The children in first grade must automatically recognize all of the upper and lower case letters of the alphabet.  They must also know all of the sounds of the letters. This is letter fluency.

The students will be given nonsense three letter words.  They will be able to say each sound and blend the sounds together. This is nonsense word fluency.

The children will be able to segment a word.  For example the word mop; the child will be able to say the sounds,/m/ /o/ /p/.

By January the students will be able to read a passage in a fluent way.  This is called oral reading fluency. 

Read Naturally

This is a computer program that encourages children to read and reread a passage until they can reach their oral reading fluency goal.  This program also has comprehension questions and vocabulary words included in each story.  The children compete with themselves and this makes this program very exciting. If the students are having difficulties with oral reading fluency, I usually put them on this program.

Story hour at Mansfield Public Library

I encourage all first grade students to get a library card at the Mansfield Free Public Library.  Throughout the year, students are invited to come to the library in the evening to listen to stories and sing songs.  Every time the students use their library card, they will receive a star from the librarian and when they bring their star to school, I hang the stars on the wall.