Mark's note: For young learners (4yrs-6yrs) I do a letter of the day to start them off. They say the letter and then learn 2 words that start with that letter. I then repeat the alphabet focusing on lower case and have them recall 2 words that start with that letter and then teach them the reading. For young learners (6yrs+) I start them off with both 2 words and the letters reading. I spend about 5 minutes each lesson on this and it breaks up the class nicely as a transient portion of the lesson. Here are some cards and handouts to get you started.

Need Phonics Worksheets?
- print phonics worksheets or make your own worksheets

game cards with no pictures - print out the sheets and let the students draw pictures. Then have the student assemble them (fold over and paste) and play a game. This is good practice for the students and a lot easier than making 16-20 sets of cards yourself.

Hand-outs: uppercase poster, lowercase poster, Aa-Zz with pictures on one sheet

More Short Vowels: These are cards with the vowel moved to the middle of short words for deepening understanding and furthering students' understanding of vowels

large flash cards

a handout

Just need alphabet cards to print?

Here are two print-outs:

upper case alphabet cards

lower case alphabet cards

Ready to read?

Try these cards - Reading Cards Set One Reading cards Set Two. These are cards with a short sentence and a picture to help the students understand the meaning/verify what they read is correct. They are good to use when the students are ready to move from single words to sentences. All of the vocabulary was chosen from words using only short vowel and hard consonant sounds. (There are a few sight words, such as the and colors.) You may want to let two or three students work on one card in the beginning to let them help each other and instill confidence and let them enjoy reading English.