phonics program

In the last post, I talked about Stories For Young Readers from Kinney Brothers Publishing and how to purchase the series for your classes.  In this post, I’ll focus on our Phonics & Spelling series.  I’ll provide links for purchasing and recommended support materials for each text to help you plan for new classes. Check out this post if you’re looking for supplementary resources for your classes.

For many teachers, a solid phonics program is the cornerstone of their pre-K thru elementary classes. Focused phonics lessons and phonemic awareness improve pronunciation, listening comprehension, and give students the confidence to read and understand English. The Kinney Brothers Publishing five-book Phonics &Spelling series is designed to teach kids the fundamental sounds and spelling of English in a multi-year, step-by-step ESL program.

The Phonics & Spelling series is also published by Independent Publishers International (I.P.I.) in Japan and available with a special discount for overseas customers through David Paul’s ETJ Book Service.

You’ll find an abundance of support materials for this series in our online store, Donald’s English Classroom.  Visit for downloadable flashcards, charts, games, and activities.

A to Z is the first step to introducing very young ESL students to the ABCs and phonics. If your kids are just learning to hold a pencil, this is the perfect primer.  Children love coloring the large images and build dexterity writing the upper and lower-case letters. Included are easy dot-to-dot coloring pages, mazes, and matching exercises.  Check out the preview to learn more.

ABC & Phonics, Book 1 lays the groundwork for phonetic based learning and focuses on writing and identifying upper and lower case ABCs.  With basic writing, matching, and ordering exercises, teachers can readily assess student progress.  The alphabet is broken down into four sections, a-f, g-l, m-r and s-z with a review for each section.  Click here for support materials that include flashcards, charts, games, and activities that make learning the ABCs fun!  You can download a preview for this textbook here.

Phonics & Spelling, Book 2 begins with a review of the ABCs and sets students on their first exercises in sounding out, reading, and writing three-letter (CVC) words.  Learned vocabulary is then set into easy sentences to teach students fundamental sentence constructs and meaning. Step by step, students also learn how to read and write a simple self-introduction.  The exercises progress in an easy-to-teach, easy-to-comprehend approach adaptable to any program. Included are review pages, puzzles, games, and reading exercises that students find challenging and fun!  Be sure to check out the preview here!

Phonics & Spelling, Book 3 takes students further in building English reading and writing skills.  Book 3 begins with a review of CVC words and then takes students to the next challenge of reading, writing, and spelling silent ‘e’ (CVCe) words, words with ea-ee-ey spelling, as well as th, sh, and ch digraphs.  Exercise pages also include practice with numbers, plurals, more extended reading practice, and basic question forms using do and can.  Check out the preview here!

Phonics & Spelling, Book 4 completes the phonics series with almost two hundred packed pages of phonics lessons, reading and writing practice, puzzles, spelling tests, and Q&A drills. Exercises include consonant blends, digraphs, diphthongs, and practice with silent k, g, and ion.  The phonics lessons in this textbook create a solid foundation that supports students in their future English language learning.  Download a preview here.

If you’d like to learn more about all Kinney Brothers Publishing has to offer, please download our catalogues!  Peruse the complete lineup of our Global Edition ESL Textbooks or check out our ESL Store right from your desktop!  Sign up for our newsletter and download a free CVC I Have/Who Has Activity Set!

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at info@kinneybrothers.com.

As always, best of luck in your classes!

Donald Kinney
Kinney Brothers Publishing
kinneybrothers.com