First Grade - ELA
1: Environment
Unit 1: Habitats and Homes
Lesson 1
My Environment
The lesson's skills list includes showing an understanding that letters in a written word represent the sequence of sounds, and Activity 2 (Option 1) instructs the child to use her finger to follow the sounds of each word as an adult pronounces them and to discuss which letters are missing. Activity 4 provides handwriting practice for single-syllable words such as "bed" and "bath," including tracing and copying these words. The activities ask the child to "sound out the labels" and to attempt to write the missing initial letters on the Exploring My Home page.
Lesson 2
What Is a Map?
Students are asked to "sound out" letters as they write them (Activity 2 options and Skills) and to "sound out each word and to spell it the way it sounds" (Activity 2, Option 2). Students practice writing and reading single‑syllable words such as map, mom, bed, sink, and chair during labeling, handwriting, and worksheet activities. The scrambled‑word and labeling tasks require students to attend to letter‑to‑sound correspondences while producing the spoken or written form of words.
Lesson 5
Discovering Animal Habitats
The Skills section lists "Identify beginning letters and sounds in words" and Activity 1 (Option 1) asks the child to add the first and last letter for each habitat and to attempt to read/sound out the word. The Handwriting activity has students practice the letter Jj and the words "jungle" and "Jeep," reinforcing initial consonant sounds. Several activities prompt students to say habitat names aloud when answering targeted questions about each environment.
Lesson 7
Tools in My Environment
Students are asked to "sound out the words and identify letter sounds" as the caregiver writes the names of chosen tools and points to letters while sounding them out. Students are encouraged to "attempt to record at least the beginning letter," which prompts them to attend to and produce initial sounds. Students practice the letter Ii and the words it and inch on a handwriting page, reinforcing letter-sound correspondence for a medial vowel letter in printed words.
Lesson 9
Animal Designs
Students are asked to name animals and habitats aloud in multiple activities (Option 1 and Option 2), and to read movement words and produce sentences such as "A zebra can't live in the ocean." The Skills list explicitly includes "Begin to write words" and "Write beginning consonants of words (LA)," which requires attention to initial sounds. Activity 3 prompts students to say full sentences identifying misplaced animals, providing spoken-word practice.
Unit 2: Weather
Lesson 1
Reading the Skies
The Skills list explicitly includes "Identify beginning letters and sounds in words (LA)," so students are asked to attend to and identify initial sounds. In Activity 2 students match weather words to pictures and then dictate sentences using each vocabulary word, which requires them to say the words aloud and can reinforce initial sound-letter correspondences. Option 2 asks students to write or label words under pictures, reinforcing the link between spoken words and their initial letters/sounds.
Lesson 5
Fall
Option 1 asks the child to write the names of three circled items and to circle the beginning letter of each word, which engages initial-letter/initial-sound identification. Activity 4 has students practice the letter F and the words "fun" and "fall," including tracing and writing those single-syllable words. Graphing Leaves asks the child to read directions aloud, providing some practice with spoken single words and word-level reading.
Lesson 6
Winter
Students are asked to attempt to read their dictated story aloud and are supported to "sound out words as needed," which provides practice pronouncing phonemes in words. In Snowflake Math (Option 1) students are instructed to "circle the beginning letter of each word" to help them sound out words, and the handwriting page has students practice the words "wind" and "winter" and the letter W.
Lesson 7
Spring
The poetry activities ask students to attempt to read each short poem and to identify and underline rhyming words, with a teacher or adult reading aloud so the child can "listen for the rhyming words." The activities require students to match each poem to an illustration, which involves attending to and comprehending the spoken/written words. The language extension invites students to write or dictate a poem, engaging them in listening to and producing language.
Lesson 8
Summer
Students are provided with picture-word prompts (pool, hot, trip, beach, swim) and are asked to read the words and read the completed story aloud, which gives opportunities to say single-syllable words aloud. In Option 1 and Option 2, students are prompted to write the beginning letter of a word in blanks, which requires them to identify or attend to the initial sound-to-letter correspondence. The activities also ask students to use new vocabulary in speech and to sing a simple season song, encouraging oral production of target words.
Unit 3: Community
Lesson 3
Jobs in the Community
Students are asked to circle the first and last letters of each community helper label and to name and sound out each letter (Activity 1), and the skills list explicitly includes "Recognize beginning consonant sounds." Activity 2/Option 1 asks students to attempt to sound out words and to circle the beginning letter of each word. Activity 5 asks students to say a sentence aloud about each worker and attempt to write (and sound out) the words they can, providing opportunities to produce initial and final letter sounds.
Lesson 4
Goods and Services in the Community
Activity 1 asks the child to read the names of buildings, goods, and services and, if needed, the parent should "help her sound out the words." For each word the child is instructed to circle the beginning letter. The activity thus prompts students to pronounce words and identify initial letters/sounds.
2: Similarities and Differences
Unit 1: Amazing Attributes
Lesson 1
Describe It
The lesson asks students to "circle the first letter in each word and sound out the word" (Activity 3, Option 1) and has students copy or write descriptive words beneath pictures, which involves reading and decoding single words. Activity instructions also prompt oral description tasks (e.g., describing objects in the bag and speaking clues), which require students to say words aloud.
Unit 2: Senses
Lesson 1
My Five Senses
The lesson explicitly lists the skill "Recognize beginning consonant sounds of words (LA)" and asks students to identify the beginning letters of the author's name and the beginning letters of important words in the text. Activity 1 directs students to refer to a "Senses Word List," copy each word, and identify beginning letters when encountering words in the book. Several activities ask students to name senses and associated body parts and to match words/pictures to senses, which involves attention to initial letters and word recognition.
Lesson 6
Experimenting With Our Senses
Students are asked to "Recognize beginning consonant sounds of words" as a listed skill, indicating practice with initial phonemes. In Activity 2, students attempt to read spice names and may write the first letter of each spice, practicing correspondence between initial sounds and letters. In Activities 3 and 4, students tell a story aloud and read or write a sentence about tastes or smells, giving opportunities to say single-syllable words aloud.
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" words for their answers, writing the letters they hear (represent spoken language with phonetic spelling). Students practice letter formation for Uu and trace the word "unique," which connects letters to sounds. Students are prompted to read and produce personal words and numbers aloud during activities.
Lesson 3
Different Personalities
Activity 1 asks students to attempt to sound out vocabulary words and, if they cannot read a word, to circle the first and last letters and tell the sounds those letters make. Activity 1 also prompts students to explain word meanings, which requires attending to the spoken form of the words. Activity 4 includes tracing and writing the letter q and the word "quiet," giving students practice pronouncing and producing letter sounds in a word context.
3: Patterns
Unit 2: Patterns in Sounds, Words, and Actions
Lesson 1
Word Patterns
Students are asked to listen to and say sets of single-syllable words (e.g., take/bake/rake; hat/bat; hen/pen) and to identify and circle the repeating parts, which practices recognizing and producing rhyming (final) sounds. Students are prompted to say word pairs aloud, add new rhyming words, and record rhyming words from nursery rhymes, giving repeated practice with ending sound patterns. The skills list explicitly notes that students should "Recognize that spoken language has identifiable speech sounds" and "Understand that some words begin and end alike," which directs attention to sound patterns in spoken single-syllable words.
Lesson 2
Making Word Patterns
Students complete sentences by supplying rhyming words (Activity 1), read the completed sentences aloud, and make a rhyming book, which practices identifying and producing word endings that rhyme. Students sort word lists into word families (Activity 2), cut apart words, label groups like "-un" or "-it" and use beginning letters to make new words, which has them manipulate initial letters/sounds. Students find and record rhyming words in picture books (Activity 3) and compare spelling patterns versus rhyming sounds, and a skills note states students "recognize that the sequence of letters represents the sequence of sounds in a word."
Lesson 3
Poetry Patterns
Students listen to poems and songs and are asked to identify, circle, and recite words that rhyme (for example, circling 'be'/'me' and 'dog'/'frog') and to predict the rhyming word in the song "A-Hunting We Will Go." Activity instructions tell students to circle parts of words that follow the same pattern and to note words that rhyme but are spelled differently. The skills list explicitly mentions that students should "Understand that some words begin and end alike," which directs attention to word-initial and word-final similarities.
6: Reading
Unit 1: Semester 1
Lesson 1
Letter Sounds Review I
The Skills list explicitly states students will "isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds in three letter (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words." In Activity 3.2 (Building Words) students are asked to identify each sound in sat ("What's the sound after /s/ in sat? What letter makes that sound?"), then say each letter sound and blend: "/s/ /a/ /t/, sat." Activity 2.3 (Beginning Sounds) has students say a spoken word and point to the letter matching the beginning sound, and Activity 5.2 instructs students to "say the word slowly so that he can hear all the sounds" before writing.
Lesson 2
Letter Sounds Review II
The Skills list explicitly states that students will "isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds in three letter (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words." Activity 2.2 (Beginning Letters) has students identify and write the beginning letter for pictured words, requiring them to isolate and produce initial sounds. Activity 2.3 (Ending Letters) asks students to point to or write the letter that makes the ending sound while saying each word slowly and sounding out the beginning, middle, and end; multiple activities (3.2, 4.2, 5.1) have students sound out/blend CVC words with the short i vowel.
Lesson 3
Letter Sounds Review III
The Skills list explicitly states students will "Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds in three letter (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words" and to "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds." Activity 1.2 has students flip letter cards and say beginning sounds and point to letters that match initial sounds. Activity 2.2 directs students to cut out pictures, say each word slowly drawing out beginning, middle, and ending sounds, and sort pictures by short o vs. short u vowel sounds. Activities 3.2 and 5.1 have students build and write three-letter words while saying each sound slowly and clearly, reinforcing segmentation of initial, medial, and final phonemes.
Lesson 4
Letter Sounds Review IV
Students are asked to say letter sounds and identify beginning and ending sounds using letter cards (Activity 1.2), including flipping cards and pointing to letters as the teacher says words that begin or end with those sounds. Students listen for and identify the short /e/ medial vowel in spoken word pairs (Activity 2.1) and complete a Short Vowel Sort by naming pictures and placing them into boxes by their short vowel sound (Day 2). Students build and spell many three-letter words while being prompted to say each word slowly and clearly pronounce each sound (Activity 3.2), and they say words slowly to hear all the sounds before writing them (Activity 5.1).
Lesson 5
Adding s, More Word Families, Ending with ck
The Skills list explicitly states that students will "Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds in three letter (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words" and to "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds." Activities require students to say short vowel sounds (Activity 4.1) and to "listen closely to the middle sound" while sorting CVC/ck words (Activity 4.2). Word Chains (Activity 5.1), Guess My Word (Activity 5.2), and multiple word-building tasks prompt students to say each letter sound and to change or identify beginning and ending sounds aloud.
Lesson 6
Open Syllables and Digraph th
Students are explicitly asked to listen for and emphasize beginning, middle, and ending sounds when building and spelling words (Activity 4.2: "Remind her to listen closely for the /th/ sound... Emphasize the beginning, middle, and ending sounds"). The Skills list explicitly states students will "Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds in three letter (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words." Multiple activities require students to say words slowly, remove or add letters to hear vowel changes (Activity 2.2: changing met→me, wet→we), and to attend to beginning and ending sounds when sorting pictures or word parts (Activity 4.1 and Activity 1.2).
Lesson 7
Consonant Digraphs ch, sh, wh, ph
The skills list explicitly states that students will "Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds in three letter (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words" and "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds." Activity 4.2 directs students to hear and write words while the teacher says them slowly so they can "hear their beginning, middle, and ending sounds." Word-building (Activity 3.2), dictation (Activity 5.3), and fill-in-the-blank pages require students to identify and produce individual sounds in single-syllable words.
Lesson 8
Blends with s
The Skills list explicitly states that students will "Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds in three letter (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words." Multiple activities ask students to say words slowly and segment sounds (Activity 3.3: say each word slowly so that she can hear all the sounds and write the word as she says the sounds). Activities also require students to point to and identify beginning sounds (Activity 1.2) and to identify ending blends by pointing to cards while the teacher says words (Activity 3.1). Activity 4.1 uses clues that target the middle vowel sound, asking students to identify words by their middle sound (e.g., snack, chest, slip).
Lesson 9
Blends with l
The Skills list explicitly states students will "Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds in three letter (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words" and to "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds." Activities require students to listen closely to sounds during dictation (Activity 2.2 and 3.2) and to say each letter sound as they spell words in Word Chains (Activity 4.2). Activities also direct students to say words carefully to hear beginning sounds (Activity 1.2), fill in initial blends (Activity 4.1), and notice medial vowel differences in word chains (flock → flick → sack).
Lesson 10
Blends with r
Students are asked in the skills list to "Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds in three letter (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words." Activity 2.2 directs students to "say each word slowly so that she can hear all the sounds" and to write the word as she says the sounds, requiring segmentation of initial, medial, and final phonemes. The wrap-up clues explicitly require identifying a word by its middle sound ("My middle sound is the same as the middle sound in 'tub'.") and by its ending sound ("I end with /sh/"), and the Life Application asks students to produce words that begin with the same initial blend, practicing initial phoneme identification.
Lesson 11
Ending Blends
The lesson's skill list explicitly states students will "Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds in three letter (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words." Activities require students to say individual letter sounds and blends (e.g., Activity 2.1 has students say /n/ and /d/ separately and then together as /nd/; Activity 3.1 has students pronounce l and f separately and then the blend lf). Activity 1.2 asks students to identify initial blends as words are spoken, and Activity 5.1 prompts students to say each letter sound as they spell words in word chains.
Lesson 12
Double ll, ss, ff, zz (FLOSS)
The Skills list explicitly states that students will "Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds in three letter (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words" and "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds." Activity 1.2 has students listen to pairs (bill/doll, fuzz/jazz) and point to the card showing the ending sound while the teacher emphasizes the /s/ and /z/ sounds. Activities 2.1 and 4 require students to clap syllable beats, answer questions about short vowel sounds, and use letter/word-building cards to spell CVC words, which involves hearing and producing individual sounds.
Lesson 13
Glued Sounds ng and nk
Students are asked to break words like "hang" into two parts and say /h/ + /ang/ and to sound out words such as "king," "song," and "lung." Students sort and identify final sounds by pointing to ng vs. nk endings during word-sorting and practice changing initial letters to make and read new words (e.g., k → r to make "ring"). Students complete "Fill in the Blanks" items by writing missing digraphs and are asked to say the sound of each digraph aloud.
Lesson 14
Three-Letter Beginning Blends
The Skills list explicitly states that students will "isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds in three letter (CVC) words" and that they will "segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds." Multiple activities require students to say and sound out individual letter sounds (e.g., Activity 1.2 models /s/, /k/, /r/ for scr and asks the child to say the blend; Activity 3.3 asks the child to write and read words while the adult emphasizes and repeats the sounds). Activities also have students attend to endings (Activity 2 asks what makes words rhyme and notes the common ending sound) and to segment and blend sounds when spelling and reading words aloud.
Lesson 15
More Ending Blends
The lesson's Skills list explicitly states that students will "Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds in three letter (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words" and to "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds." In activities, students say letter and blend sounds, point to cards that match ending sounds, underline ending blends in words (e.g., bulb, gold, milk, yelp, melt), and build/read CVC and CVC-with-blend words (e.g., pat/pact, let/left, wet/wept). Several tasks require students to orally blend sounds to read words and to spell words from dictated sounds.
Lesson 16
R-Controlled Vowels (ar)
The skills list explicitly states that students will "Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds in three letter (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words" and to "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds." Activities give concrete practice: Activity 1.2 asks students to read and compare "cat" (pointing out the short /a/) and "car," Activity 2.3 has students listen to words and point to the card that shows each word's ending sound, and Activity 5.1 and other word-building tasks require students to say each letter sound as they spell and change words.
Lesson 17
Semester Review
The Skills list explicitly states that students will "isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds in three letter (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words" and also lists "segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds" and blending tasks. Activity 3.1 has students choose a vowel and build CVC words by adding beginning and ending letters/word-building cards, which requires attention to medial vowel and final consonant sounds. Activity 2.2 directs students to say each word aloud to hear its beginning sound, and several activities ask students to read words after spelling or grouping them, reinforcing phoneme-level attention.
Unit 2: Semester 2
Lesson 1
Long Vowels a and i with Silent e
Students point to vowel letter cards to show which long vowel sound they hear and watch/listen to videos that contrast long and short vowels (Activity 1.2). Students sort pictures into short vs long vowel columns and raise a hand or stand when they hear long a or long i, reinforcing medial vowel identification (Activities 2.1 and 3.1). Students build and change words (e.g., tap → tape; slid → slide), spell words with letter cards, and are asked to identify beginning sounds (e.g., /k/ in kite) during word-building and writing activities (Activities 2.2, 3.3, and Day 4). The lesson's skills list also explicitly names segmenting spoken single-syllable words into their sequence of individual sounds and blending sounds into words.
Lesson 2
Long Vowels o, u, and e with Silent e
Students are asked to listen for and identify long vs. short vowel sounds across multiple activities (e.g., asking "What vowel sound do these words have?" for e, o, and u lists). Students spell and read words using lowercase letter cards (e.g., spell rob → add e → read robe; spell cub → add e → read cube), which requires them to sound out and blend phonemes to hear the vowel change. The skills list and activities explicitly prompt students to "segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds" and to "sound out" and "read" words, supporting phoneme-level work.
Lesson 3
Hard and Soft c and g
Students are asked to say words that begin with c and g (Activity 1.1) and to pay attention to and produce the hard and soft initial sounds of c and g throughout Activities 2.1, 3.1, and Day 4. Students complete long-vowel sorting and matching pages (Activity 1.2) that require them to identify and place pictures by their medial long vowel sounds. Students are asked to sound out, spell, and build words using letter cards and word-building pages (Activities 2.2, 3.2, 4.2, and the spelling test), which requires blending and segmenting sounds to read and write words.
Lesson 4
More R-Controlled Vowels (er, ir, or, ur)
Students are asked to replace vowels (e.g., remove the a in "chat" and replace it with ar) and to read the resulting words aloud, drawing attention to how r changes the vowel sound. Multiple activities require students to pronounce and sort r-controlled medial vowel spellings (er, ir, ur) and to pronounce them as /er/ (Activity 3.1 and the sorting/cutting pages). Students also spell words aloud from spoken prompts (e.g., "Spell dart, spar, smart...") and use letter cards to build and read single-syllable words, which practices segmenting and blending sounds.
Lesson 5
Long a Spellings ai, ay
Students are asked to identify vowel sounds in single-syllable sight words (Activity 1.3 asks the child to identify the vowel sounds in "him" and "has"). Students practice the long a medial vowel sound by underlining ai and saying the ai sound aloud (Activity 3.1) and by noting that ay appears at the end of words (Activity 2.2). Students sort and write words under ending sound boxes (Activity 1.2 asks the child to write words like "bake" under the ake box and to point to and say the sounds shown in the boxes), and students change one letter at a time in word chains (Activity 4.1), which requires attention to initial and final letter/phoneme changes.
Lesson 6
Long e Spellings ee, ey, ea
The Skills section explicitly lists "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds," "Orally produce single-syllable words by blending sounds," and "Add or substitute individual sounds in simple, one-syllable words to make new words," which indicates students will work with phoneme-level segmentation and manipulation. Activity 1.2 asks students to listen to words and sort them by their e sound (short vs. long), requiring attention to the medial vowel sound. Activity 2.2 and Activity 3.1 ask students to spell words as they are called and to build words from letter/blend cards, which requires students to break words into sounds and assemble them aloud.
Lesson 7
Long i Spellings y, igh, ie
Students are asked to segment and pronounce sounds in single-syllable words, for example in Activity 3.1 they sound out fight as /f/ /ī/ /t/ and are asked which sounds they hear and to point to silent letters. The skills list explicitly includes "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds" and "Orally produce single-syllable words by blending sounds," indicating practice with phoneme-level work. Multiple activities (3.2, 4.1, 2.2) have students identify the letter(s) that make the long i sound and to spell/read words while attending to initial, medial (long i), and final sounds.
Lesson 8
Long o Spellings ow, oa, oe
Students are asked to segment and manipulate sounds through word building and word scramble activities (Activity 2.2, Activity 3.2) where they spell and blend single-syllable long-o words. Students highlight the letters that make the long o sound (Activity 2.1), which requires identifying the medial vowel spelling in words. Students sort words by ending patterns and group words by ending sounds (Activity 4.2), which has them attend to final sounds.
Lesson 9
Long u Spellings ue, ew, ou
Students are asked to listen for and identify the long u vowel sound (Activity 1.2: ask what vowel sound, add silent e to change short u to long u, and say words like "tube" and "cube" slowly to hear /oo/ vs /yu/). Students build and spell one-syllable long-u words using lowercase letter cards and word-building cards (Activities 2.1, 3.1, 4.2), and read the words aloud after spelling them. The skills list explicitly includes "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds" and activities require sounding out, blending, and decoding one-syllable words.
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" and "orally produce single-syllable words by blending sounds," indicating focus on phoneme-level work. Multiple activities require students to build and spell one-syllable words with letter cards (e.g., mild, wild, child, cold, bolt) and then read them aloud, with instruction to notice and pronounce vowel sounds (for example, stressing the long i in "mild"). Activity 1.1 has students point to and reread words with long vowel sounds in the Weekly Message, directing attention to the vowel phoneme in words.
Lesson 11
Long Vowel Sounds Review
The lesson's Skills list explicitly states that students will "segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds" and "orally produce single-syllable words by blending sounds," indicating practice with phoneme-level work. Activity 4.1 asks students to reread a reader and, when they find a long e word, to tell which letters in the word are making the long e sound, which requires noticing and identifying the vowel sound in words. Activity 3.3 (Word Scramble) and several reader-review activities require students to sound out and assemble words using knowledge of long-vowel spellings, which involves attending to individual sounds while constructing words.
Lesson 12
Other Vowel Sounds oi, oy
Students are asked to identify and sort words with the oi and oy vowel blends (Day 2 Activity 2.1 and Word Sorting) and to note where oi and oy occur in words (middle vs. end). The materials instruct students to stretch out the oi/oy sound to make it clear and to read and spell words containing these blends (Day 2, Day 3 word building, and Day 4 spelling test). The lesson's Skills list explicitly includes "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds" and activities require students to spell words aloud and read words they create.
Lesson 13
Other Vowel Sounds ou, ow
The Skills section explicitly states that students will "segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds" and "orally produce single-syllable words by blending sounds," which directly relates to phoneme isolation and pronunciation. Activity instructions ask students to "say each word slowly" (Activity 1.2), read words aloud in a variety of word-building and scrambling tasks (Activities 3.1–3.2), and to identify ending consonants that pair with ou or ow (Activity 3.1), giving practice with medial vowel sounds and final consonants. Several activities (highlighting digraphs, fill-in-the-blanks, and word building) focus on recognizing and pronouncing the medial /ou/ vowel sound in single-syllable words.
Lesson 14
Other Vowel Sounds aw, au
The lesson explicitly lists the skill "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds" and "Orally produce single-syllable words by blending sounds," which targets phoneme isolation and pronunciation. Activities ask students to say letter/blend sounds (e.g., say the sounds for oy, oi, ou, ow; say short o words), to spell words as they are called aloud (forcing segmentation into sounds), and to point to letters making the vowel sound in words (moss, haunt, crawl, yawn, sauce). Multiple sorting, spelling, and blending tasks (sorting short-o words into aw/au/o, spelling with letter cards, alphabet-soup word building) require students to attend to initial, medial vowel, and final sounds when producing and writing single-syllable words.
Lesson 15
These Make More Than One Sound: oo and ea
Students repeatedly listen for and say different vowel sounds in single-syllable words when they sort oo and ea picture and word cards into groups (Activities 1.2, 2.1, 3.1, 3.2). The skills list and activities ask students to repeat words slowly, segment spoken single-syllable words, and orally produce/blend sounds during word-building tasks with letter cards (Activities 2.2, 4.1). Students also spell and read aloud words with oo and ea and perform a spelling test that groups words by their vowel sounds, reinforcing medial-vowel pronunciation.
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," "Orally produce single-syllable words by blending sounds," and "Distinguish long from short vowel sounds in spoken single-syllable words." In Activity 4.1 students sort words by vowel sounds and are asked to "name the vowel sounds," which requires identifying medial vowel phonemes. Activities 2.2 and 5.1 have students build and unscramble letter cards to spell and then read single-syllable words, which engages them in blending and producing phonemes aloud.
Lesson 17
Year-End Review
The Skills list explicitly requires students to "Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds" and to "Orally produce single-syllable words by blending sounds," which involve isolating phonemes. Activity 1.3 asks students "What sound do both of these words begin with?" prompting students to identify and say initial sounds. Day 2 Long Vowel Sounds Sorting has students sort words by medial vowel sounds, and Activity 1.2 asks students to identify glued sounds at the end and ending blends, prompting recognition and pronunciation of final sounds.