Free printable · Sound: ee / ea

ee and ea Decodable Story – The Seal at the Beach (Free Printable)

A short decodable story that practises the ee / ea sound, plus a matching handwriting sheet. Every word can be sounded out by a child who has learned vowel teams, apart from a few common tricky words.

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Download the free PDF (2 pages, A4)Prints well in black and white. Free for home and classroom use.
Page 1: The Seal at the Beach, a decodable story with the ee / ea words underlined, a read-it-three-times star chart and boxes to write ee / ea words
Page 1: the story and activities
Page 2: QLD Beginners tracing sheet with the words see, sea, green, seal, peek, beach
Page 2: tracing sheet

For parents

  • Read the story together three times this week. Your child colours a star each time.
  • Point to each word as they read. ee and ea can both say the long e sound. Ask: which spelling is in seal? Which is in see?
  • Hunt for the ee / ea words and write six of them in the boxes.
  • Finish with the tracing sheet: trace the grey words, then write each one on its own.

For teachers

  • Fits a systematic synthetic phonics sequence at Set 3 · Vowel teams, after teaching the ee and ea spellings of the long e sound. Suits Year 1.
  • Tracing sheet uses the QLD Beginners handwriting style.
  • 57 words, 14 different ee / ea words, short sentences.
  • Use for small-group reading, repeated reading for fluency, or homework.
  • Photocopy freely for your class.

ee / ea words in this story

  • beach
  • see
  • sea
  • green
  • reef
  • seal
  • sleeps
  • creep
  • peek
  • sneezes
  • eat
  • peach
  • heat
  • neat

Tricky words used

  • go
  • to
  • the
  • they
  • a
  • into
  • what
  • day

Common words that can't be fully sounded out yet. Practise them by sight.

More Vowel teams printables

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Practise ee / ea with Digby

In Wombat Words, your child reads stories like this one aloud and Digby follows along, then they trace the tricky words in their school's handwriting style. You get a report showing which sounds they've mastered.