What is a pre-primer?

A pre-primer is a book written at a level for students who are usually in kindergarten and beginning first grade although today many preschool students are exposed to pre-primers, too. It is the easiest leveled reader, containing words from the Dolch pre-primer sight word list (e.g., 40 frequently used words such as “the”, “said”, “and”, “for” and “it”). Pre-primers also contain words that the children can sound out by using simple phonetic rules such as the five short vowels sounds and the silent “e” at the end of words spelled with a preceding long vowel sound followed by a consonant.