Emergent readers play a big role in learning how to read. These 52 emergent readers are all free and all teacher-created! There are Holiday emergent readers, alphabet and sight words, themed printable readers, non-fiction, book based and vocabulary readers too!
How wonderful to be able to work on reading comprehension along with emerging reading skills all year long.
Holidays
Let’s start with the holidays! We’ve got fall themed, winter Holidays, spring and even a few printable books for just Christmas.
Thanksgiving Emergent Readers
1. Five Little Turkeys Emergent Reading – One little turkey goes missing on each page making this an adorable subtraction book. It starts out with five turkeys and has a fun ending for kids.
2. It Is Thanksgiving – What can we eat at Thanksgiving? This book allows beginning readers to focus on reading comprehension by using the pictures to complete the pattern sentences.
3. Thankful Emergent Reading – Based off the pattern of Brown Bear Brown Bear, What Can You See? This story will quickly walk students through the Thanksgiving Day story of pilgrims.
4. Hide, Turkey Hide! – This adorable turkey day book will have your students loving to discover where the turkey is hiding and encourage him to HIDE! Works on positional words too.
5. Pilgrim Boy, Pilgrim Boy – Using Thanksgiving Day characters, this book based off the pattern of Brown Bear Brown Bear, What Can You See? makes a nice reader for kindergarten or first grade.
Christmas Emergent Readers
6. Reindeer, Reindeer What Do You See? Christmas Book – Written in the form of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, this cute printable booklet will walk you through classic Christmas items like an elf, present, Santa’s sleigh and Santa himself. Students draw a surprise ending for themselves.
7. Sharing Cookies Christmas – This adorable reader is all about sharing cookies with different Christmas characters like Mrs. Claus and Santa. With two lines of text, it’s a great one for kindergarten!
8. Santa, Santa, What Do You See? – With fun “Christmasy” characters, this booklet based off the pattern of Brown Bear Brown Bear, What Can You See? will be sure to make a great printable for your class.
Winter Holidays Emergent Readers
9. President’s Day Emergent Reader – A simple book that is perfect for beginning readers. Students will read about President’s Day, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. It’s a “just right” fit for first grade and even some kindergarten classrooms.
10. Look in the Valentine’s Day Bag – This is a pattern book with a Valentine theme. It features look and see sight words for tracing.
11. Groundhog Emergent Reading – Walk through the parts of Groundhog Day with this black and white printable book. It’s not a pattern story, so is more for first and second grade or advanced kindergarten readers. (no longer available)
12. Dr.Seuss Emergent Reading – If you celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday or Read Across America then this booklet may need to make an appearance in your classroom. It incorporates a lot of recognizable characters and story lines that students are sure to recognize.
Spring Holidays Emergent Readers
13. St. Patricks Day – Walk through a cute St. Patrick’s Day themed booklet with lots of shamrocks, leprechauns and maybe even a pot of gold. A just right book for kindergarten and first grade.
14. Earth Day Emergent Reading – Cover recycling, reusing and reducing waste just in time for Earth day. An easy way to get social studies into your day during your guided reading groups.
15. Easter and Holy Week – With two versions of this interactive sight word reader, students can cut and paste a sight word for every page. One version is for Easter, the other is for Holy Week.
16. End Of Year Emergent Reading – This poem has been put into a booklet to make a quick and easy end of the year printable. Simple images make it a classic book.
Alphabet and Sight Word Emergent Readers
17. Alphabet Letter Book Emergent Reading – I was floored to see 26 {{yes, 26}} readers included in this one printable! It’s a go to resource in my kindergarten classroom and literally has you covered from A-Z. Each letter focuses on specific sight words and word structure patterns.
18. CVC Emergent Phonics – The short vowels are represented in these 5 CVC readers. Perfect for really hitting phonics on the nose! There’s one for short a, short e, short i, short o and short u.
Animal Non-Fiction Emergent Readers
Ready for some good content? Check out these non-fiction printable books on animals.
19. Insect Emergent Reading – Students will ask and answer what is an insect and classify different animals and insects as they read. It’s a quick printable for kindergarten. (no longer available)
20. Animals Emergent Reading – There are four different readers included in this set. You’ll find farm animals, zoo animals, forest animals and sea animals. These have minimal text and are level 1 or level A books.
21. Animals Can… – This is a playful set of readers featuring different animals. Some are non-fiction and others are more playful. These have one line of text and feature lots of animals. (Reported to not be working – *fingers crossed*)
22. Farm Animals – Sights words I, see and a appear in this simple printable book. They are such common words that books like this one are a must for learning how to read!
23. Arctic Animals – Featuring a simple text pattern of “This is an/a…” this book features arctic animals (Reported to not be working – *fingers crossed*)
24. Frog Life Cycle Booklet – Go through the life cycle of a frog including the tadpole stage with this booklet.
25. Ladybugs Life Cycle – Bring on the ladybugs with this life cycle themed booklet. Simple images will help students focus on using their beginning reader strategies.
26. Poison Dart Frogs – This non-fiction book is all about poision dart frogs and will have any boy’s attention. This site includes 11 more books too!
27. Penguin Emergent Reading – A fun, rhyming book focuses on penguins. Students will love the photographs as illustrations making this a high interest book to read.
Science and Non-Fiction Emergent Readers
28. Parts Of A Plant – This is a book that students write the parts of a plant (flower) and each page describes what the parts of a plant do. It covers the stem, roots, leaves, stamen and what a botanist is.
29. God Gave Us Earth Emergent Reading – This interactive sight word reader has students being involved in the reading by cutting and pasting. It’s about how God created the Earth and what he did on each day of creation.
30. Phases of the Moon Book – This set has 2 books. One is simply about the moon and the other is about the phases of the moon. Both great non-fiction readers for kindergarten and first grade.
31. Vegetable Emergent Reading – This is a color word booklet that uses the pattern, “I see a….” It covers a few basic vegetables and planting items. She includes how to print instructions since that can sometimes be tricky when you’re at the copy machine. {wink}
Themed Emergent Readers
32. Fairy Tales – Let’s start off with these four adorable fairy tale themed sight word readers. Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel and the Gingerbread Man are all so classic you can’t go wrong! They include sight words: look, a, the, I and see. You’ll love that she has 80+ sight word readers!
33. Alien Emergent Reading – This fun and silly alien leveled book is the equivalent of a level A/B or level 1/2 book. I has simple illustrations and will definitely capture a young boy’s interest.
34. Emergent Transportation Reading – Here is a set of four transportation booklets. It includes: the sky, cars, trucks and traffic. You’re sure to win over a few boy readers with this set!
35. I Like to Go – This reader includes touch dots for students to practice tracking print and touching words 1:1. Students fill in the missing sight words like, go and illustrate their own activity on the last page.
36. My Backpack – This backpack shaped readers features the sight words I, have, a, in and my. It has familiar classroom items which helps students with limited vocabulary be successful at reading!
37. The Snowman Emergent Reader – This snowman story has a colorful teacher version and black and white student version to print. It features color words and an “See my (color word) (object)” pattern.
38. Fun in the Snow – This book is an pattern of snowy characters who like to have fun in the snow, followed by “We all like to have fun in the snow.” There are two versions one that includes an additional line “They have a lot of fun.”
39. Hoppity Frog Spring Poem – Here is a rhyming printable book with a fun, spring poem. It would make a great shared reading piece to later be used for independent reading.
40. Fire Truck – This reader includes touch dots for students to practice tracking print and touching words 1:1. It’s all about your basic fire station items including a fire truck, dog, firefighter, hat and hose.
Book-Based Emergent Readers
41. Goldilocks Emergent Reading – This is a retelling version of the story Golidlocks and the Three Bears. It hits the main events in the story and does a good job of pointing out the simple pattern to the story.
42. Old Lady Swallowed a Bell Emergent Reading – Based on the book There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell by Lucille Colandro, this is a Christmas themed printable. At the end she says, “Happy Holidays!”
43. There Was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow – Based on the book There Was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow by Lucille Colandro, this is a winter themed printable. At the end she hiccups and makes a snowman.
44. There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick – Based on the book There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick by Lucille Colandro, this is an Easter themed printable. At the end she meets the Easter bunny.
45. Pete the Cat Loves His Shoes Emergent Reader – This easy reader is a color word book that uses Pete the Cat to hook kids. It’s perfect for any time during the year when you want to add a little motivation into beginning reading. Students color the pages to match the text.
46. The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza – Based on the book The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza by Philemon Sturges, this is a printable to take a twist on the classic Little Red Hen. The supporting characters all help at the end, having learned their lesson the first time around!
47. Grumpy Bird – Based on the book Grumpy Bird by Jeremy Tankard, this is a printable to accompany the read aloud. The bird sees animals and eventually smiles at the end.
Basic Skills Vocabulary Emergent Readers
48. Silly Shapes Emergent Reading – Work on naming the basic 2D shapes with this printable. The words are spaced far apart making it ideal for new readers.
49. Color Words Booklet – Using school items that are familiar to most students, this two word per page book is a color word book.
50. Color Words Penguin Reader – This fill in the blank color word printable book features an adorable penguin with colorful sweaters. Students fill in color words and color the pictures to match.
51. Positional Words – Weather fun with an umbrella as students practice positional words above, below to describe where the umbrella is. This reader includes touch dots for students to practice tracking print and touching words 1:1.
52. Sea Life Counting Book – Students can work on counting and recognizing numbers in this counting book that features ocean creatures. Works on numbers 1-10 and includes two versions.
Thanks talented teachers – your emergent readers are fantastic! Feel free to grab the “I’m a Featured Teach Junkie” blog button as your creations are definitely worth the shout out. {{high fives}}
More Emergent Reader Resources
- 5 Quick Reading Tips and Fun Ideas
- 4 ELA Beginning Reader CVC Games {Free Download}
- 3 ELA Beginning Sounds and Blends Worksheets
Leslie {aka the original Teach Junkie} loves learning new things to make teaching easier and more effective. She enjoys featuring creative classroom fun when she's not designing teacher shirts, making kindergarten lesson plans or planning her family's next trip to Disney World.