Blends and Digraphs Mini-Books

About this resource

A child who can sound out CVC words is ready for a book with blends and digraphs in it, and for a book that is

theirs to keep. These are seven little books, one for each pattern, eight mini-pages each, cut and stapled from

ONE sheet of paper: four straight cuts, stack the numbered pages, staple on the left. Every sentence uses only

words the child has been taught (this store's CVC and Fry-100 word banks, plus that book's own listed pattern

words), checked in code, and every sentence page has a picture and the colored letters of the pattern.

EVERYTHING INSIDE (45 pages)

• 21 mini-books: 7 books x 3 versions, 8 mini-pages each, one cut-and-staple sheet each. A cover with a

"This book belongs to" line, 6 decodable sentence pages, and a back cover that lists the book's words with a

box beside each

• The 7 books: sh (ship, shell, fish, shrimp); ch (chick, check, chess, chopsticks); ng and ck (ring, wing,

duck, rock, lock); L blends bl cl fl pl (clock, clap, clip, flag, plug, plant); R blends br cr dr fr gr tr

(crab, frog, dress, brick, truck, brush); S blends sk sl sn st sw (skunk, sloth, stop, swim); End blends

nt nd st ft nk (tent, hand, gift, vest, link, ant)

• Read Book in color, the classroom copy (Noto pictures)
• Read Book in ink-saver black line, the class set (Fluent black-line pictures of the same words)
• Trace, Write and Color: the pictured word prints in light gray inside the sentence to trace, with a

three-line rule beside the picture to write it, and the black-line picture to color

• 42 decodable sentences, 6 per book, and 35 pictures, each in both the color and black-line sets
• 59 pattern words in all (sh 8, ch 8, ng ck 8, L blends 9, R blends 9, S blends 7, End blends 10), each listed

on its book's back cover and on the Book Index

• 7 Read It Without Pictures pages, one per book: the same six sentences with no pictures, a star to color

for each one, and the book's words with a box to check

• 1 blank My Own Mini-Book template (6 pieces: cover, four draw-and-write pages, The End)
• 1 tracker (one student, all seven books) and 1 class grid (whole class), type-in or print
• 1 team note (a hand-off page with blanks), 1 home page (how to read a mini-book at home, a reading log)

and 1 reading buddy card (a five-minute routine for a paraprofessional or volunteer)

• 1 filled example: an invented student's tracker, every number read off its own table
• 1 phrase bank (17 starters and prompts: progress note, family note, next step, and say-it-first)
• 1 picture key, 1 binder cover, and 8 divider tabs with a spine label to cut out
• Start Here, an assembly page (cut, stack, staple drawn step by step) and a Book Index that gives every page number

How A Book Goes Together

One sheet per book, printed single-sided. Cut on the dashed lines: one down the middle and three across, four

straight cuts for eight pages. The pages touch edge to edge, so nothing is trimmed around. Stack by the number

in the corner of every mini-page, 1 on top through 8, and put two or three staples down the left edge. The

assembly page draws all three steps.

Three Versions Of Every Book

1. Read Book, color: read it together first, then the child reads it.

2. Read Book, ink-saver: the same book in black line, for a class set or a copy to keep.

3. Trace, Write and Color: trace the gray word, write it, color the picture.

Then the check: the Read It Without Pictures page puts the same six sentences in front of the child with no

picture at all, so you can see whether the words were decoded or guessed. The child colors a star for each

sentence read; the counts you take go on the tracker.

Built For The Child Holding The Page

A big "My name" line, one short instruction with a picture, large rounded type, and dots (not words) to show

which version a page is. Nothing on a student page is written for an adult.

What The Pictures Can And Cannot Do, Said Plainly

Every picture was looked at in both picture sets at print size, and a word whose picture reads as something else

was left out (in the black-line set a drum reads as a face, a sled as a bench and a nest as a rose; a tram is a

train; the bank picture has a dollar sign drawn in it). Some books have fewer than six pictured words, so one

picture shows on a second page with a new sentence: sh, ch and S blends repeat two pictures each and ng ck

repeats one. There is NO th book and NO wh book: the th and wh pictures in these two sets (tooth, thumb, thread,

wheel, whale, a person in a bath) are not clear short-vowel words, and this pack would not force a wrong picture

in. The chess picture is a pawn and the check picture is a check mark; if a child gives a picture another name,

say the printed word.

Type In, Or Print

The name line on every mini-book cover, the name and date lines on every student page, the tracker, the class

grid, the team note, the home page and the reading log are type-in fields in any PDF reader. The sentence pages

are pencil, crayon and scissors work. This is a fillable PDF; it is not a Google Slides, Google Docs or

PowerPoint file.

Who This Is For

Kindergarten and first grade classrooms, self-contained and resource rooms, small groups, and any teacher with

an older student who still needs a book of blends and digraphs to read. The home page sends a book home to a

family; the reading buddy card hands the same five minutes to a paraprofessional or volunteer; the team note

hands off what changed since the last meeting.

What This Is, And What It Is Not