If you're looking for decodable texts, but don't want to break the bank, there are a number available online for free, by donation, or at a very low cost.
FREE DECODABLE BOOKS LIST
The decodables in this list are in a variety of digital formats (PDF, PPT, online), and are written with a variety of phonics scope and sequence progressions in mind. Some are printable, some are full-color. Hopefully you can find a controlled text that suits your needs.
Please drop me a comment if you know of any free or affordable phonics books I've missed!
PLEASE EXCUSE THE DUST!
I am in the process of updating this page with more images and info about each of the decodables, but it may take awhile before I've updated everything!
FREE DECODABLES LIST
Click through to find the decodable freebies on each website!
A NOTE FOR OLDER BEGINNING READERS:
If you are interested in Decodable Chapter Books for older readers (3-12 & Adult) I have a separate list of those (not all are free, however). In terms of free decodables for older readers, the Phonic Books Moon Dogs At Home sample readers, Just Right Reader's sample chapter books, the CKLA readers, the Free Phonetic Readers, the illustration-free UFLI passages, my own illustration-free Decodable Passages, the Teen and Adult Phonics TAP app, and my chapter book Six Kids on Bandit Island may be a good place to start.
My FULL LIST of Decodables is on my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Currently, they are all free!
I'm also somewhat pathologically helpful (hah!) so let me know in the comments if there's a particular phoneme or phonics pattern you'd like to see a book for. I'd love to help you out!
Length: 25 - 550 words
Also one decodable chapter book: 5600 words
Interest Level: Grades K-8
Genres: Realistic Fiction, Adventure, Animal-Centered Stories, also some Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and narrative non-fiction.
Printable: Some of them! My newest books are blackline.
Decodability: Most follow the Get Reading Right scope and sequence. I have Short Vowel books and Long Vowel books which cover all spellings of a given Long Vowel. I also have one AIR phoneme book.
Sweet and simple decodable books for beginning readers. These are a household favorite. My kindergartener loves the cute illustrations and silly, slapstick humor.
There are some repetitive sentence constructions in these stories. These can give beginning readers a bit of a brain break, which can really help kiddos' reading stamina. However, it also may mean that less orthographic mapping work is going on, so they'll need to do more reading to get those benefits.
Length: 25 - 70 words
Interest Level: Grades K-2
Genres: Realistic Fiction, Animal-Centered Stories, also some Fantasy/Sci-Fi.
Printable: No. These digital ebooks are embedded in the website.
Decodability: Level A begins with Short Vowels, CVC constructions, and a few sight words. Level B introduces Blends. Level C introduces Long Vowels.
The Specific Learning Disabilites Association of South Australia has over 100 free and recently updated and re-illustrated decodables as PDFs on their site, following the Jolly Phonics sequence. If you want SPELD's old emergent readers, you can still get the old phonic books.
** Keep in mind that these are written in Australian English, therefore some vocabulary and pronunciation will be different to U.S. English.
Length: 20 - 200 words
Interest Level: Grades K-4
Genres: Realistic Fiction, Animal-Centered Stories, some non-fiction
Printable: Full color pdfs only.
Decodability: The series follows the Jolly Phonics scope & sequence. Set 1 (10 books) includes the letters S A T P I N, and progresses along to Set 10 (10 books) with the introduction of OU / AW / EW / IR.
Starfall Academy offers a series of 15 free online phonics books.
The set linked above are interactive and not downloadable, but do have the added feature that your child can click to hear the words read aloud. Starfall also has printable Cut-Up-And-Take-Home versions of the same books (you'll have to scroll a bit to find them on the page. Look for the "Short Vowels" section).
Length: 20 - 60 words
Interest Level: Grades K-3
Genres: Animal-Centered Stories, some Fantasy / Sci-fi
Printable: Yes, there are full color and blackline printable versions.
Decodability: The series scope and sequence begins with Short Vowels and CVC words, then CVCe, followed by vowel teams and r-controlled verbs.
Cute, decodable e-books featuring diverse characters! You can also buy print copies.
40 - 400 words
Plus a few chapter books.
Interest Level: Grades K-8
Genres: Realistic Fiction, Animal-Centered Stories, some Fantasy / Sci-fi and non-fiction.
Printable: No. These digital ebooks are embedded in the website.
Decodability: Just Right Reader's scope and sequence begins with Short A CVC words and a few sight words, then progresses through the Short Vowels, followed by Consonant Digraphs, Blends, Final E Long Vowels, and then Vowel teams and more complex phonics.
Interest Level: Grades K-8
Genres: Realistic Fiction.
Printable: Yes.
Decodability: A new series of decodable passages for short vowels, FLOSS rule, R-controlled vowels, blends, consonant digraphs, vowel teams, the schwa, and more advanced phonics patterns.
This series of phonics books is a read-together (aka "shared reader") series available as PDFs. You'll read most of the text, while your child will read the larger words that fit the target phonemes they're learning.
Length:
5 to 250 words
Interest Level: Grades K-2
Genres: Realistic Fiction, Animal-Centered Stories.
Printable: Yes. Not black and white but a lot of white space.
Decodability: Shared Reader. The student will read some of the words, while an adult will read the rest. The Beginner Books introduce one Short Vowel at a time. Intermediate Books introduce consonant digraphs, blends, and Long Vowels. Advanced Books introduce dipthongs and more complex phonics.
"These texts were specifically written and illustrated to be culturally relevant and empowering to children in Boston." A set of decodable books illustrated with photographs, and created for Boston Public Schools following the Fundations Scope and Sequence.
Length:
60 to 350 words
Interest Level: Grades K-4
Genres: Realistic Fiction, animal-centered, narrative non-fiction
Printable: Full color PDFs only.
Decodability: Fundations Scope and Sequence. CVC, then consonant digraphs, consonant blends, CVCe, Long Vowels, and Multisyllabic words.The decodables begin at Unit 3, Week 6 of the Fundations sequence.
See also the more printable versions here (posted by Boston Public Schools)
"Knowledge-based schooling puts the emphasis of early education on teaching and learning an enabling core of broadly shared knowledge—enabling because it builds strong foundations for later learning and opens doors to effective participation and mutual understanding in the wider society. "
Core Knowledge has an amazing, 100% free Language Arts curriculum, including a decodable Student Reader series available as a free PDF when you sign up. If you find them difficult to download, you can also find the same books here: TN Foundational Skills Curriculum Supplement (look in the table for the "Decodable Reader" links.
Length:
15 to 550 words
Interest Level: Grades K-6 (but designed to follow K-2 CKLA curricula)
Genres: Realistic Fiction, non-fiction
Printable: Maybe. Full color PDFs but with a fair amount of white space.
Decodability: I cannot find a clearly published scope and sequence, but the early books seem to follow a similar progression to BOB Books. Short Vowel, CVC word, then consonant digraphs, FLOSS rule, long vowels, and more complex phonics patterns.
Decodable readers that are perfect for your budding non-fiction lover! These are for beginning readers as picture clues may make things too predictable for more advanced readers. Also check out her Sight Word readers!
Interest Level: Grades K-1
Genres: Non-Fiction, Narrative Non-fiction
Printable: Full color.
Decodability: She does not use a strict scope and sequence for these, but they are all short vowel books.
In addition to her Non-Fiction, The Measured Mom now has free decodable stories as well! Sign up to her email list to receive.
Interest Level: Grades K-1
Genres: Realistic fiction, animal-centered stories.
Printable: Yes. Full color and blackline available.
Decodability: I could not find a scope and sequence posted, but the texts begin with very few words all using Short A, and progressively add other short vowels, then consonant digraphs, then blends, the FLOSS rule, nk/ng and a few more complex phonics patterns. She currently only has Short Vowel books.
The University of Florida Literacy Institute has an amazing and incredibly affordable foundational reading program stemming from the science of reading research. (At time of writing this, the Teacher's Manual is just $70 and all the materials are available online for free). <3
This toolbox includes links to all the Lesson Power Point slides, Decodable Passages, Home Practice Activities, and Additional Games that you would need to teach UFLI's full Phonics Scope and Sequence.
The decodables are text passages (no pictures - kids are asked to draw their own picture for each passage) Click on a set of lessons to view the links to the associated decodable passages. The decodables start on Lesson 8. UFLI also compiles a helpful google sheet with a Decodable Text guide by scope & sequence if you are looking for more decodables to match their program.
Length: 20 to 200 words
Interest Level: Grades K-4
Genres: Realistic fiction.
Printable: Yes. No pictures, text only.
Decodability: This is UFLI's Phonics Scope and Sequence. They begin with STAMP FIN in the early weeks, then add in the other short vowels and hard consonants, then blends, followed by Consonant Digraphs and the FLOSS rule, VCE, then common endings, r-controlled vowels, vowel teams, dipthongs, suffixes and prefixes, and low frequency spellings.
Dr. Bruce Murray (aka the ReadingGenie) has made his own decodables, but also hosts free Decodable Readers other teachers have asked him to post as free Powerpoint files.
If you need a decodable story that takes place in a pond setting, this is your lucky day! There are lots to choose from! [there are other settings too ;) ]
Interest Level: Grades K-2
Genres: Realistic fiction, animal-centered fiction
Printable: Yes, some of them!
Decodability: This is a collection of decodables written by various teachers who are using diverse scopes and sequences, so they don't follow a specific phonics progression, but they are all pretty controlled texts. Short Vowel sound focus!
Decodables written as cute and silly comic strips!
Interest Level: Grades K-6
Genres: Humor, animal-centered, sci-fi
Printable: Full color only.
Decodability: The PhonicsPlay decodable comics follow the Letters and Sounds phonics sequence. This is short vowels and hard consonants (beginning with SATPIN, then DOCKMG and others), consonant digraphs, followed by long vowel digraphs, r-controlled vowels, followed by review, then alternate long vowel spellings and split digraphs.
A series of black-and-white printable, colorable, and highly decodable readers, with short, simple, slice-of-life vignettes.
These may have some slang vocabulary that younger readers won't be familiar with.
The illustration style and vocab may actually be perfect for older struggling readers who need very basic books but don't want things that look too babyish.
Length: 30-40 words
Interest Level: Grades K-12 + adult
Genres: Humor, animal-centered, sci-fi
Printable: Yes. Blackline printable
Decodability: Highly decodable. There are three short stories for each vowel sound. At least one story in each set is designed to focus on words where the vowel sound occurs at the beginning of the word, to help students focus on mastering that sound.
Another nice series of black-and-white printable phonics books and worksheets. Written by the same author as the Free Phonetic Readers above.
Length: 50 - 800 words
Interest Level: Grades K-2
Genres: Realistic Fiction, Animal-centered / farm-centered stories.
Printable: Yes. Blackline printable. Booklet format.
Decodability: Highly decodable. There are two short stories for each vowel sound.
A phonics program with many workbooks and decodable stories. There are several levels of decodables available: Short Vowels || Practice Stories for Beginning Readers ||
There are several sequences depending on the books used.
Interest Level: Grades K-2
Genres: Realistic Fiction, Animal-centered.
Printable: Yes.
Decodability: The scope and sequence listed on the site has several variations depending on the materials used (there is a lot here!). However, the basic progression is short vowels, consonant digraphs, glued sounds, then common long vowel spellings, followed by rarer ones and dipthongs.
Short decodable texts paired with photos for beginning readers.
Interest Level: Grades PreK
Genres: Non-Fiction, Narrative Nonfiction.
Printable: Full Color option only.
Decodability: I couldn't find a scope & sequnce posted but the text appears to be very controlled.
Decodable text passages (no pictures). These were adapted from the open source FreeReading.net versions. The subjects and length are particularly useful for older readers.
Not as decodable as some of the other passages in the list, but still contain the target phonemes!
Really Great Reading - Decodable Passages
These aren't books so much as collections of decodable paragraphs in printable PDF format, but still great for practice! There are several levels and options: Countdown: Level One || Blast: Level Two || HD: Level Three || Blitz: Level Four
A free phonics program with very short decodable passages in the Workbook. Most are written in comic-book / caption style so that students can illustrate them.
Miss Winter's Bliss - Free Decodable Passages Sample
Short decodable passages with integrated reading comprehension and handwriting activities!
My Nerdy Teacher - Free Decodable Readers CVCe Bundle!
Sign up for the newsletter to receive CVCe passages and reading comprehension questions.
Decodables from West Virginia Phonics by Jessica Pasik
Decodable books on Google Slides. Note that these are designed to be printed and collated. The first slides should sit on top and the last slides on the bottom to get the page numbers in the right order. Some of the clip art seems to be missing so you may want to insert your own.
Tan Cat and Fat Rat || Tom || Tim and Kip || Hop and Jog || Mutt and the Bug || The Red Hen || Chet and Chad || Mack the Cat || The King and Queen || The Sled Club || Kim and Flip || Brad and the Frog
Also see the West Virginia Phonics Lessons with Decodable Texts (click on the sidebar to view the resources for each level ... CVC, Consonant Blends, etc). These have a high concentration of the target sounds.
Teach My Kid To Read & I See Sam
The non-profit Teach My Kid to Read has added story questions to the classic series of "I See Sam" phonics books from the 1970s, and assembled them as digital "Beginning Reading Instruction eBooks."
They have repetitive (but not predictable) text for practice, and the narrative is driven by the illustrations. The phoneme sequence may not fit with some modern phonics programs, but if you are using a classic phonics sequence these may be perfect for you.
This link will take you to the Updated online Version that is currently available for free during COVID.
Free Word Family Books - This Reading Mama
You'll have to do a bit of digging and scrolling to find all the free printable gems, but Becky has written quite a number of free decodable readers! The stories are interspersed with a fair dose of high frequency words as well.
TN Foundational Skills Curriculum Supplement
The Tennessee Dept of Ed offers free, open-source curriculum materials for parents and teachers of K-2 students.
You'll want to do a "find on page" (Ctrl + F on your PC browser) to do a search for "Decodable Reader" to find all the links.
NOTE: These are the same books CKLA uses, but you may find it easier to access / download them here.
Fun Phonics Readers Slideshare
Sample versions of the FunPhonics Readers available from the author online.
A few of the books on the Storyberries free bedtime stories website are decodables!
While not all the books on this site are free, the above is a link to a few free read-together books.
Free Reading.net Decodable Passages
50+ simple one-page decodable stories and non-fiction passages available with and without illustrations, in color or in black and white.
Shared reading experience with these partial decodables. The student reads a portion and the adult reads a portion. Good for very young students with low reading stamina.
A set of simple decodable books for beginning readers. Repeat sentence structures and "clue" type pictures may be too predictable for more advanced readers.
Nessy - Free Decodable Coloring Books
There used to be a few cute decodables from Nessy in pdf format. Kids could color in the illustrations, and they were black-and-white printable! Now they only seem to have worksheets :/
This website is a fabulous decodable books search engine with links to decodables of all sorts (some free, some paid). You can search by price, publisher, or number of words. It may not be online for much longer as it was acquired by a parent company. If the link is broken, try here: The Lexile Hub or here: MetaMetrics
Publishers with Free Decodable Book Samples
A few publishers offer free samples of some of their decodable books online!
Phonic Books Moon Dogs "At Home Series"
Created during COVID, this digital series uses a linguistic phonics (Speech-To-Print) to reinforce multiple spellings of long vowel sounds.
All About Reading is a full synthetic phonics program available for purchase, but they also offer several decodable stories for free.
Laughing Ogre Press offers a few of their cute decodable readers as free downloads! Here are direct links to the free ones: Cal || Miss Kim
Fantastic Phonics Books - Samples
The first five are free. However, they do use some repeat sentence structures that might lead children to guess the word rather than sound it out.
Several books are available to read online for free
Phonic Books - Moon Dogs at Home - Samples
A few free decodable novellas for older readers! Also see this page.
Several decodables were at one time free, including a few books for older readers.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt - Decodables
30 decodables are currently available as indd files on the website.
Whole Phonics
A free sample is available when you sign up!
You may find more free samples here: EPS - School Specialty Samples
Temporarily Free Decodable Books
This is a list of books that were made free during the COVID pandemic in 2020-2022. They may only be available for a limited period of time.
Flyleaf Online Materials Portal
These beautiful and very popular decodables are available for free as online ebooks through the 2022-2023 school year.
You can purchase the collection of printable phonics books, or try the samples in the link above.
Decodable Readers, Lesson Plans, and Workbooks are all available for free for those who have paid for SPIRE curricula during COVID.
Affordable Decodable Readers
Dog on a Log is a series of nearly 100 decodable readers. Many of the stories are available at several levels: some quite short for just-starting-out readers, as well others for children able to handle slightly longer books with 300+ words. ( A few are available free here )
If you're in search of decodable books designed for older readers, then check out this series!
There is a wealth of wonderful decodable material on TeachersPayTeachers. I haven't even had a chance to dig into a fraction of it! Some samples are available free.
More Lists ($):
Additional Resources:
Online books, printables, online learning, and phonics resources. Some are free resources, others are not. I haven't reviewed all of these yet, but maybe you'll find something that helps you.
The Measured Mom Free Kindergarten Printables and Free Printable Phonics Books and List of Phonics Books || Kastner Collection || This Reading Mama: Free Printables and Learning Activities for Homeschooling - and Free Phonics Activities and Phonics Books || A Teachable Teacher Free Phonics Bundles || Homeschooling Down Under : Learning to Read Books || Stephen Parker || KindergartenConnection || Mommy Shorts: Quarantine Learning Resources || Miss Kindergarten Free At Home Learning Resources for Reading || Money Saving Mom : Free Quarantine School Resources || Spelfabet: Decodable Books list || UF Literacy Institute - Connected Texts || ThinkCentral || Mark Revis's Phonics Books || Oxford owl (requires login) || The Reading League Decodables List 2020 || Geniebooks || Free Decodable Books Rollup || IDA Ontario || FreeReading || Sound City Reading || Elemeno || Text Project || EPS - School Specialty Samples || Kastner Collection Decodables Links || Stephen Parker - Free Phonics Instructional Book for Parents || Id Ontario || Spencer Learning Decodable Sentences
Apps: Reach for the Stars African Readers
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