Fluency Passages for Early Readers

As kids learn letters, sounds, phonics patterns, and sight words, they really start to unlock reading. However, knowing how to decode words and reading fluently are two different things. These 85 word family fluency passages work on combining word recognition and fluency to build up your readers’ skills and give them plenty of fun practice!

With a focus on word families and sight words, these story passages and fluency phrases are perfect for your early readers and will build up their confidence too!

Grab the passages as a CVC set, a CVCe set, or in a money saving bundle pack on Teachers Pay Teachers.

23 CVC Word Family Passages

The CVC fluency passages are my favorite to use with my beginning readers because they really help them realize “hey, I can read!”

The focus on short vowel word families (which we work really hard on) is a great confidence builder.

Plus, they get to illustrate the story after they read it! This really adds a layer of building comprehension, as you can see if their illustration matches the story.

There are 23 CVC word families included –

short a: -at, -am, -ap, -an, -ag, -ad
short e: -et, -en, -ed
short i: -it, -in, -ip, -ig, -id,
short o: -ot, -op, -ob, -og
short u: -un, -ub, -um, -ug, -ut

23 CVC Fluency Phrase Pages

The fluency phrases are a great extension to the stories, or can be used for quick practice, partner reading, take home practice – the possibilities are endless!

Mixing sight words and CVC words, along with different punctuation, helps students read fluently and with expression.

The same 23 CVC word families are included in the phrases as in the short story passages.

I like to have my students underline the word family chunk sometimes as well. This helps them identify patterns in words, which in turn helps them with their spelling.

18 CVCe Word Family Passages

After we have mastered CVC words, we are ready to tackle the beginning of long vowels with CVCe words!

These short stories are in the same format as the CVC stories. The kids read them, then illustrate them to show their understanding.

The following word families are represented for the CVCe stories –

-ace, -ave, -ale, -ame, -ade, -ape, -ake, -ate, -ice, -ide, -ike, -ine,
-ite, -ile, -ole, -ope, -ose, -one, -oke, -ote, -ute, -ule, -une, -ude

21 CVCe Fluency Phrase Pages

We continue building up knowledge of those long vowels with the CVCe fluency passages. The same word families are included here as were in the passages, making them fit very well together.

Again, I often have my students underline the chunk to show they are understanding the concept of a word family.

Ways to Use The Fluency Passages

You can use the fluency passages one at a time and send them home, or use them in small groups, whole groups, for partner reading – whatever works best for you!

I like to store them in a binder or folder and let my kids practice them during read to self or Daily 5 time. Then, we take them home later.

Get the Fluency Passages

You can grab all 82 pages of word family passages over on Teachers Pay Teachers. The bundle pack is one of our best sellers, but they are also available separately (CVC pack and CVCe pack).

Then, work on those CVCe words some more with our free CVCe printables!