Literacy Support Kit

If your students struggle with standard literacy intervention, then you need the Literacy Support Kit.

The Literacy Support Kit is designed to bridge the gap and provide differentiation and variety for students who struggle with the most basic literacy skills.

Most structured literacy programs assume a certain level of knowledge or ability that many children do not have, particularly those living with severe dyslexia, dysgraphia, intellectual disability, or other difficulties. The Literacy Support Kit provides enhanced support with fine-grained guidance that teachers, tutors and parents can use at their discretion to meet each student’s individual needs. 

The kit includes detailed instructions and over 500 pages of ready-to-use resources.

Key Features

  • Phonemic Knowledge: Quickly introduces single phonemes to start reading one-syllable words.
  • Simplifying Complex Concepts: Avoids unusual vowel variations initially; limits concept cards to suit student readiness.
  • Handwriting Skills: Provides specific support for dysgraphia, focusing on pencil grip, letter formation, cursive, print and tricky letter combinations.
  • Integration with Playberry Tier 3 and other Tier 3 programs.

The Literacy Support Kit is designed to seamlessly integrate with the Playberry Tier 3 program and can also be used alongside any other existing structured literacy program. This support ensures consistency and makes it easier for students to transition back into their primary literacy program, effectively meeting their individual needs.

When Standard Structured Literacy Is Too Demanding

Literacy Support Kit is here to bridge the gap, providing the necessary aid to help students succeed in their literacy journey. Whether integrating with Playberry Tier 3 or any other program, Literacy Support Kit adapts to meet each child’s unique needs, ensuring they can thrive and progress at a comfortable pace.

Why Choose These Resources?

Do you struggle to find the time to create modified teaching materials, or are you unsure how to structure lessons that meet your students’ diverse needs? We understand educators’ challenges, and we’ve done the hard work for you.

Our comprehensive teaching resources are designed to save time, boost your confidence, and support your students’ literacy success.

  • Time-Saving Solutions: As an educator, your time is valuable. We’ve crafted a ready-to-use material suite that requires no additional preparation—print and teach. These resources are structured to maximize classroom efficiency, allowing you to focus on delivering high-quality instruction rather than spending countless hours creating materials from scratch.
  • Expertly Developed Content: Our resources are developed by seasoned literacy educators who understand the nuances of teaching students with varying needs. You don’t need to be an expert to use them—each resource is accompanied by clear, step-by-step instructions that guide you through the teaching process. From the initial assessment to foundational literacy skills, we provide everything you need to support your students effectively.
  • Comprehensive Coverage: Whether your students are beginning readers or require more advanced interventions, our materials cover a wide spectrum of literacy skills. Our resources are divided into two levels:
    • Blue Level: Designed for students who need very fine-grained support and simple, achievable activities.
    • Green Level: Tailored for students who need extra basic skills practice before progressing to the next stage of their Tier 3 program.
      This structured approach ensures that you can meet your students where they are and help them progress at the right pace.

How the Literacy Support Kit modifies reading instruction for students who struggle

Inclusive and Flexible: Every child’s learning journey is unique, and our resources are flexible enough to accommodate this diversity. Whether you’re working with young students who are just starting or older students who need targeted intervention, our materials are designed to adapt to their specific needs, ensuring they experience success and growth.

Severe Dyslexia

  • Focus on CVC Words and Limited Blends: By working only with simple, consistent word structures (e.g., cat, dog, ship), the LSK reduces the cognitive load of decoding. This helps students build confidence and fluency without being overwhelmed by irregularities or complex patterns.
  • Explicit Instruction: Each step is clearly explained, ensuring students can focus on connecting sounds to letters without confusion or assumptions about prior knowledge.
  • Repetition and Practice: The LSK provides plenty of opportunities to practise skills in a variety of formats, reinforcing the neural pathways needed for decoding and spelling.

Dysgraphia

  • Focus on CVC Words and Limited Blends: The LSK reduces the physical and cognitive demands of writing by starting with simple, consistent word structures. This ensures students can concentrate on building fluency without being overwhelmed by complex tasks.
  • Gradual Progression: The handwriting sequence moves from pre-letter formation to letter formation, allowing students to develop the fine motor skills needed for writing without pressure.

Intellectual Disability

  • Simple, Manageable Steps: The focus on simple CVC words and limited blends breaks down literacy learning into small, achievable tasks that are easier to process and retain.
  • Slower, Explicit Approach: The LSK moves at a pace suited to students’ needs, ensuring understanding before progressing. This helps reduce confusion and supports generalisation of skills across contexts.
  • Variety in Practice: Activities are diverse, preventing boredom and maintaining engagement while still targeting essential skills.

Slow Processing Speed

  • Reduced Complexity: CVC words and limited blends ensure that students aren’t overwhelmed by too much information at once, allowing more time for processing.
  • Clear, Explicit Instruction: Every task is broken into clear, bite-sized steps, ensuring students can follow along without feeling rushed.
  • Practice at Their Own Pace: The LSK allows students to repeat activities as often as needed, ensuring mastery before moving forward.

Limited Working Memory

  • Small, Focused Chunks of Information: By working with simple CVC words, the LSK minimises the amount of information students need to hold in their memory at once.
  • Frequent Practice and Review: Regular, varied practice helps solidify learning, reducing the strain on working memory and making it easier to recall skills later.
  • Consistent Structure: Activities follow a predictable format, helping students build confidence and reducing cognitive load by eliminating unnecessary surprises

The LSK’s Unique Approach

The Literacy Support Kit ensures success for students by:

    • Going Slowly: The deliberate pace ensures students have time to absorb and master each concept.
    • Being Explicit: Skills are taught step by step, leaving no gaps in understanding and building a solid foundation.
    • Providing Variety in Practice: Engaging, multi-sensory activities maintain interest and reinforce learning through multiple modalities.
    • Focusing on Simple Word Structures: By limiting the scope to CVC words and blends, the LSK provides a safe, manageable entry point into literacy that supports even the most struggling learners.

Breakdown of Resources

Screening and Diagnostic Tools
Start with our Chunk and Word Screening Sheets, designed to quickly assess your students’ current literacy level. These tools help you determine whether the Blue or Green level materials are appropriate for each student.

  • Blue Level: Focuses on simple CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words and VC (vowel-consonant) chunks. This level is ideal for students who need to build foundational skills.
  • Green Level: Targets simple CCVCC (consonant-consonant-vowel-consonant-consonant) words and initial consonant blends. Tailored for students who need extra practice of basic skills before progressing to the next stage of their Tier 3 program.

The screening sheet is easy to administer and provides clear guidance on which resources to use next.

Reading and Fluency Development
Our Reading Sheets are designed to enhance students’ decoding skills and reading fluency. The sheets are available in both Blue and Green levels, allowing you to tailor instruction to each student’s ability.

  • Blue Level Reading Sheets: Focus on simple phoneme recognition and blending. These sheets are perfect for students who are still sounding out each letter but need practice moving towards fluent reading of single-syllable words.
  • Green Level Reading Sheets: Introduce slightly more complex words and focus on blending and fluency. These sheets help students move from laborious decoding to smooth, confident reading.
  • Tracking Sheets that reinforce the chunks or rimes (like ‘en’ in ‘pen’). These sheets are crucial for building fluency, as they require students to repeatedly practice and master each chunk before moving on.

Simplified reading sheets and cloze sheets for young or struggling learners

As students build their phonemic knowledge, reading material should be provided at a level where they can experience mastery. We have included reading sheets and cloze activities for initial code [a-z] with a choice of 2 levels. The blue level is for students who need to build fluency with CVC reading. The green level is for students who are able to tackle words which are ccvc or ccvcc.

  • Simplified Reading sheets: Each sheet contains words and sentences to practise reading with a particular phoneme. Repeated reading [3 x] is encouraged.
  • Cloze activities: From the earliest stages, we want our students to be reading for meaning. We have provided simple cloze activities to enhance their reading practice.

Handwriting and pre-writing Mastery Tools
Strong handwriting skills are essential for literacy, and our resources are designed to develop these skills step by step. We offer a range of activities and worksheets that cater to students at different stages of handwriting development.

  • Letter Introduction Sheets: We have introductory sheets for both print and cursive letters for students who are ready to learn how to write whole letters.
  • Letter Stroke Sheets: These sheets break down each letter into its component strokes, allowing students to practice the basics before attempting full letter formation. The sheets are available in both print and cursive formats, and each comes with detailed instructions on how to introduce and practice each stroke.
  • Letter Challenge Sheets: Once students are comfortable with basic letter formation, these sheets introduce more complex tasks that require maintaining control while writing within defined spaces. This helps refine their fine motor skills and ensures they can form letters consistently and legibly.
  • Chunk Maze Worksheets: These fun and engaging sheets combine fine motor practice with literacy skills. Students navigate through mazes while practicing letter formation and recognizing phonetic chunks, making learning both interactive and providing variety for students.

High-Frequency Word Mastery
High-frequency words (HF words) can be tricky for students, especially when they don’t follow standard phonetic rules. Our resources offer a structured approach to mastering these words, ensuring students can recognize and spell them with confidence.

  • HF Word Worksheets: These worksheets provide practice in tracing, copying, and dictating high-frequency words. The activities are designed to reinforce the correct spelling and usage of these words, making them easier for students to recall.
  • HF Word Games: Learning is more effective when it’s fun, which is why we’ve included engaging games like Chunky Pig and Snakes and Ladders. These games reinforce high-frequency words and phonetic chunks in an enjoyable, low-pressure environment, encouraging students to practice without feeling overwhelmed.

Phoneme Blending and Fluency Building
For students who struggle with blending phonemes into words, we offer targeted activities that focus on improving this critical skill.

  • Onset and Rime Activities: These activities help students blend phonemes more efficiently, moving from slow, segmented reading (like p-e-n) to fluid word recognition (pen). By repeatedly practicing with specific chunks, students quickly improve their fluency.
  • Chunk Tracking Sheets: These sheets allow students to practice recognizing and blending specific chunks (e.g., ‘en’, ‘it’, ‘end’). The tracking process is designed to build speed and accuracy, which are essential for fluent reading.

Get Started Today
Don’t let the lack of time or expertise hold you back from delivering exceptional literacy instruction. With our ready-to-use resources, you can transform your teaching and help your students achieve their full potential. Explore our collection, print what you need, and start making a difference in your classroom today.

For Teachers:

Seamlessly Integrate into Your Existing Curriculum
As a teacher, you’re tasked with managing diverse classrooms where students often progress at different rates. Our resources are designed to seamlessly integrate into your existing curriculum, allowing you to offer personalized support without overhauling your entire teaching plan.

  • Enhance Differentiated Instruction: Use the blue and green level materials to provide tailored support for students who need extra help or advanced challenges. The clear progression between levels makes it easy to match the right resources to each student’s needs, ensuring they remain engaged and on track.
  • Streamline Lesson Planning: With our ready-to-use materials, lesson planning becomes a breeze. Whether you’re introducing new phonemes, reinforcing high-frequency words, or developing handwriting skills, these resources can be slotted into your lesson plans with minimal preparation time.
  • Track and Assess Progress: Utilize our screening and tracking sheets to regularly assess your students’ progress. These tools allow you to quickly identify areas where students might need additional practice or intervention, ensuring no one falls behind.

 

For Tutors:

Tailor-Made for Individualized Learning. As a tutor, your focus is often on providing one-on-one or small group instruction, which requires resources that are both flexible and effective. Our materials are ideal for supplementing your tutoring sessions, providing structured yet adaptable content that meets each student where they are.

  • Customized Support: Use our screening tool to quickly assess a student’s current abilities and then select the appropriate blue or green level resources. This ensures that each session is targeted, addressing the student’s specific needs without overwhelming them.
  • Flexible Session Planning: The variety of activities—from phoneme recognition to handwriting mastery—allows you to tailor each tutoring session to the student’s immediate goals. Whether you’re focusing on reading fluency or writing skills, these resources offer the flexibility to adjust your approach based on the student’s progress.
  • Build Confidence and Independence: Our step-by-step guides and supportive activities help students build confidence in their abilities. By gradually increasing the difficulty level, you can guide students towards independence, making them more self-sufficient learners over time.

 

For Parents:

Support Your Child’s Learning at Home. As a parent, you play a crucial role in your child’s education, especially when it comes to supporting their learning outside of school hours. Our resources are designed to be parent-friendly, allowing you to reinforce what your child is learning at school or in tutoring sessions.

  • Easy-to-Follow Instructions: You don’t need to be a literacy expert to help your child succeed. Each resource comes with clear instructions that guide you through the activities, making it easy to support your child’s learning at home.
  • Reinforce School Learning: Use our reading sheets, handwriting practice, and phoneme activities to reinforce what your child is learning in school. These materials are aligned with standard literacy progressions, ensuring that your child’s home practice complements their classroom education.
  • Engaging and Fun Activities: Keep your child motivated with our interactive games like Chunky Pig and Snakes and Ladders. These activities make learning enjoyable, turning practice into a fun bonding time that also strengthens your child’s literacy skills.
  • Monitor and Celebrate Progress: Track your child’s progress with our easy-to-use screening tool. Celebrate their successes, no matter how small, to build their confidence and encourage a love of learning.