UFLI Ideas Archives - Pure Joy Teaching

Vowel Team Visuals Spelling Cheat Sheets

Spelling cheat sheet that link the sounds to the letter with a unique picture clue embedded inside the letters.

What the Phonics Cheat Sheet Is and Why It Works

These are game changers for students who are learning the many different sounds of the vowel teams.

The letters have pictures embedded in the letter shapes to help students remember the sounds and make a visual connection to the letter order.

You will find them on TPT

Letters, digraphs, r-controlled vowels, and vowel teams.

Multi-Format Classroom Versatility

The cheat sheet adapts seamlessly across various learning setups:

Desk-Size Reference: Kept at student desks for instant writing support.
Spelling Folder Insert: Double-sided print glued into cardstock folders.
Sound Wall Display: Printed as a large poster for whole-class reference.
Tactile Word Building: Cut into individual tiles for hands-on decoding and encoding practice.

The spelling cheat sheet is a small version of these larger cards. These cards have additional spelling notes and sample words.

Get them on TPT

Why It Is Effective: Cognitive Load Reduction & Direct Neural Mapping

The Phonics Cheat Sheet stands out from standard alphabet charts due to its specific visual and pedagogical design grounded in the Science of Reading:

A. Integrated Picture-Embedded Mnemonics Reduce Cognitive Load

Traditional phonics cards place reference images beside a letter (e.g., a picture of an apple next to the letter a), forcing the child’s brain to make an extra cognitive leap between two separate symbols. Embedding the picture directly within the graphic shape of the letter creates an immediate visual-auditory link, dramatically reducing cognitive load and helping visual, dyslexic, and special education learners quickly recall letter sounds.

B. Phonemic Symbol Clues Guide Spelling Choices

When a single sound can be spelled in multiple ways, the chart includes matching phonemic system symbols in the top-right corner of the letter tiles. This gives students a clear visual clue to compare alternative spelling options during encoding and independent writing, turning a passive reference chart into an active spelling decision tool.

C. Explicit Silent-Letter & Multi-Sound Supports

The silent letters (such as gh, in: igh, or w in: wr) feature a distinct silent hand image, teaching students to recognize non-pronounced graphemes without confusion. Magic E patterns utilize a top-hat and silent hand graphic to clearly explain vowel lengthening.

You may also like this book. The vowels team up on The Vowel Tree. This book goes through the scope and sequence from single vowels to teams, and they even include: w, y, and gh!

The Vowel Tree By D. Passmore

Comic Decodables Build Reading Engagement in Early Readers

Transform phonics practice into an illustrated adventure! Learn why decodable comics help early readers decode first and draw for true comprehension. These comics break the text up into smaller chunks of reading that relieve some of the cognitive load on reluctant readers. They build up their comprehension skills with segments of sequenced boxes. They reread the story without it feeling like a chore.

Why Decodable Comics Bridge Phonics, Comprehension, and Fun for Reluctant Readers

If you have ever handed a struggling or reluctant reader a plain page of decodable text, you know the instant reaction: a heavy sigh, shoulders slumping, or complete shutdown. On the flip side, handing them a picture-heavy leveled reader often leads to picture-guessing—where students scan the artwork to guess tricky words instead of actually sounding them out.

Decodable comics offer a powerful middle ground. By combining systematic phonics practice with a text-first comic strip format, they align with Science of Reading (SoR) principles while turning reading practice into an engaging, visual adventure.

Here is why decodable comics are such a game-changer for early readers, intervention groups, and reluctant learners:

1. 100% Science of Reading Aligned: Text-First Reading

In traditional illustrated storybooks, the picture appears above or next to the text, tempting students to look at the illustration and guess the words.

Decodable comics flip this model on its head:

Students decode the text inside the speech or narrative box first.
Then, they draw or complete the scene.

Because the text comes before the illustration, students must use their phonics knowledge to decode the words. Drawing the scene afterward becomes active proof of comprehension rather than a decoding crutch.

2. Chunked Text Reduces Overwhelm and Boosts Comprehension

Facing four or five full lines of text can trigger immediate cognitive overload for a struggling reader. Some reader lack eye tracking and get lots on the page. Some student are dyslexic and are overwhelmed by the full paragraph.

Splitting a short narrative across three sequential comic boxes (Beginning, Middle, End):

Breaks sentences into bite-sized, manageable chunks.
Teaches story sequencing and narrative flow naturally.
Gives students a clear sense of progress as they move box-by-box through the story.

3. Visual Anchors Build Vocabulary Without Spoiling the Text

Many early decodable words (like vat, tin, pod, or jog) can be surprisingly abstract for young children or English Language Learners (ELLs).

Including pre-drawn visual anchors inside the comic panels visually grounds word meanings without giving away the story. Students get the vocabulary support they need to understand what they are reading while still getting full practice illustrating the rest of the scene.

4. It Feels Like Fun, Not Drill Work

Student love this! Placing “Illustrated by ______” at the top header completely shifts a child’s mindset. Instead of feeling like they are doing another repetitive phonics worksheet, students feel like real comic book creators.

This sense of creative ownership builds reading stamina, reduces anxiety, and keeps reluctant readers eager to pick up their pencils and read!

Explore the Decodable Comic Collection Below

Level One decodables VC, CVC, CCVC, CVCC 34 pages No-prep, print-and-go

Long A spellings. Target phonics in decoable passages. Get them on TPT

Bossy R explains homophones. Get them on TPT

Holiday comics – Decodable passages with a fall theme. On TPT

Thanksgiving and dinner prep themes. On TPT

Christmas and winter themes. Get these for your class on TPT!

More UFLI -influenced comics on my TPT site: Pure Joy Teaching

UFLI Notebook For Decodables

UFLI Foundations is a wonderful program. We used it for reading intervention and ESL. For the younger students, we folded the page in half and glued the decodables into the notebooks so they could read, re-read, and interact with the page.

This gave us extra space to write on and adapted a few techniques for the students that needed extra support and practice.

1. Comprehension = Who & What

The goal of reading intervention is for the student to learn to read. However, the testing was showing the students had little or no comprehension and could not advance to the next level. So, we adapted a few things. Before the student could illustrate the story, they needed to list the who and the what topics in the story.

For this story, the who was Dad, Kip, and the pup. The what was the disk, mud, and the tub. After the student has read the story, they need to write the keyword on the line. Then they can draw what was in the story.

We needed to make these changes because some students wanted to draw rainbows and princesses for every story. Labeling first gave us a chance to write the words that were in the story and reflect on who and what the story was about.

2. Print Awareness Drop Down Letters

Some students struggle with tall, small, and fall letters.

Some of the students struggle to see the visual difference between d, b, & p. This print awareness skill is more than just randomly circling the letter p like a Savonjour hunt. This technique teaches the student to start at the beginning of the sentence and trace under the letters to find the letter that drops below the line. Then loop around to circle them without lifting the pencil. This is called eye-tracking. The student is visually scanning the text line the same way they would read it. This builds the left-to-right habit that is needed for decoding and encoding.

The continuous line mimics how the finger would follow under the words as the student reads and how eye tracking should follow the letters and not jump around on the page.

For this lesson #22, letter K was our focus letter, but not the letter used for the print awareness drill. Lowercase letter /p/ was the letter that the students needed to practice based on the struggles they had with reading and decoding. Teaching is flexible practice. Small adjustments can be made tailored to the students’ needs in the moment.

Fold the Page & Glue Only Half Down

Notebooks start to get full quickly. The printed decodable stories are great for reading and more. Folding the page before it is added to the notebook helps save space for more writing.

Folding creates space on the page and on the back of the folded area as well.

This routine of folding the page saved us a lot of space in our notebooks. Instead of using two pages for every lesson, we were able to use only one page per lesson.

Under this flap can be spelling words, sentences, irregular words or handwriting practice.

Get the UFLI decodable for the Toolbox. From the Resources Menu

Or the Printable Resources – for compiled lessons & Supplemental Decodable Passages

More About Organizing UFLI Supplies

Organized UFLI Resources

Links to TPT printables for UFLI-inspired resources

Why Decodable Comics Are the Missing Bridge Between Phonics and Comprehension

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Organized UFLI Resources

I taught reading intervention for many years. I found that the things that I used daily needed to be within reach and organized. Teachers often ask about supplies and must-haves for using the UFLI Foundations on Facebook posts. So, I have put together a few of my ideas. I hope that they are helpful to you.

How to keep your UFLI supplies organized

Whether you are just starting with UFLI or you have been doing this for a while, we all can learn from each other.

Must-haves to help the teacher with UFLI

When you’re teaching a lesson and you have the attention of your students, every moment counts. You do not want to be caught unprepared or, worse, need to get up and search for something that is lost.

Large coil binders were a great way for me to print out all my decodable stories and the roll and reads. The binding keeps them in order and easy to locate quickly. This also made them reusable. For the loose copies, I use the large display books. I can fit 10 or more in each pocket. It keeps them in order and handy near my reading table. Magazine holder turned sideways on my shelf. They are great for holding our blending boards.

The blending boards are metal whiteboards. We have 4 different sets; each set has more letters, progressing up to my highest readers. This picture is set 2 for my students that are on lesson 12. We have 5 to a set, 4 student boards, and one teacher board.

Having the boards pre-loaded and ready is helpful. It took a lot of time to set up with printing, cutting, and magnets, but it paid off. After we use them, the students return the letters to the top and put the clear plastic L pocket cover over the boards. The L pocket keeps the magnets on the board and allows me to store the boards upright. Extra magnet letters are in the smaller box to the side, for when we need to add another letter. Or when one letter temporarily goes missing.

In the ULFI toolbox the printable blending boards are called Word Work Mat. Or you can use the digital word work mat. We used customized mats in the picture above. The TPT link is below.

Vowel Importance

If your taking the time to print them on paper. My suggest is make the vowels a special color. My student were struggling with the vowel sound and understanding the importance of vowels in the words. My custom blending board for word work was a way to reach them on a visual level and highlighting the difference between vowels and consonants.

We love our roll and reads. We use them in a lot of different ways. This is a two-player game. Competitive 4-in-a-row reading. Each player reads a word and places the colored chip down. If the player misreads the word, the other player gets to put down their chip instead.

Printable Resources

The UFLI Toolbox is full of great stuff. There is a lot of free stuff in the printable Resources. Check there first. A lot of the same stuff is on TPT with a bit more flash and customized stuff. I made my own blending boards to fit with the decodables books we were using for ESL. Regular and with picture-embedded tiles for the language learners that match my handwriting letter sheets.

Blending board options

I found a whiteboard that stands up. Instead of using the flat whiteboards. From Kmart.

It was nice for a hands-free option. The extra heart tile was added to practice the heart words. We put the heart over the letter that is tricky. ♥️ The girls loved that. One boy wanted a star instead. ⭐

Tabs are helpful

♥️ Love the UFLI Manual. I’m trying to keep it in good shape. I applied a clear cover of contact paper to the front and back. I also made large tabs for my book and files. They were printed on 11×17 ledger-size paper, laminated, and cut.

These were printed on standard size paper 8.5×11 . There keep my phonogram cards organized.

This is what they look like printed on colored paper. Carefully cut, you get to cards out of one sheet of paper. They can be used for heart words or anything else that you need to be sorted. They are on TPT UFLI Tabs with lesson #’s

Small group items organized. The small containers for colored clips with lids that are attached. They came from a take-out restaurant. Sauce cups or something. The dice are in a small container and taped shut. To keep the dice from getting lost. Kids just shake it and read the number. No more chasing the dice all over the table and floor.

The white electrical tape and thin black marker are for fast labeling of games and books.

The picture on the right is a lot of my personal designs for visual phonics and word lists. We call them spelling cheat sheets. The colorful mnemonics help the students make sound connections to the letters embedded in the shapes of the letters. Vowel teams, digraphs, trigraphs, and suffixes. I have put spelling rules and word lists on the back. They are grouped by the UFLI scope & sequence plus some extra spelling bonuses that are not covered by UFLI. The kids love them. I like convenience and visuals.

They are on TPT. I have them printed as Large displays for my lessons and smaller for groups.

Many people have asked for handwriting practice. That aligns to ULFI.

I have made these worksheets to match the lesson numbers, articulation images, handwriting, heart words, and the decodable words. Includes lowercase and capital letter matching.

Phonics Articulation Roll, fill, trace, and read A-Z UFLI lesson #’s

These sheets have a little bit of each lesson plus the handwriting and the sound articulation altogether in one place.

ULFI does have free heart words on their site. I love the toolbox. They are on the printable resources page. Many people have asked for the lesson numbers on the cards. I agree; it does make it a little bit easier. So I made some for myself and indicated if it was an irregular word or a temporary irregular decodable word on the card.

The lesson numbers and notes help me to stay organized and quickly explain to students that this true heart word or a temporary irregular word because we have not covered that lesson yet. Great for Orthographic Mapping.

For more sight words and orthographic mapping by sounds and spelling rules, I created a book to help keep me organized.

Heart Word Mapping Manual

What about comprehension?

Comprehension using comic boxes gets the student willing to re-read the text repeatedly and draw it out. This also breaks up the text into smaller chunks of reading. Some students look at a text-only page and push it away, saying, “That is too many words”. However, that same text put into boxes is easier to take on.

Get the FREE UFLI Comics on TPT. Pure Joy Teaching

I love using games to get students to practice reading. This is the best one for the foundational skills that students need, and they love to play it.

Support Reading Skills with Games

More About Interactive Notebooks

UFLI Notebook For Decodables

Targeted Roll & Reads for UFLI lessons

Easy Interactive Phonics Worksheets (UFLI Lessons 1–34)

Roll and read worksheets are a great way to gamify your literacy lessons.

These worksheets are targeted to build up the foundational skills that lead students to master reading and spelling.

Foundational skills: letters A-Z, letter tracing for handwriting, and sound articulation for letter sounds.

A-Z lessons found on TPT Pure Joy Teaching

Phonics Roll Write and Read Games FLSZ, Digraphs, wh, th, sh, ch, nk, ng, vowels

Vowel focused fill in the blank for decoding and encoding practice. Roll and Read worksheets for lessons 42-53

Phonics Roll, Read, and Write Games FLSZ, Digraphs, wh, th, sh, ch, nk, ng, vowels

As reading and spelling lessons advance, these Roll, Read & Write worksheets have spelling notations and affix definitions listed on the bottom of the page.

Lesson 53-128

Students who struggle with sight words can get some targeted spelling, reading, and writing practice with these.

Pattern-based learning is stronger than rote memory tactics. These Roll, Read & Write worksheets use the sight words to teach the spelling patterns.

Contractions

s /z/ sounds: Voiced & plural

Schwa a /uh/

Schwa o , Pattern v, n, m, th,

Schwa a, o, e /uh/

th/th voiced/unvoiced

w/wh

ch/sh

Long, short o, & /ö/ oo

Long, short e & o sounds.1

Different syllable types

Long, short e & o .2

Different syllable types

Long a spellings a-e, ay, ai, ey

Long e spellings e-e, ee, ea, y

Long, short i sounds – Many syllable types

Long, short i – I, i-e, igh, ie, y, ind, ild

Final silent e – Many reasons for silent e

Short oo / u / ou ⟨ʊ⟩ 2nd Long u

Other UFLI resources

UFLI Inspired Word Lists

Looking for: Decodables with more comprehension value?

Why Decodable Comics Are the Missing Bridge Between Phonics and Comprehension

R-Controlled Vowel Spelling Charts for ar, or, er, ir, ur – UFLI Lessons 77–83 influenced

Targeted Spelling Support for R-Controlled Vowels

Struggling with R-Controlled Spelling? Try These UFLI-Inspired Word Charts for ar, or, er, ir, and ur, which are colorful and engaging visuals for targeted spelling support.

These word lists are an easy, no-prep solution for transitioning quickly between different small reading group lessons and wall displays. The students find them visually engaging, and they are handy to have in the classroom near the reading group. The R-controlled spelling charts feature:

Word lists are sorted in a similar fashion to UFLI lessons 77-83

ar – or
or – ore
or – ore – or (W+ar)
er – ir – ur
er – ir – ur er(w+or)
ar – or – er – ir – ur

Additional lessons are available for R-controlled Trigraphs spelling charts & many more UFLI-style word lists.

Students love the Uno-style games as a great follow-up reading practice after a small group.

UFLI Inspired Word Lists

UFLI inspired anchor charts with words lists and picture embedded vowel teams. Visual aids for quick spelling lessons helps to draw students into reading with well organized spelling patterns.

Word list with the extra picture embedded phonics images.

Spelling cheat sheet that students love to read. Grouped by sounds to help students remember spelling patterns. Amazing anchor charts.

UFLI lessons 20, 21, 63, 76, 99, 106, & 110..

Get your word lists here.

Plural suffix endings S ES IES VES & more. Organized reference materials with word lists, spelling rules, and engaging picture-embedded phonics posters and cards.

Included-

S – Unvoiced

S – Voiced /z/

ES – Voiced /z/

IES – Voiced /z/

VES – Voiced /z/ – change /f/ to /v/

Bonus Doubling Rule (+y, +ed, +er, +ing, +est)

Lessons 44, 54-59 & more. K sound endings

k, ck, ke, ic,

Are the students struggling with when to use ck, ke, k, or ic when writing words? Final k sounds can be tricky. There are some spelling rules to teach them about vowel sounds, vowel teams, multi-syllable words, and the suffix -ic. Posters with word lists, picture-embedded letters and color-coded word spelling words.

You get 4 posters – They can be printed on double-sided.

UFLI Lessons 48 & 71 ch & tch

Get these anchor charts here.

ick or ic, the answer is in the syllables.

tch or ch, the answer is in the syllables.

3 different posters and word lists on the back.

Spelling rules /tch/ will follow a single syllable short vowel, and the letter t will be silent.

ch can follow vowel teams, r-controlled, or consonants.

Posters have mnemonic pictures embedded for visual spelling clues.

The letter c has teeth to chew or chop the h shaped chicken leg.

UFLI Lessons 60 & 61 Soft c & g

Find soft C & G list here.

Learning soft c & g can be tricky! Knowing the patterns can help.

These anchor charts have mnemonic picture-embedded letters, word lists, and spelling tips to help learn and remember some of the soft c & g tricks.

The vowels e, i, y, are very important to the spelling pattern.

Anchor charts have colorful visual reminders and word lists that follow the same spelling pattern. Some have spelling tips and clues to help teach this as a lesson or to place it in the classroom as a reference guide, with some homophones included.

UFLI lessons 58, 89, 90, 91 +more “ui” spellings

Vowel teams ue, ew, u-e, u, have 2 long u sounds. The tricky spelling is organized on reference posters with word lists, spelling rules, and engaging picture-embedded phonics posters and cards. Great companion materials for

Ue, ew, ui, oo, u-e spellings

What are the Two Sounds of long U?

Listen for the /y/ sound “Y-oo”. The letter name.
Listen for the /oo/ sound – “oo”

You Get Both

Posters – Double-sided with word lists, spelling pattern notes, and Phonics Phoneme images.

Included- 4 double-sided posters – 8 pages

Basic “Y-OO” sounds u-e, ue, ew (3) spelling patterns
Basic “oo” (3) Spelling patterns u-e, ue, ew, u, eu,
1st long U spellings (5) U-e, eu, u, ue, ew “Y-oo” s
2nd U-e, oo, ew, ue, ui, ou, u, oe, “oo” sound (9) spelling patterns

These posters and word lists are great for students. Pictures are attention-grabbing and memorable sound clues to phonics vowel teams.

Help for students

Lesson 98 silent letters

kn, wr, & mb. Spelling pattern on TPT

Lessons 111 & 121 er, ar, or

Tricky er spellings and suffixes er, or, and ist. TPT

Lesson 111 er, ar, or

er, – runner, jumper

ar, or (not always a suffix)

-or = /er/ doctor, author, actor, sensor, scissor,

-ar + /er/ sugar, polar, solar, collar, dollar,

Lesson 121 er, or, ist

+er – Makes a verb or action into a noun

+or – Makes a verb into a noun

+ist = Makes a noun into a skilled person

————————————————————–

Lesson 112 – air, are, ear + more

Great resource to support the many spellings of “air”. Spelling are, ear – Lesson 112, plus more eir, err, arr, ere, & ur. Colorful picture embedded letters (phonographs) and word lists. NO PREP! Easy to help reinforce the trigraph r-controlled vowel teams. Full of homophone words.

Lesson 112 air sounds spelling – air, are, ear +more

UFLI Lessons 118 & 120 Ch sounds Sh, K & Ture

Get your copy here.

Many sounds and spelling of ch, emergent to advanced alternative spellings.

/ch/ /k/ /sh/

ch, tch,

vowel digraph+ch

vowel consonant +ch

alternative ch spelling /tu/

tue, ture & other suffix endings.

Heart Word Mapping Manual

What is UFLI? – It is a great evidence-based approach to teaching structured literacy. You can find out more about UFLI foundations toolbox here.

Targeted handwriting and sound articulation Roll and Read wordsheets 1-34

Amazing worksheet, everything you need for a-z lessons in one place.

Phonics Articulation Roll Fill Trace Read a-z influenced by ULFI Lessons 1-34, +Heart words – on TPT.

The beauty of these worksheets is that everything is on one sheet, and it is easier than juggling many resources. Great for intervention and centers.

Suffix Eraser Whiteboard Game

This is an easy no-prep whiteboard game that we did the other day. We simply used some words from the UFLI lesson 107 suffix spelling changes roll and read. They had to remember to erase the double consonants and the suffix.

Students are challenged to find the hidden root words.

Added suffixes seem to come very naturally when we are speaking, but it grows more challenging when we need to spell or read these longer words.

Students are often intimidated by the length of a word. They often say “I don’t know” or “I can’t.” too quickly. Plural words and past tense words may be some of the first words they will encounter. I have made fun games for both of those skills.

This is an easy no-prep whiteboard game that we did the other day. I simply used some words from the UFLI lesson 107 suffix spelling changes. I wrote the words on the board and then the four students took turns trying to find the main root word. All the words that I chose had the double consonant pattern.

I used simple words like bag, pop, slip, win, and more…

The girls enjoyed it so much that we had to adapt the game and play it again the next day.

There are a lot of spelling skills that you can teach with just the suffix -ed.

1:1 Doubling
Drop the Y and add i
Drop the silent /e/ on long vowel words

Ed Said, “d, id, t.” Suffix Game

You can also use the game cards for sound sorting activities or making sentences for past and present.