I incorporate phonics/decoding into my guided reading groups based on the need of the students. My groups reading below grade level get phonics/decoding practice every day.
Recently we have been working with r-controlled vowels. We read them and spell them. Once they’ve got the pattern in single words, we move on to sentences. I dictate the sentence including a word with given phonics pattern. They write the sentence with appropriate capitalization and punctuation.
And then, sometimes, I give them each a word and they have to make up a sentence using that word. It is with this activity that I get to read a gem of a sentence like this one:
jenniebblog 
Funny! That student clearly has a sophisticated sense of humor and a good grasp of r-controlled vowels. Win-win! Thanks for sharing!
sorry for your loss. hahhahahaa