1st grade phonics worksheets

A real sample sheet.

41 phonics skills at 1st grade, one sheet each, free with its answer key: alphabetical order, beginning blends (bl, cr, st), beginning digraphs (sh, ch, th), and more.

Most sheets change with every click. Any other skill prints from its row below. Examples and teaching notes

Sight words

  • Dolch grade 1 sight words Sight words are the words you meet so often that your eyes should know them without sounding out. Trace each one, then write it on your own.
  • Fry instant words Fry words are the words you meet most often in books. Know them on sight and reading speeds up.
  • Sight words Sight words are the little words you see everywhere. Sound out the parts you can, learn the tricky part by heart, and practice until you know the word in a snap.

Word families

  • Rhyming pictures Say both picture names. Words that rhyme end with the same sound. Write both words.
  • Short a word families Words in the same family share their ending: cat, hat, and bat are all -at words.
  • Short e word families Words in the same family share their ending: pet and wet are -et words; bell and shell are -ell words.
  • Short i word families Words in the same family share their ending: win and chin are -in words; kick and stick are -ick words.
  • Short o word families Words in the same family share their ending: hop and stop are -op words; rock and clock are -ock words.
  • Short u word families Words in the same family share their ending: bug and rug are -ug words; jump and bump are -ump words.

Digraphs

Vowel teams

  • Long a vowel teams (ai, ay) Two vowels can team up to say one long sound. Ai and ay both say the long a, and position picks the team: ay ends a word (play, day), ai works inside it (rain, train).
  • Long e vowel teams (ee, ea) Ee and ea both say the long e sound: see, eat. The tricky part is remembering which team each word uses.
  • Long i teams (igh, ie) Igh and ie both say long i. Igh often comes before t (night, light) and can end a word too (high); ie usually comes at the end of a short word (pie, tie).
  • Long o vowel teams (oa, ow) Oa and ow both say the long o sound: boat, snow. Oa works inside words; ow usually takes the end.
  • Long u teams (ew, ue, ui) Ew, ue, and ui all can say the long u sound: new, blue, fruit. Ew and ue like the end of a word; ui sits in the middle.
  • The two sounds of oo The team oo has two voices: the long howl in moon and the short push in book. Same letters, two sounds; your ear makes the call.
  • Variant vowel /ô/ (aw, au, al) Aw, au, and al all can make the same deep aw sound: saw, haul, walk. One sound, three spellings, each with favorite places to stand.

R-controlled vowels

  • R-controlled vowels (ar, or, er) When r follows a vowel, it bosses the sound around: car, corn, and bird don't use their short vowels.
  • R-controlled air and ear sounds R bends the vowel in front of it. Air, are, and ear can all say the air sound (chair, care, bear); eer, ere, and ear can say the ear sound (deer, here, hear).

Syllables

  • Counting syllables Syllables are the beats in a word. Clap them out: cat has one, apple has two, banana has three.
  • Syllable division (rab-bit, ti-ger) Big words break into beats. Two consonants in the middle? Split between them: rab-bit. One consonant? First try splitting after the vowel so it says its name (ti-ger). Not a word you know? Split after the consonant instead (lem-on).
  • Syllables with pictures Say the picture's name and clap once for every part you hear. Write how many claps in the box.

Consonant blends

  • Beginning blends (bl, cr, st) A blend is two consonants that work side by side, and you can still hear both: bl in black, cr in crab, st in star.
  • Ending blends (st, nd, mp) An ending blend is two consonants at the end of a word, and you can still hear both: the st in nest, the nd in hand, the mp in jump.
  • Three-letter blends A three-letter blend is three consonants together at the start of a word: scr, str, thr. Say every sound: s-t-r, street. In thr, the th is one sound, so you hear two: th-r.

Alphabet & letter sounds

  • Alphabetical order Alphabetical order means lining words up the way the alphabet goes. Look at the first letter; if two words share it, move one letter deeper and compare again.
  • Beginning sounds Say the picture's name out loud. Listen to the sound it starts with, and write the letter that makes that sound.
  • Ending sounds Say the picture's name and hold on to the very last sound. Write the letter for that sound.
  • Sound boxes Say the picture's name slowly. Every sound gets one box. Write one letter in each box, in order.

Vowel patterns

  • CVC picture words Say the picture's name slowly, one sound at a time. Write the letters for those sounds, in order.
  • CVC reading passages Say each sound, then blend the sounds into a word. Read the story, then write the word that answers each question.
  • CVC words A CVC word is consonant, vowel, consonant: cat, pig, dog. The vowel in the middle says its short sound.
  • Long vs. short vowels A short vowel is quick: bed, fish. A long vowel says its own name: seed, kite. Sort by what the vowel SAYS, not how the word looks.
  • Middle sounds Say the picture's name slowly and listen to the sound in the middle. Write the vowel you hear.
  • Silent e (magic e) Silent e says nothing itself, but it reaches back one letter and makes the vowel say its name: cap becomes cape, kit becomes kite.
  • Y as a vowel At the end of a word, y turns into a vowel. In little words it says long i (fly, sky). At the end of longer words it usually says long e (happy, puppy), but when the last part is stressed, y keeps long i: reply, July.

Diphthongs

  • Diphthongs oi and oy Oi and oy make the same gliding sound, as in coin and boy. Oi usually works inside the word; oy usually takes the end of a word or comes before another vowel (royal).
  • Diphthongs ou and ow Ou and ow both make the ouch sound, as in cloud and cow. Ou usually works inside the word; ow takes the end, and stands before -n and -l.

Consonant patterns

  • Soft c and soft g C and g usually go soft before e, i, and y: city, giant. Soft c says s; soft g says j. Before other letters they stay hard: cat, go. G breaks the rule in some words, like get and girl, so say the word to check.

Word endings

  • Inflectional endings (-ed sounds) The ending -ed has three voices: it says t in jumped, d in played, and id in wanted. The last sound of the base word picks the voice.

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