When the kids go home… class is just getting started.
Every night when the lights click off in Room 5, the school supplies wake up. Pen, Pencil, Chunk the eraser, and Glue call themselves the Night Shift — and tonight they have a big problem. Pencil got swept into a backpack by mistake and went home with a student. The only clue is a single word left behind on a desk. To save their friend, the Night Shift has to do something they have never done before: learn to read.
Sound it. Tap it. Write it. Read it. Children tap along with the crew as they sound out their very first word, discovering that making mistakes is exactly how learning to read works. Just ask Pencil — being erasable means you always get to try again.
A phonics book for beginning readers that kids actually ask to reread
Room 5 After School is a decodable reading adventure for kindergarten and first grade, built on the Science of Reading. The tap-and-blend method woven through the story is adapted from Elkonin sound mapping, the same phonemic awareness technique used in K-1 classrooms nationwide — turned into a chant kids perform out loud as they read.
Inside this book:
Letter sounds and CVC word blending taught inside the story, not bolted on. Sight word instruction, starting with “the” — the word you just gotta know. Rhyming word families (cat, hat, sat) that unlock whole groups of words at once. A Your Turn practice page where new readers sound out words themselves. Discussion questions and Common Core alignment (RF.K.2, RF.K.3, RF.1.2, RF.1.3) for teachers, homeschool parents, and reading tutors.
Perfect for:
Beginning readers ages 5 to 7. Kindergarten and first grade classrooms. Read aloud time that adults enjoy as much as kids. Homeschool phonics lessons. Reluctant readers who need the funny book first. Back to school gifts for new readers.
Book 1 of the Room 5 After School series. The crew sounds out their first word tonight — and there is a whole classroom of words waiting.
School’s out. Class is in session.