a kid :) Anything you want to tell them to get them to practice them at home! They will probably be proud to bring these home to read to their family!)
I personally think it's nice to have color AND black and white versions of the same materials so that you can use the color versions at your small groups table (only printing enough for 1 small group). Then, make copies of the black and white version for everyone to have their own copy to keep. :)
Not all students have books at home. I would also bet that, if they do, they might not have phonics readers that practice a specific skill like these, so they are GREAT to send home for reading practice at home, even for kids who have lots of books at home!
I couldn't get enough reading at home when I was a kid. I had a lot of books but I always wanted more, so I loved when my teachers let me take home books. :)
"The Penguin's Kite" is the Long I silent E book I wrote!
How cute is that little penguin?? I looove penguins themed anything for winter time!
Also in black and white, of course! These are SO fun to color!
What I love about phonics readers is that they provide SO much reading practice and are basically winter reading passages but in the form of a book!
Each set of 2 pages when they open the book contains the text of a phonics-based reading passage, but with picture support..... and it's a story that's fun to read! So much better than a reading passage. I do love my phonics reading passages too, but I love when I can make reading a little bit more fun.
For example, like my Phonics Fluency Puzzles! You can use them in notebooks like I show in that post or as full color puzzles. I actually made winter versions of those if you want Winter Fluency Puzzles by the way! Also so much fun!
These aren't phonics based but I tried to make them at around what I'd expect a first grader to be able to read around winter time! Some are easier and some are a little harder so you can easily differentiate in that way. For example, the bottom puzzle in the picture above is a lot easier than the top puzzle. The top puzzle has more words, is a little longer, and has slightly harder words. The bottom puzzle is really simple. :) Kindergarten students can also enjoy these as a guided activity for practicing retelling / sequencing a story. 2nd grade students can also enjoy these as simply a fun reading activity! It's okay if it's a little easy for them and, for some of your 2nd grade students, this may be just the support they need to feel like successful readers too! :)
They're great for a center as puzzles, a small groups activity, and the black and white versions are wonderful for students to color, read, and glue into notebooks! A fun reading lesson you can do in small groups is to simply read the top together and put the pieces together as you read and sequence the story.
You can also build a puzzle for them and ask them which pictures are out of order - that's a fun small groups game you can play with these! Here's an example:
Anyway! Back to Winter Long Vowel Reading Practice! :)
I think my favorite book I wrote in this little pack is "A Day at Home" about a polar bear who is bored at home after waking up from hibernating. Isn't he adorable?? :)
He wakes up from his "long nap" and goes out to see if his friends are back yet who left for the winter, so it's a great way to start introducing hibernation, migration, and all that fun stuff in a cute first grade-y type of way! :) His friends aren't back yet so he tries to find fun things to do around the house by himself while he waits for them to get back.
Of course there's a black and white version to color too! :) This shows the color cover, but there's a full black and white version. Can you tell I have a slight obsession with cute winter animals wearing scarves and sledding? I just find it so cute!
Another polar bear character in this set is Duke! He is the main character in "The Duke's Dune" book. He doesn't want to share his dune with a group of friends sledding down hills on tubes. (What sound do you think this is? The tricky Long U silent E sound!! I LOVE finding ways to make this sound easier and more fun, because it can definitely be a bleh sound to learn if you don't have fun materials!)
I absolutely LOVE the message in this one. Like I said, I try to instill a positive message into my books and this one is about kindness and sharing. The polar bear tells the friends they can't use his dune. After he doesn't share and is alone on his dune, he sees how much fun the friends are having anyway and feels bad that he didn't let them use his dune. He tells them they can. They are super happy and invite him to tube with them and he is thrilled. I think it's a cute message about sharing and how it's so much nicer to be nice to people and enjoy what you have with friends. :)
So those are my Winter Long Vowel Books! You can grab the 4 books (there is not one for Long E because I don't personally believe that you should spend much time teaching that sound explicitly as there are so few kid words with that sound so I don't usually make anything with it) in the Winter Long Vowel Books BUNDLE!
You can also get them individually if you prefer! I linked each one in the spots where I talked about them above this. :)
Here's another picture of what the black and white covers look like, since I showed the color cover next to some of the black and white books.
I also have NON-phonics winter readers if you want more cute little stories to read with your students! If you learn different phonics sounds during winter or simply want more books, I have these:
The Polar Bear Cubs Love Winter
I also have a LOT of winter math activities
Winter Word Problems Worksheets
Winter Who Am I? Math Center (You may recognize this format from my big Building Number Sense blog post that shows a bunch of pictures of First Grade Math Unit 1)
Winter Missing Numbers Center (If you have First Grade Math Unit 2, you'll recognize this fun winter version too!)
If you want to see real pictures of these in action, please let me know! I'll probably write some blog posts about them eventually so check back! :)
You can also see tons of pictures of the NO PREP writing activities in my Winter Writing Crafts Bundle in my January Writing Crafts blog post! :)
I think that's enough winter fun to show you for now! I hope you loved seeing my winter long vowels reading practice ideas and can use some of them with your kids! I am going to be sharing more tips about winter math and reading in my groups! If you're not in my free Teaching Math in First Grade and First Grade Phonics groups and you teach any kids at around a first grade reading/math level, I highly recommend joining us!! :) I only approve requests that answer all 3 questions so make sure you do that if you want to join & I will see you in there!
Thanks so much for reading!!
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