Books that Support the Teaching of Phonics
Teacher-recommended books for teaching phonics
Title/ Author
Stage
The Fantastic Daisy Ar- Reception
tichoke
By Quentin Blake
The Smartest Giant in
Town
The last page of this book
is a good way of asessing
whether children are fluent
readers (reading for meaning as well as decoding) - I
use it in Phase 5.
Key Stage 1
I use this book for Phase 6
of Letters and Sounds. In
terms of reading longer
words, which are on the
whole made up words, this
is a good book to see if
children are using their
phonics as the first strategy
- as well as being a lovely
book!
Key Stage 1
This is much more exciting
than reading a boring sentence like "Mark in the car
park" and much more likely
to enable children to remember the /ar/ phoneme!
Key Stage 1
It’s hard to find interesting
application for zz! I play
jazz when the lesson starts
and the children read an
edited extract e.g. Ben is at
the Zig-Zag Jazz Club. It's
a beautiful book with gorgeous illustrations.
Key Stage 1
This is good for Phase 2 as
it has lots of "ck" words.
"This is the rock9.and this
is the muck".
By Lynley Dodd
Shark in the Park
By Nick Sharratt
Ben’s Trumpet
By Rachel Isadora
Duck in a Truck
By Jez Alborough
A very short, simple text,
which throughout the book
uses words which rhyme
with "...oke." It's a useful
introduction to words which
end in a common way.
Key Stage 1
By Julia Donaldson and
Axel Sheffler
The Dudgeon is Coming
How & Why this Book
Worked in the Classroom
© The format of this resource is owned by the National Literacy Trust. Written content has been reproduced with permission from contributors to the
National Literacy Trust’s 2013 survey “What books really work in the classroom and library?”
Books that Support the Teaching of Phonics
Teacher-recommended books for teaching phonics
Title/ Author
Stage
You and Me, Little Bear Key Stage 1
By Martin Waddell
How & Why this Book
Worked in the Classroom
This is a good one for
teaching tricky words. I use
differentiated extracts, then
read the children the whole
book afterward.
Key Stage 1
Fits really nicely into Phase
1- Aspect 1 of Letters and
Sounds - environmental
sounds. Great one to use
alongside a photo of the
classroom or playground
and adding sounds that they
could hear in that situation.
PM Nelson
Key Stage 1
Great for reading recovery
because you can teach
phonics and key vocabulary
as they appear in the books.
Various Titles
Key Stages 1 & 2
Dr. Seuss books show the
joy of words in rhythm and
rhyme while using straightforward vocabulary with the
odd surprise thrown in!
Key Stage 2
A brilliant poetry book full of
fun poems which children
love. I use it to explore
Phase 5 and 6 phonics in
KS2 as well as for enjoying
and teaching poetry. 'Victim
of Nature' works well when
teaching past tense endings, 'Limericks' as a starter
for exploring alternative
grapheme choices for the
same phoneme. 'Fussy
Family' is also an amusing
way into exploring grapheme choice.
Toddle Waddle
By Julia Donaldson and
Nick Sharratt
By Dr. Seuss
Razzle Dazzle
By Andy Seed
© The format of this resource is owned by the National Literacy Trust. Written content has been reproduced with permission from contributors to the
National Literacy Trust’s 2013 survey “What books really work in the classroom and library?”