Building Blocks of 1st Grade Reading

When sounding out words still takes all your child's effort, there's little left for enjoying the story. In Building Blocks of 1st Grade Reading, a live instructor leads 1st graders through demonstrations and practice on the reading they're doing in school now, from phonics and fluency to stories, while circling back to earlier skills and previewing new ones. Kids try each skill along at home. By the end, your child can blend sounds to read new words and retell a story's key details. For every new reader, from careful sounders-out to kids racing ahead.

Make the Basics Automatic When a student is still working hard on letter sounds or sight words, there's little attention left for understanding what they read. We practice those foundational skills until reading feels smooth and automatic.

Lock In This Year's Learning The school year moves fast, and students are often just on the cusp of getting a topic when the next unit begins. We circle back to key 1st grade skills from earlier in the year, like blending sounds to read new words or retelling a story's key details, that later units depend on.

Tackle What's in Front of You Whatever your class is working on right now, from phonics and fluency to stories and informational texts, students get guided practice and clear strategies for the reading they're doing in school this month.

Preview What's Next Wouldn't we all love a sneak peek at our next challenge before the clock starts ticking and the points start counting? We preview upcoming skills, like long vowel patterns or finding the main topic of a text, so new skills feel familiar instead of intimidating.