Back to School ELA Review for 1st Grade | 20 Daily Lessons

Make the first month of school easier with this 1st grade back to school ELA review designed to revisit essential kindergarten reading, grammar, phonics, vocabulary, and writing skills. With 20 structured daily lessons plus 16 print-and-play literacy games, this resource helps students rebuild confidence, strengthen routines, and prepare for first grade learning.

Each daily lesson follows a predictable four-part rhythm—Read & Think, Language & Grammar, Word Work, and Write About It—so students know what to expect while skills gradually spiral and build.

What’s Included

This first grade ELA review includes a complete back-to-school literacy system:

✅ 20 daily ELA review lessons

✅ Short fiction, nonfiction, and poetry passages

✅ Reading comprehension questions

✅ Grammar and language review

✅ Phonics and word work practice

✅ Vocabulary activities

✅ Daily writing prompts

✅ Primary-ruled writing lines with dashed midlines

✅ 16 print-and-play literacy games and activities

✅ Partner and small-group games

✅ Literacy center activities

✅ Complete answer key for all 20 days

✅ Teacher guide

✅ 20-day pacing overview

✅ Four-week planning guide

✅ Differentiation ideas

✅ Game preparation directions

✅ Game-to-skill quick-reference map

✅ Class progress record sheet

✅ Family letter for home-school connection

✅ Reading Star Award and student reflection

The student workbook contains 20 daily lessons plus 16 print-and-play games, with daily practice in reading, grammar, word work, and writing.

The complete answer key organizes responses by day and section for fast checking, while allowing reasonable student wording for open-ended writing and reflection tasks.

How It Works in the Classroom

Use this 1st grade back to school ELA review as a gentle first-month routine, literacy warm-up, morning work option, whole-group review, intervention support, or independent practice.

Each day follows the same student-friendly structure:

📖 Read & Think — Read a short passage and answer three comprehension questions

✏️ Language & Grammar — Review one focused kindergarten language skill

🔤 Word Work — Practice phonics, sight words, vocabulary, or word patterns

📝 Write About It — Complete a short writing task connected to the day’s learning

A full lesson is designed to take about 15–25 minutes, with earlier lessons providing lighter review and later lessons combining skills.

Use the resource for:

⭐ Back-to-school ELA review

⭐ First grade morning work

⭐ Literacy warm-ups

⭐ Kindergarten skills review

⭐ First month of school activities

⭐ Reading comprehension practice

⭐ Grammar review

⭐ Phonics and word work

⭐ Literacy centers

⭐ Partner practice

⭐ Small groups

⭐ Early finishers

⭐ Intervention and reteaching

⭐ Homework or home practice

The included 20-Day Pacing at a Glance chart on page 6 of the Teacher Guide shows how reading, language, and word-work skills spiral from beginning sounds and letter recognition into comprehension, editing, vocabulary, and final review.

For a four-week routine, teachers can assign workbook lessons Monday through Thursday and use Friday for games, literacy centers, catch-up, or review.

Standards & Learning Goals

This first grade literacy review revisits five major strands of kindergarten learning:

📚 Reading Comprehension — main idea, details, characters, setting, sequence, retell, prediction, compare and contrast, cause and effect, story lesson, nonfiction facts, and nonfiction labels

✏️ Grammar & Language — uppercase and lowercase letters, capital letters, periods, question marks, exclamation marks, complete sentences, nouns, verbs, plural nouns, word order, capitalizing names and the word I, and editing

🔤 Phonics & Word Work — beginning sounds, ending sounds, short vowels, CVC words, rhyming, word families, sight words, and syllables

💬 Vocabulary — naming words, synonyms, antonyms, describing words, categories, multiple-meaning words, sequence words, and word building

📝 Writing — labeling, sentence writing, short responses, personal writing, retelling, connected writing, and reflection

Across the 20 days, students move from foundational skills such as beginning sounds, ending sounds, uppercase and lowercase letters, rhyming, and CVC words into comprehension skills such as main idea, characters, setting, sequence, retell, prediction, comparing, story lessons, nonfiction facts, cause and effect, and making connections.

Later lessons also strengthen sentence construction, editing, plural nouns, adjectives, word order, multiple-meaning words, synonyms, antonyms, and mixed ELA review.

Why Teachers Love It

✨ One predictable routine every day. Students repeatedly use the same four-part lesson structure, helping build independence and reduce transition time.

✨ Review multiple ELA skills without overwhelming students. Reading, grammar, word work, and writing are combined in manageable daily lessons.

✨ Get 20 days of ready-to-use practice. The pacing is already organized for a full month of back-to-school ELA review.

✨ Use both fiction and nonfiction. Students read short fiction passages, nonfiction selections, and poetry while practicing varied comprehension skills.

✨ Differentiate for a wide range of readers. The Teacher Guide includes specific suggestions for below-level students, on-level learners, above-level students, and multilingual learners.

✨ Add hands-on practice with 16 literacy games. Activities include:

• Noun & Verb Sort

• Capital & Lowercase Match

• Rhyme Match

• Roll-a-Word Family

• Sight Word BINGO

• Sight Word Roll & Read

• Beginning Sounds Sort

• Same & Opposite Match

• Reading Road Race

• Main Idea Baskets

• End Mark Sort

• Sentence Building Tiles

• Fix-It Cards

• Sequence Cards

• Sight Word Four-in-a-Row

• Syllable Sort

The Game → Skill Quick Map on page 9 of the Teacher Guide makes it easy to match each activity to a targeted literacy skill, from phonemic awareness and CVC word families to punctuation, editing, sentence structure, main idea, and sight-word fluency.

✨ Prep once and reuse the games. Print game pages on cardstock, laminate boards and cards, and store each activity in a labeled bag for repeated center use.

✨ Monitor progress without adding another assessment. Daily pages can double as quick formative checks, and the Class Record Sheet on page 10 of the Teacher Guide provides space to track four weeks of progress and note skills to revisit.

✨ Save time checking work. The included answer key provides organized answers for all 20 lessons.

✨ Support home-school connection. A ready-to-send family letter explains the daily review and offers simple ways caregivers can support reading and language skills at home.

Give your students a confident, structured start to first grade with this 1st grade back to school ELA review. Download it to review kindergarten skills, establish a predictable literacy routine, strengthen reading and writing confidence, and keep students engaged with 20 daily lessons plus 16 print-and-play games.

Perfect for teachers searching for first grade morning work, kindergarten skills review, beginning of year ELA activities, 1st grade literacy centers, reading comprehension practice, grammar review, phonics activities, sight word games, first month of school activities, or a complete back-to-school literacy review.