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The best new features from Sound Waves early years you may have missed
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The best new features from Sound Waves early years you may have missed
Sound Waves Literacy 22/10/25
Whether you’re just discovering Sound Waves Literacy in the early years or you’ve been using it all year, you’ve probably noticed a wave of exciting new features recently. With so much being added, it’s easy to miss a few—so let’s dive in and explore what’s new!
eReader Library
The Sound Waves Decodable eReader Library is our newest feature, providing students with access to our entire range of decodable readers. The eLibrary includes all Support, Core and Extended books from Foundation and Year 1 – that’s 266 books in total!.
Designed to complement the physical books used in classrooms, the eReaders format is ideal for home reading practice.
Note: This product is a per student licence available as an add-on to Sound Waves Literacy Online Teaching Resources. This product is only available under a school licence.
Projectable Decodable Readers for modelled reading
Designed to be used in conjunction with your class sets of Sound Waves Decodable Readers, the online teaching resources include projectable versions of the books as part of the Foundation and Year 1 lessons. These projectable Decodable Readers are ideal for whole-class modelled and shared reading.
The projectable books are conveniently embedded in the weekly lesson sequence so you know when and how to use them. In each unit you’ll find the recently added Modelled & Shared Reading section as part of Lesson 1. From there, use the Core projectable Decodable Reader for whole-class modelled and shared reading. You also have the option of using the Support and Extended projectable books depending on the ability level of your class. Alternatively, these can be used for additional modelling throughout the week.
Whole-class modelled reading ensures students are ready to follow on with independent reading practice during the week. Read our How to use guide for more information about using Decodable Readers in your weekly routine.
How to access projectable Decodable Readers:
- Log in to your account and open Sound Waves Literacy Online.
- Navigate to either Foundation or Year 1.
- Select the relevant unit*.
- Open Lesson 1 cont.: Modelled & Shared Reading and select the projectable Decodable Reader.
*Like your class sets of Sound Waves Decodable Readers, the projectable Decodable Readers for Foundation begin in the r for 
unit.
Introductory Decodable Readers for Foundation
In Sound Waves Foundation, we’ve added a short sequence of Introductory Decodable Readers for use from d for 
through to o for 
units.
The Introductory Decodable Readers are an online-only resource. They provide students with an opportunity to read single words and simple sentences from Week 8 of Term 1 before attempting longer texts in the Sound Waves Decodable Readers from Week 3 of Term 2.
The Introductory Decodable Readers are also conveniently embedded in the lesson sequence so you know when and how to use them. Each book is paired with a short lead-in slideshow to provide background information and generate discussion on the book topic. After displaying the slides, you’ll use the projectable Introductory Decodable Reader for modelled and shared reading.
And of course, there is also a printable fold-up version of the Introductory Decodable Reader so students can practise reading throughout the week. Each printable fold-up can be printed in colour, or in black and white for students to colour in.
How to access Introductory Decodable Readers:
- Log in to your account and open Sound Waves Literacy Online.
- Navigate to Foundation.
- Select the relevant unit (d for through to o for ).
- Open the Lesson 1 cont.: Modelled & Shared Reading module to access the Discuss the topic lead-in slides and projectable Introductory Decodable Reader.
- Open the Reading Practice module to download and print colour or black and white copies of the fold-up Introductory Decodable Reader.
Printable Activities for every Foundation and Year 1 Decodable Reader
We’ve created a follow-on activity for every Decodable Reader in the program – that’s right, every Support, Core and Extended book has a printable activity!
These activities contain text and illustrations directly from the matching Decodable Reader. They’re an ideal post-reading activity, providing additional practice of the focus phoneme–grapheme relationship and any Special Words featured in the book. Teachers and students will enjoy the variety of activity types, including labelling, sequencing, match-ups, comprehension and writing, to name a few!
See examples of the printable activities:
Sound Waves Foundation – focus graphemes ou, ow, as in cloud.
Support, Core, Extended
Sound Waves Year 1 – focus graphemes z, zz, s, as in zebra.
Support, Core, Extended
How to access the printable activities for each Decodable Reader:
- Log in to your account and open Sound Waves Literacy Online.
- Navigate to either Foundation or Year 1.
- Select the relevant unit*.
- Open the Reading Practice & Activities module and select the relevant printable activity to print and distribute to students.
*Like your physical and projectable Sound Waves Decodable Readers, the printable activities for Foundation begin in the r for unit.
Reading and Spelling Assessments
We recently added a suite of new early years assessments to the online teaching resources to help you evaluate each student’s ability to read and spell words during their first years of school.
Foundation assessments include:
- Phonemic Awareness Assessment
- Single Word Reading Assessment (Regular Words and Special Words)
- Spelling Assessment.
Year 1 now also includes Single Word Reading Assessments to administer at the end of each term.
These new assessments for Foundation and Year 1 come with detailed instructions on how to administer the tests, marked samples of the tests and follow-up suggestions so you are equipped with the next steps to help students improve.
Reminder: Sound Waves Literacy also includes assessments for spelling and Focus Concepts in Years 1–6.
How to access reading and spelling assessments:
- Log in to your account and open Sound Waves Literacy Online.
- Navigate to the Assessment page.
- Select the Foundation or Year 1 tab.
- Read the Assessment Information, then download and print the relevant resources.
Updated Foundation program
FInally, don’t forget our entire Sound Waves Foundation program recently underwent some important updates to ensure students have a strong start to their literacy journey.
The yearly plan was refined not only to ensure students are up and running with reading and spelling as soon as possible, but to incorporate a little more ‘wriggle room’ for assessment, catch-up and remediation – a welcome bonus for every busy teacher!
And, the new and improved Foundation Student Book is packed with full-colour engaging activities for immediate consolidation of the corresponding Phoneme–Grapheme Relationship lessons and Focus Concept lessons.
View the Foundation Yearly Plan and Foundation Student Book sample pages.
Want to learn more about the Sound Waves Literacy program in the early years? Explore the website, contact your local education consultant and sign up for a free trial today.