Decodable Readers and Heart Words for Grade 1
Decodable Readers and Heart Words for Grade 1
Every Grade 1 teacher knows the moment. A child reads "The cat sat on the mat" perfectly, then looks at the picture and says "rug". The reading was decoding until the picture offered a shortcut. Decodable text takes that shortcut away by using only words children can sound out with what they have been taught. The other half of the problem is words like "said", "was" and "the", which show up on every page. Flashcard drills treat them as shapes. Mapping them sound by sound treats them as words that are mostly regular with one tricky spot. This page puts the two together.
See the decodable readers →Resources that fit
Decodable stories, heart words and their neighbors
Decodable Readers Grade One and Heart Words are the pair this page is about. The phonemic awareness routines support children who still struggle to blend orally, and the other two sets fill the handwriting and nonfiction slots around them.
Decodable Readers Grade One | 20 Stories with Word Work & Comprehension | Grade 1
Twenty original decodable stories in a fixed order, each with three pages.
Heart Words | 100 High-Frequency Words with Sound Mapping | Grade 1
Map 100 high-frequency words sound by sound; hearts go only on the tricky part.
Phonemic Awareness Daily Routines | 36 Weeks of Oral Sound Routines | Kindergarten
Oral blending and segmenting practice for children who need it before or alongside print.
Manuscript Handwriting | Basic Strokes & A–Z Letter Practice | Grades K–1
Manuscript strokes and A–Z letter practice for K–1 handwriting time.
Nonfiction Text Features | Original Science Passages & Diagram Workshop | Grade 2
Original nonfiction passages for Grade 2, when children start reading to learn.
Sequence
The 20 stories in order
| Stories | Pattern | Titles |
|---|---|---|
| 1–5 | Short vowels | Sam and the Cat, Kim and the Pin, Tom and the Dog, Gus and the Bug, Ben and the Hen |
| 6–10 | Consonant blends | Pack a Bag, The Camp Lamp, The Flag, A Cup of Milk, The Mud Pen |
| 11–15 | Two letters, one sound | Fish in a Dish, Chips at Camp, This and That, A Song, A Lost Sock |
| 16–20 | Silent e and review | A Cape for Sam, A Bike Ride, Cake at Home, The Cube and the Tube, A Picnic at the Lake |
The order is common rather than tied to one phonics program. The teacher guide includes a scope and sequence page so you can match each story to what you have already taught and reorder if needed. The set sits closest to Common Core RF.1.3 and RF.1.4, and its comprehension pages to RL.1.1. No alignment is claimed.
Heart words
How mapping replaces flashcards
Take "said". The s and the d match their sounds. Only the ai is unusual, so that spot gets a heart and is learned by heart. The rest of the word is decoded like any other. The Heart Words set builds this idea in steps. One box for one sound shows that sounds and letters are not the same thing, since one sound box can hold one, two or more letters. Our mapping routine sets a fixed order of steps. Then come 25 practice pages with four words each, where children connect pronunciation, meaning and spelling.
Five application pages follow: Sentence partners, Meaning matters, Partner cover and check, Find the pattern and a reusable My mapping mat for any new word. Hearts are often temporary. Once a spelling has been taught in phonics, the heart can go, which means the set grows with your phonics teaching rather than sitting beside it. The teacher guide is 32 pages because it holds a mapping key for all 100 words, plus a section on dialect, grammar and temporary hearts for when local speech changes a map.
One lesson
Putting both into a Grade 1 reading block
- Warm up with the target patternBefore Story 6, for example, spend a few minutes on blends. The guide lists exceptional words and the cumulative scope, so you can teach unknown elements before children read.
- Read the storyChildren blend the sounds to get to each word. Cover the picture if a child starts guessing from it.
- Word workOn the Word work page children blend words and pay attention to every grapheme.
- Read and understandChildren answer questions and point to evidence in the story, so decoding ties to meaning.
- Map two heart wordsClose with two words from the Heart Words practice pages that appear in the next story.
Records
Keeping track without extra tests
The decodable set has a reading and spelling record that helps you observe accuracy and choose the next step, and answer keys for all 20 stories, grouped in sets of five, with the note to accept equivalent wording. The heart word set has an assessment checklist for all 100 words on one record. For the wider K–2 sequence these sets belong to, see Science of Reading Phonics (Grades K–2). If oral blending is the sticking point, go back to the Kindergarten phonemic awareness routines.
Questions teachers ask
Frequently asked questions
What is a decodable reader?
A story in which the words can be read with the sound-spelling patterns taught up to that point. Children blend the sounds instead of guessing from pictures or context.
What if a story has a word my students can't decode yet?
The guide lists the exceptional words for each part of the sequence and recommends teaching them explicitly before students read.
What is a heart word?
A high-frequency word with a part that children cannot yet decode with the patterns they know. That part gets a heart and is learned by heart; the rest is mapped like any other word.
Do my students' accents change the mapping?
Sometimes. The Heart Words guide has a section on dialect, grammar and temporary hearts that explains how pronunciation affects the sound boxes.
Can Kindergarten students use the stories?
Yes, in the spring if they are ready to read connected text. The product notes also suggest them for small-group intervention and take-home reading.
Are answer keys included?
Yes. The decodable set has answer keys for all 20 stories, and the heart word set has a mapping key for all 100 words.
Blend the word, map the tricky part
Twenty decodable stories and 100 mapped heart words for Grade 1.
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