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Silly Decodable,

Get the Kid!

Have fun with decodable text.

By Janice Behrens | Design by Marybeth Butler Rivera
From the October/November 2025 Issue

Learning Objective: Students will decode words with a short vowel CVC pattern and understand the sequence of events in a story.

Lexiles: 100L
Featured Skill: Fluency, Vocabulary,
Common Core Standards
  • RF.1.a Distinguishing features of a sentence RF.1.3 Decoding RF.1.4 Fluency SL.1.1 Participate in collaborative discussions with peers and adults
TEKS Standards
  • English Language Arts
    (2) Developing and sustaining foundational language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking—beginning reading and writing. The student develops word structure knowledge through phonological awareness, print concepts, phonics, and morphology to communicate, decode, and spell. The student is expected to: (A) demonstrate phonological awareness by: (iii) distinguishing between long and short vowel sounds in one-syllable words; (B) demonstrate and apply phonetic knowledge by: (i) decoding words in isolation and in context by applying common letter sound correspondences.

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Story Navigation

Get the Kid!

It is big. It is red.

Fun! Can I get it?

Up,

up,

up!

Oh no!

I can get the kid.

I can fix it.

No. I will get him.
It is my job to go up. 

But he is up to the sun!

Let me zip up to him.

No, I will hit it.
It will pop. Get set, kid!

Pop!

Run! Get the net set.

That was fun! 

It was not. 

Play Make Words With Nosey Game

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Activities (2)
Skills Activities
Answer Key (1)
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Slideshows (1)
Activities (2) Download All Quizzes and Activities
Skills Activities
Answer Key (1)

More About the Article

English Language Arts Focus

Phonics and Phonological Awareness

Fluency

Phonics Focus

Short Vowel Sounds

Word List

get, kid, big, red, fun, can, up, fix, got, job, but, sun, let, zip, hit, pop, set, run, net, not

High Frequency Words

will, that, was

Challenge Words

no, my, he, me

Step-by-Step Lesson Plan
Download the Lesson Plan

Implementation

  • Whole group: This text is controlled for CVC words with short vowels. Encourage students to use decoding strategies like continuous blending. Practice choral and echo reading to improve fluency and intonation.
  • Technology Time: Students can listen to and read along with the read-aloud feature with the article. They can also play the accompanying online game for more practice.

Pairings and Text Connections

  • From the Storyworks 1 archive: “Mud Bath” (October/ November 2022); “Get in Bed, Ted” (October/November 2024)

Before-Reading Resources

  • Word sounds slideshow (3 minutes) Warm up reading muscles by practicing short vowel CVC words.

Suggested Reading Focus

Phonics/Comprehension (20 minutes)

  • Review short vowel sounds with students. Discuss mouth shape when making each short vowel sound.
  • Say these words aloud. Ask students to identify the medial sound and vowel in each word:
    • cat - short a /ă/ 
    • bug - short u /ŭ/
    • pet - short e /ĕ/ 
    • sit - short i /ĭ/
    • hop - short o /ŏ/
  • Review high-frequency words from the story. Students can practice reading words with a partner, as a class, and individually.
  • As children read, check comprehension: What did the chick get? What happened next? How do the chicks try to save their friend? Did the chick like floating away? Why did the other chicks say it was not fun?
  • Have students review the story and circle short vowel words in different colors:
    • short a - red 
    • short e - orange
    • short i - yellow 
    • short o - green
    • short u - blue

After-Reading Skills Practice

  • Skills: short vowels (15 minutes)

Text-to-Speech