Grade 1 Reading Worksheets Con't

Files 1 and 2 in our Grade One Reading Vocabulary Program

The Classroom Reading Wall
Designed to run alongside your current reading program
A common sense - easy to use method for classroom teachers
to insure students maintain solid reading vocabulary progress

Our Grade 1 Vocabulary Program lists all 340 first grade reading words on two types of Reading Walls. The large "Classroom Reading Wall" (right) is used by classroom teachers for introducing the day's new words to the entire class (standing on chair optional...). Also included is the "Student Reading Wall" (below) used for one-on-one practice with a student to quickly pull up reading ability in lower performing students. The large letters of the Classroom Reading Wall can be seen 30 - 50 feet across the room so every student can keep an eye on the action. If you would like to read the unique teaching procedures behind the Classroom Reading Wall's success - then download our Classroom Reading Wall Introduction in either Word97 format or Acrobat Reader 4.0. If you need a free viewer for either of these - go to our Viewer Page. This single sheet will explain the details and "magic" behind the Classroom Reading Wall and how you can easily incorporate it into your daily reading activities. You can also download a sample of the Classroom Reading Wall by clicking Word97 format or Acrobat Reader 4.0.

The Student Reading Wall
A wonderful tool for home school parents and teachers for
quickly improving reading ability in students who are
reading below Grade Level or who are
unable to maintain progress with the above Classroom Reading Wall.

While most students can easily maintain the pace of mastering the 10 words per week using the Classroom Reading Wall techniques and support activities, there are still some students who have difficulty maintaining this pace because of varying degrees of learning difficulties. While other reading programs have no "back-up" strategy to support students who are falling behind - our TampaRead's Program contains a tremendously effective tool for quickly bringing up reading skills in these students or in any student reading one - two - or three or more years below Grade Level. It is called the "Student Reading Wall" and is so easy to implement that it can be done after 5 minutes of instruction with a teacher assistant, volunteer or even a 4th or 5th grade student helper !! The "Student Reading Wall" contains the same words as the "Classroom Reading Wall" list, but is 50% smaller. Follow the simple four step procedure outlined below and any teacher or parent will begin advancing a child's reading level at a truly impressive pace. If you would like to observe the "Student Reading Wall" in action - click the link below to begin a one minute video of 5 year old Ryan saying the upper level Grade 1 Vocabulary words.

View Reading Wall Video

If you are unable to view the video above after 30 seconds,
you will probably need to download the free RealPlayer.
Click here and scroll to the
bottom of their page to receive the "free" version of Real Player.

THE STUDENT READING WALL PROGRAM
TAPS INTO HOW THE BRAIN LEARNS EFFICIENTLY

Below are the 4 steps to use with your student
when practicing the Student Reading Wall.

STEP 1 - Say the colored vowel sound only
STEP 2 - Say "up to" the colored vowel sound
STEP 3 - Say the word slowly
STEP 4 - Begin "Timing" the student on reading the column

STEP 1 - SAY VOWEL SOUND - First, we need to make sure the child can quickly say the vowel sound in each word. Starting at the top - the child says the sound made only by the colored vowel sound in each word. For example, in Lesson 36 which I practiced with Ryan in the above picture and video, the list words were - odd - cot - drop - wrong - hop - job - lost - along. I begin by simply pointing to the red "o" in the word "odd" and say the short o sound. I then point to the red "o" in the next word "cot" and say the short o sound. I do this for all the words and then have the student say the sound as I point to each red letter. The repetition teaching sequence of STEP 1 is now complete.

STEP 2 - SAY UP TO THE VOWEL SOUND - Next, we need to make sure the child is decoding (sounding-out) the word in the correct order. We do not have the child read the whole word in this step yet, but only say the sound of the letters up to the colored vowel sound (o (short o) - co - dro - wro - ho - etc). This teaches the child the strategy we want them to use when trying to figure out all unknown words. It is called "STOP AT THE VOWEL SOUND" and simply means for the child to move their eyes across a word up to the vowel sound and say only those sounds first. This is a simple consistent process that makes sense to the child and is easy for the child to implement.

STEP 3 - READ THE COMPLETE WORD
Now that the first two steps have been practiced and the sounds are in the child's short term memory - it's time to try to read the entire word. Before beginning, we remind the child to use the STEP 2 "STOP AT THE VOWEL SOUND" trick but to now add the last sound(s) to say the entire word.

Let me emphasize here that whenever the child makes a mistake when saying the word (which will usually happen the first couple times of attempting the list) you must stop them immediately and make them look directly at the place in the word where they made a mistake. For example, if the word was "hop" and the child said "hot" - you would jump in and say something like - "NO - hold on a second - "What sound does the "p" make at the end of this word?" The child says - "puh...." and you would say - "Well if p says puh...... - what is the word? The child says "hop" and you say - "GOOD - let's try all the words again." It is very important you do not tell the child the correct word immediately when they make a mistake. You must guide them to use their newly found phonics skills to decode the word properly. When the child can say all words in the column without any mistakes - we move to STEP 4.

STEP 4 - BEGIN THE "TIMED" READING PROCESS
Get out the stop watch.... Now comes the most important part of the strategy which gives the practice needed for complete memorization and also adds the motivation which keeps the children asking - "When can I do the Reading Wall?"

Grade 1 reading vocabulary Just like in step 3 we have the child read the column words from top to bottom, only this time we use a stop watch (or timer on your watch) and say "ON YOUR MARK GET SET - GO !!!"

The charts above the column words (seen in the right photograph) were used to record the times of about 30 children who were reading below level from four different 1st grade classes. For example, if it takes a child 25 seconds to say the column of words - use a colored crayon and fill it up to the 25 second mark on the horizontal bar graph. It's that simple. On the next attempt, if it takes the child 20 seconds to say the column - you fill in up to 20 seconds on the chart. The child immediately sees the progress he/she made - gives you a big smile and quickly says - "Let's try it again.." and again...

LOOK! - I BEAT THE LIST

When the child can say the list in 10 seconds they have reached the mastery time and can proceed to the next column Level. However, I do not write down their 10 second "winning" time until they say the list backwards (from bottom to top - but are not timed.) This helps set the words a little deeper in the child's long term memory and makes sure there was no auditory memorizing of word order.

The bottom line...... You'll be thoroughly impressed at how quickly these unique four sequential steps will enable practically any child to become a highly successful reader.

Typical timed scores for saying all words in a column for
1st Grade children of different abilities are as follows:

SAYING READING WALL COLUMN	Above Average	Average	Below Average	Learning Disability
1st ATTEMPT	18 seconds	25 seconds	40 seconds	50 seconds
2nd ATTEMPT	12 seconds	20 seconds	30 seconds	45 seconds
3rd ATTEMPT	8 - 10 seconds	15 seconds	25 seconds	40 seconds
4th ATTEMPT		12 seconds	20 seconds	35 seconds
5th ATTEMPT		10 seconds	15 seconds	30 seconds
6th ATTEMPT			12 seconds	27 seconds
7th ATTEMPT			10 seconds	24 seconds
8th ATTEMPT				21 seconds
9th ATTEMPT				18 seconds
10th ATTEMPT				15 seconds

But does this teach a child to read?

For the whole language advocates who question this type of vocabulary word teaching I hope they will take the time to read the latest research from the National Institutes of Health available from our Phonics Research link on our home page. To restate one of their findings:

"Vocabulary + Fluency = Comprehension"

The entire set of Grade One Reading Wall columns were set up along the main hallway of the 1st grade classes at our school in Tampa, Florida. After completing the major reading activities in the morning, I would bring children out to the hall to practice on the Reading Wall. The level of enthusiasm each child displayed in being able to come into the hall to practice beating their previous time was remarkable.

Teacher Strategies:
To achieve maximum benefit from this strategy - 1st Grade teachers should place the Classroom Reading Wall column in front of their classroom for one week at a time beginning the second month of school (the first month you need to review basic letters and sounds ). Following this schedule of one "Column Level" per week you will not overload the children and will be right on target for having appropriate reading vocabulary for the standardized tests come spring. Our writing worksheets and vocabulary building exercises also parallel the same words in the Reading Wall columns so you're all set with additional support activities.

Parent Strategies:
Parents should place 3-5 of the Student Reading Wall columns side by side on a wall in your home (child's room - kitchen corner - etc.) Spend 2-3 minutes several times a day (that's all it takes) and your child's progress will increase tremendously.

The Reading Wall download file contains 34 columns of the eight phonetically correct words in each of the 34 Levels along with the motivational time charts to be placed above each column. These are all the words a child should know by the end of 1st Grade. Also included are the motivational time charts which will keep track of the progress being made by 1 or 25 students.

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File #3 included in our Grade 1 Master Reading Files

Vowel Sound Wall Strips

Looking for something to put on your classroom walls to make them both attractive and educational? - our vowel sound strips will do the trick. These contain all the major vowel sounds essential for enabling children to read and spell at their best. You've seen "The Phonics Game" advertised on television - these are the same vowel sounds their game practices, only these provide a memorable visual punch. Practice them everyday for 30 seconds and within several months your children will be vowel sounds experts. Each set of 5 vowel sound cards makes a 1 foot by 4 foot strip which can be placed underneath chalk boards (like the teacher did in the photo above) on walls, in hallways - anywhere.

BELOW ARE THE VOWEL SOUND STRIPS YOU'LL RECEIVE

Directions for making Vowel Sound Strips

1) Download and print out the vowel sound strips

2) Make exactly a 4 foot wide x 1 foot high
colored paper background

3) Tape or glue 5 vowel sound sheets on the background

4) Hang it on the wall !

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File #4 included in our Grade 1 Master Reading Files

EVERY SCHOOL - EVERYDAY
SHOULD HAVE A "WORD OF THE DAY"

ReadingKEY developer,
Richard Pressinger, standing next to
one of the - "Words of the Day."
On this day we taught the difference
between the words - "her" - and - "here."

Dear Parents and Educators:

The strategy of teaching one new "difficult" word per day is highly effective for increasing reading vocabulary in beginning readers. This occurs because some words are so difficult to learn that they literally require ten to twenty times more exposure and practice to commit to memory.

To address this problem, I have identified these "difficult" common words by extensive individual testing of 1st and 2nd grade students and placed them into our "Word of the Day" program. To further enhance memorization we use a technique called "Delayed Repetition." It works as follows:

First: We creatively teach the word on our morning television show in a 30-60 second lesson.

Second: The word is reviewed by the teachers (for about 30-45 seconds) at the beginning of the reading hour.

Third: After another hour has passed, the teacher then asks - "Does anyone remember the Word of the Day? - this is a hard one" (Watch the hands raise up in enthusiasm)

Fourth: I then stand next to the cashier in the lunch line and ask the word to each student as they pass through.

Fifth: Just before school lets out, the teacher asks again if anyone remembers the Word of the Day.

In other words, we teach the word - allow for a delay in time and then teach it again and repeat the process several times throughout the day. Make sure you place a copy of the word in a prominent place in front of the classroom so you can refer to it easily throughout the day.

WHY ARE SOME WORDS HARDER TO LEARN?

We have been choosing one new reading word a day for special study as recommended by the task force of President Clinton's "America Reads" Program. These words have been selected because they are some of the most common words in reading books and standardized tests and are essential to achieve full comprehension of any reading material. Additionally, these words have been chosen because they have been found to be the most difficult words for children to learn. They often use uncommon spelling patterns or are easily confused with other similar words. Therefore, it will take extra effort to make sure these special words are memorized completely.

Most children require many days of studying (and some children require weeks) to commit even one of these difficult words to permanent memory. Therefore, we as teachers must do our part and set aside additional teaching time specifically for these words. The words below were selected (after testing over 100 grade one and two students) as being the most difficult and most important words (and sounds) for early elementary readers.

THE 96 SOUNDS AND "WORDS OF THE DAY"

c -sound	the	why	haven�t	give	very
g -sound	said	color	done	given	every
h -sound	was	goes	come	giving	none
l -sound	from	does	some	gave	never
q -sound	to	don�t	one	put	most
r -sound	of	doesn�t	once	old	much
w -sound	by	didn�t	any	try	move
y �sound beginning a word	my	won�t	many	thing	friend
ch	have	all	walk	kind	told
sh	you	fall	talk	buy	myself
th	your	call	been	again	upon
wh	yours	small	shall	laugh	since
short e	want	they	how	cold	child
short o	what	there	who	could	both
short u	where	they�re	now	would	because
all long vowels	were	their	know	should	wrong

The Word of the Day "download" includes the following:

File A - A seven page document outlining every detail to make your school (or home) an effective "Word of the Day" School. Give a copy to the "morning television show" person and all 1st and 2nd grade teachers.

File B - Each of the 96 "most difficult" words have been printed 3 times each on 8x11 paper (example below) so you can cut them out and place them in visual locations around the classroom or home. This file is called "WOTD-smallwords."

File C - Full-size (8x11) alphabet letters so you can make any of the WORDS OF THE DAY (like in the "stand" in the top picture). The impact of these oversize letters works wonders for developing a solid visual imprint to help children remember the words. This file is called "WOTD - Big Letters."

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File #5 included in our Grade 1 Master Reading Files

A Real Book... - Trip to Fox Mountain
Here's a first for the Internet. This is a complete 12 page book which you a can print out and make at home (or print extra copies for an entire reading group!). Takes only a few minutes.

To make this possible we created two separate files. One is called "Trip to Fox Mountain - 1st" and the other is called "Trip to Fox Mountain - 2nd." Just as the name implies, download the 1st file and print the 3 sheets (each sheet contains six book pages). Then - take these 3 sheets out and put them back into the printer's paper feeder tray without changing their order (it took us a while to figure this out I want you to know). Next, open the file "Trip to Fox Mountain - 2nd." Hit the print button again and after printing is finished, fold in half and "presto" you have a complete 12 page book printed front and back. Trip to Fox Mountain is not just a fun book to read, but has been carefully written to incorporate the most effective memorizing techniques known to date.

1) Precision Vocabulary
No surprises to increase frustration. The words used to write the story are only from our 1st Grade Reading Vocabulary List - Levels 1 -10 along with 10 of our CVC nouns (a total of 110 words). Therefore, when children are practicing the Reading Wall - Vocabulary Sheets - or Phonics Worksheets - they are getting ready for the big day when they can read their first "real" book. In fact, this should be a defined goal for the child - Upon completing the Reading Wall up to Level 10 - You win your very own book! (Imagine the expense of buying conventional books for every child...).

2) Important Repetition
To truly memorize anything it must first be studied repeatedly and within a close time frame. So each word in Fox Mountain is used from 3-5 times throughout the book. (The harder words are intentionally used more often).

3) Delayed Memorization Strategy
Earlier we talked about the power of the memorizing technique called "Delayed Memorization" (where something is studied - wait for a period of time - then studied again). While writing the text for Trip to Fox Mountain we took this into account. Once a new word is read, we then use it again within the next 15-30 seconds, (therefore, the second encounter is almost always read correctly which further reinforces the word). We then wait for a delay of a minute or two and use it again. Although this technique sometimes results in a few awkward sounding sentences, the benefits in increased reading memorization are well worth it!

4) Color Coded Vowel Sounds
This technique (used in our Reading Wall and Grade 1 Vocabulary List) works wonders for increasing a child's success in decoding words. Why? Because the colors give them a clue to the vowel sound. Red vowels are short - long vowels are blue - and "other" vowel sounds "r-controlled and digraphs" are green.

5) Why we think our book is the best...
While Trip to Fox Mountain does not have the glossy pages and elaborate pictures found in some reading books, it does have the most intelligent and thought out reading strategies ever incorporated into any "beginning to read" book. Also, keep an eye out - every few months we are going to be making available for download follow-up books in the Fox Mountain series for our Tamparead's Members. Book 2 (Vocab Levels 1-15) - Book 3 (Vocab Levels 1-20) - Book 4 (Vocab Levels 1-25) and Book 5 (Vocab Levels 1-27).

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File #6 included in our Grade 1 Master Reading Files

Behavior Strategies
2 Special Phrases which work wonders in guiding children toward proper classroom behavior.

	This is an extremely important behavior strategy which we call "The Most Important Rule in Life" All students must be able to recite this perfectly!!
	TEACHERS - IF YOUR STUDENTS PUT THIS STRATEGY INTO PRACTICE YOU WILL SEE AN IMMEDIATE REDUCTION IN CLASSROOM BEHAVIOR OUTBURSTS - GUARANTEED!!

File #7 included in our Grade 1 Master Reading Files

The Blending Box
The inability to "blend" a consonant sound with its following vowel sound (as seen above) is a major reason why children experience failure when attempting to decode new words. To provide important practice with this skill, we've developed a highly effective technique known as "The Blending Box" (not really a box, but a series of paper strips which you fold). Print out these 21 pages and fold them directly in half. Place them along a wall (or across the top of the black-board as I did in my classroom). When a student can say all of these sounds correctly, he/she will be able to attack new words in reading and spelling with far greater success. A fun game we used to play in class was to see if any student can say all sounds without one mistake. If a mistake is made the student must then start over. Students who make it to the end of the list get their names placed on a special "Phonics Masters" List. A secondary benefit of this strategy is it also greatly accelerates vowel sound memorization.

HOLD ON - THERE'S MUCH MORE....
To see the other included Reading files - Click Here

short vowels a - e - i - o - u
long vowels a - e - i - o - u
digraphs ai - ee - ie oa - ea
diphthongs ou - ow - oo oy - oi - ew
r-controlled vowels ar - or - ir ur - er