1st Grade · Reading · RF.1.3.B, RF.1.3, RF.1.2

Phonics Lesson Plan for 1st Grade

A ready-to-teach phonics lesson for 1st Grade, built around cvc words and word families, silent e words, vowel teams, digraphs, r-controlled vowels, diphthongs, phonemic awareness and silent letters in kn, wr, mb and alk words. Print the plan, print the practice pages, and you are set.

Approximately 47 minutes

Learning objective

Identify the beginning, middle, or ending sound in a spoken word
Isolate individual phonemes by listening carefully to words
Practice saying the isolated sound in a target position

Materials

Read CVC Words and Match the Picture, Set (set of 3, 1 to 3)
Digraph sounds - The 'ch' sound
Phoneme isolation
Phoneme segmentation
Blending sounds
Blending phonemes
Pencils, and whiteboard space for the modeled examples

Lesson steps

1. Build the background (5 min)
Say it before you show it. Give three spoken examples of phonics and have students repeat, then one that does not belong.
2. Read aloud and think aloud (I do) (10 min)
Write two examples of phonics while sounding them out slowly. Point to each part as you say it so the sound and the letters stay connected.
3. Guided practice (we do) (12 min)
Read a second passage together. This time students find the evidence and you record it. Push every answer back to the text with "what words told you that?"
4. Independent practice (you do) (15 min)
Hand out "Read CVC Words and Match the Picture, Set". Students read and answer on their own. Circulate and ask individuals to point to the line in the text that supports their answer.
5. Share and close (5 min)
Two or three students share an answer and the evidence behind it. Restate phonics one final time in the students' own words, not yours.

Check for understanding

Ask each student to point to the evidence in the text for one of their answers. A student who has the right answer but cannot find the line has not yet learned phonics.

Differentiation

Extra support. Students who stall: pull them into a small group and rebuild phonics with concrete materials or a simpler text before asking for the written work again. Do not send the page home as homework, it will just rehearse the misunderstanding.

Extension. Students who finish early: ask them to write their own phonics problem for a partner to solve, then check the partner's work. Creating a problem is harder than solving one and it surfaces whether they really understand phonics.

Skills covered in this lesson

Phoneme isolation · Phoneme segmentation · Blending sounds · Blending phonemes · Phoneme substitution · Phoneme differences · Phonemic similarities · Rhyming · Consonant blends · CVC & CVCe Words · Short and long vowels · Identify digraphs

Questions teachers ask about teaching phonics

What phonics skills are taught in first grade?

First graders learn long vowel patterns (CVCe like 'make'), common vowel teams (ai, ea, oa), consonant digraphs (sh, ch, th, wh), and r-controlled vowels (ar, or, er). Per CCSS RF.1.3, they should decode regularly spelled one-syllable words and read words with inflectional endings.

How is a silent e word different from a vowel team word?

In a silent e word, like cape or kite, the e at the end makes no sound and makes the first vowel say its name. In a vowel team word, like rain or boat, two vowels sit side by side and make one long vowel sound. Both are part of RF.1.3.C, and this topic has 32 silent e words sheets and 27 vowel teams sheets.

What is a CVC word?

A CVC word is spelled with a consonant, a short vowel and one more consonant, like cat, pig or sun. First graders read and write CVC words before silent e and vowel teams (RF.1.3.B). The 29 CVC words sheets have children match and unscramble words, sort word families and change one letter to make a new word.