Short E: the sound, the words, the books

Bed, red, hen, pen — short E words for early decoders. Five decodable stories and twenty flashcards, each child’s copy starring that child. This guide maps the pack onto the components of systematic, explicit early-literacy instruction (the ones Wisconsin’s 2023 Act 20 names: phonemic awareness, phonics and decoding, letter–sound knowledge, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension).

1. The sound

Target: Short E. Spellings tinted in the books: e. Say the sound in isolation, then in the twenty words, then find it in the captions.

2. The words

Sight words used in the captions: a, the, has, in, on, and, to, is.

3. Phonemic awareness (5 minutes)

• Blend: say the sounds of a pack word slowly; children say the word.
• Segment: say a word; children tap out its sounds.
• Swap: change one sound (cat → hat → hot) with the flashcards face down.

4. Decoding with the flashcards (5 minutes)

• Picture side up: name it, find the tinted sound, say the word.
• Word side up: sound out, blend, check with the picture.
• Speed round: the child reads the word side of ten cards as fast as accuracy allows.

5. The stories (10 minutes each)

1. “the child’s name Can Not Get Up” — It is a wet morning and [NAME] will not get out of bed: not for Mom's bell, not for Sis's tugging, not for anything. Then Sis spots the hen out in the rain, wet and sad, and [NAME] is up in a flash to bring her in. (10 pages; uses bed, red, hen, wet, leg, bell, nest, vest, step; with Mom and Sis)
2. “the child’s name at the Vet” — The hen is off her pecking, so [NAME] tows her to the vet on the sled. The vet checks the leg, the wing and the neck and finds nothing. Then the hen hops onto the desk, sits, and sits... and out comes an egg. Not sick after all! (10 pages; uses hen, pen, leg, egg, vet, bell, nest, desk, sled)
3. “the child’s name and the Red Jet” — [NAME] makes a red paper jet and it flies beautifully: into a web, into the pond, and at last into a nest, where the hen decides it is hers and will not budge. [NAME] lets her keep it and heads back to the desk to make another. (10 pages; uses red, hen, pen, net, jet, wet, web, nest, desk)
4. “the child’s name and the Tent” — [NAME] and Dad put up a tent in the yard, once it stops falling on Dad. A jet overhead, a bug on a leg, a hen nesting in the corner, and then the tent flops on [NAME]. Time to run inside, where Dad pitches the tent over the bed. (10 pages; uses bed, red, hen, jet, leg, web, nest, tent, step; with Dad)
5. “A Gift for Gran” — [NAME] wants a gift for Gran and nothing in the desk or the dress-up box will do. A bud on a stem is perfect, until the hen pecks it and a drip bends it. Gran loves it anyway, and the hug is the best part. (10 pages; uses hen, pen, wet, bell, desk, vest, stem, step, dress; with Gran)

First read: the child decodes every word; wait, do not rush in. Second read: fluency, with expression. Then talk about the pictures in any language the child has.

6. Checking progress

• Accuracy: words read correctly on the first pass of a story (aim for 95%+ before the next pack).
• Letter–sound knowledge: the tinted spellings named in isolation.
• Comprehension: retell the story in three sentences; the pictures are the prompt.
• Engagement: how many re-reads the child asks for. Personalised books are re-read more; count it.

7. Families

Send the flashcards home; the word side is a two-minute routine.

Story Petal books are generated by an image model from instructions we write, checked by a person, and never used to train anything beyond a child’s own order. What our art must get right.