Horizons Phonics and Reading 1st Grade

Horizons Phonics and Reading 1st Grade

Horizons 1st Grade Phonics & Reading builds reading fluency and confidence across a full school year, picking up where kindergarten phonics ends and moving your child toward independent reading. It's a faith-based, parent-led phonics curriculum for first graders who have the basics down and are ready to put them to work.

The 160 lessons cover vowel pairs, blends, silent e, syllables, prefixes, suffixes, contractions, compound words, y as a vowel, and irregular plurals. Skills are introduced in small steps and revisited regularly through the spiral approach, so earlier concepts keep coming back into later lessons rather than getting taught once and dropped.

Like the kindergarten level, the workbook pages are colorful and full of activity. For many first graders, that energy on the page keeps them engaged. For children who are easily overwhelmed by visual stimulation, it's worth taking a look at sample pages before committing.

Each of the two workbooks pairs with an illustrated reader of 80 short stories and poems that reinforce the phonics rules from the matching lessons. For the first 40 stories, you'll read aloud as your child observes phonics in action. After that, your child takes over most of the reading on his own, with some help from you as new patterns come up. The readers also include occasional comprehension questions to ask before, during, or after each story.

The teacher's guide keeps daily teaching simple, with lesson plans, teaching tips, answer keys, extra worksheets, and reproducible pages for additional practice. For families coming from Horizons Kindergarten Phonics & Reading, the format will feel familiar — same spiral structure, same approach, more demanding skills.