Julia Shayto from Phonics & Stuff at the Virginia Reading League Conference
Had a great time at the Virginia Reading League Conference today! Hope we can do it again soon! @thereadingleagueva.bsky.social
Last night I gave a talk about how we can create our customizable games! Thanks to LearnUp Centers for hosting and publishing the recording.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkRG...
Looking forward to it! I picked up that book recently and have been enjoying it so far.
Graph showing words learned by teaching the letter sounds s, a, t, p, i, and n. A student would have 63 words total and 32 new words when learning the 'n' letter.
For example, if you want to start with 's', 'a', 't', 'p', 'i', 'n'. By the time you get to 'n' you'll get 32 new words and have 63 words total.
We built a new toy. You can make any letter sequence you want and see what words you learn at each step. Come try it out! Show us your best (and worst) sequences for teaching letter sounds.
phonicsandstuff.com/letter-seque...
LearnUp Speaker Series - What an analysis of 30,000 words tells us about how to teach reading. Join us for a free webinar with Julia Shayto, who will be sharing insights on how to teach readign based on extensive analysis of phonics and spelling patterns. Wednesday, February 4th 2026. 6 - 7 PM PST https://www.eventbrite.com/e/learnup-speaker-series-with-julia-shayto-creator-of-phonicsstuff-tickets-1979748963443
Join us for a virtual event hosted by LearnUp Centers and Phonics & Stuff! I'll be talking about how to use the Phonics & Stuff tools to teach reading. I've broken down 30,000 words so you don't have to! Come learn how this fuels our free games and teaching tools.
www.eventbrite.com/e/learnup-sp...
Is this just examining the existing growth mindset that the students have when they come to school, or does it look at the effect of teachers spending class time on activities meant to build growth mindset?
A few years ago there was a story about using captions to improve literacy levels in rural India. They found the practice to be helpful, but it took longer than 6 weeks.
www.thenationalnews.com/lifestyle/hi...
www.planetread.org/images/pdf/r...
Explore interconnected morphemes as webs! Similar to a morpheme matrix, a morpheme web shows the variety of words that can be built with a morpheme base.
We offer a handful of free ones, while members get access to over 5,000 morphemes!
phonicsandstuff.com/morpheme-webs
I've had a great time the past several years. Looking forward to it again!
Sold a Story fans - we've got something new! www.youtube.com/shorts/a94It...
We have a new daily puzzle! It's a fun way to learn different morphemes, but really it's just an excuse to have another word puzzle for me to play.
phonicsandstuff.com/puzzles/morp...
So glad you like our site!
It's been a few years, but we finally have a real home page. Plus, a new mascot. Say hello to Nibbles!
We have something new I hope you guys will like! It's a daily morphology puzzle we're calling Morpheme Mix. Every day you'll get a collection of morphemes that you combine in different ways to make words.
Let us know what you think!
phonicsandstuff.com/puzzles/morp...
Please consider using a program other than BTC. There isn't evidence that it improves students' mathematical achievement. All the author looks at is what he calls "student engagement."
pershmail.substack.com/p/the-eviden...
Great article!
"Effective math instruction is THE best intervention for math anxiety."
The subtraction worksheet is available now too!
Create subtraction facts worksheets from 0 to 10 for students.
phonicsandstuff.com/worksheets/m...
Addition Worksheet Creator
Create addition facts worksheets from 0 to 10. Why does a phonics website have math worksheets? Because we do phonics AND stuff. The stuff includes math!
phonicsandstuff.com/worksheets/m...
This was such a great talk! I'm excited that the recording is available now so I can share it with friends and colleagues who weren't able to go with me.
Anyone else going to be attending?
planetwordmuseum.org/events/eyes-...
We finished re-formatting another Core Knowledge decodable. We love the high quality story and images, but think they work better when you put the stories and images on a single page. Enjoy!
phonicsandstuff.com/decodables#r...
I just bought my ticket! Can't wait!
But this is just a simple analysis looking at letter location. When we account for 'ie' and 'ei' (and eigh) as digraphs (meaning that those letters together make a sound), the analysis changes a bit.
The 'ie' digraph only has twice as many words as 'ei' (325 vs 167).
A lower number means a word is more common. For example, you actually encounter the word 'their' much more frequently than the word 'believe'.
So, since the top words with 'e before i' are just more common, it probably seems like the 'i before e' rule fails more often.
Word frequencies. word freq word freq believe 240 their 68 friend 262 being 158 friends 331 either 407 die 432 received 487 married 547 neither 653 cried 554 seeing 729 tried 567 receive 847 replied 593 eight 864 quiet 665 foreign 1333 chief 692 weight 1475 view 701 seized 1935 lie 752 height 1945 piece 756 receiving 2193 ladies 795 weird 2213
How often does the rule 'i before e' actually apply?
In our database of 30k+ words, 'i before e' occurs 902 times compared to 'e before i', which occurs 226 times.
However, if you look at weighted word frequencies (how often a word actually occurs in English), it's a more interesting story.
Can't wait for more of this!
Correct! Not a software engineer at all. @ryan.phonicsandstuff.com and I just dabble in technology. I love making spreadsheets, while he turns them into databases and the website.
Worksheet to fill in missing vowels.
Options for creating a 'Fill In Vowels' worksheet. Number of Words Number of Sounds Add Instructions Add Word Box Missing Vowels - a e i o u
We have a new worksheet! Create 'Fill In Vowels' worksheets with customized settings.
phonicsandstuff.com/worksheets/p...
Thanks! We're glad you like our stuff!
