English worksheets for Grade 1 learners should support instruction and reinforce what students are learning in class. In the first grade, students are taught through a variety of modalities including visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile.
Kids in first grade are also learning to read and write. To be successful they need to learn how to put sounds and words together in ways that make sense. Next, they learn to recognize the words in print and learn how to write them.
Table of Contents
- What Are the Topics In Grade 1 English?
- Best Writing Worksheets for Grade 1
- Best Vocabulary Worksheets for Grade 1
- Best 1st Grade Reading Worksheets
- What Are the Grammar Topics for Grade 1?
- Check Out These Additional 1st Grade Resources
What Are the Topics In Grade 1 English?
The topics taught in Grade 1 English that promote the key skills above include:
- Sight words
- Phonics
- Comprehension
- How to ask questions about a story, including about the main character, the setting, the problem, how the problem is solved, and how characters are alike & different
- And how to answer the questions above
- Identifying main topics
- Identifying key details in texts
- Writing simple and compound sentences
- Nouns: Common, proper, and possessive
- Verbs: Past, present, and future tenses
- Verb-subject agreement
- Adjectives, conjunctions, determiners, and prepositions
In partnership with Teach Simple, whose marketplace is full of educational materials created by actual teachers and professional educators (plus 50% of all revenues go to them), I’ve gathered English worksheets that reinforce instruction of these topics. Parents and teachers can find engaging and interactive worksheets that make learning fun for first graders. Have a look below.
Best Writing Worksheets for Grade 1
In Language Arts, students learn the mechanics of writing such as how to correctly form their letters. At this stage, they are also learning how to craft a grammatically correct sentence. Placing events in the correct sequence is another skill that students begin to develop. The list of worksheets below includes interesting and interactive Language Arts worksheets for grade 1 learners.
Writing and Comprehension Practice: Zoggy and the Earth Food
This series of worksheets features Zoggy, a little dog who shares his experiences through stories and worksheets. The Zoggy worksheets provide practice with word families, writing words and sentences, and answering questions about the stories. First graders will build their vocabulary, comprehension, and writing skills all at the same time.
All About Me Worksheets
What can be more meaningful to a first grader than writing about the things they most enjoy. This set of worksheets exercises students’ writing skills by having them record notes about themselves. Extend this activity by letting students share what they wrote with their peers and allowing them to ask each other questions.
Write a Letter: What Can I Tell You About My Holiday?
Write a Letter is a fun activity for first graders who are ready for more challenging writing activities. The sentence frames provide context and guide young writers through the letter-writing process. This activity also exercises first graders’ reading fluency and comprehension skills as they read a sample letter and then rewrite it to include their own information.
‘Meet Pom Pom’: A Fun Writing And Drawing Activity
This charming worksheet series features short reading passages about a little Pomeranian named Pom Pom. Worksheets include word jumbles that test first graders’ letter and vocabulary skills. Also included are drawing activities that allow students an alternative way to demonstrate their comprehension skills.
Make Sentences With The Sentence Maker
Zoggy returns in this set of worksheets. First graders cut out words and then arrange them to make different sentences that correspond to what Zoggy might be doing. This activity promotes critical thinking and sentence structure through tactile learning.
Best Vocabulary Worksheets for Grade 1
Building vocabulary is key so educators want to use the most engaging and effective vocabulary sheets for Grade 1 students they can find. The worksheets included in this list below will help children to make meaning out of sounds and words through various methods such as answering questions by identifying specific words, filling in the blank, writing vocabulary words in alphabetical order, identifying rhyming words, and color coding word families.
Word Families-Long Vowels: What’s Different?
The What’s Different worksheet features ten long-vowel-sound word families. Students have to circle the one word in each group that is not part of that family. This method helps students to understand and make sense of the sounds that specific letters make when they are paired together.
Word Meaning Supplemental Worksheets for Common Core
The Key Words worksheets from the Word Meaning Supplemental Worksheets packet each include a short reading passage and then questions to answer using vocabulary from the passage. Some items require 1st graders to identify and write words that rhyme. Others require students to put the words in alphabetical order. The variety of tasks are designed to strengthen students’ word sense and ability to identify word patterns.
Phonics Blends Book 2
This set of worksheets teaches children how to put different word combinations together to create specific sounds. The activities are scaffolded so that 1st graders can build their vocabulary, reading, and writing skills in incremental steps.
“What Rhymes With?” Worksheets
Zoggy the dog is back again in this colorful set of worksheets that focus on rhyming words. Each worksheet contains 9 pictures along with a word. First graders put a check next to each word from a picture that rhymes with the word at the top of the page. The colorful illustrations will capture their attention and give them a visual cue to associate with each word.
Sight Words Find and Color
Each of the 25 worksheets features a high frequency word that children have to find and color. The word is included multiple times, providing opportunities for repetition and practice identifying each word. Coloring provides a visual element that will help first graders to remember new sight words they are learning.
Verbs | Academic Workbook
This series of worksheets from On Board Academics tests first graders’ knowledge of the future, past, and present tense of high frequency verbs. Activities include using word banks to fill in the blanks and charts of verbs in different tenses that require students to check whether they are future, past, or present tense verbs.
Flower Synonyms Activity
Tactile learners will enjoy this collection of worksheets. There are flower petals with different words to be placed around each synonym to make a flower. Cutting out the flower petals and putting them together is an engaging method to building first graders’ vocabulary.
Sight Word Skill Sheets- Fry Words
Identifying sight words is a key part of building reading fluency and comprehension. This set of Sight Word Skill Sheets requires first grade students to read words multiple times and write them. Other activities include unscrambling words, color coding them, and writing them in sentences to continue building vocabulary skills.
Best 1st Grade Reading Worksheets
First graders are building the foundation for their reading skills at this age as well. The best 1st grade reading worksheets reinforce skills such as identifying long and short vowel sounds and sight words, reading simple words and sentences, and responding to comprehension questions.
Read and Draw Sentences
The great thing about these worksheets is that they are engaging for kids at different stages of learning. Those who haven’t learned to write yet can practice reading the sentences and draw a picture that shows the sentence’s meaning. Children who have already developed writing skills will still enjoy getting to draw a picture to go with the text, which means no students will feel behind because they are different levels.
Sound-it-Out Worksheets: Graphemes with Flashcards
Graphemes are composed of a letter or the smallest group of letters that make a particular sound. This set of worksheets include a variety of methods for learning graphemes and applying them to writing and reading comprehension activities.
Spring Short Vowels
This worksheet includes nine “picture words” with three short vowels underneath. Students circle the correct vowel sound that matches the picture. This provides a visual to go with each word to provide meaning for each word and vowel sound.
Beginning Sounds Worksheets
These engaging worksheets from Teach Simple’s Phonics Printable
Workbook uses color pictures of different objects. There are three letters next to each picture. First graders will circle the letter that makes the beginning sound for each word. Visual learners especially will benefit from this format.
Color Practice
Each worksheet in this series includes two colors, each with several pictures of objects that are that color. A word bank with both colors written multiple times in different fonts is included. First graders can cut and paste the words to the correct color. These worksheets reinforce word identification and build reading confidence.
K-2 ELA Volume 1
This comprehensive collection of worksheets focus on a variety of reading skills that first graders are learning. From color-coded vowels and consonants to practice with ABC order, this series helps students learn more about short vowel sounds and word families. Progress is shown through a variety of activities including identifying the letter that makes a certain sound to answering multiple choice questions to sequencing and matching activities.
Basic Reading Comprehension
The worksheets in this workbook feature simple reading passages with CVC words that offer practice for reading fluency. After each passage is a set of three simple comprehension questions for your first graders to show what they understood from the reading passage.
Sight Word Stories to Encourage Thinking Skills for Guided Reading
Each worksheet in this pack includes a short reading passage packed with sight words. Illustrations that students can color support the context of the story, and questions follow the passage to help kids focus on making predictions, inferences, and other reading comprehension strategies. These worksheets reinforce decoding, comprehension, critical thinking, and writing skills.
What Are the Grammar Topics for Grade 1?
First graders are building foundational grammar skills. Grammar topics taught in 1st grade include:
- Nouns: Common, proper, and possessive
- Verbs: Past, present, and future tenses
- Verb-subject agreement
- Adjectives, conjunctions, determiners, prepositions
As first graders begin to be able to identify the difference between these types of words, their reading fluency and comprehension skills become stronger. This, in turn, strengthens their writing skills.
The worksheets mentioned above, specifically Make Sentences With The Sentence Maker, Verbs worksheet from On Board Academics, and Write a Letter: What Can I Tell You About My Holiday?, are excellent resources for building the foundations of grammar and continuing to improve and strengthen their grammar as your students grow and learn. TeachSimple is dedicated to providing high quality and engaging English worksheets for Grade 1 learners created and used by teachers all over.
Check Out These Additional 1st Grade Resources
About the Author
Kelly Rende has a Masters degree in Special Education. She has been teaching for 18 years. When not teaching, she can be found writing or on an adventure with her children and dogs.
