Making Words First Grade

Patricia M. Cunningham and Dorothy P. Hall

Making Words First Grade

Based on the best selling book, Phonics They Use: Words for Reading and Writing, this grade level series offers a fresh pairing of lessons and activities for kindergarten through fifth grade. In Making Words First Grade, Pat and Dottie introduce first grade teachers to 100 Making Words lessons that cover all of the literacy skills included in most first grade curricula. The activities progress through a systematic, sequential phonics program that includes ample practice with the phonemic awareness skills of segmenting and blending. After students gain experience stretching out words to add letters and make new words, all lessons include a transfer step to help them apply the sounds they learn to the spelling of new words.

 “This book is very appealing to me as a first grade teacher. It provides many lessons to teach…essential skills for beginning readers. I would…highly recommend it to others based on the practicality and usability of the [book] and on the reputation of the authors.”

–Janet Dancy, teacher, Norfleet Elementary School, Kansas City, MO

 “Any teacher who has ever watched the functionality of making words will love this book for its inclusion of phonemic awareness concepts as well as the sequential layout of skills taught.”

-Laura Denise Boger, teacher, Clemmons Elementary School, Clemmons, NC

Patricia M. Cunningham is the author of Beyond Retelling, Classrooms That Work, Schools That Work, and Phonics They Use, all published by Allyn & Bacon, as well as a professor of education at Wake Forest University. She has over 30 years of experience in various elementary grades and with remedial reading and has served as a curriculum coordinator and director of reading. Pat promotes literacy for all children through her Four Blocks® workshops and staff development sessions with educators.

Dorothy P. Hall is the co-developer of the Four Blocks® framework and the director of the Four Blocks® Center at Wake Forest University. A former elementary teacher and education professor, she also presents workshops around the country on Four Blocks®, Building Blocks, guided reading strategies, and phonics instruction.