English Recourses

Local Suppliers:

The Department of Basic Education has introduced Literacy Workbooks for Grades 1 - 6. Soft copies of Workbooks 1 & 2 (Terms 1 - 4) can be downloaded for FREE at this link. I saw these workbooks at the FutureEd Expo & they are stunning (bright & colourful too).

offers an English software solution that will take the student from primary school through high school.

• the English program will test and evaluate the learner’s understanding of English for their specific year level.
• The system is flexible and allows for the selection of test parameters, subject topics and pass rate.
• The English program will help with comprehension, grammar, reading, correct pronunciation of words, spellings and vocabulary building.

offers games are visually stunning, fully narrated, include teaching sections and are divided into levels of difficulty for 3 to 11-year olds. Email Malcolm or contact +27 11 234-5014 or +27 72 289-0098.

International Suppliers:

• BrainPOP English words & their usage.
  • Famous authors & books
  • Study & reading skills
  • Grammar
  • Writing
  • Free Movies

• Homeschool Language Arts Homeschool-how-to offers some recommendations if you can't afford a pre-packaged homeschool language arts curriculum or you want something more manageable for you and your child.

Freebies:

• BBC Skillswise offers FREE grammar, spelling, reading, writing, listening & vocabulary activities.
• Homeschool Language Arts Tips by the Homeschool How-to
• Idiom Site ~ An idiom is a natural manner of speaking to a native speaker of a language. This site contains a long list of idioms.
• The Phrase Finder ~ Find phrases, sayings, idioms & expressions.
• Gnarly Gnenglish The free, very sober bi-monthly English language newsletter.
• Homeschool Language Arts Homeschool-how to offers some recommendations if you can't afford a pre-packaged homeschool language arts curriculum or you want something more manageable for you and your child.
• Language Arts Games by Sheppard Software. This page features a variety of games for different grade levels
• Starfall has many free teaching resources including pdf files of handouts to use with students. For students Starfall has numerous online games designed to teach reading and writing skills. Starfall.com includes a page for parents discussing activities that they can do with their children to help them learn to read and write.
• MSNBC offers a gallery of online games related to the news. The gallery is called the NewsWare Arcade.

Local Suppliers

offers an English software solution that will take the student from primary school through high school.

• Helps with reading skills
• Helps with sounding letters correctly
• Helps with spelling

The phonics program is suitable for

• Young learners learning to read
• Learners wanting to accelerate their reading skills
• Learners needing remediation.

is a teaching tool that has been designed by Early Years educators to provide children with a solid foundation in the understanding of phonics – the association of sounds with letters leading ultimately to writing and reading. The structure and design of the materials and the accompanying lesson plans ensure that the Afriphonics programme is aligned with the current principles of child development, brain-based learning and the requirements of the National Curriculum Statement for Grade R. The programme is currently available in English and Afrikaans. Email Susanne van Niekerk or contact +27 (82) 900-3192

offers fun, colourful phonic resources for teachers, therapists and parents. Phonic card games & workbooks develop phonemic awareness, vocabulary & language skills while children learn to read & spell. All resources have been designed by a Speech-Language Therapist.

International Suppliers

• Looney Tunes ClickNRead Phonics incorporates the research based curriculum & instructional design of the highly acclaimed ClickN READ Phonics® program. Featuring the zany antics of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Taz, Tweety & more, children learn to read the right way with help from the world famous Looney Tunes characters.
• GoPhonics is a teacher-developed, Orton-Gillingham based/compatible, explicit & systematic multisensory phonics curriculum with K-2 language arts. It features 6 volumes of stories that are 93% decodable with controlled vocabulary. They are designed for teaching beginning reading skills. They follow a phonics building block sequence that minimizes confusion. As skills are taught, they are linked to & embedded in meaningful reading. Integrated tools include lessons, 50 phonics games (word decoding & fluency practice), workbooks, key word charts... This approach is effective for struggling beginning readers, Response to Intervention (RtI), dyslexia, LLD, and is a comprehensive foundation for ALL beginning readers.
• Explode The Code for  Grades K–4 helps students build the essential literacy skills needed for reading success: phonological awareness, decoding, vocabulary, comprehension, fluency, & spelling. This research-based & teacher-tested program meets & exceeds “No Child Left Behind” requirements & National Reading Panel Standards.
• Phonovisual is
  • an organized & systematic approach to teaching sound/symbol relationship
  • an effective tool for teaching skills that in combination with any reading program enables students to use & understand all language forms (reading, writing, spelling, and speech).
  • an affordable program that enables you to maintain a high quality Reading & Language Arts Program & to supplement your current reading program.
• Vocabulary Studying phonics is very important for anyone learning to read English. Learning to recognize the connection between certain spellings & certain sounds can improve one’s reading skills in so many ways!
• Homeschool Classroom’s phonics resources for extra practise.

Freebies

• Progressive Phonics is an all-in-one reading program that is easy, fun, & totally FREE---that's right, totally & completely free! And with Progressive Phonics, ANYONE can teach a child to read & write in just a few minutes a day, which makes it ideal for parents, teachers, tutors, volunteers & home-schoolers.
• Phonics & Word Games Phonics Games, Reading Games & Word Games. An excellent addition to any reading program. Print & play! Free Phonics Posters from Adrian Bruce.

 

Local Suppliers

With the Sound Combination Reading Method the learner is taught sound combinations that empowers them to construct words phonetically AND to read them AND to pronounce them correctly. Other methods erroneously teach a child to memorize words and sentences and prevent them from reading unknown words. On our reading method the child is taught to read sounds combined and not to read or sound them singularly, for example "ca-t" and NOT "c-a-t".

offers a complete sight-reading program with a Christian theme. Includes 12 colourfully illustrated readers and flashcards, parent/teacher guide, bookmark and award certificate as well as read-along CD. Email Big Thot or contact +27 (83) 791-2804.

offers a fun, interactive computer based reading and language programme in South Africa. Contact +27 (86) 110-1608 for a FREE reading assessment and demonstration at your convenience.

International Suppliers

• Funnix A Tutor in your Computer.
• All About Reading begins with Level Pre-1 for preschoolers & kindergarteners. It focuses on five fundamental pre-reading skills that include letter knowledge, phonological awareness, print awareness, listening comprehension, and motivation to read. It is this specific set of skills that helps pre-readers understand the basics of language and how it works, preparing them to learn to read.
• Reading Blaster Sharpen reading comprehension skills. Students develop critical thinking skills as they learn to read for details, find the main idea, make inferences, draw conclusions & build reading vocabularies. Using context clues and parts of speech rules, students discover word meanings and build reading comprehension skills.
• Ages 5 - 7
• Ages 6 - 8
• Ages 9 - 12
• Reading Kingdom is a fun, easy-to-use online program that teaches children 4-10 years old how to read & write to a third grade level.
• ABeCeDarian Company publishes and distributes the ABeCeDarian Reading Program, a research-based, explicit, comprehensive, multi-sensory decoding program developed by Michael Bend, Ph.D. The program efficiently addresses the key areas of phonemic awareness, phonics & fluency. It provides the depth & structure necessary for tutors, interventionists & special education teachers to help the weakest readers from age 5 to adult make outstanding progress.
• Ooka Island Early literacy programs Reading, discovery and adventure for PreK to grade 2. The game starts with an essential pre-reading skill- alphabet recognition & sequencing.  The introduction of the letters is done in groups of three-to-five letters, beginning with lower case, as these are the letters most frequently seen & then moving on to upper case.
• ReadingA-Z offers Everything You Need to Teach Reading
  • Leveled Readers
  • Benchmark Books and Running Records
  • Reading Lessons and Worksheets
  • Phonics and Phonemic Awareness Materials
  • Poetry Books
  • Alphabet Materials
  • High-Frequency Word Books (Sight Words)
  • Vocabulary Books and Activities
  • Fluency Passages
  • Reader's Theater Scripts
  • Assessments
• Reading Rockets offers a wealth of reading strategies, lessons & activities designed to help young children learn how to read & read better. Our reading resources assist parents, teachers & other educators in helping struggling readers build fluency, vocabulary & comprehension skills. Teaching kids to read & helping those who struggle.
• Reading Tutors Reading Support & Reading Intervention for:
  • Tier 3 RtI solution
  • One-on-one tutoring sessions
  • At-home parent instruction
  • Building specific reading skills
  • Improving reading scores across the board

  Instant access to hundreds of downloadable reading tutor packets.

• Magic TreeHouse reading Units on books. Vocabulary, Online Questions, Printable Questions & Activities.

Freebies

• Sound City Reading materials are designed to help children learn the phonics patterns they need to become successful, independent readers. I hope that you will find them useful. The downloads are FREE.
• BookAdventure is a FREE reading motivation program for children in grades K-8. Children create their own book lists from over 7,000 recommended titles, take multiple choice quizzes on the books they've read & earn points and prizes for their literary successes.
• FreeReading is a high-quality, open-source, FREE reading intervention program for grades preK - 6.
• Reading by Six FREE online reading lessons.
• Starfall's Learn to Read with Phonics is a free public service to teach children to read with phonics. Their systematic phonics approach, in conjunction with phonemic awareness practice, is perfect for preschool, kindergarten, first grade, second grade, special education, homeschool, and English language development (ELD, ELL, ESL).
• Literactive is the leading provider of reading material for pre-school, kindergarten & grade 1 students available online. The program is comprised of carefully levelled guided readers, comprehensive phonic activities and a wealth of supplemental reading material which gradually develop a child's reading skills in a sequential and enjoyable manner. Developed and approved by teachers and parents across the United States, Literactive is the acknowledged leader in early learning online. All the material is available for FREE from this site
• Adrian Bruce’s Reading Stuff ALL NEW reading resources website. You will find FREE & printable word games, phonics games, reading games, comprehension strategies and phonics posters. Look around & print out whatever educational resources you need. People are using these games for individual phonics instruction, learning center activities, homework and special needs education.
• Reading Street offers online student activities, reading test & reading portaportal.
• Readquarium Discover treasure through reading!
  • Phonics & Phonemes
  • Vocabulary
  • Comprehension
  • Sight Words
  • Book Web Sites
  • Author Sites
  • Fluency & eBooks
  • Book Talks
  • Links for Teachers
• ReadSpeeder FREE speed reading program. Online Course - Speed Reading in Your Spare Time. Improve: Comprehension, Speed, Retention, Enjoyment.
• K12 Reader Reading instructions & resources for teachers & parents, covering
  • Balanced Literacy
  • Content Area Reading
  • Grammar Reference
  • Phonemic Awareness
  • Phonics
  • Reading Comprehension
  • Reading Fluency
  • Sentence Types
  • Teaching Sight Words
• RIF Reading Planet This site is provided by Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), the nation's oldest and largest non profit children's literacy organization
• Scholastic’s Stacks Games
• Kids Reads Book lists, contests & reviews.
• ReadQuarium offers a variety of online reading activities.
• Scott Foresman Reading Headquarters offers reading games and activities for grades K – 6.

 

 

• Children's’ Books Forever FREE children's’ books that have become classics and children’s favourites around the world.They can be used on Smartboard, Powerpoint and overhead projectors. Languages available are English, Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Indonesian, Japanese, Norwegian, Spanish & Swedish.
• Book Adventures Read, Click & Win. is a fun, FREE way to motivate your child to read! Kids in grades K-8 can find a book,
  take quizzes on what they've read, and earn prizes
  for their reading success
• Summer with BookIT! Break National Reading Incentive Program. Take part in the Summer Break Reading Challenge Sweepstakes.
• MightyBook Jr. offers a library of 900 animated books to engage & excite students with visual stimulation, sounds & music.
• Planet eBook ~ Classic literature for download as FREE eBooks
• Smarty Games features two alphabet games and nine animated stories.

AudioBooks. Immediately download your audiobook. No memberships. No fuss. Listen anywhere, anytime.

• Audible ~ an Amazon company.
• Books Should be Free Download a free audio book in mp3, iPod, or iTunes format
• Greathall Storytelling Recordings  by Jim Weiss
• Homeschool Radio Shows
• Internet Archive’s Family Classics Library: Homeschooling Edition
• Ancient Faith Radio’s The Chronicles of Narnia read by Chrissi Hart for her Readings from Under the Grapevine podcast.

&

International Suppliers

• Spelling City has over 42,000 spelling words and customizable sentences, A REAL person who says each word and sentence, Free home pages for teachers and parents to save lists, various spelling games & much more. Both FREE and premium memberships available.
• All About Spelling is an excellent program if you are just beginning to teach your child spelling, or if your child needs remedial help. All About Spelling is multisensory. The lessons involve sight, sound, and touch. Children learn best when they are physically involved in the learning process, so we take advantage of that fact with this hands-on approach to learning and teaching spelling. All About Spelling is logical. Spelling concepts are taught in a logical, understandable order. Each lesson builds upon the previous lesson. The sequence has been carefully tested to produce long-term results. And this is as much a benefit to you as it is to your student; especially if you've been struggling with how to teach spelling.
• All About Homophones is a complete tool kit for teaching homophones. Simplify lesson planning and perk up teaching with activities kids love. It includes engaging worksheets, homophone games, activity cards, a huge list of homophones, and more.
• VocabularyA-Z  Build hundreds of customized vocabulary lessons
  for one low cost - in three easy steps Choose a vocabulary word categoryBuild a vocabulary listLet the vocabulary lesson generator do the rest.
  For each lesson you'll get:
  • Graphic Organizers
  • A vocabulary lesson
  • Activities and games
  • A week's worth of vocabulary instruction.
• Spelling Made Simple is a program that helps people learn how to spell. Lists can be made by typing them into the program so that any desired custom list can be created. Lists can also be created and learned quickly by dragging and dropping or copying and pasting text into the software. You can also download some lists from our site so that you don't need to create them yourself. You can see, and hear the word (based on the user's settings) and then type the answer which helps with the memorization process and is a proven method in learning how to spell. If the answer is wrong it will go back into the queue and be retried later so that the words that need more practice get tested more often. Statistics are kept with the intention that you can review improvement and review what needs to be worked on. Use Spelling Made Simple once a day to practice your spelling and you will see amazing results - Guaranteed!
• Super Text Twist is a simple word game similar to Word Twist which asks plays to identify words from a set of jumbled letters. The Super Text Twist game be played online or downloaded for use offline.
• Spelling Match is a spelling game developed by Houghton Mifflin. As the name Spelling Match implies, students have to complete matching activities based on the sounds and or meanings of words. It offers different levels of difficulty for students in grades 1 through 8. The games can be played as timed or untimed activities.

Freebies

• Jett Games "Spell By Color" FREE  Structured, Phonics-Based Spelling Program.
• aaaSpell Practice spelling & vocabulary online.
• Free Homeschool Curriculum Spelling Course FREE online Spelling Course The Spelling Rules, Lessons, Exercises, Dictation Exercises, and answer keys.
• Word Games play free online games to improve vocabulary.
• Vocabulary FREE English Vocabulary Games.
• Dictionary
• K12 Reader 1st – 5th Grade Spelling Worksheets as well as Dolch & Fry Word Lists.
• KidsSpell Spelling Games. The Absolutely Free And Totally Fun Way To Improve Your Spelling. You can select from one of our spelling lists or create your own. Custom spelling lists can be saved and linked to from a classroom website. Once you have selected a list, play one of our many free spelling games listed to the right. These spelling games have been designed to improve spelling abilities in a fun way that your students will love.
• Spin & Spell
• GamesGames.com has over 20 spelling games.

• Catch the Spelling Practice Your Spelling & Review Vocabulary While Having Fun. Vocabulary Levels: (E) = Easy, (M) = Medium, (D) = Difficult

 

International Suppliers

• The Five Finger Paragraph method is designed to teach students (& adults) to write paragraphs & Five Paragraph Essays. This series was written & illustrated to help students write essays more easily.
• Brave Writer supports and nurtures the homeschooling family in the areas of language arts & writing from grammar school until college with online classes, home study courses and language arts programs
• Writer’s Blocks 4 is a unique writing tool that will help you organize ideas & information so that you can write any type of complex written material easier & faster. Just enter each point or idea into our expandable, movable text blocks. Now you
  can quickly arrange and organize your blocks by dragging and dropping while you come up with the clearest way to present what you have written. It will save you time, make you more productive & enhance your creativity.
• WritingA-Z offers a collection of K-6 writing resources. Online writing lessons & materials. Empowers teachers with instant access 24/7 to hundreds of levelled, downloadable writing resources.

Three Ways to Build a Successful Writing Program

• Core writing lessons grouped by genre and text type
• Mini-lessons targeting key writing skills
• Writing tools for organizing and improving writing

• Time4Writing provides 8 week online writing courses taught by certified teachers as well as free writing resources for parents, teachers & students. From the basics of grammar to writing an essay for the SAT Exam, the writing courses & writing resources are designed to help elementary, middle and high school students master writing at all levels. Certified teachers provide one-on-one instruction and assign weekly topics through an easy to use online system. Students simply log in and work through the interactive lessons & writing assignments at their own pace. Then, their personal writing teacher reviews and provides feedback on each assignment the day after it is submitted.
• WriteAtHome offers traditional tutorial writing classes. Structured writing courses with weekly lessons & assignments. Coaching & evaluation from an experienced tutor.
• Enchanted Learning offers Writing Activities, Language Arts for Early to Fluent Writers Books to Print, Newpaper, Parts of Speech. Printouts, crafts & writing activities that are designed to encourage & stimulate writing. The topics include writing short essays, writing reports, using graphic organizers to organize your thoughts before writing, printing & writing short books & letter structure.

Freebies

• Wartgames offers FREE writing games & activities.
• Guide to Grammar & Writing
• The WordTamer Amazing is a website where you tame words and train stories. Explore the funfair. Play around with ideas. Get inspiration. Capture fresh new writing possibilities. All ideas can be saved and developed off-line. They can be printed too. Join the new generation of storytellers.

International Suppliers

• Analytical Grammar teaches English grammar, punctuation, and usage.  It is designed to be taught in three grammar “seasons” (see timeline) over three years; however, it is flexible enough to be adapted to a one- or two-year schedule.
• English Word Power is an interactive English e-learning English grammar software program.
• Grammarlogues Middle & high school grammar lessons in fewer than 8 minutes per day.

Freebies

• Daily Grammar is a fun, convenient way to learn grammar. By simplifying complex grammar subjects, Daily Grammar is a great teaching tool for both public and home-schooled children, ESL students, and anyone needing to refresh English grammar skills. By practicing language rules, any person able to read will be able to master English grammar. This archive contains links to all of our free grammar lessons & quizzes.  Daily Grammar consists of 440 lessons and 88 quizzes.  Lessons 1-90 cover the eight parts of speech, which are verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.  Lessons 91-300 cover the parts of the sentence, such as appositives, predicate nominatives, direct objects, prepositional phrases, clauses & verbals.  Lessons 301-440 cover the mechanics of grammar, which is also known as capitalization and punctuation.  You can use this archive to study Daily Grammar at your own pace.
• Grammaropolis is a fresh, fun & exciting new way to learn about parts of speech. Within the world of Grammaropolis the parts of speech are personified; The characters interact the way the parts of speech interact with one another in the sentence. When students associate human qualities & characteristics with the parts of speech, abstract & seemingly arbitrary rules start to make a lot more sense. Characters, Videos, Books, Games & Songs.
• K12 Reader has a selection of Adjective, Noun, Punctuation & Verb worksheets.
• Grammar Ninja is a fun game for students to play as they develop a working knowledge of the parts of speech. Grammar Ninja has three levels for students to work through. As long as you answer questions correctly, they continue through the game, but answer incorrectly and the words explode.
• The Houghton Mifflin Company produces Grammar Blast. Grammar Blast offers 35 interactive grammar activities for students in grades two through five.
• The Grammar Practice Park produced by Harcourt School Publishers provides 12 games for students in grades three to five.
• Scholastic Inc. has a page for elementary age students called Maggie's Learning Adventures.

 

• BJU Press Testing & Evaluation With Writing Evaluations from BJU Press, students in grades 3–12 can have their writing analyzed by professionals.
• EnglishPDF Download Free English Tests in PDF and Flash Exe format.
• English Test Store FREE English tests & downloads.

Please visit this page frequently as I will be posting regular updates as I find more resources.