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This printable activity created by Florida Center for Reading Research is a great game to play at home as a family by unscrambling sentences and drawing silly pictures too!

https://fcrr.org/sites/g/files/upcbnu2836/files/media/PDFs/student_center_activities/k1_comprehension/k1_sentence_meaning/k1_c004_silly_sentence_mix_up.pdf

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This game by turtle diary will have students work on their comprehension of sentences by matching a sentence with a picture that it best describes!

https://www.turtlediary.com/game/pictures-the-sentences.html

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Picture the Sentence Game - Turtle Diary

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Picture the Sentences is a wonderful game for young kids to test and build their sentence-making skills. In this game, students are given a set of pictures and sentences

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"Multiple Meaning Bugs" from Florida Center For Reading Research helps students identify the multiple meanings a word can hold! You can print out this activity to do at home.

http://fcrr.fsu.acsitefactory.com/sites/g/files/upcbnu2836/files/media/PDFs/student_center_activities/k1_vocabulary/k1_words_that_describe_word_meanings/k1_v012_multiple_meaning_bugs.pdf

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This fun game by pbskids.org will help build your student's vocabulary knowledge and get them laughing as well!

https://pbskids.org/wordgirl/games/drtwobrains-html5/

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WordGirl . Games . Dr. Two Brains | PBS KIDS GO!

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Dr. Two Brains went out on a cheese heist and left his two henchmen, and you, all alone in his lair. Time to play with the cheese ray! Fill the Cheese-o-meter by turning everything in the lair to cheese! Learn science vocabulary as you cheese your way through three rounds of fast-paced fun!

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This printable at home activity by Florida Center for Reading Research called "Word Climb" helps boost your child's fluency on high frequency words!

http://fcrr.fsu.acsitefactory.com/sites/g/files/upcbnu2836/files/media/PDFs/student_center_activities/k1_fluency/k1_words/k1_f012_word_climb.pdf

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Sight Word Safari by RoomRecess.com is a great way to work on reading fluency by quickly recognizing 1st grade sight words!

https://www.roomrecess.com/games/SightWordSafari/play.html

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The activity listed as "Letter-sound dominoes" is a great game to play as a family with your child. The attached video by Reading Rockets and Florida Center for Reading Research give instruction on how to play the game and have printable copies attached for your use!

https://www.readingrockets.org/reading-101-guide-parents/first-grade/phonics-and-decoding-activities-your-first-grader

https://fcrr.org/student-center-activities/kindergarten-and-first-grade#sca6 <---Printable game pieces.

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A child with strong decoding skills uses this knowledge of sound-letter correspondence to read familiar and unfamiliar words, and begin to read with ease. Decoding relies on the rules of phonics, so first graders need to memorize words that don't follow those rules.

In first grade, your child becomes a more skillful decoder and can do these things:

Blend or break apart the individual sounds (phonemes) of most one-syllable words, like sip and bat

Read words with long vowel sounds (see, say, so)

Begin to sound out more complex words, including words with silent "e" at the end.

Decoding takes a lot of practice! You can help your child build phonics skills with some of the activities described here - and by offering lots of encouragement as your child gains confidence with this big step into becoming a reader.

Here are some basic tips on how to help your child build phonics skills:

Help your child learn the names of the letters and the sounds the letters make. Turn it into a game! "I'm thinking of a letter and it makes the sound mmmmmm."

That means to follow the words with your finger from left to right as you read them. Your beginning reader will do the same thing for awhile.

Beginning readers may read slowly. Give your child time to decode the words, and avoid jumping in too quickly.

If your child is stuck on a word, prompt them to look at the first letter of the word and make the letter's sound. Of course, only do this for words that can be sounded out! If the word can't be sounded out, just supply the word for them.

Try these phonics activities at home

Fridge fun

Magnetic letters can provide lots of easy phonics practice right in your kitchen. For an alphabet refresher, ask your child to arrange the letters in alphabetical order. Next, ask her to pick out a letter, think of a simple three- or four-letter word that starts with that letter, and spell it out on the refrigerator. Can your child think of more words to spell with that first letter? Finally, see if she can change one letter in the word to make a new word.

Scrambled words

Draw three boxes side by side on a piece of paper. Using magnetic letters or letters written on paper, scramble the letters of a simple three-letter word (big, bug, top, ran) under the boxes. Have your child unscramble the letters and place them into the correct box.

Extra, extra!

Ask your child to find and cut out all the words in a newspaper or magazine that she can read. Glue or tape them onto a piece of paper and practice reading them together.

The "H Brothers"

Explain to your child that sometimes two letters will stand together to create one new sound. The "H Brothers" join with other letters to make the sounds: sh, ch, th, wh and ph. Write down some example words and use multisensory props and gestures to help your child remember the new letter combination. Here's a fun idea for telling the story of the H Brothers to reinforce the concept.

Spelling lightning round

Talk or play games about letter sounds for a few minutes each day. While driving or cooking dinner, give your child a simple two-letter word and a three-letter word to spell. Choose words that are spelled like they sound (at, hot, pet, sip). Give a rousing cheer or high-five for words spelled correctly

Cereal box read aloud

Your breakfast table can offer some easy practice in sounding out words. Together look at the words on your child's cereal box, choose a simple word, and see if your child can sound out the letters as you point to each. Practice blending the sounds to make the word.

Grocery store literacy

Lots of grocery items come in different flavors. Ask your child to help you find a particular flavor by reading the labels. For example, can she find the low fat milk? The tuna fish packed in water? She'll be using her reading skills to find the right item. Put your child in charge of the grocery list. As you put items into the cart, say the word and ask your child to cross it off the list.

Blend it!

First graders will learn how to sound out the letter blends, such as tr, sw, st, sm, sl, pl, gr, fl, dr, cr, cl, br, and bl. This quick game gives your child a chance to practice those blends. Write out a single letter blend on index cards or the backs of used envelopes. Have your child say the sound of the blend and then ask her to name a common object that starts with that sound (you might have to help with this part). Repeat with a few more blends - it's a good idea to keep games like these short and fun. You can also turn this game into a scavenger hunt by asking your child to find the object in the house or outside.

Words in the wild

Words are everywhere! When you're out for a walk or shopping together, point out some simple signage, such as a STOP sign or a store sign that says "Pet Shop." Ask your child if they can sound out the words. Start with easy consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words like pet and then try words with letter blends, like stop and shop.

Listen, listen

Decoding is hard work! Try setting aside time each day to listen to your child read to you, and let him know how much you enjoy hearing him read and how proud you are. If your first grader has a preschool sibling, encourage him to read to his sister or brother (guaranteed to make you smile!).

Dig into decodable books

Through read alouds, kindergarteners should be exposed to a wide range of books that introduce them to rich vocabulary and story structure. But there is also a role for decodable books to help your child practice beginning phonics skills. Decodable books contain a high percentage of words with predictable letter-sound relationships. You'll find a comprehensive list of K-2 books here: Decodable Text Sources.

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Phonics and Decoding: Activities for Your First Grader

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A child with strong decoding skills uses this knowledge of sound-letter correspondence to read familiar and unfamiliar words, and begin to read with ease. Decoding relies on the rules of phonics, so first graders need to memorize words that don't follow those rules.

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This game by kiz phonics helps kids work on identify the letters in consonant blends. There is a variety of blend combination games your child can work on as they learn more and more!

https://www.kizphonics.com/product-types/1st-grade-games-1/

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Phonics games for first grade offer an incredible fusion of education and entertainment. They are affordable, engaging, and significantly effective in teaching crucial reading skills. If you are looking to give your child a well-rounded reading education, these games should definitely be in your toolkit.

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Home Reading Helper has listed a number of at home activities you can do with your child to boost phonemic awareness. I enjoy "Show Me", which can be done while sharing a fun snack with your child!

https://www.homereadinghelper.org/1st-grade-reading-skills-phonemic-awareness/

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When talking about letter sounds, show your child what your mouth does to create the sound. Describe where your tongue is and how you're breathing.
"When I make the m sound, I press my lips together and make my voice hum like this "mmmmm". My tongue is relaxed." Choose a letter sound, then have your child find things around your house that start with the same sound. This is great activity to do in the kitchen while making dinner. "Can you find something in our house that starts with the letter "s" ssssss sound? Stairs, sofa, sandwich."
Sound Hunters
Have your child give a rhyme for a word you tell them. It can be a made up word. "What rhymes with "bindergarten"?
Ridiculous Rhymes

Be Silly!

Make up your own rhymes, songs, or silly stories to focus on a particular sound. Big Billy blows beautiful bubbles!

What's the Sound?

When you're reading together with your child, pick a word from the book and put emphasis on the first sound. Pick another word and compare them. "Aaaaaaalligator and eeeeeeeelephant. Can you hear what letter aaaaaligator starts with? Is it the same as eeeeelephant? What letter does elephant start with?"
Before kids are ready to read words, they need to be able to separate the sounds they hear in words. Tell them a whole word, like "cat" and have them separate the sounds as they touch their head /c/, then shoulders /a/, then knees /t/ (and toes for four sounds if they can handle it!). At the end, have them say the whole word, "cat", as they stand back up. If it's too hard for them, slow down saying the word and stretch out each sound so they can better hear the individual sounds.
Head Shoulder Knees and Toes

Fingers Up

Take turns saying a word while the other person puts up their fingers to match the number of sounds. For "cat," they'd hold up their pointer finger for "c", middle finger for "a" and ring finger for "t".

Show Me

Using Cheerios, rocks or beads, say a word and have your child show you how many sounds the word makes. For example, "cap" = c+a+p = three sounds, so they'd place three objects in a row. Then have them tap each object as they say the sound. Remember, your child is just showing you the sounds they hear. So the word "take" would be = t-a-k (silent e) = only three sounds.

Tell Me the Members of the Word Family

Word families are words that rhyme. Tell your child the "mom's" name is "bat" and they have to tell you all the "kids'" names, such as cat, fat, sat, rat, pat, mat, at, and hat. This will help children hear patterns in words.

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First Grade Phonemic Awareness | Knowing Sounds in 1st Grade

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Learn more about first grade phonemic awareness, as well as find free 1st grade goals & activities around knowing sounds.

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Have your child play this fun rhyming game by pbskids.org to help develop their phonemic awareness!

https://pbskids.org/sesame/games/grovers-rhyme-time

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Play Sesame Street games with Elmo, Cookie Monster, Abby Cadabby, Grover, and more!

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Here is an article stating the importance of reading comprehension by Extension Alabama A & M and Auburn Universities author Dorothy Brandon.

https://www.aces.edu/blog/topics/home-family-urban/the-importance-of-reading-comprehension/#:~:text=Comprehension%20adds%20meaning%20to%20what,work%2C%20and%20life%20in%20general.

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Many children in the United States haven't fully developed their reading skills. Between 2017 and 2019, the number of children in grades 4 through 8 reading at or above their grade level decreased. In other words, the number of children who lack the necessary reading skills increased.

The National Reading Panel Report identified five components vital to developing reading skills: phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Although each component is important in developing a child's reading ability, the following information focuses on four comprehension strategies that are used to help increase the reading comprehension of young children and older children who are struggling with reading.

Comprehension refers to the ability to understand written words. It is different from the ability to recognize words. Recognizing words on a page but not knowing what they mean does not fulfill the purpose or goal of reading, which is comprehension. Imagine, for example, that a teacher gives a child a passage to read. The child can read the entire passage, but he or she knows nothing when asked to explain what was read. Comprehension adds meaning to what is read. Reading comprehension occurs when words on a page are not just mere words but thoughts and ideas. Comprehension makes reading enjoyable, fun, and informative. It is needed to succeed in school, work, and life in general.

There are different strategies to use to enhance comprehension. It takes patience and continuous guidance when using these strategies. When working with children, remember to model the strategy as well as provide guided practice. As their skills increase, slowly decrease your guidance. The goal is to get children to use the strategies automatically. The following are strategies that can be used to help build reading comprehension in children:

Predicting

This strategy involves asking children to make informed predictions based on what they obtain from the story or text. Predictions require asking children to make guesses about what might happen. Predictions are made based on what they see, hear, or read relative to the book's cover, title, pictures, drawing, table of content, and headings.

When asked a question, such as "What do you think this book will be about?" or "What do you think will happen to/if ...?," children make predictions or guesses when answering. Predicting builds interest and understanding of the text, and it establishes a purpose for reading. This strategy keeps children actively engaged by connecting, reflecting, and revising their predictions.

Making Connections to Prior Knowledge

Making connections to prior knowledge involves connecting a new idea to knowledge and experiences already known. It requires getting children to relate their own experiences to something in the story. The goal is to get children to use their prior knowledge to help make sense of the text they read. Prior knowledge can include their experiences or knowledge of words, places, animals, or events. For example, the children know the word "bones" because of a previous discussion on bones because of a classmate's broken arm. When they read a new word, such as "skeleton", their prior knowledge of bones will be used to help them understand the new term.

Children start by making connections between text and their personal experiences (text-to-self). As they grow older, connections are made between different books, texts, or ideas by identifying similarities. In other words, to increase comprehension, get children to make text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections before, during, and after they read. For example, a discussion of the new or difficult vocabulary words before reading the text can help increase children's comprehension. When reading, they can then activate their prior knowledge of the new terms.

Visualizing

Visualizing is also a strategy used to increase reading comprehension. It requires getting children to create in their minds a mental image of what they read from the text. Children can mentally envision what they are reading. The mental image helps children understand, recall details, remember, and draw conclusions from the things they encountered while reading. For example, ask children to make a drawing based on what they read. Also, while reading a passage to children, ask them to close their eyes and listen. Ask them to create a movie in their mind of what the words are describing.

Summarizing

This strategy involves getting children, when reading, to identify the main idea in the text and putting the idea into their own words. Children must sort through the information to determine what information is important and what is unimportant. They take the most important information and put it in their own words and use as few words as possible to explain the text. This strategy is not to be applied only at the end of the story. Instead, children should be taught to summarize throughout the story.

Without comprehension, children gain no meaning from what they read. Comprehension strategies are used to increase children's understanding of the text to help them become active readers by engaging with the text. Learn more about Alabama Extension's Parent-Child Reading Enhancement Program to enhance a child's reading ability.

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The Importance of Reading Comprehension - Alabama Cooperative Extension System

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Many children in the United States haven't fully developed their reading skills. Between 2017 and 2019, the number of children in grades 4 through 8 reading at or above their grade level decreased. In other words, the number of children who lack the necessary reading skills increased.

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Here is an article by Reading Rockets talking about the fundamental role a student's vocabulary plays in reading and writing!

https://www.readingrockets.org/teaching/reading-basics/vocabulary#:~:text=Reading%20vocabulary%20refers%20to%20the,words%20they%20see%20in%20print.

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More resources: Vocabulary: self-paced course Target the Problem: Vocabulary Vocabulary Apps Topics A-Z: Vocabulary Vocabulary refers to the words we must understand to communicate effectively. Educators often consider four types of vocabulary: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Listening vocabulary refers to the words we need to know to understand what we hear.

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Here is a link to a short article and video from Reading Rockets with information about fluency while reading

https://www.readingrockets.org/teaching/reading-basics/fluency#:~:text=Fluency%20is%20the%20ability%20to,between%20word%20recognition%20and%20comprehension.

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More resources: Fluent Reading (PBS Launching Young Readers series) Looking at Reading Interventions Fluency: Course Module Target the Problem: Fluency Topics A-Z: Fluency When fluent readers read silently, they recognize words automatically. They group words quickly to help them gain meaning from what they read. Fluent readers read aloud effortlessly and with expression.

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This article by Institute of Reading Development's author Kathryn Culbert gives a great explanation of what phonics is and why phonics instruction is an essential part of a young readers development.

https://readingprograms.org/Resources/Blog/Phonics-The-Most-Important-Skill-that-Beginning-Readers-Learn

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How Can I Boost My Child's Confidence and Motivation?

To get to a place of confidence and enthusiasm about reading, children don't just need to learn new skills. They also need an encouraging learning environment where they can practice skills in wonderful, age-appropriate books and have great reading experiences.

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How Can I Boost My Child's Confidence and Motivation? To get to a place of confidence and enthusiasm about reading, children don't just need to learn new skills. They also need an encouraging learning environment where they can practice skills in wonderful, age-appropriate books and have great reading experiences.

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This article from Reading Rockets authors Louisa Moats and Carol Tolman gives a great explanation on what phonemic Awarness is and why it is important to your child's development as a reader and writer.

https://www.readingrockets.org/article/why-phonological-awareness-important-reading-and-spelling

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Phoneme awareness is necessary for learning and using the alphabetic code

Phoneme awareness predicts later outcomes in reading and spelling

The majority of poor readers have relative difficulty with phoneme awareness and other phonological skills

Instruction in phoneme awareness is beneficial for novice readers and spellers

Phonological awareness interacts with and facilitates the development of vocabulary and word consciousness

Moats, L, & Tolman, C (2009). Excerpted from Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS): The Speech Sounds of English: Phonetics, Phonology, and Phoneme Awareness (Module 2). Boston: Sopris West.

For more information on Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) visit Voyager Sopris .

For any reprint requests, please contact the author or publisher listed.

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Why Phonological Awareness Is Important for Reading and Spelling

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Phonological awareness is critical for learning to read any alphabetic writing system. And research shows that difficulty with phoneme awareness and other phonological skills is a predictor of poor reading and spelling development.