Explode the Code

Even the title of this series is catchy!   This is a great little series of books for teaching explicit phonics to children who are emergent readers and also beginning writers.  

We are using it with our grade primary son this year.

Beginning with Explode the Code 1 students learn the short vowel sounds and beginning and ending letter sounds.  They are shown how to decipher the sounds they are hearing, and match them to letters.  

The series includes matching activities, copy work, spelling practice and short reading activities.  My son enjoys the predictability of it, and I enjoy the continual gradual progression of skills.  EPS has a nice website with lots of sample pages to look at.  

The books are a numbered series, and if you found that your child needed more time on a particular level, they conveniently have review books that follow each level.  The review books are all numbered as 1/2 so the review of book 2 is book 2 1/2.

I was uncertain that the books would have appeal to my son, as the drawings are simple and the work is repetitive.  But, luckily for us.  It's a winner!