Help with reading for 1st graders

Reading Tips for Parents of First Graders

By: Reading Rockets

Give your child lots of opportunities to read aloud. Inspire your young reader to practice every day! The tips below offer some fun ways you can help your child become a happy and confident reader. Try a new tip each week. See what works best for your child.

These tips for parents of first graders are also available to download and print:

Don’t leave home without it

Bring along a book or magazine any time your child has to wait, such as at a doctor's office. Always try to fit in reading!

Once is not enough

Encourage your child to re-read favorite books and poems. Re-reading helps kids read more quickly and accurately.

Dig deeper into the story

Ask your child questions about the story you've just read. Say something like, "Why do you think Clifford did that?"

Take control of the television

It's difficult for reading to compete with TV and video games. Encourage reading as a free-time activity.

Be patient

When your child is trying to sound out an unfamiliar word, give him or her time to do so. Remind to child to look closely at the first letter or letters of the word.

Pick books that are at the right level

Help your child pick books that are not too difficult. The aim is to give your child lots of successful reading experiences.

Play word games

Have your child sound out the word as you change it from mat to fat to sat; from sat to sag to sap; and from sap to sip.

I read to you, you read to me

Take turns reading aloud at bedtime. Kids enjoy this special time with their parents.

Gently correct your young reader

When your child makes a mistake, gently point out the letters he or she overlooked or read incorrectly. Many beginning readers will guess wildly at a word based on its first letter.

Talk, talk, talk!

Talk with your child every day about school and things going on around the house. Sprinkle some interesting words into the conversation, and build on words you've talked about in the past.

Write, write, write!

Ask your child to help you write out the grocery list, a thank you note to Grandma, or to keep a journal of special things that happen at home. When writing, encourage your child to use the letter and sound patterns he is learning at school.

Reading tips in other languages

A downloadable handout, for parents of babies, toddlers, and children in preschool to grade 3, is available in the following languages:

Reading tips for parents of…

Reading Rockets (2021)

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1st Grade Reading Activities For Struggling Readers

First grade is often where your child’s reading foundation is developed thoroughly. This is an essential grade for your child to establish their reading level and progress. However, sometimes children might struggle as they try to advance their reading skills. If you find that your child is struggling with reading, you can help them by trying these 1st grade reading activities for struggling readers.

What reading skills should my 1st grader have?

Your first grader is definitely a full-fledged reader now! They already have many reading skills that they are continuing to improve and also acquiring new reading skills.

By the end of first grade, your child will have learned 150 sight words. They also should be familiar with many one syllable words and high-frequency words.

In first grade, they should be able to understand the basic structure and features of a sentence.

By now, they are also able to talk about what they have been reading and be able to answer content questions. Your child should also be able to understand the differences between fiction and non-fiction books and texts.

If you find that your child is struggling with any of these reading skills, they might need some more practice or intervention to help them get to their appropriate reading level.

How often should my 1st grader be reading?

When it comes to practicing their reading skills, first graders on average should be reading at least 10 minutes every day.

This might not seem like a lot of time but even just 10 minutes of reading time can help make a massive improvement in their reading skills. Make the 10 minutes a daily habit for your child like brushing their teeth.

Also, while 10 minutes is a good average number for all readers, struggling readers might be overwhelmed with anything more than that.

Some children might be hesitant or resist reading every day at first, but there are ways to make reading fun and an activity they look forward to doing.

How do you make reading fun for struggling readers?

Reading can be difficult for some first graders. It is important to be patient but also encouraging with your struggling reader. Here are some activities to make reading fun for them to get them to read every day:

Read as a family – Reading as a family not only creates strong bonds, but it also helps to give your child a model for good reading habits. When they see you prioritize reading, they are more likely to value it and prioritize it as well.

You can schedule 10 minutes for everyone to read their own books together or you can choose a book as a family to read aloud.

Read on TV – Using television as a reading tool might seem counterintuitive, but it is a great way to get your child to read without even knowing it!

When your child is watching television turn on the subtitles so that they can watch and read at the same time. This is a strategy commonly used with students learning a second language to practice both reading and listening skills.

Visit a library – Get your child excited to read by going on a couple “reading field trips” such as going to a library. You can tour your local library and have your child pick out a few books to take home.
Visit a museum – Another great “reading field trip” option is to visit a museum. Museums often have a ton of great reading practice opportunities, and you can also prep your child before the visit by reading an article or story about the museum.
Talk to an author – What better way to get your child about reading a book than by talking to the person that wrote it?

While you might not be able to talk to J.K. Rowling, many children’s books authors have meet ups at local bookstores or you can ask to talk to them virtually through Zoom.

Websites like Cameo also have some authors offering to record personalized videos, so you can have an author create a video just for your child!

Create reading goals – Reading goals can help your child see the progress they are making and helps to keep them motivated. You can help them visualize and meet these goals by creating a reading goal chart or tracker and display it somewhere they will always see it.
Use a reading app – Technology is your greatest tool to help with your struggling readers. Try using reading apps such as Readability which acts like a private reading tutor for your child. They can get reading help whenever and wherever they need it!
Get them to write – Reading and writing are closely related language skills. Often, good readers make good writers, and good writers make good readers.

You can encourage your child to practice their writing and reading skills by making comic books or short stories together then read them as their daily reading material.

First grade is a critical time for young readers to improve their reading skills and build new ones. Using activities and tools such as Readability can make reading fun and interactive for struggling or reluctant readers. Encouraging your child to read every day can help them to become a better reader and actually learn to enjoy reading.

How to instill in a first grader a love of reading? Step-by-step instructions from Gaidarovka

By the beginning of the school year Central Children's Library named after. A.P. Gaidar offers a plan for the development of reading skills in a first grader. The step-by-step instruction is designed for 9 academic months, and at the end there is a mini-list of books about studying, reading and schoolchildren. Go!

With the advent of a first-grader, many things change in the family: from logistics to the psychological atmosphere. Even if the parents responsibly and scrupulously approached the choice of the school, and especially the first teacher, they still have fears: what if the school curriculum, the very principles of teaching, lists of references, which are formed as if without taking into account the interests of the little reader, will discourage him from taking a book into your hands? But the habit of reading, which without love, craving and interest does not arise and does not develop, is a basic skill for successful learning. Without it, the whole structure of knowledge transfer collapses.

And, in the end, not everything in this life rests on knowledge and benefit, nobody canceled the pleasure from a good book either.

And what should parents do in this situation?

To slip only the modern, nag “read-read-read”, pay for what you read, support by your own example, read yourself everywhere and everywhere, discarding gadgets, or shift all responsibility onto the shoulders of the teacher?

Deputy Director of the Central City Children's Library. A.P. Gaidar Marina Solomonova advises parents to remember: “School is school, but no one knows your child better than you, his pace of learning new things and the pace of life in principle. What is your dreamer, good-natured, or bully? But the school curriculum for all these children will be the same.”

To help parents, we came up with a plan with life hacks for the entire school year. However, not only parents of first graders can use it: it is also suitable for preschoolers and other younger students. It is important to simply understand which stage your child is currently at and smoothly move him to the next level. The main thing is not to take the plan literally and enjoy reading together.

September. Reading aloud as psychotherapy

At this stage, reading is a ritual, a cozy habit, a time for parent and child only. The little man is in the process of adapting to new conditions. Even in the most ideal case (we wish you just that), he experiences the stress of changing his life, and a pleasant ritual helps to reduce anxiety. With the beginning of school, you should not give up the habitual reading aloud at night and transfer the child only to independent reading, even if he can read and does it well himself.

Oct. Separate reading, reading in turn with a parent

The oldest and kindest way to get a child interested in books. Sheer manipulation for good. You open something very exciting, and at the most interesting place you sigh: "I'm tired of something, let's finish it tomorrow?" For parents-facilitators who do not even accept this type of manipulation, a life hack - try to agree with the child to read in fairness: the page is me, the page is you. It’s not a fact that it will help, but then the next item will help you.

Nov. Reading-competition for speed

Unfortunately, competition in any school, even super-liberal, cannot be avoided. There will always be children in the class who read faster, more, more voluminously, in the original. Someone competitive moment motivates. But some children refuse to compete or are frustrated by such speed reading. What do we offer for those who do not want to participate in this? Paying for a page read and penalizing for an unread page are barbaric, outdated methods.

Play and fantasize! If a child needs to master skills that are not close to him in a short time, you can do this through a game form. For example, imagine that he is a gamer passing through the levels of the game. The reward for passing should be intangible, let it be an experience or pleasure: a picnic, rides, an interesting trip. Everything a child wants and loves.

December. Independent reading

It is difficult for children to read on their own. At first, agree that you read together. You are your book, the child is yours. For starters, 15-20 minutes is enough. Read while sitting next to each other.

It is also important to include this in the existing daily routine of the first grader as a new item. If possible, choose to read at the same time of the day or evening. And complement it with an atmosphere: a blanket, a lamp, calmly and well together. The more peaceful reading brings, the better. This ritual is a complete replacement or a great addition to reading aloud at night.

January. Vacation Reading

Get the most out of it. Make an event out of reading on vacation. You can go to a library or a bookstore, walk between the shelves for a long time, choose, flip through, buy a special shopper, funny bookmarks, notepads for quotes, impressions, drawings. And, of course, choose an atmospheric New Year or Christmas story - there will definitely be a lot of such books in libraries and stores at this time.

Feb. Reading what is not interesting to read according to the school curriculum

If the program requires you to read a dull poem or an uninteresting story, turn on the “at least something good” principle. Is there anything good in this? Phrase, word, author's name, joke or dialogue?

This principle, by the way, will be useful not only for reading, but will be useful further - during study in general.

Mar. Reading and writing

From reading to writing, but not in a direct way. Invite your child to describe his past day in one word and write this word in capital letters. Try to come up with new words every day and not repeat yourself.

You will start with the word "normal", but then everything will be much more interesting.

April. Reader's diary.

Let the child keep a diary as he wants. Write down everything that comes to mind, and don't be afraid of mistakes and absurdities, play and remember funny cases. Spilled juice on a book? Did a strange bird fly in while reading? All this can be written down, even if it is not directly related to what was read.

May. Summer Reading List

This month's motto is total autonomy.

Invite the child to think over and form a list of books for the summer holidays, estimate how much he will master, what topics interest him most - and go to the library together. At this stage, the Moscow “Summer Reading Program”, which takes place every year in the libraries of the capital, will help you.

Its goal is to introduce children to reading, the main principle is the absence of competition, and the motto is "Reading is pleasure and a variety of opportunities."

List of books about school and study:

The book as medicine for children, Ella Berthou, Susan Elderkin
Like a Novel, Daniel Pennack
Calculation. How to help your child fall in love with reading”, Yulia Kuznetsova
Franz Tales series, Christine Nöstlinger
Big Little Girl series, Maria Bershadskaya
"My happy life" and other books by Ruse Lagercrantz
Ella in First Class, Timo Parvela
"Notes of an outstanding loser", Artur Givargizov
Matilda, Roald Dahl

This autumn, the Central City Children's Library named after A. P. Gaidar traditionally holds an action of acquaintance of first-graders with children's libraries "First-class reader". The action has already started in an online format, access to a family lesson with the participation of children's writers and scientists is open on October 31. To participate in the lesson, you need to register on the "Online. Library City. After registration, you will also get access to the free selection of First Grader Books on LitRes and Boomate services.

Illustration: Shutterstock / Archv

Getting first graders interested in reading | Article on reading (Grade 1) on the topic:

Development of interest in reading among first-graders

The problem of introducing children to reading has recently been very acute and has become global. The rapid development of such benefits of civilization as radio, television, computers, etc. led to a significant
"What a wealth of wisdom and goodness is expressively scattered in the books of all times and peoples," wrote Leo Tolstoy. “A book is a friend, an adviser. This is the source of many good thoughts, feelings, knowledge,” noted Yu.A.Gagarin.
Research data show that a person's attitude to a book is formed in early school age. It is then that the question is decided whether the reader's attitude to the book will be active or moderately passive. The development of interest in reading in a first grader is a necessary and practically the most difficult action. And the point is not at all that modern means of communication are successfully replacing the book. Just teaching a child to read is much more difficult than sending him to watch TV or play on the computer. This is not to say that parents should teach their children to read and write. This is the school, the teacher. Parents, on the other hand, form a steady interest in reading, since they have more funds for this, and the conditions for reading at home are more comfortable than at school.
Proper reading is technical reading. But we are not only concerned with how many words per minute a first grader will read. Reading technique is important, because a fast reading student will be much easier to cope with a task in mathematics, the Russian language, the world around him than a bad reader. But in teaching reading, it is important that the child understands what he is reading and can answer questions about the content of what he has read.
A first-grader does not yet understand that reading is necessary for mastering other disciplines. His will is only being formed, and the word "must" does not always resonate in his soul. In this case, the educational opportunities of the family can be used to develop a child's interest in reading.
How to do it? Observant parents know that preschoolers love to be read aloud to. This kind of passive listening is also useful, but there is no need to obsess over it. Be sure to talk with the child about the content after reading the text. Ask questions to clarify the meaning of what you read. Discuss the actions of the characters. This is very important when working on text. If the family has a tradition to read to the baby before going to bed, then the child, accustomed to listening to interesting books, then tends to read himself. True, it happens the other way around, the child likes to listen so much that he does not want to strain himself to learn to read. Parents should choose the right path according to the characteristics of their child. But in both cases, it is necessary to use special techniques that help develop children's interest in reading. I will name some of them and tell you exactly how to use them for the benefit of the child:
* In senior preschool and primary school age, it is better to use books with large print and colorful pictures for reading. The thickness of the books is not that important. It is important to interest the child in the content of the book. To do this, you can characterize the characters that appear in the book. You can open the book in the middle and captivate the child with a picture, and then offer to return to the beginning of the book and find out what's the matter, why the hero is in the sea (or in a boat, or on a mountain, etc. ).
* It is necessary to start reading when the child is in a good mood. Under no circumstances should reading be a punishment. This forms a negative perception of reading, and no colorful book will help to overcome it. It is necessary to prepare the child for reading. Here the psychological readiness of the child for difficult action is important. If he played, jumped and shouted, it is necessary to give time to calm down. You can say something interesting. "Bring" to reading, interest in this action.
* Baby books can be used. These are small format books that can be read quickly and easily. They should also be colorful and simple in content. First-graders love to read fairy tales most of all. This genre is close to them and easy to master. Of course, it is better to start with simple folk tales. Then you can move on to other genres.
* An interesting technique is when a book is read in turn - a child and a parent. One page or one passage. Or one more piece of advice. You can start an interesting book for an adult, then stop at the most interesting place and invite the child to read further.
* When a child reads, it is necessary to listen to him very carefully. In no case do not do any, albeit important for an adult, things. All attention to the child. This is the only way you can show him that reading is a very important thing for the whole family.
* One more trick. You can tell the child part of a fairy tale or story (the most intriguing piece), and then pretend that something has been forgotten, and ask the child to read, remind.
* Of course, after reading, you should definitely talk with your child about what you have read. This is very important both for the assimilation of the content, and for the development of interest in reading, and for the formation of the moral qualities of the baby, since books necessarily carry a moral load. As an example, here are a few questions that you can ask after reading any text. Such an algorithm can be applied after reading both a whole story or a fairy tale, and an excerpt.

How to analyze the read text with a child:

♦ Did you like or dislike the story (fairy tale)?
♦ What did you like? Or why didn't you like it?
♦ Which of the characters did you like? Why?
♦ Would you like to be like this hero?
♦ What did you like the most about his actions?
♦ What did you like about them?
♦ Which hero didn't you like? Why?
♦ What actions of the villain did you not like?
♦ What should be done to prevent the negative hero from defeating the positive hero?
Questions may be different. It is important to observe the measure in their formulation, there should not be too many of them, and there must be questions that reveal the child's attitude to the moral conflicts described in the text.
For the development of interest in reading, it is important that the family in which the child is brought up has a love for reading.
If family members do not read, but constantly sit in front of the TV or computer, it would be strange to hope that the child will be interested in this type of activity. Moreover, it is desirable that the child has his own “library”. The shelf where his books are. Let there be books not only in a small format or specially designed for a first grader. It is useful that it also contains those works that are intended for older people. Their appearance will intrigue the child. And parents should play along with him, describe what interesting events are described in these books.
The most important thing in developing an interest in reading is to remember that for a child, reading is hard work, overcoming oneself, searching for truth. If a child no longer likes to read, then it is easy for parents to see this: he is playing for time, does not start, rubs his eyes, is distracted, wants to drink, then write. All these symptoms indicate that the child does not want to read. The main thing is patience. Act carefully, delicately, without "pressing".
At first, children make mistakes, and this is quite natural. They can rearrange sounds, syllables, words. Skipping sounds, syllables, words is also a fairly common difficulty. What should parents do in this case? First, do not be nervous or angry, but patiently ask the child to read more slowly again. Another common mistake in teaching reading to first graders. They say the words and sentences twice, first to themselves and then out loud. This is a double reading. In addition to a negative result, it does not give the child anything. If the baby has this defect, you must immediately begin to work on its disappearance. Patiently explain that it is impossible to read like that, make sure that he does not read to himself, but immediately aloud. When the child learns tolerably read, masters the technique of reading, you can begin to learn expressiveness. Expressive reading is very important for a child. The use of an emotionally colored voice evokes a response in the child's soul, and what is read is easier and more digestible. But first you need to learn how to make logical stops. The child needs to be explained that when he sees a comma, he should stop and count “one” to himself, and then read on. If there is a point, then the pause should be longer - “one or two”. Using this technique, the baby will learn to pause, which will undoubtedly help him learn what he read with great sense. Now you can move on to learning expressive reading. Fables or small emotional dialogues, for example, by the children's writer N. Nosov, are very well suited for this. It is better to read fables by roles, where each participant must speak with the intonations that are inherent in the characters. It turns out such mini-performances. Parents should be prepared for the fact that even when their first grader learns to read, he will still ask his parents to read aloud to him, especially at bedtime.