Tuesday, September 8, 2026

New Free CVC Phonics Story 12: See Me Jump!

New Free CVC Phonics Story 12: See Me Jump!


 

It's time for an all-new CVC phonics story! You can see more of my phonics stories here!

This twelfth CVC story is coming out at a great time to see some frogs outside! That's because this story focuses on a cute little frog and his adventures outside. The best part? You child can read it all on their own by following my CVC Phonics Booklets! After learning the first 4 booklets (-at words, -an words, -ap words, and -ad words) they'll be able to read this fun story and do all of the activities that go along with it.

See the Phonics Booklets here! They're free!

Every CVC phonics story comes with more than just a simple story. Your learners will learn language conventions like grammar, literacy lessons (making connections, story settings, and characters), and more! 

This story follows a little frog from his lily pad on a pond to a van with a mad man! It also features things the children have learned about in previous stories - speech bubbles and quotations. They'll also see exclamation marks, full sentences, and periods - things they have also learned about previously. It's a great way to go over these things again.

Inside this story, you'll also find some fun activities! Your learners can dive into story settings. They'll discover the settings in this story and learn about how settings can be realistic or imaginary.  They'll also have the opportunity to create an alternate ending setting by deciding where the frog jumps next. I have also included a sheet where they can create their own story setting.

I have also included a Making Predictions sheet, a Drawing Comprehension sheet (draw what happened in the story), and a Making Connections sheet (The frog loves to jump! He is very active; he likes to exercise! What is your favorite way to be active?)

Download the Free Phonics Story 

You can download this free CVC Story by clicking on the link below! It will bring you to a Dropbox file that you can download for free as a PDF.

**You may not sell or distribute this digital file anywhere. You may share it for free within your homeschool, classroom, school, co-op, or tutoring business or online class as long as my watermark (MessyBeautifulFun.com) remains on each page it is written on. You may not sell printed copies anywhere. You may keep this file on your school's hard drive or other storage device as long as my watermark (MessyBeautifulFun.com) remains on each page it is written on. Thank you!**

Download CVC Story 12 Here!



Free Beginning Sounds Alphabet Worksheets for Phonics

 Free Beginning Sounds Alphabet Worksheets for Phonetic Awareness



Need more free phonics resources? Check out my phonics page!

I've got another fun and free phonics resource for you! This one is great for practicing those beginning sounds with your learners and making sure they understand that each letter has a sound. They're easy to use, require no prep, and come with a handy teachers guide too!

The best part? You can download them for free below!


Phonetic Awareness Practice Made Simple!

These phonics worksheets require only a pencil (or marker or crayon) , the worksheets and yuor teachers guide that is included in the free download.

You, the educator, will read the letter out loud to your learners as well as say what the two pictures are . You will then ask them which picture begins with that letter. They will need to circle or color the correct answer. 

For example, "K - kite or lemon?"
"O - Otter or Muffin?"

It's helpful to say the letter sound after reading it to help your learners, especially if it's a new concept for them. 

Older learners could also just use these sheets independently for practice.


Companion Slides Available!

I have made some really handy companion slides to go with these worksheets. These slides have the same pictures as the worksheets, but in full color. They also feature a handy articulation mouth illustration so that you can show your learners how to form the letter sound if they're struggling.

They bring these worksheets from a simple extra practice to a full lesson - and they're only $1 in my TPT shop! 


Download the Free Worksheets Below!

You can download the free phonics worksheets by clicking on the link below. 
Enjoy learning!

**You may not sell or distribute this digital file anywhere. You may share it for free within your homeschool, classroom, school, co-op, or tutoring business or online class as long as my watermark (MessyBeautifulFun.com) remains on each page it is written on. You may not sell printed copies anywhere. You may keep this file on your school's hard drive or other storage device as long as my watermark (MessyBeautifulFun.com) remains on each page it is written on. Thank you!**

Download the Free Beginning Sounds Worksheets Here



Saturday, September 5, 2026

New Free CVC Story 11: The Bad Rat

New Free CVC Story 11: The Bad Rat 



 It's another free phonics CVC Story! Want more CVC stories and free phonics resources? Go here!

Whether your readers are learning to read using my free phonics booklets or another phonics-based curriculum, I hope they've been enjoying these CVC stories! This newest one uses new words from the -ad word family, such as dad and bad. It also features a very smooth-looking rat ;) 


Make Reading Stick!

When teaching our kids or students to read, we tend to think of phonics only: sounding out the words, putting together sentences, and recognizing a word on a flashcard. But reading is so much more than that! That's why all of my CVC stories go beyond a simple phonics story and teach kids to really think about what they're reading.


Comprehension, Literacy Skills & More!

After your kids read a sentence like 'The rat ran on the mat', do they actually understand what happened in that sentence? That there was a subject (a rat), an action (ran) and a place (on the mat). Can they picture a rat running on a mat after reading it? What about thinking about what will happen on the next page - will the rat run into a hole? Will it run into a cat? These are all skills we should be teaching even our youngest readers too!

But of course, teaching this to kids in this age group looks very different from teaching it to a 5th grader or even a 3rd grader. It's all about giving them the concepts right now: the idea that their own reading (not just what adults read to them) can have meaning and purpose, so we need to pay attention to what we're reading and understand it.

That's why one of the things I include in each of these stories are some comprehension questions to read and answer together after your learners read the story.


Language Conventions

Another important step to highlight to kids is how words, sentences, and longer texts work together with things like symbols (a period, a question mark), illustrations, and more (speech bubbles, for example, are taught in a CVC story).

In this story, kids will learn to:

  • Recognize quotation marks and why they are used
  • Make a connection to the story
  • Predict what the story will be about
  • Draw a picture of what happened in the story
These activities are all optional, of course, but are a great way to add to your reading block or reading time and make it a more concrete learning tool.

Download CVC Story 11 Below!

You can download CVC Story 11 below by clicking on the link. This will allow you to download the file from Dropbox for free. 

**You may not sell or distribute this digital file anywhere. You may share it for free within your homeschool, classroom, school, co-op, or tutoring business or online class as long as my watermark (MessyBeautifulFun.com) remains on each page it is written on. You may not sell printed copies anywhere. You may keep this file on your school's hard drive or other storage device as long as my watermark (MessyBeautifulFun.com) remains on each page it is written on. Thank you!**

Download CVC Story 11 by clicking here

Thursday, September 3, 2026

Kindergarten Social Studies Unit 2: My School and Community

 Kindergarten Social Studies Unit 2: My School and Community


Social studies is one of those subjects that can be so much fun with younger learners because there are so many opportunities to connect what we're learning to their everyday lives!

Last month I shared the first unit in my new My World View series, where we started with learning about ourselves, our families, and what makes each of us unique. This month we're taking the next step and looking at the world immediately around us — our school and our community!

This is Unit 2 of My World View, and just like the first unit, it is completely free!


How the Units Work

If you haven't seen the first unit yet, here's how I am setting up these social studies units.

Each My World View unit is designed to be simple, open-and-go, and easy to use with young learners. The idea is that you can read a short, simple text together and then complete a worksheet, activity, or little project to go along with it.

The texts are intentionally short and simple so that they work well for kindergarten and can also be adapted for younger learners.

And, of course, you can always stop and talk about the topic as you go!

I especially love using the discussion questions included throughout the unit because they give you an easy way to connect the lesson to the child's own experiences.

Unit 2: My School and Community

In Unit 2, we're moving beyond ourselves and beginning to look at the places, people, rules, and responsibilities that make up the world around us.

There are lots of opportunities for children to talk about their own experiences, draw pictures, make choices, and even create their own community.

Inside, you'll learn together about:

  • My School – Talk about what school is like and the different people who help make school a safe and welcoming place.
  • School Rules – Learn why rules are important and how they help everyone stay safe, learn, and have fun together.
  • Classroom Jobs – Talk about how everyone can help in the classroom and learn about different classroom responsibilities.
  • Classroom Jobs Class Project – Create a classroom helper system using the included job cards and student name cards.
  • Places in My School – Explore places such as the classroom, library, gym, cafeteria, office, hallway, and playground and learn what each place is used for.
  • Where Do I Go? – Practice matching different activities with the correct place in school, such as going to the library to borrow a book or the cafeteria to eat lunch.
  • My Community – Learn what a community is and talk about the different places people live, work, learn, and play.
  • My Community Challenge – Children can create their own community using houses, businesses, services, transportation, roads, and other community pieces.
  • My Community Project – Put everything together and create a little community of your own!
  • Community Helpers – Learn about some of the many people who help their communities every day, including teachers, police officers, firefighters, doctors, construction workers, janitors, mail carriers, crossing guards, and garbage collectors.
  • Community Helpers Mini-Book – Color, cut, and assemble a little community helpers book while talking about the different jobs.
  • Community Helper Hats – Choose a community helper and make a fun hat to wear!
  • Transportation – Explore different ways people travel on land, water, and through the air.
  • Being a Good Community Citizen – Talk about kindness, sharing, taking turns, cleaning up, and helping others.
  • Good Citizen Choices – Decide which actions are good choices and which ones don't help our community.
  • How to Help? – Think about simple ways to help when someone is sad, waiting for a turn, has dropped something, or when the classroom needs cleaning.
  • Good Citizen Award – Finish the unit by celebrating a child who has demonstrated what it means to be a good citizen!

I Love the Community Project!

One of my favorite parts of this unit is the My Community Challenge.

Children get to think about what they see in their own community and then use the included pieces to build a community of their own. They can include homes, shops, restaurants, transportation, services, activities, and community helpers.

You can keep it very simple for younger learners, or make it more challenging by asking them to include certain buildings, services, or a specific number of homes.

I love activities like this because they're not just worksheets. They give kids a chance to actually build and think about their community!

A Simple Way to Use the Unit

You don't have to do everything at once!

You could easily spread this unit out over several weeks and spend a little time on social studies each day.

For example, you might read the My School text one day and complete the matching or drawing activity. The next day you could talk about school rules, followed by classroom jobs and places in the school.

Then move into the community section, where children can learn about their community, community helpers, and transportation before finishing with lessons about being a good citizen.

The activities are simple enough that you can easily adjust them depending on your learners and how much time you have.


Download the Free Unit!


Just like Unit 1, My World View: My School and Community is completely free!

You can download the full unit below and use it with your kindergarten classroom, homeschool, daycare, or tutoring group.

The unit includes the reading texts, worksheets, discussion questions, classroom project pieces, mini-book, community helper hats, and good citizen activities.

I hope you and your learners have fun exploring the world around them!


Saturday, August 29, 2026

Draw It! CVC Sentences: A Free Phonics Activity

 Draw It! CVC Sentences: 

A Free Phonics Activity

These new sets go with my FREE phonics companion booklets and phonics stories!

Get those crayons and markers ready! Your learners are going to have some coloring FUN while practicing their reading!

These new Draw It! CVC Sentences phonics units go right along with my free Phonics Booklets and Phonics Stories to help assess and grow your learners' reading skills.

How the Units Work

Inside each Draw It! CVC Writing Set, you'll find sentences containing CVC words that belong to a certain word family (in this set, the -at word family) as well as sight words. These units will also follow the same sequence as my CVC Booklets do and include words learned in previous booklets. Since this is the first unit, there are no other words except the words found in CVC Booklet 1.

The idea is to help you assess whether your kids are actually reading and comprehending what they read - or just guessing the words on the page. So, after practicing their words for the week, you can give them these sheets and, without giving any clues, have them read the sentence and draw what they read.

For example, if they read one page that said "I see a bat" - you could have them read it out loud to you, then say "Great! Now, draw a picture of that sentence." If they seem to be having troube with that, guide them along by saying, "What is the sentence telling us?", "What is happening in the sentence?" or even "Act out the sentence for me, then let's draw it!" You want to guide them to comprehension without giving away the answer.



Download the Unit Below!

You can download this Draw It! CVC unit for FREE below by clicking on the link. You will be brought to a page on Dropbox, and need to download or print the file.

*You may not sell or share the digital or printed file without permission.
*Exception: sharing for free within schools, homeschool co-ops, online schools, and tutoring groups. But the digital or printed files cannot be sold.

Friday, August 28, 2026

Coming in September 2026: What's New and Upcoming

 Coming in September 2026: What's New and Upcoming

Addition & Subtraction Math Centers for K-2

Have you seen my growing math center bundle for addition and subtraction within 20?
I have been having so much fun making these! They are the centers I used to help my own kids memorize their math facts, and I know they will be a huge help with your learners too! 


Whether you're in a homeschool or classroom, making math a little more active and fun is always one way to boost kids' engagement. Especially when it comes to something as mundane as memorizing math facts!

These math centers all surround a certain theme. So far, I have added ten to the bundle - or you can buy each set separately. 

BUT

If you do buy the growing bundle, you will get ALL future sets for FREE! And I will be adding some more new ones just this coming week! I am also planning to add more surrounding each season, holiday, plus a few fun themes I know kids love, like dinosaurs (coming this week!), space, shopping, community helpers, etc. I'll be making some posts about these centers and showing them in action soon!


They are SO much fun to get creative with too! For example, using the apple picking set, I used to love to tape the answer posters to actual containers so they could put their apple equations into a real barrel, and give each of them a basket to carry around their cards. 

You can find the individual sets in my shop here.
You can buy the growing bundle at a super low price right now here!


More CVC Stories!

I am so happy to see that so many people have been downloading and loving my free CVC stories! I am happy to say that more will be coming out this month with all the great stories, comprehension questions, and literacy activities you love.

In September, I am hoping to make the next set of books for the -ad word family! I already have 3 word families covered with these stories, so you can feel free to start anytime using my CVC Stories, CVC Booklets, and my upcoming CVC Activities...


CVC Activities!

I really want to make my CVC resources well-rounded. SO I will begin adding some fun centers and reading activities to help boost your learners' reading this month! Coming out in the next week I am going to be releasing CVC Draw It! units. These pages will have a sentence that uses CVC and sight words, following the order of my CVC Booklets. Your students will need to illustrate the sentences to show their understanding. It's a fun way to assess if your learners are really holding onto everything they are learning.

I am also planning to release some more centers, such as CVC word and sentence puzzles, tracing pages, spelling lists, and more! SO stay tuned!


Social Studies Unit 2

I am also going to be releasing the second social studies unit this month! These free units are great to use at home or in the classroom to help cover your social studies topics for kindergarten or preschool. 
The first unit, I Am Unique, focused on kids talking and writing (or drawing) about themselves and their homes and families. In this second unit, we'll bring the focus outside the home and onto school and community! 

Your learners will make class rules, volunteer for classroom jobs, look at community helpers and more!

I can't wait to share it with you in the coming weeks!


More Grammar!

I am happy to be releasing more grammar units too! These grammar units are quick and no-prep (besides printing the worksheets!). They let you teach grammar concepts from grades 3-5 (or 3-6 in Canada) easily each week, so your learners understand the concept without spending too much time on it.

I already have plenty of units ready to go if you'd like to start off your year with a few lessons, as well as a nouns bundle you can buy with all of my noun lessons! More will be coming in the following weeks and months too!

Loads to come!

There will be all this and more coming to my shops, blog, and newsletter subscribers! I can't wait to share all of these things with you and really hope that all of my resources help you in your classrooms and homeschools! We have a tough job as educators, and having access to affordable and free resources is my way of helping us all feel just a little bit more confident!

Be sure to follow my socials (below) to stay updated and see my kids' activity shares each week too!
See you soon!
Look out for the next resource on September 1st!

Debbie
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Tuesday, August 18, 2026

Back to School Alphabet and Number Tracing Mats

Back-to-School Alphabet and Number 

Tracing Mats


 It's back-to-school time! While some of you are already back in the classroom (or homeschool!), we still have a few weeks to go here before the big day! 

Some of you may remember that years ago, I used to release a monthly newsletter of freebies before I started mainly posting them on my blog. These freebies would always circulate around a main theme and include a few different items - these alphabet and number mats being one of them. Now, I've been looking through all my old files and decided I could begin releasing some of these 'oldies' here on the blog for everyone to enjoy :)

Starting with this set...


These alphabet and number tracing mats are a great way to get your littles practicing their penmanship!
This set has a cute school bus theme for back-to-school, and comes in both color and black/white versions. 

One of my favorite ways to use this free printable is to put it in a page protector and have kids use whiteboard markers to trace the letters and numbers. It could also be laminated and used in this way if you have a laminating machine.

Of course, it could also be used as a one-time activity and is a great sheet to give out during free time, center time, or to your early finishers. It works great in classrooms, online classes, homeschools, and tutoring sessions too!


Download the Free Tracing Mats!

I wanted to give these themed mats their own dedicated page, so I am making one here and hoping to add more soon! You can download the PDF below.

***TERMS & CONDITIONS*** As per my terms and conditions, this product may be used and printed for personal use in classrooms, homeschools, for parents and educators, in online classes, or kept in school directories. It CANNOT be sold in either printed or digital form. My watermark (messybeautifulfun.com or MessyBeautifulFun.com) must be kept on all pages at all times.

Thank you and enjoy learning! <3