First Grade: Word Study
Updated for SY25-26
Embedded Files
First Grade Word Study:
First Grade Word Study:
Our Instructional Year
Our Instructional Year
Word Study helps lay the foundation for students to become strong readers and writers. Word Study is where students learn how letter-sound patterns and word parts work in order to read and write words automatically and fluently. This year we are utilizing the CKLA curriculum. Here are some key aspects of the CKLA.
The Skills Strand provides comprehensive instruction in foundational reading skills, such as phonological awareness, phonics and word recognition, language skills (including conventions of English, spelling, and grammar), as well as reading comprehension and writing instruction.
CKLA includes explicit, systematic phonics instruction in which students are taught the letter-sound correspondences needed to independently decode words.
CKLA begins by teaching the most common or least ambiguous spelling for a sound (the basic code spelling); later it teaches spelling alternatives for sounds which can be spelled several different ways. The system is kept simple at first and complexity is added bit by bit as students gain confidence and automatize their reading and writing skills.
CKLA uses a synthetic phonics approach which teaches students to read by blending through the word. It does not teach multiple cueing strategies, use of pictures as a primary resource in decoding, or part-word guessing.
Students who successfully completed the Kindergarten CKLA program learned the most frequent or least ambiguous spelling for all of the single consonant sounds; consonant clusters, such as ‘fl’, ‘br’, and ‘st’; consonant digraphs such as ‘sh’, ch’, and ‘th’; double letter spellings such as ‘ss’, ‘ff’, and ‘ck’; and at least one spelling for the short and long vowel sounds. Kindergarten students also were introduced to more than 100 high-frequency words from the Dolch Sight Word List and Fry’s Instant Words List.
First Grade Word Study: Unit by Unit
Unit 1 || August 20 - October 10 (37 days)
Unit 1 || August 20 - October 10 (37 days)
Unit 1 will be a review for students who completed the Kindergarten CKLA program. In Unit 1, students will review the sounds and spellings taught in the CKLA Kindergarten curriculum. They will read decodable stories from the Reader, Snap Shots. Grammar instruction also starts in Unit 1, with an introduction to nouns.
In Unit 1, you will review:
Five Short Vowel Sounds
the sound /i/ spelled ‘i’ (it)
the sound /e/ spelled ‘e’ (pet)
the sound /a/ spelled ‘a’ (pat)
the sound /u/ spelled ‘u’ (but)
the sound /o/ spelled ‘o’ (hop)
Twenty-Five Consonant Sounds
the sound /p/ spelled ‘p’ (pot) and ‘pp’ (napping)
the sound /t/ spelled ‘t’ (top) and ‘tt’ (sitting)
the sound /d/ spelled ‘d’ (dot) and ‘dd’ (add)
the sound /k/ spelled ‘c’ (cat), ‘k’ (kid), ‘cc’ (hiccup), and ‘ck’ (black)
the sound /g/ spelled ‘g’ (gift) and ‘gg’ (egg)
the sound /n/ spelled ‘n’ (nut) and ‘nn’ (running)
the sound /h/ spelled ‘h’ (hot)
the sound /s/ spelled ‘s’ (sun) and ‘ss’ (dress)
the sound /f/ spelled ‘f’ (fit) and ‘ff’ (stuff)
the sound /v/ spelled ‘v’ (vet)
the sound /z/ spelled ‘z’ (zip), ‘zz’ (buzz), and ‘s’ (dogs)
the sound /m/ spelled ‘m’ (mad) and ‘mm’ (swimming)
the sound /b/ spelled ‘b’ (bat) and ‘bb’ (rubbing)
the sound /l/ spelled ‘l’ (lip) and ‘ll’ (bell)
the sound /r/ spelled ‘r’ (red) and ‘rr’ (ferret)
the sound /w/ spelled ‘w’ (wet)
the sound /j/ spelled ‘j’ (jump)
the sound /y/ spelled ‘y’ (yes)
the sound combination /x/ spelled ‘x’ (tax)
the sound /ch/ spelled ‘ch’ (chin)
the sound /sh/ spelled ‘sh’ (shop)
the sound /th/ spelled ‘th’ (thin)
the sound /th/ spelled ‘th’ (them)
the sound combination /qu/ spelled ‘qu’ (quit)
the sound /ng/ spelled ‘ng’ (sing)
Unit 2 || October 14 - November 14 (23 days)
Unit 2 || October 14 - November 14 (23 days)
In Unit 2, you will introduce five new vowel sounds and the most common (or least ambiguous) spelling for each sound:
/ee/ spelled ‘ee’ as in seed
/ae/ spelled ‘a_e’ as in cake
/ie/ spelled ‘i_e’ as in line
/oe/ spelled ‘o_e’ as in hope
/ue/ spelled ‘u_e’ as in cube
Unit 3 || November 17 - January 7 (22 days)
Unit 3 || November 17 - January 7 (22 days)
In Unit 3, you will introduce five additional vowel sounds and the most common spelling for each sound:
/oo/ spelled ‘oo’ as in soon
/oo/ spelled ‘oo’ as in look
/ou/ spelled ‘ou’ as in shout
/oi/ spelled ‘oi’ as in oil
/aw/ spelled ‘aw’ as in paw
The sounds /oo,/ and /oo/ are both spelled ‘oo.’ Students will practice sounding out the tricky spelling ‘oo.’ A tricky spelling is a grapheme that can be pronounced more than one way.
Unit 4 || January 8 - March 6 (36 days)
Unit 4 || January 8 - March 6 (36 days)
In this unit you will introduce the sounds that are sometimes called the r-controlled vowel sounds and the most common (or least ambiguous) spelling for each sound:
/er/ spelled ‘er’ as in her
/ar/ spelled ‘ar’ as in car
/or/ spelled ‘or’ as in for
Unit 5 || March 3 - April 10 (25 days)
Unit 5 || March 3 - April 10 (25 days)
In this unit you will begin teaching the spelling alternatives that make up the advanced code. Up to this point, students have mostly been learning the basic code. That is, they have learned one way to write each of the sounds in English, with the exception of /zh/. Thus far, they have learned only a handful of spelling alternatives:
the ‘k’ spelling for /k/ as in kite (an alternative for ‘c’ as in cat)
the double-letter spellings for consonant sounds (‘ff’ as in stuff, ‘ll’ as in bell, ‘ss’ as in dress, ‘ck’ as in black, etc.)
the ‘s’ spelling for /z/ as in is and dogs
the ‘ed’ spelling as a past-tense marker for /d/ as in filled and for /t/ as in asked
There are many more spelling alternatives to learn. In this unit and the next, the focus is on spelling alternatives for consonant sounds. These are less numerous and also less frequently used than the spelling alternatives for vowel sounds, which will be addressed later in the CKLA™ sequence of instruction.
Here are the sounds and spellings that are either reviewed or introduced in this unit:
/p/ spelled ‘p’ and ‘pp’ (review)
/b/ spelled ‘b’ and ‘bb’ (review)
/k/ spelled ‘c,’ ‘k,’ ‘cc,’ and ‘ck’ (review)
/g/ spelled ‘g’ and ‘gg’ (review)
/ch/ spelled ‘ch’ (review) and ‘tch’ (new)
/j/ spelled ‘j’ (review), ‘g,’ and ‘ge’ (new)
/t/ spelled ‘t,’ ‘tt,’ and ‘ed’ (review)
/d/ spelled ‘d,’ ‘dd,’ and ‘ed’ (review)
/f/ spelled ‘f’ and ‘ff’ (review)
/v/ spelled ‘v’ (review) and ‘ve’ (new)
/r/ spelled ‘r’ (review) and ‘wr’ (new)
/l/ spelled ‘l’ and ‘ll’ (review)
Unit 6 || April 13 - May 29 (29 days)
Unit 6 || April 13 - May 29 (29 days)
In this unit you will continue the work you began in the last unit by introducing or reviewing a number of spelling alternatives for consonant sounds.
Here are the sounds and spellings that are either reviewed or introduced in this unit:
/s/ spelled ‘s,’ ‘ss’ (review); ‘c,’ ‘ce,’ and ‘se’ (new)
/z/ spelled ‘z’, ‘s’, ‘zz’ (review)
/m/ spelled ‘m’ and ‘mm’ (review)
/n/ spelled ‘n’, ‘nn’ (review), and ‘kn’ (new)
/ng/ spelled ‘ng’ (review) and ‘n’ (new)
/w/ spelled ‘w’ (review) and ‘wh’ (new)
Unit 7 || June 1- June 18 (14 days)
Unit 7 || June 1- June 18 (14 days)
In this unit, you will continue to teach the advanced code, but you will now turn from spelling alternatives for consonant sounds to spelling alternatives for vowel sounds.
In this unit the focus is on two of the so-called “long” vowel sounds, /ae/ and /oe/. Students will review the basic code spelling for each sound and then learn common spelling alternatives:
/ae/ spelled ‘a_e’ (review), ‘ai’, ‘ay’ (new)
/oe/ spelled ‘o_e’ (review), ‘oa’ (new)
Only the most common alternatives are taught in Grade 1. Other spelling alternatives will be taught in Grade 2.
NOTE: We will not teach the entirety of this unit. Content covered in this unit will be taught and reviewed in 2nd grade.
Additional Resources
Additional Resources
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