Phonics and Sight Words Study Notes

Welcome to your 1st Grade Phonics and Sight Words study notes! This guide will help you understand how letters make sounds and how to read common words quickly.

📚 Phonics: Sounds and Letters

Phonics helps us learn the sounds that letters and groups of letters make. This skill is very important for reading new words!

📌 Short Vowel Sounds

Vowels are the letters A, E, I, O, U. When a vowel makes a short sound, it sounds like this:

• A as in apple, cat, hat
• E as in elephant, bed, pen
• I as in igloo, pig, fish
• O as in octopus, top, dog
• U as in umbrella, sun, bug

💡 Long Vowel Sounds

When a vowel makes a long sound, it says its own name (A, E, I, O, U). We often see long vowels in words with a "silent e" or when two vowels are together.

Silent 'e' (CVCe words)

When an 'e' is at the end of a word after a consonant, it makes the vowel before it say its long name. The 'e' is silent.

• make (long A)
• pete (long E)
• kite (long I)
• rope (long O)
• tube (long U)

Vowel Teams

Sometimes, two vowels work together to make one long sound.

Vowel Team	Sound	Example Words
ai	Long A	rain, train
ea	Long E	tea, read
ee	Long E	tree, seed
oa	Long O	boat, goat
ue	Long U	blue, glue

📚 Consonant Blends

A consonant blend is when two or three consonants are next to each other, and you can hear the sound of each consonant. They blend together smoothly.

• bl as in black, blue
• fr as in frog, free
• st as in star, stop
• spl as in splash, split

📌 Consonant Digraphs

A consonant digraph is when two consonants join together to make a single new sound that is different from the sound of each letter alone.

Digraph	Sound	Example Words
ch	/ch/	chip, lunch
sh	/sh/	ship, fish
th	/th/ (soft)	thin, teeth
th	/th/ (hard)	that, mother
wh	/w/	whale, what
ck	/k/	duck, rock

💡 R-Controlled Vowels

When a vowel is followed by the letter 'r', the 'r' changes the sound of the vowel. We call these "r-controlled vowels" or "bossy r."

• ar as in car, star
• or as in fork, horse
• er as in her, flower
• ir as in girl, bird
• ur as in fur, turtle

📚 Sight Words: Words to Know by Heart

📌 What are Sight Words?

Sight words are common words that appear very often in books. They are words you should be able to recognize instantly, just by looking at them, without having to sound them out. Many sight words don't follow typical phonics rules.

💡 Why are Sight Words Important?

• They help you read faster and more smoothly (fluency).
• They help you understand what you are reading (comprehension).
• They build confidence in reading.

📚 Common 1st Grade Sight Words Examples

Here are some examples of sight words you will learn in 1st Grade:

Sight Word	Example Sentence
the	The dog ran fast.
a	I see a bird.
is	She is happy.
to	Let's go to school.
I	I like to play.
and	Mom and Dad are here.
said	He said hello.
come	Please come inside.
go	We can go now.
have	I have a toy.
for	This gift is for you.
you	Are you ready?
what	What is your name?
where	Where is the cat?
was	It was a sunny day.
with	Play with me.