First Grade - ELA
1: Environment
Unit 1: Habitats and Homes
Lesson 1
My Environment
The lesson explicitly states that students should "show an understanding that the letters in a written word represent the sequence of sounds in a spoken word" and asks caregivers to read words slowly while the child "uses her finger to follow the sounds of each word as you pronounce them". Option 1 asks the child to add missing first letters after sounding out labels, and Activity 4 has letter and word-level handwriting practice (Bb with bed and bath) that links letters to spoken words. Option 2 asks children to sound out words or copy them after an adult models the spelling.
Lesson 2
What Is a Map?
Students are prompted to "sound out" letters as they write them (Activity 2, Option 1) and to "sound out each word and to spell it the way it sounds" (Activity 2, Option 2). Activity 4 has students trace letters and practice writing words such as map, mom, home, and house, providing opportunities for phoneme-level decoding. The Skills list explicitly includes "Write and sound out letters (LA)," indicating student practice with sounding letters and words.
Unit 2: Weather
Lesson 6
Winter
Students are asked to "attempt to read the story aloud" and are supported to "sound out words as needed," which prompts decoding practice. Students are directed to "circle the beginning letter of each word" in the Snowflake Math activity, focusing attention on initial sounds/letters. Students practice the letter W and write the words "wind" and "winter," reinforcing letter–sound correspondences in spoken and written contexts.
Unit 3: Community
Lesson 3
Jobs in the Community
Students are asked to "name and sound out each letter" and to "attempt to sound out the word" when reading community helper labels (Activity 1 and Activity 2). The skills list explicitly includes "Recognize beginning consonant sounds," and activities ask students to say sentences aloud and attempt to write words they can sound out (Activity 5). Students also practice circling the first and last letters of words, which directs attention to individual letter sounds.
Lesson 4
Goods and Services in the Community
Students are asked to read the names of buildings, goods, and services and are told, "If she needs your help, help her sound out the words." For each word, students are directed to circle the beginning letter. The activities require oral reading of single-word labels and guided sounding-out during matching and cutting tasks.
2: Similarities and Differences
Unit 3: We're the Same, We're Different
Lesson 1
You're Special
Students are asked to "attempt to read each question aloud" and are encouraged to "sound out the words for his answers" and "write the letters he hears," which asks them to attend to individual sounds and represent them with letters. The lesson lists the skill "Represent spoken language with phonetic spelling" and includes handwriting/word practice (Uu and the word "unique") that asks students to map sounds to letters.
6: Reading
Unit 1: Semester 1
Lesson 1
Letter Sounds Review I
The Skills list explicitly includes "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds." Students practice saying individual letter sounds (Activity 1.2 and Day 2) and are prompted to say each sound while pointing to letters (Activity 3.2: /s/ /a/ /t/ → sat). Students are also instructed to say words slowly to hear all the sounds and then write the word as they say the sounds (Activity 5.2).
Lesson 2
Letter Sounds Review II
The Skills list explicitly includes "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds" and "Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds in three letter (CVC) words." Activity 2.3 (Ending Letters) directs students to say words slowly, sounding out the beginning, middle, and end and to point to or write the letter that makes the ending sound. Activities 3.2 (Building Words), 5.1 (Writing Words), and 5.2 (Word Chains) have students say each letter sound, blend sounds to form words, and change single sounds to make new words, which requires producing and manipulating individual phonemes.
Lesson 3
Letter Sounds Review III
The Skills list explicitly includes "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds" and "Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds in three letter (CVC) words." Activity 2.2 asks students to say each word slowly, drawing out beginning, middle, and ending sounds while sorting pictures by short o and short u. Activities 3.2 and 5.1 require students to create/read three-letter words and to say the sounds slowly and clearly as they spell or write them.
Lesson 4
Letter Sounds Review IV
The lesson explicitly lists the skill "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds" and instructs students to "say the word slowly so that she can hear all the sounds" before writing (Activity 5.1). Students are asked to pronounce each sound as they build three-letter words with letter cards (Activity 3.2) and to say sounds slowly and clearly while constructing words on word-building cards (Activity 4.3). Activities also prompt students to isolate initial, medial vowel, and final sounds in CVC words and to point to letters while saying beginning or ending sounds (Activity 1.2), providing multiple opportunities for phoneme segmentation practice.
Lesson 5
Adding s, More Word Families, Ending with ck
The Skills list explicitly includes "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds." In Activity 5.1 (Word Chains) students spell words with letter cards and are encouraged to "say each letter sound as he spells the word," prompting phoneme-by-phoneme segmentation. Activity 4.1 and 4.2 ask students to "sound it out slowly," "recognize the short vowel sound," and to "listen closely to the middle sound," which requires isolating initial, medial, and final phonemes. Activity 5.2 (Guess My Word) uses phoneme-level clues (e.g., "My first letter has the same beginning sound as 'deck'") that require students to identify and produce individual sounds.
Lesson 6
Open Syllables and Digraph th
The Skills list explicitly includes "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds." Activities ask students to listen for and pronounce beginning, middle, and ending sounds (Activity 4.3: "Say them slowly so that she can hear their beginning, middle, and ending sounds"; Activity 4.2: "Remind her to listen closely for the /th/ sound… Emphasize the beginning, middle, and ending sounds as needed"). Multiple tasks require students to spell words with lowercase letter cards and to build or remove letters to change words (Activity 2.2, Activity 4.2), which requires mapping each sound in a single-syllable word to its letters.
Lesson 7
Consonant Digraphs ch, sh, wh, ph
The Skills list explicitly includes "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds" and "Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds in three letter (CVC) words." Activity 4.2 directs the student to hear words slowly to notice beginning, middle, and ending sounds, and Activity 3.2 has students build words from digraph and letter cards (requiring breaking words into sound parts). Activities 1.2 and 2.2 ask the student to listen for and say specific phonemes (e.g., /ch/, /sh/, /w/, /f/) and to point to cards or sort pictures based on those sounds.
Lesson 8
Blends with s
The lesson explicitly instructs students to "say each word slowly so that she can hear all the sounds" and to write each word "as she says the sounds in it" (Activity 3.3). Word Chains (Activity 4.2) requires students to spell words using letter and word-building cards while saying each letter sound as they change words. Guess My Word (Activity 4.1) asks students to attend to and produce specific beginning, middle, and ending sounds when writing words from phonemic clues. The Skills list also explicitly includes "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds."
Lesson 9
Blends with l
The Skills list explicitly includes "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds," and students are reminded to "listen closely to the sounds in the words" during dictation (Activities 2.2 and 3.2). In Activity 4.2 (Word Chains) students spell words with letter and word-building cards and are told to "say each letter sound as he spells the word," which requires breaking words into their component sounds. Activity 1.2 and Activity 4.1 prompt students to say words carefully to hear beginning blends and to say the sound of each blend as needed when filling blanks, providing practice isolating initial sounds.
Lesson 10
Blends with r
Students are instructed to "say each word slowly so that she can hear all the sounds" and to write the word beside the picture as she says the sounds (Activity 2.2 Writing Words). The skills list explicitly includes "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds" and "Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds in three letter (CVC) words." Word-building activities (Day 2 and Day 3) require students to construct words from letter and blend cards, which engages them in breaking words into component sounds to spell them.
Lesson 11
Ending Blends
Students are asked to pronounce individual letter sounds and blends (e.g., Activity 3.1 has students make the sound of each letter and then pronounce the two sounds as a blend for lf and nt). Activity 2.1 directs students to hear and say the sounds /n/ and /d/ separately and then together (/nd/) and to say words like "sand" and "pond" slowly. Activity 5.1 and several word-building activities prompt students to spell words with letter cards and to "say each letter sound as he spells the word," which requires producing the sequence of phonemes for single-syllable words.
Lesson 12
Double ll, ss, ff, zz (FLOSS)
The Skills list explicitly states that students will "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds" and to "Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds in three letter (CVC) words." Activities ask students to point to ending-sound cards and emphasize final phonemes (Activity 1.2) and to clap the beats to identify one-syllable words (Activity 2.1). Word-building tasks require students to spell words using letter cards, which requires attending to individual sounds (Activities 1.2, 3.1, 4.1).
Lesson 13
Glued Sounds ng and nk
The lesson's Skills list explicitly includes "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds" and "Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds in three letter (CVC) words." Activity 2.1 asks students to sound out words like "hang" by breaking them into parts (/h/ and /ang/) and to read and manipulate onsets and rimes (king → ring → wing). Activities 4.1 and 5.1 require students to say digraph sounds, fill in missing digraphs, and identify the final ending they hear in spoken words.
Lesson 14
Three-Letter Beginning Blends
The Skills list explicitly includes "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds." Activity 1.2 models segmentation of a three-letter blend by having the student hear and say /s/, then /k/, then /r/ (scr) and repeat for str. Multiple activities ask students to "sound out the letter sounds" as they read or spell words (e.g., spelling words with lowercase letter cards, writing words as the teacher says them while emphasizing and repeating the sounds).
Lesson 15
More Ending Blends
The Skills list explicitly states that students will "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds" and that they will "Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds in three letter (CVC) words." Activities require students to say the sounds for ending blends (Activity 1.2, Day 2 and Day 4) and to point to ending-blend cards when they hear words with those endings. Activities also have students spell words with lowercase letter cards and word-building cards (Day 2, Day 3, Activity 4.4), which has students manipulate and assemble individual letters and blends into words.
Lesson 16
R-Controlled Vowels (ar)
The Skills list explicitly includes "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds." Multiple activities ask students to spell words with lowercase letter cards and to "say each letter sound as she spells the word" (Activity 5.1, Activity 3.1). Activities have students isolate initial, medial, and final sounds in CVC words, point to ending-sound cards, and complete fill-in-the-blanks by saying and writing the missing blends (Activities 2.3, 3.2, Day 2 and Day 3 tasks).
Lesson 17
Semester Review
The lesson's Skills list explicitly includes "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds," directly naming the target skill. In Activity 1.2 (Word Building) students are asked to spell spoken words using lowercase letter and word-building cards, requiring them to break words into sound-letter parts. In Activity 2.3 (Writing Words) and Activity 3.2 (Sentence Dictation) students write words or sentences as the teacher says them, prompting students to attend to the sounds in words to produce correct letters.
Unit 2: Semester 2
Lesson 1
Long Vowels a and i with Silent e
The Skills list explicitly names "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds." Students practice related phonemic tasks: they orally produce single-syllable words by blending sounds, add or substitute individual sounds to make new words (e.g., adding -s, changing tap to tape), and identify and manipulate vowel sounds (short vs. long a and i) in multiple activities. Activities ask students to point to vowel cards for heard vowel sounds and to build words from letter cards, demonstrating phoneme-grapheme mapping and sound manipulation.
Lesson 2
Long Vowels o, u, and e with Silent e
The lesson's skill list explicitly includes "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds." Students are asked to spell words as the teacher calls them (Activity 2.3, Activity 4.1), to sound out words they don't know, and to write words from dictation (Activity 5.2 and the spelling test), which requires hearing and mapping constituent sounds to letters. Several activities also have students manipulate letters (e.g., spell "cub" then add e to make "cube"; spell "rob" then add e to make "robe"), which involves attending to individual sounds when changing words.
Lesson 3
Hard and Soft c and g
The Skills list explicitly includes "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds," which names the target skill. Students are also asked to "sound out the word," to spell words with lowercase letter cards as the teacher says them (Activities 2.2, 4.2), and to read/spell words after hearing them, which require mapping sounds to letters.
Lesson 4
More R-Controlled Vowels (er, ir, or, ur)
The Skills list explicitly includes "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds." In Activity 1.2 the child is asked to spell words the adult says aloud (e.g., spell "chat," then change letters; spell dart, spar, smart, start, arm, cards), requiring the child to break spoken words into graphemes. Across Days 2–4 the child repeatedly spells words the teacher calls out and completes a spelling test (Activity 4.2) and sentence dictation (Activity 5.3), all of which require mapping each spoken sound to letters.
Lesson 5
Long a Spellings ai, ay
The lesson's Skills list explicitly states that students will "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds." Activities ask students to point to and say sounds in boxes (Activity 1.2) and to identify vowel and consonant sounds in words (Activity 1.3, Activity 3.1). Activities also require students to manipulate sounds/letters (word chains in Activity 4.1 and substitution tasks in word building), which involves isolating and changing individual sounds.
Lesson 6
Long e Spellings ee, ey, ea
The lesson's Skills list explicitly names: "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds." Students are asked to "spell the words as you call them out" in the Word Building activities and to write words "as you say them" during Writing ea Words and Sentence Dictation, which requires attending to spoken sounds. The lesson also has activities for adding or substituting individual sounds to make new words and for phonics word-building with letter cards (e.g., assembling tree, meet, team).
Lesson 7
Long i Spellings y, igh, ie
The Skills list explicitly includes "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds." In Activity 3.1 the teacher models segmentation by asking what sounds are in "fight" and sounding it out as /f/ /ī/ /t/, and asks the student to point to silent letters. Activities 3.2 and 4.1 prompt students to sound out words and to say the sounds they hear, and multiple word-building/spelling tasks require students to spell words after hearing them, which reinforces phoneme-level analysis.
Lesson 8
Long o Spellings ow, oa, oe
The lesson's Skills list explicitly includes: "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds." Activity 2.2 (Word Building) asks students to "spell the words as you call them out one at a time and to read each word after he spells it," and Activity 4.3 (Spelling Test) and Day 5 Sentence Dictation require students to write words or sentences as they are spoken aloud.
Lesson 9
Long u Spellings ue, ew, ou
Students are asked to say words slowly (e.g., "tube" and "cube") and listen for the different long u sounds, which prompts attention to individual sounds. Students are asked to spell words as the teacher says them aloud using lowercase letter cards (e.g., due, sue, cue, blue, glue), requiring them to break spoken single-syllable words into constituent sounds to select letters. The Skills list explicitly includes "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds," and activities repeatedly instruct students to "sound them out."
Lesson 10
Other Long Vowel Patterns
The Skills list explicitly states that students will "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds." Throughout the activities, students are asked to spell and build single-syllable words using lowercase letter cards and word-building cards (e.g., spell find, kind, mild, colt, bolt) which requires breaking spoken words into component sounds. Students also complete a spelling test and sentence dictation (writing words/sentences as they are read aloud) and complete word-building/Alphabet Soup tasks that require mapping spoken sounds to letters. The lesson includes practice with blending, adding/substituting individual sounds, and decoding regularly spelled one-syllable words.
Lesson 11
Long Vowel Sounds Review
The lesson's Skills list explicitly includes "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds," and related skills such as blending, adding/substituting individual sounds, and producing primary consonant sounds are also listed. Activities require students to sound out words, orally blend sounds (e.g., readers and word scrambles where students use long-vowel spellings to form words), and to spell words given a long vowel sound (Life Application: ask child to spell words from a given sound). Activity prompts also ask students to identify which letters make particular vowel sounds, linking sounds to letters.
Lesson 12
Other Vowel Sounds oi, oy
The Skills list explicitly names 'Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds.' Activity 2.1 instructs an adult to model by 'stretching out each sound to make it clear,' which exposes students to separated sound pronunciation. Activities such as 3.2 (spell words as you call them out) and 4.2 (spelling test from spoken words) require students to hear words and map their component sounds to letters when spelling.
Lesson 13
Other Vowel Sounds ou, ow
The lesson's Skills list explicitly includes "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds." Activity 1.2 asks the child to "say each word slowly and will write the word," prompting slow oral articulation of words. Multiple word-building activities (Activity 3.1, Day 4 Group word building) require the student to spell words as the teacher calls them aloud, which has students listen to spoken words and map the sequence of sounds to letters.
Lesson 14
Other Vowel Sounds aw, au
The lesson's Skills list explicitly states that students will "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds." Multiple activities require students to spell words as the teacher calls them (Day 3 Word Building; Day 4 Word Building) using lowercase letter cards, which requires breaking spoken words into their constituent sounds to choose letters. Sentence dictation (Day 5 Activity 5.2) and spelling tests (Day 4 Activity 4.3) ask students to write words from spoken prompts, and blending/add-substitute tasks are included in the skills and activities, giving students repeated practice mapping sounds to letters.
Lesson 15
These Make More Than One Sound: oo and ea
The lesson's Skills list explicitly includes "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds." Students are asked to spell words as the teacher calls them (Activities 2.2 and 4.1), which requires them to break spoken words into sounds to map to letters. Activities also prompt students to repeat words slowly to "hear the different oo sounds" and to write words during the spelling test and sentence dictation, providing opportunities to attend to individual sounds in single-syllable words.
Lesson 16
Silent Starts: kn, wr, gn
The lesson's Skills list explicitly includes: "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds." Multiple activities require students to build or write words after hearing them (Activity 2.2 word building: make words as the teacher calls them; Activity 4.3 spelling test: write words as the teacher reads them). Activities also ask students to "sound out" words and to read words aloud during sorting and scrambling tasks, which requires attending to individual sounds.
Lesson 17
Year-End Review
Students are explicitly expected to "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds" in the Skills list. Activity 1.2 prompts students to read word lists and distinguishes digraphs (one sound) from blends (separate sounds), asking students to attend to how letters map to sounds. Alphabet Soup activities (Days 3 and 5) ask students to use letter cards and letter pairs to build and write words, encouraging them to break words into sound parts to spell them. The Skills list also includes adding or substituting individual sounds and orally producing single-syllable words by blending sounds, which requires phoneme-level manipulation.