48 editable, picture-free sentences for individual reading, paired reading, matching and purposeful rereading. Four selectable banks come with complete GPC inventories and exception-word requirements. Choose the print that matches the child’s taught phonics, then listen to the whole sentence.

Select before printing

Please select only activities containing GPCs that have already been taught through your SSP programme.

Primarily for Reception and other learners receiving explicit phonics teaching. Banks are selection groups, not a Little Owls teaching sequence or age-based levels. These strips supplement the setting’s SSP-matched decodable books.

Use the bank selectors on pages 3–6, the sound key on page 7 and the complete word audit on pages 8–11. Check correspondences, exception parts, blending demands and spoken meaning. The sentence inside each border is the only child reading target; page labels and guidance are for adults.

Ways to use the strips

Individual reading. Offer one suitable strip. Listen while the child attends to the print, blends unfamiliar words and rereads the sentence for meaning. Let familiar words be read promptly.

Paired reading. Give both children the same selected sentence. One reads while the other listens, then they swap. An adult checks reading and supports corrections; a partner’s agreement alone is not verification.

Sentence matching. Print two copies of a selected page. Cut, shuffle and offer a small selection. Ask the child to read a strip, find its exact duplicate and read both to check every word. Matching by shape alone does not demonstrate decoding or understanding.

Rereading and fluency. Revisit a successfully decoded sentence in a short later turn. Attend to accurate words, natural phrasing and the full stop. Model a fluent reread after the child’s attempt if helpful, then invite another try. Use no races, timers or speed targets.

DOWNLOAD (DOCX) 📝

DOWNLOAD (PDF) 📄

DOWNLOAD (Zipped JPEGs) 📂

← Back to ‘Phonics & Early Reading’