Sunshine Phonics Decodable Series

A complete structured literacy programme

Decodable books and resources for structured literacy

The key to reading success lies in structured literacy and high-quality decodable books. Our programme is specifically designed to meet the demands of modern reading instruction, providing teachers with the best resources to support their students.

Why Choose Our Decodable Books?

Our decodable books are more than just phonics practice. They are carefully sequenced to align with our structured, systematic scope and sequence, ensuring students are only reading words that match the sounds they have been explicitly taught.

Systematic and Explicit: Books follow our clear scope and sequence.
Essential Skills: Focus on developing the foundational alphabet code-breaking skills that are key to proficiency in reading, spelling, and writing.
Unique New Zealand Focus: The first 120 titles feature specially illustrated characters and content to increase appeal and relevance for New Zealand students.

Equip your classroom with the best in structured literacy resources and watch your students achieve reading success.

Features of the Sunshine Phonics Decodable Series

Sunshine’s comprehensive structured literacy programme provides everything you need for synthetic phonics instruction, from foundational skills (Years 0–3) to upper primary extension.

Decodable Resources & Content

180 Decodable Books (Fiction & Non-Fiction): fully decodable books for students in Years 0–3, ensuring all reading material aligns with taught phonics skills.
Systematic and Explicit Progression: Follows a clear, systematic scope and sequence for teaching phonemes and graphemes.
Eight 72-page graphic novel chapter books in the Reading Adventures series to build reading confidence.
Decodables for Older Students: 86 extension books for upper primary and beyond in the Reading Road and Next Steps Decodables series.
High-Quality Design: Books contain full-colour illustrations/high quality photographs, clear font, and well-spaced text for easy reading and comprehension.
Digital Access: All texts are available digitally in the Sunshine Online Decodable Library.

Teacher Support & Instruction

Explicit Teaching Plans: Each book contains pre-reading practice and brief teaching notes.
Teachers’ Books with full explicit teaching plans and book-by-book teaching points. Teacher book sample available here.
Free Printable Resources: Student Activity Sheets and a comprehensive, five-part Assessment Kit download.
Programme Planning: Download the full Scope and Sequence to see the teaching order.

View samples of decodable books from Series 1

View samples of decodable books from Series 2

2025 Catalogue

Scope and Sequence Booklet (print programme)

Series 1 – Scope and Sequence (Sets 1-7)

Series 2 – Scope and Sequence (Sets 1-11)

Sample Lesson Plans

Learn More about the Structure of our Decodables Programme

The print programme is arranged over two Series – Series 1 and Series 2. Both Series follow a virtually identical teaching sequence, with the difference being that Series 1 contains 70 reading books with 2 Teachers Books, and Series 2 takes a slightly slower approach and comprises 110 reading books and 3 Teachers’ Books. The two series can be taught independently of each other, or together to provide more books for reading practice.

Correlation between Series 1, 2 and online decodable library

Years 0-1 – Simple Code: Series 1 Sets 1-3, Series 2 Sets 1-3

Introduce all consonants and short vowels
Cover 23 phonemes of English
Focus on predominantly VC and CVC words with a few tricky (non decodable) words
10 reading books per Set per Series, total 60 books
Books are 16 pages
1 x Teachers’ Book covering Series 1, Sets 1-3
1 x Teachers’ Book covering Series 2, Sets 1-3

Year 2 – Complex Code: Series 1 Sets 4-5, Series 2 Sets 4-5

Introduce 20 new phonemes of English
Introduce consonant digraphs, vowel digraphs and trigraphs
10 reading books per Set per Series (total 40 books)
Books are 20 pages
1 x Teachers’ Book covering Series 1 Sets 4-7
1 x Teachers’ Book covering Series 2 Sets 4-7
Eight chapter books are available in the Reading Adventures series. Starting with Simple Code and moving through Complex Code, students can read these books to consolidate their skills, and become comfortable with longer books.

Year 2 – Consolidation: Series 2 Sets 6-7

Provide practice and consolidation in blending adjacent consonants with short and long vowels
10 reading books per set (total 20 books)
Books are 20 pages
1 x Teachers’ Book covering Series 2 Sets 4-7

Year 3 – Extended Code: Series 1 Sets 6-7, Series 2 Sets 8-11

Introduce many new graphemes (spellings) for known phonemes
Cover all 44 phonemes of English
10 reading books per set (total 60 books)
Books are 20 pages
1 x Teachers’ Book covering Series 1 Sets 4-7
1 x Teachers’ Books covering Series 2 Sets 8-11

Year 3+

Students who have completed the phonics programme can move onto reading longer decodable texts. We have two series for older readers: Reading Road (for those who would benefit from further practice and consolidation), and Next Steps Decodables for confident readers. As well as the print programmes, all 180 titles have been consolidated into one digital library, the Sunshine Online Decodabl e Library.