1ST GR LIT: START SMART

During the first three weeks of school our class will be focusing on key skills that will provide a strong foundation for our learning. Here are some activities you can do with your child to help reinforce the skills we’ll be practicing.

• Play a matching game to review the words I, like, do, to, you, he, can, go, a, has with your child. Write each word on two index cards or pieces of paper. Turn over the cards, mix them up, and spread them out. Have your child choose a card, read the word, choose another card to turn over, and read the word. If the cards match, the child keeps the cards.

Letter-Sound Workout: Sound Search

• Say the word apple and have your child say the sound it begins with, say the letter for the sound, and write the letter. Repeat for insect. Then say the following letters and have your child find an object or a picture of an object whose name begins with each letter: m, s, p, t, n, r.

Word Workout: Write the words and sentence below and have your child read them:

• mat sip nap
• Sam and Tim ran

High Frequency Words

• Have your child find the word the in a favorite book and read the word. Then make a word bingo card by writing each of these words on one of the nine squares: this, is, my, look, little, where, here, play, we. Write the same words on separate slips of paper and place them facedown. Have your child select a word, read the word, find the matching word on the card, and then place a marker on the word. The game continues until all squares have markers.

Letter-Sound Workout: What Am I?

• Think of familiar items that begin with these letters and sounds: c (as in cake), f, o (short o as in octopus), d, h, e (short e as in egg), b, l and s (as in his). Give clues to help your child guess the identity, for example: I begin with the letter c and I have soft fur, four legs, and purr. What am I?

Word Workout: Write the words and sentence below and have your child read them:

• The cat is on the bed.
• lot hot fed

High Frequency Words:

• Play “Go Fish.” Write each of these words on two sets of cards: are, me, she, with, for, and, have, see, said, was. Turn the cards face down. Players select ten cards and turn the cards over in their hands, facing them. They set aside any matching word pairs. Then they ask the other player for the matching card for one of their remaining words. The game continues until all words have been matched.