1 Decodable Reading Passage
A short, decodable story embedding soft c words. Students read the passage then highlight all the target words.
Shelly stood at the line for the big race. The race went twice around the lake, and Shelly wanted first place. Jill hopped up to her.
"This race will be a cinch," said Shelly.
"We will see," said Jill with a grin.
The race started, and Shelly ran off as fast as she could. She passed Jill and all the others by the white fence. But she ran too fast, too soon. Her side started to hurt, and her face got hot and red. One by one, the others ran past her. Jill hopped far up the path. Now Shelly was in last place.
"I will not stop," Shelly said. "I will just keep an even pace on this lap."
On lap two, Shelly did not rush, and she did not rest. Step, step, step. The others got tired, and she passed them one by one. Bit by bit, the gap to Jill got small. At the end, Shelly crossed the line first, by just an inch!
"That was a nice race," puffed Jill. "You never gave up."
Shelly smiled. "From now on, I will run that way from the start."
This story is part of Level 3. Get every Level 3 illustrated mini-book in one print-ready file ($14) →
2 Soft C Words
The words this story set practices, in the two groups used by the word sort.
Soft C at the Start (4)
cent, cell, city, cinch
Soft C at the End or Inside (16)
ice, mice, rice, nice, dice, face, race, lace, place, space, trace, price, slice, twice, fence, dance
- Phrases to read
- a nice place · mice in the rice · a race in the city · ice on the fence · a slice for a cent · dance in a space · lace on her face · twice the price · trace the dice
- RAN chart words
- cent, cinch, ice, place, dance
- Sight words
- the, is, a, and, to, was, it, she, he, they, said, have
3 Soft C and G Picture Worksheets
Soft c and soft g words to read, match and write, with pictures. Each PDF has its answer key on page 2.
Level 3 Word Work pack: all 101 silent e worksheets in one file
The sheets above are free. The pack is every sheet for a_e, i_e, o_e and u_e, soft c and g, y as a vowel and the all, old and ind words in order, with all the answer keys, ready to print.
Get the pack for $7 See every kind of sheetTeaching more than one level? All 6 levels, 600+ worksheets, for $19.
4 Story Worksheets
4 ready-to-print PDFs for this story's soft c words. Each one opens as its own file.
Word Sort
Cut-apart word cards to sort: Soft C at the Start or Soft C at the End or Inside. Answer key on page 2.
Download PDF
📖 More Soft C Stories
A new decodable story with the same soft c sounds — each comes with its own set of worksheets.
