In our 1st grade reading program, your child will build strong phonics skills, learn to recognize common sight words, and develop reading comprehension, all while cultivating a love of reading.

Phonics instruction teaches kids the relationship between letters and the sounds they stand for. It is at the heart of how children learn to read. 1^st graders begin by learning basic phonics skills, starting with blending short words like dog or hat. They then move on to learn long vowel sounds, consonant blends, and vowel teams like ai in rain. By the end of the year, they can also recognize easy prefixes and suffixes and decode two-syllable words.

When 1^st graders develop strong phonics skills in our programs, they are able to sound out words quickly and easily. Over time and with practice, they read more and more challenging words with confidence. They feel a real sense of accomplishment.

Comprehension, or the ability to understand what you read, is the goal of reading. In 1^st grade, children are mainly focused on the mechanics of reading, but they also start building comprehension and learn that every story has a beginning, middle, and end. Talking about books and what characters do is a great way for 1^st graders to develop their comprehension.

In our 1^st grade programs, students learn to visualize what’s happening in a story and to identify with the characters during engaging book discussions and activities. When kids understand the meaning of what they read, it makes reading fun! They can begin to make connections between stories and their own lives.