Fall Emergent Reader: Free Printable Counting Book

I’m Anna from The Measured Mom, and I’m honored to be guest posting at Life Over C’s! I’m a firm believer in a balanced approach to teaching reading. We do a lot of phonics practice with word families, but I also believe it’s important to teach sight words with simple books kids can read themselves. Today I’m sharing a fall emergent reader to teach number words to your new reader. I use these with my preschoolers at home, but they’re designed for use with children up through first grade at home or in the classroom.

Materials needed for the Free Fall Emergent Reader:

Paper or card stock

Laminating Pouches (optional)

Book rings or stapler

The simple pictures and text will help you child learn to learn to read the number words from one to ten.

Assemble the fall emergent reader in three different ways, depending on your child’s ability:

1) Put the counting pages in order, as shown above.

2) Add in the pages with just the number word, right before each corresponding page with pictures. This will require your child to look carefully at the number word and learn to read it without the picture clue.

3) You can also mix up the pages so that your book might go like this: “One. I see one wreath. Six. I see six acorns. Four. I see four scarecrows.” This will mean that your child cannot count up to figure out the sight word; he will truly have to study those letters!

In order to give us the flexibility to use the fall emergent reader in all the above ways, I printed the book on card stock, laminated the pages and bound them with a metal ring. I can take them apart and rearrange them anytime I’d like, and the book is extremely durable! You can also print on regular paper and attach with a stapler. We love color, but printing in black and white will work too.

Tips for helping your child read this book:

• Encourage your child to count the objects in the picture to read the number words.

• If you are using the number word pages, encourage your child to read the word all the way through. “No, that’s not seven. Let’s look at the ending sound too.”

• Point out some oddities in the number word spellings. These are tough words to master, so talk about that weird “one,” “two,” and “eight!”

• If you come across a longer word that stumps your child (such as “funny”), help him find a part he knows. “Look at this word. I’m covering up the last letters. Let’s read this first chunk.”

Anna taught for eight years and received her M.Ed. before beginning her new career as a stay-at-home-mom. She stays busy with her five children (ages 8, 7, 5, 3, and 1) while sharing thoughtful articles, hands-on lessons, and hundreds of free printables on her blog, The Measured Mom.