Unit 1
Alphabet (Lessons 1–34)
Lessons 1–34 introduce individual letter-sound correspondences (a, m, s, t, p, f, i, n, o, d, c, u, g, b, e, k, h, r, l, w, j, y, x, qu, v, z), VC/CVC blending practice, plural -s, and short-vowel review.
UFLI Foundations® is a program developed by the University of Florida Literacy Institute. Rabbit Hole Learning is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by UFLI.
This course follows a lesson sequence that is intentionally aligned with the UFLI Foundations scope and sequence through Lesson 34. As a result, many optional UFLI supplemental resources, such as Toolbox materials and printable resources, can be used alongside this course. However, Rabbit Hole Learning lessons, guides, slideshows, and activities are independently created and are not official UFLI materials.
Unit 1 Parent Guide
What Is This Course?
This course teaches reading and spelling at the same time. Children who learn both together build stronger, more lasting reading skills than those who learn them as separate subjects. Every lesson asks your child to both read words and spell words, because those two skills reinforce each other.
The approach is grounded in the Science of Reading which is a body of research showing that children learn to read most effectively when they are taught the relationships between sounds and letters in a systematic, explicit, and cumulative way. Each lesson builds on what came before. Nothing is left to guessing.
This is a self-paced course. You set the schedule. Some families do one lesson per week (two sessions). Others go faster.
Do You Need Unit 1?
Unit 1 covers 26 letter-sound correspondences plus all five short vowels. Work through the checklist below before you start. If your child already knows most of this solidly, you may be able to start at a later lesson, but when in doubt, start from the beginning. The early lessons go quickly for children with prior knowledge.
Your child should be able to do each of the following consistently and quickly, not just on a good day:
Is Your Child Ready to Start?
Before beginning Unit 1, your child should have the following in place:
What Will My Child Learn in Unit 1?
By the end of Lesson 34, your child will know:
How the Lessons Work
Each lesson is split across two short sessions, Day 1 and Day 2. Keep things moving at a brisk pace, especially during the drills.
Day 1 — Steps 1 through 6
Step 1: Phonemic Awareness (Ears Only) — No letters or writing — just listening and speaking. You will first blend sounds into words and break words into sounds. Example: say /m/ /a/ /t/ together to get 'mat.' Then you'll segment. Example: say 'mat' and break it into /m/ /a/ /t/. This step builds the foundation everything else rests on.
Step 2: Visual Drill (See the Letter, Say the Sound) — Look at the letter cards one at a time. Your child says the letter name and its sound. Keep the pace quick. If they don't know it, tell them the sound and move on.
Step 3: Auditory Drill (Hear the Sound, Write the Letter) — You say a sound out loud. Your child writes the matching letter (on a white board or on a piece of paper). If they write the wrong letter, give the correct answer, have them write it while saying the sound, and move on.
Step 4: Blending Drill (Read the Word Chain) — Your child reads a chain of words where only one sound changes at a time. Encourage smooth blending — 'sssaaattt,' not '/s/…/a/…/t/.' This step builds fluency and trains the eye to notice every letter.
Step 5: Word Building — You say a word. Your child identifies the sounds and builds the word using letter tiles, Elkonin boxes, or writing on a whiteboard. This step connects listening and spelling which is a key Science of Reading skill.
Step 6: New Concept and Letter Formation — Introduce a new sound, or spelling pattern. Cover the letter name and sound, its keyword, and where it appears in words. Then practice writing it: (1) sky write with a big arm movement, (2) trace it, (3) write it independently. Say the sound each time.
Day 2 — Steps 7 through 10
Step 7: Review and Read Words — Start with a quick review of the Day 1 concept: Which things start with the new sound? What letter is this? What sound does it make? Then read several words with the new pattern together. Finally practice the letter formation. Keep it positive and fast.
Step 8: Heart Words — Heart words are high-frequency words with irregular spellings — parts that do not follow the rules. Blue squares (■) show regular parts. Red hearts (♥) show the heart part — the tricky bit to memorize. Routine: read the word, find the regular parts, find the heart part, underline the heart part in red, cover the word, write it from memory, check and correct.
Step 9: Connected Text — Your child reads sentences using the skills learned so far. You can read together (choral), echo read, or have them read independently. This is where phonics becomes real reading.
Step 10: Dictated Sentence — Read a sentence aloud twice, have the child repeat back the sentence. Your child then writes it from memory. When done, check together using CAPS: C = Capital letter at the start, A = Appearance (letters formed correctly, spacing), P = Punctuation at the end, S = Spelling. Celebrate effort and correct together.
Materials You Will Need
You do not need much to run these lessons. Here is what is recommended:
The UFLI Foundations Toolbox (ufli.education.ufl.edu/foundations/toolbox/1-34/) offers free downloadable materials that align with the same scope and sequence used in this course. Resources include slideshows, home practice sheets, decodable passages, heart word cards, grapheme cards, and printable letter tiles.
Progress Checkpoints
Use these checkpoints to confirm your child is ready to move forward. If any item is shaky, slow down and give more practice before continuing.
Checkpoint 1 — After Lesson 10
UFLI Foundations® is a program developed by the University of Florida Literacy Institute. Rabbit Hole Learning is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by UFLI.
This course follows a lesson sequence that is intentionally aligned with the UFLI Foundations scope and sequence through Lesson 34. As a result, many optional UFLI supplemental resources, such as Toolbox materials and printable resources, can be used alongside this course. However, Rabbit Hole Learning lessons, guides, slideshows, and activities are independently created and are not official UFLI materials.
What Is This Course?
This course teaches reading and spelling at the same time. Children who learn both together build stronger, more lasting reading skills than those who learn them as separate subjects. Every lesson asks your child to both read words and spell words, because those two skills reinforce each other.
The approach is grounded in the Science of Reading which is a body of research showing that children learn to read most effectively when they are taught the relationships between sounds and letters in a systematic, explicit, and cumulative way. Each lesson builds on what came before. Nothing is left to guessing.
This is a self-paced course. You set the schedule. Some families do one lesson per week (two sessions). Others go faster.
Do You Need Unit 1?
Unit 1 covers 26 letter-sound correspondences plus all five short vowels. Work through the checklist below before you start. If your child already knows most of this solidly, you may be able to start at a later lesson, but when in doubt, start from the beginning. The early lessons go quickly for children with prior knowledge.
Your child should be able to do each of the following consistently and quickly, not just on a good day:
- Can tell you the sound that every letter of the alphabet makes.
- Can read simple three-letter words like cat, sit, and mop accurately and with little effort.
- Can spell simple three-letter words by listening to the sounds in them.
- Knows the difference between short A, I, O, U, and E when they hear them.
- Can blend four sounds together smoothly (e.g., /s/ /t/ /o/ /p/ → stop).
- Can read these words automatically without pausing: the, I, and, a, is, to, do, of, see, said, be, me, from, look, book, are, was, you, have, what.
Is Your Child Ready to Start?
Before beginning Unit 1, your child should have the following in place:
- They can identify most letters of the alphabet by name (not by sound — names are enough for now).
- They have enough pencil control to write individual letters on paper or a whiteboard.
- They can sit and focus on a quiet activity.
- They can follow simple two-step instructions.
What Will My Child Learn in Unit 1?
By the end of Lesson 34, your child will know:
- The sound for every letter of the alphabet.
- All five short vowels: short A (apple), short I (itch), short O (octopus), short U (up), and short E (egg).
- How to read and spell simple two- and three-letter words built from those letter sounds.
- How to blend sounds together smoothly without stopping between them.
- How to break a spoken word into its individual sounds.
- Beginning consonant blends: R-blends (fr, br, gr, dr, tr, pr, cr) and L-blends (fl, sl, bl, cl, gl, pl).
- Plural and verb endings: -s saying /s/ (cats) and -s saying /z/ (dogs).
- The letter X says /ks/ and QU says /kw/.
- 20 heart words (irregular high-frequency words): the, I, and, a, is, to, do, of, see, said, be, me, from, look, book, are, was, you, have, what.
How the Lessons Work
Each lesson is split across two short sessions, Day 1 and Day 2. Keep things moving at a brisk pace, especially during the drills.
Day 1 — Steps 1 through 6
Step 1: Phonemic Awareness (Ears Only) — No letters or writing — just listening and speaking. You will first blend sounds into words and break words into sounds. Example: say /m/ /a/ /t/ together to get 'mat.' Then you'll segment. Example: say 'mat' and break it into /m/ /a/ /t/. This step builds the foundation everything else rests on.
Step 2: Visual Drill (See the Letter, Say the Sound) — Look at the letter cards one at a time. Your child says the letter name and its sound. Keep the pace quick. If they don't know it, tell them the sound and move on.
Step 3: Auditory Drill (Hear the Sound, Write the Letter) — You say a sound out loud. Your child writes the matching letter (on a white board or on a piece of paper). If they write the wrong letter, give the correct answer, have them write it while saying the sound, and move on.
Step 4: Blending Drill (Read the Word Chain) — Your child reads a chain of words where only one sound changes at a time. Encourage smooth blending — 'sssaaattt,' not '/s/…/a/…/t/.' This step builds fluency and trains the eye to notice every letter.
Step 5: Word Building — You say a word. Your child identifies the sounds and builds the word using letter tiles, Elkonin boxes, or writing on a whiteboard. This step connects listening and spelling which is a key Science of Reading skill.
Step 6: New Concept and Letter Formation — Introduce a new sound, or spelling pattern. Cover the letter name and sound, its keyword, and where it appears in words. Then practice writing it: (1) sky write with a big arm movement, (2) trace it, (3) write it independently. Say the sound each time.
Day 2 — Steps 7 through 10
Step 7: Review and Read Words — Start with a quick review of the Day 1 concept: Which things start with the new sound? What letter is this? What sound does it make? Then read several words with the new pattern together. Finally practice the letter formation. Keep it positive and fast.
Step 8: Heart Words — Heart words are high-frequency words with irregular spellings — parts that do not follow the rules. Blue squares (■) show regular parts. Red hearts (♥) show the heart part — the tricky bit to memorize. Routine: read the word, find the regular parts, find the heart part, underline the heart part in red, cover the word, write it from memory, check and correct.
Step 9: Connected Text — Your child reads sentences using the skills learned so far. You can read together (choral), echo read, or have them read independently. This is where phonics becomes real reading.
Step 10: Dictated Sentence — Read a sentence aloud twice, have the child repeat back the sentence. Your child then writes it from memory. When done, check together using CAPS: C = Capital letter at the start, A = Appearance (letters formed correctly, spacing), P = Punctuation at the end, S = Spelling. Celebrate effort and correct together.
Materials You Will Need
You do not need much to run these lessons. Here is what is recommended:
- Something to write on and with. Any of these options work.
- A small whiteboard
- Loose leaf copy paper
- Dedicated reading notebook (I use a dollar store composition notebook)
- Index Cards. I use these to write each letter and heart word as we learn them. You can technically not do this but I find them helpful for quick review and for games.
- Letter tiles or magnetic letters, OR index cards with letters written on them. You will use these for the blending drill and word building. This is similar to the one I've used for many years through 3 kids and tutoring students. UFLI's website also has a printable version and there are many virtual options as well.
- Elkonin boxes: a simple grid of connected squares used for sounding out words. You can draw them quickly — two, three, or four squares in a row. Laminate or put in a dry-erase sleeve.
The UFLI Foundations Toolbox (ufli.education.ufl.edu/foundations/toolbox/1-34/) offers free downloadable materials that align with the same scope and sequence used in this course. Resources include slideshows, home practice sheets, decodable passages, heart word cards, grapheme cards, and printable letter tiles.
Progress Checkpoints
Use these checkpoints to confirm your child is ready to move forward. If any item is shaky, slow down and give more practice before continuing.
Checkpoint 1 — After Lesson 10
- Reads short A and short I words accurately (sat, pin, fat, tip).
- Segments 3-sound words correctly using fingers.
- Writes the letters A, M, S, T, P, F, I, N from sound alone.
- Reads the heart words: the, I, and, a, is.
- Reads all five short vowels accurately and consistently.
- Reads and spells CVC words with any short vowel.
- Writes any learned letter from sound alone.
- Reads the heart words: the, I, and, a, is, to, do, of, see, said.
- Reads all 26 letter-sound correspondences.
- Reads and spells CVC words, blends, and plural forms.
- Reads connected text (short sentences) with accuracy.
- Reads all 20 heart words automatically.
- Writes a dictated sentence with correct capitalization and punctuation.