Fun Reading Activities for First Graders
By first grade, students should be comfortable sounding out letters and putting them together to form simple words.
Now, they’re ready to move on to more complex skills, like understanding long and short vowels, breaking longer words into segments, and identifying correct sentence structure. Try these first grade reading activities and games to reinforce key concepts with your child.
Sort Items by Short and Long Vowel Sounds
Vowels are so tricky! They make different sounds depending on various factors.
To introduce this concept, have kids say different words out loud, listening to the vowel sounds.
Then, have them sort those words into long or short vowels.
You can do this with various items from around the house (cap, bat, phone, plate, etc.). Or, grab a set of free printable cards from Homeschool Giveaways & Freebies.
Bonus Activity Idea: Take a long strip of paper and fold it in half. Write the letter A on both the inside and the outside, and repeat for the other vowels.
Have your child hold a folded strip and say the short vowel sound associated with the letter. Then, ask them to unfold it, and say the long vowel sound. Kinesthetic activities like this help make strong connections for difficult concepts.
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Use the Magic E Wand
Once kids know long and short vowels, it’s time to introduce them to Magic E, which “makes vowels say their name.
Make a simple wand like the one from My Baba by gluing a card with the letter E on it to the end of a stick.
Then show your child how simply adding that final Magic E changes the vowel sound.
Bonus Activity Idea: Play another sorting game, this time with short vowel words and silent-E long vowel words. Write them out on slips of paper, and have kids draw one, read the word, and sort it into the short or long vowel pile.
Roll a Blend to Make New Words
Longer words usually have consonant blends in them, and some are easier to master than others.
To get some practice, first grab these free printable pages from Primary Essentials.
Then, have your child roll a die to see which blend they’ll work on.
They must name a word that starts with that blend to earn a point. Write the words down, and don’t let them repeat any on subsequent rolls!
Bonus Activity Idea: Diagraphs are similar to blends, with one difference. In a diagraph, two letters together make a single sound: think “ch” or “sh.” Play the dice game with diagraphs too, making your own key for numbers and letter blends.
Practice Syllables with Twister
Breaking longer words into syllables helps kids decode them more easily. First graders learn about open syllables (ones that end in a vowel) and closed syllables (those that end in a consonant).
Get some exercise while you practice by turning your Twister board into a syllable board, like This Reading Mama did.
Lay open syllable cards on one half of the mat and closed syllable cards on the other. Call out a word, and ask kids to place their hands and feet on the spots that make up the word.
Bonus Activity Idea: First grade students also work on segmenting, breaking words in phonemes (individual sounds). Many activities work well for both phonemes and syllables, including this one.
Race Cars to Work on Sight Words
Sight words are those that we use frequently, but don’t necessarily follow standard rules of spelling and pronunciation.
There are lots of ways to practice them, including this one from Playdough to Plato that involves racing two toy cars marked with sight words.
Set up a bracket system, racing two by two until you have a winner!
Bonus Activity Ideas: You can use toy cars in many ways when it comes to sight words. Make a “parking lot” on posterboard, labeling each spot with a word. Call out a word, and have your child drive a car into the right spot. Or, label each car with a letter, and use them to spell various words on your list.
Unscramble Sentences to Work on Structure
First graders learn to build complete sentences and write them out properly.
Write out a sentence and cut it into individual words.
Challenge kids to unscramble them, then write out the whole sentence properly, including capitalization at the beginning and correct punctuation at the end. See this in action at Brown Bag Teacher.
Bonus Activity Idea: Take this activity a step further, and use sentences that tell a story. As kids unscramble them, they work to place them in the correct order so they can read the complete tale from start to finish. This helps them work on sequencing, another first grade reading skill.
Try the 5-Finger Retelling Method
While just learning to read is a real accomplishment, it’s important not to forget about comprehension as well.
To make sure kids are truly understanding what they’re reading, try this clever method from Mrs. Wheeler’s First Grade.
After reading a story, ask your child to describe the characters (thumb), setting (first finger), beginning (second finger), middle (ring finger), and end (pinkie). It’s simple, but effective.
Bonus Activity Idea: Kids this age can also work on making predictions and inferences about what they’ve read. Stop a few times as you read (even during read-alouds), and ask them to guess what might happen next. Afterwards, ask them to think about why the characters did what they did, or how they might have felt in particular scenes.
ABCmouse Reading Games & Activities
Try the ABCmouse early learning educational App for 1st grade reading activity fun!
Whether you want a quick easy activity you can take on the go, or wanting a customized learning path for your developing reader ABCmouse.com has hundreds of reading games and activities designed to help your kindergartener learn and develop their reading muscles.
ABCmouse has activities and games for 1st graders learning to read that cover:
- Letter and Sound Recognition
- Word Blending
- Sight Words
- Reading Comprehension
- Phonics
- Vocabulary Building
- Reading Fluency
- Progress Tracking
- AND MORE!
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