People often inquire about the most effective method for teaching their child to read. If you follow the steps I outlined on this page, UFLI, your child will be reading, spelling, and forming letters correctly. This program is based on the science of reading and will build the necessary foundational literacy skills all children need. I teach from this daily, and it works! There are 128 lessons. Check out this link. Good luck!

Parents, please follow this simple step-by-step plan.

QUESTIONS? I answer all questions for free—judithearaujo@gmail.com. Parents, in UFLI, the child should be able to read and spell each word in each lesson. Please don’t forget to have your child spell words and sentences!

• Lesson 1: Teach your child how to form “a” correctly. Teach that short a says /a/.  Teach your child how to read and spell the sight word “the.” 

Always begin letter formation from the top down! To teach making a lowercase a, I always chant, “Make the letter c and go up and down.”

• Lesson 2: Teach that m says /m/. Correctly form it.

• Lesson 3: Teach that s says /s/. Correctly form it.

• Lesson 4: Teach that t says /t/. Correctly form it.

Please print out these grapheme cards. Your child says the SOUND of the letter(s), not the name. Only drill short a, m, s, t. Put the rest away! Please incorporate the lesson’s new letter each day. 

Show your child how to tap and blend: at, sat, mat. (Do not teach the combination of am or as because the glued sound am and s sounding like /z/ in as comes up later.)

• Lesson 5:  Find Lesson 5-68 here. IGNORE the title “Kindergarten.” I start with Lesson 1 regardless of the grade. Students who know their letters/sounds move faster through these beginning lessons, and it is also important to address and correct letter formation.

Your child must spell the words in the lesson’s Word Work Chain. How?

• Paper and pencil or a whiteboard OR
• Please print and assemble the printable word work mat. Put ALL letters away except a, m, s, t. Each day, add the lesson’s new letter! This format is what we use in school. 

Teachers or tutors, you can try these:

• Use the virtual blending board. The virtual blending board is GREAT—watch the tutorial video. You can set aside a small set of letters for your student to use. Here are the letters in each lesson.  The video will show you how, OR…
• Go directly to the beginner word work map and theintermediate word work map.

You will notice new irregular words in the individual lessons. As words are introduced, take them from heart words.  Your child must learn to read and spell these common English words quickly. The blue indicates the sounded-out part. The heart is the irregular part they must remember by heart.

• Lesson 6: Teach that p says /p/. Correctly form it. Find Lesson 5-68 here. Add p to the grapheme drill pile and the word mat.

Here are the letters used in each lesson going forward.

• Lesson 7: Teach that f says /f/. Correctly form it. Find Lesson 5-68 here. Add n to the grapheme drill pile and the word mat.

• Lesson 8: Teach that short i says /i/.  Correctly form it. Find Lesson 5-68 here, and NOW THE UFLI STORIES START! You’ll observe that the stories strictly adhere to the previously taught letters and sight words.  Lesson 8’s story ONLY contains the following letters: a, m, s, t, p, f, i, and sight words taught thus far. Add i to the grapheme drill pile and the word mat. 

HOW TO TEACH THE STORIES— 1. Give your child a chance to attempt to decode independently. 2. Read aloud the story to your child. Point to each word as you read. Pretend you are stuck and model tapping and blending. 3. Echo read sentence by sentence. (You read, and your child echoes back.) 4. Chorally read the whole story slowly with your child. POINT to each word. 5. Have your child read the story aloud. If stuck, the child can independently tap and blend. 6. Have your child read and reread for fluency and accuracy. 7. Save all stories for revisiting. Children need to point, as they tend to memorize them!

• Lessons 9–12:  Take the lesson from Lessons 5-68, correctly form new letters, and read, reread, and reread the corresponding UFLI stories. Add corresponding heart words and new letters to the grapheme drill and word mat.

• Lesson 13-128: Take the lesson from here—Lesson 69-128, correctly form new letters, and read, reread, reread the corresponding UFLI stories. Add corresponding heart words and new letters to the grapheme drill and word mat. Have your child read words from the lesson’s corresponding Roll and Reads! Borrow the dice from a game. Have your child roll the dice and read the 3 words. Cross off. Take turns rolling, tapping, and blending until all 6 columns have been read.

Check out Lead in Literacy for a chart of the heart words categorized by flash (decodable), heart, and temporary heart words (temporary until the phonics pattern is learned, and then the word becomes decodable).

If you are a teacher, check out these great UFLI links!

• • 128 FREE UFLI lesson plans WITH decodables and sight words.
  • ALL Decodables on One PDF 8-128 (There are no decodables for lessons before 8.) AND supplemental passages PDF 35a-110.
  • Decodables in a mini-version with corresponding trick words
  • UFLI Placement Test
  • Scope & Sequence with Heart Words
  • UFLI Decodable Reader’s Theater—All
  • UFLI Fluency by Unit—Compressed
  • L5 – L83 Fluency Triangles
  • ALL Roll & Reads 13-128 (There are no Roll & Reads for lessons before 13.) #92 is missing from the packet. Here it is!
  • Lessons 35a-110  – Instruct the students to cut the strips, shuffle, and arrange the stories in sequence.
  • The letters in each lesson
  • UFLI Lesson Links: Easy Teacher Access
  • Spelling Rules Lessons 42-53
  • Spelling Rules Lessons 69-76
  • Foundations-Home-Practice-K (Includes lessons 5-68) and Foundations-Home-Practice-Second (Includes lessons 38a-128).
  • Alignment to Common Core State Standards
  • UFLI Notebook Covers PDF

Create more stories for each UFLI lesson with Project Read. You get 3 free stories a week, but for a small fee, you can join and get unlimited stories each week.

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02/01/24

Edited on 10/05/25