1st Grade Reading Comprehension Passages and Questions

This is a printable reading workbook designed for children aged 6 to 7, in 1st grade, who can read short words and are ready to read and understand a whole passage. It holds 60 short passages, one to a page, each with a picture, a word list, three stars to color and four questions. You need no teaching background to use it.

The passages are phonics-based, also called decodable. Each one practices one spelling pattern, such as short a, sh or silent e, and uses only patterns from earlier pages plus a short list of common sight words. So your child can read every word on the page, not guess at it.

How to use it

1. Print one page and sit beside your child for 10 to 15 minutes.
2. Your child reads the short word list, then reads the passage aloud three times and colors a star each time.
3. Your child answers four questions: circle one, find one in the text, think about one, then draw or write.
4. You check with the answer key, and your child colors a star on the progress chart.

Page 3 takes you through a session step by step, with the words to say. Page 4 shows a finished page, so you can see what one looks like before you start.

What is on each passage page

• A passage in large, clear type (14 point or more), with a simple drawn picture.
• "Read it 3 times": three stars to color, one for each read.
• A word list for the page's pattern, taken from the passage itself.
• Question 1, circle the answer. Question 2, find the answer in the text and copy it. Question 3, think about it. Question 4, draw or write.
• Write-in lines 10 mm apart, and a large box to draw in.

What is inside (85 pages)

• 60 passages in six units: short vowels (15), sh, ch, th, wh and ck (9), blends (9), silent e (9), vowel teams (10) and vowels with r (8). They grow from about 30 words to about 100. 52 are stories and 8 are fact pages: a chick in its shell, snakes, skunks, seeds, the moon, owls, sharks and how butter is made.
• Six unit pages, each with 20 warm-up words and a short note for the grown-up on what is new.
• For the parent: how a session works, a page filled in, what to do when your child is stuck on a word, and a 5 minute check that tells you which passage to start at.
• The 29 spelling patterns in order, with what to tell your child about each one.
• A table of all 60 passages with pattern, word count and page number.
• A progress chart to color and two certificates (halfway, and all 60 read).
• A full answer key, with a sample answer for every thinking question.
• The 48 sight words used, each with the passage where it first appears.

What you download

• The book in US Letter (8.5 x 11 in) and A4, in color, for reading on screen or printing.
• A print edition in both sizes, in one ZIP: black lines on white with no filled color, light on ink and clean to photocopy, with a one-page Start Here sheet.

How it was checked

The passages, questions and answers are kept in one data file and the book is built from it by a program that checks it every time. Every word of every passage follows that passage's spelling pattern or an earlier one, or is on the sight word list. The answers to questions 1 and 2 are in the passage word for word. The word counts in the table are counted, not typed. The facts on the fact pages were checked against published sources, among them NASA, NOAA Fisheries, San Diego Zoo and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Good to know

• Both paper sizes are in the download. You do not have to choose when you buy.
• Print at 100% or "actual size", on one side. You can print any page as often as you like.
• The child's pages use US spelling (Mom, gray, color).
• From passage 25 on, some words end in -ed or -ing. A few longer words (backpack, yellow, letter) are read one part at a time.
• Secular. For your own children or your own class. Please do not share or resell the files.
• This is practice material. It makes no promise about results and is not matched to any set of school standards.
• The passages were drafted with AI assistance, then read, checked and corrected. The pictures are drawn for this book.
• This is a digital download. Nothing is posted to you, and you need a printer or a print shop.