Understanding how to pronounce the short I sound, such as in pill and film, is important for first graders encountering words they don't know. This guided lesson teaches kids all about the Short I sound, and provides lots of examples of short I words. Targeted practice like this helps to reinforce kids' understanding of short vowel sounds and boosts phonemic awareness, upon which lifelong reading skills are based.

This lesson is a continuation of place value practice, and offers more instruction on identifying tens and ones in 2-digit numbers. Once first graders are able to quickly identify place value they are then able to understand on a deeper level what larger numbers actually mean. This is crucial for the math fluency that will support higher-level concepts in the later grades.

First graders' fluidity with comparing numbers is an important building block for the higher-level math concepts to come in the later grades. You can give first graders a leg up with this lesson, featuring guided instruction and practice problems in comparing numbers. Once kids get through this lesson, you can download and print the suggested comparing numbers worksheets in order to provide even more opprotunities for practice.