1st grade English Language Arts: how to help at home
What your child learns in 1st grade English language arts in the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), and simple things to try at home.
Focus areas this year
- Foundational language skills: phonics with blends, digraphs, long vowels and vowel teams, and word endings
- Comprehension, response and genres: characters, plot and setting, and the main topic of information texts
- Author's purpose and craft, and composition: complete sentences with capitals, end marks and past and present verbs
- Inquiry and research: asking questions, finding sources and sharing what you learn
Easy ways to practice English language arts at home
- Read aloud every day and let your child finish familiar phrases.
- Play with sounds: “What starts with /b/? What rhymes with cat?”
- Point out letters on signs, cereal boxes and the street.
- Ask your child to tell you a story about their drawing, and write down a sentence or two.
What each unit covers
Blend It
Blending sounds into words (s-u-n makes sun), counting the sounds in a word and hearing the last sound. These listening skills are the base of reading and spelling.
Short Vowels
Hearing the short vowel in the middle of words like cat, bed, pig, dog and sun, and filling in the missing vowel to spell the word.
Word Families
Words that share an ending, like cat, hat and bat. Once children know one word in a family, they can read and spell many more by changing the first sound.
Sh, Ch, Th
Letter pairs that make one sound (sh, ch, th) at the start and end of words like ship, cheese and tooth.
Sight Words
Common words like said, was, they and where that are tricky to sound out. Children practice finding, using and spelling them so they can read them at a glance.
Sentences
Starting sentences and names with a capital letter, ending with a period or question mark, telling whole sentences from parts, counting words and finding naming words.
Story Time
Reading short stories, then naming who is in them and where they happen, and putting the events in order. Reading the story aloud together and talking about it helps a lot!
Describing Words
Opposites (hot and cold) and describing words that tell how something looks, feels, tastes or sounds, including finding the describing word in a sentence.
More Than One
Plurals: adding -s to a naming word means more than one (one cat, two cats). Stretch questions add -es to words like box and fox.
Kinds of Sentences
Knowing a telling sentence from a question, a command and an exclamation, choosing the end mark, and seeing sentences with two ideas joined.
Word Jobs
Telling past, present and future apart, spotting describing words and action words, and choosing joining words like and, but, or and because.
Sound Play
Hearing rhymes, sound words (like buzz and splash) and repeated beginning sounds, and noticing how they make texts fun to read.
Think It Through
Reading a short story, finding the main idea and details, and using clues to work out what is not said.
Messages All Around
Children look at everyday messages, like signs, ads, cards and videos, and practice asking who made them, why, and how they make us feel. This is the media literacy part of the standards.
Story or Facts?
Children practice telling books that tell stories from books that give information, and noticing what pictures add to the words.
Long Vowels & Vowel Teams
Your child reads and spells words where vowels say their names (cape, rain, boat) and words with r-controlled vowels (star, bird).
Word Endings & Short Forms
Your child puts words together (rainbow), reads contractions (can't, I'm) and works out what -s, -ed and -ing add to a word.
What the report card levels look like at home
- Beginning
- Just getting started with this idea. Short, regular practice with lots of support helps most.
- Approaching
- Understands parts of it and is building confidence. Keep practicing the tricky parts.
- Meeting
- Has it! Mixed review now and then keeps it strong.
- Exceeding
- Applies it confidently, even in new or harder situations. Try challenge mode and real-life problems.
Your child’s teacher decides the level on the report card. Read the Texas report card guide.
Common questions
Read aloud every day and let your child finish familiar phrases. Play with sounds: “What starts with /b/? What rhymes with cat?” Keep sessions short, about 10 to 15 minutes, and stop on a success.
The Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) 1st grade English language arts units include Blend It, Short Vowels, Word Families, Sh, Ch, Th, Sight Words, Sentences.
Free printable 1st grade English language arts practice sheet
Questions from every unit, with an answer key.