11 Free 1st Grade Reading Fluency Passages for Your Class

Did you know that by the end of the first grade school year, most students should be reading around 50-70 words per minute? Not just that, but they need to be reading with proper inflection and emotion as if they were telling a story themselves.

That’s why it’s so important for first-graders to regularly practice their reading fluency. The more they read, the better they’ll become at reading aloud with expression. But what if your students aren’t quite there yet?

Fluency passages (short texts that can be read multiple times to practice speed and accuracy) are one way to help your first-graders in building fluency. And the best part is that there are tons of passages available online. To help you get started, we’ve compiled a list of 11 free 1st-grade reading fluency passages for your class.

1. Guided Reading Passages

These reading passages by Anna Gardner are perfect for first-grade students. Using sight words and word-solving strategies, your students will love reading these passages and answering the questions. In doing so, they’ll be building their reading fluency and comprehension skills while also gaining confidence in their abilities.

For these passages, try to have your students read each one three times. The first time, have them read it for fluency (i.e., speed and accuracy). The second time, have them re-read the passage looking for specific details. Finally, for the third reading, encourage your students to make connections to their own lives or the world around them.

2. Speedy Phrases

Developed by The Florida Center for Reading Research, this activity takes longer passages and breaks them down into “speedy phrases”, which are common phrases that often occur in text. Students can practice these phrases on their own to help build accuracy and fluency.

Over time, as students become more familiar with the phrases, they can string them together to read longer passages with ease. This activity is great for small-group or one-on-one instruction because it allows you to focus on specific areas that need improvement.

3. Listen and Learn

Unite for Literacy offers a wide variety of digital books that are perfect for beginning readers. These books feature beautiful illustrations and easy-to-follow text, making them perfect for young learners. Focus areas include family, feelings and senses, healthy me, and animals and people.

Each book also comes with a recording, so children can enjoy listening and read along to improve their fluency using echo reading or repeated reading. In no time, your students will be reading these books with confidence and ease.

4. Author Read Alouds

We all know the power reading aloud can have on young learners. But when the author themselves does the reading, it’s even more special for children than when it’s just the teacher (even if they’re a fluent reader)!

These KidLit read-alouds by popular children’s authors will motivate and inspire your students to improve their fluency by exposing them to spirited and strong readers using vivid and rich vocabulary words, which will improve their own vocabulary as they read books.

5. Fluency Poems

Rhymes, patterns, and repetition are key ingredients in poems that help with fluent reading. These fluency poems from Poetry 4 Kids are extracted from kids’ poetry books and are perfect for beginning readers, using all of these elements to engage students while also providing them with the opportunity to practice their reading skills.

Your students will effortlessly practice fluency while doing these repeated readings. Plus, partner reading is an option with these, so you can have more advanced readers help their struggling classmates.

6. Reader’s Theater

Oral reading fluency is such an important skill, and The Best Class’s Reader’s Theater is the perfect way for your students to practice. As the name implies, this activity involves students reading a script together, which should be a lot of fun–choral reading usually is!

As students get more comfortable with the material, they can start to experiment with different characters, voices, and inflections to bring the story to life. This is also a great way to incorporate some drama and creativity into your lesson since your students can let their imaginations run wild.

7. Skill Focus

These skill focus sheets from K12 Reader target specific phonics skills and are perfect for quick and easy fluency practice. Grouped by word family, your students will become familiar with common sound patterns as they read aloud fluency practice passages.

Each sheet also includes comprehension questions to ensure your students understand what they’re reading.

8. Follow Along With a Favorite Book

Fluent reading is made easier when your little ones are reading a familiar book. After all, they can’t read fluently if they don’t know what to expect! With Storyline Online, your students can watch and listen to their favorite books being read aloud by celebrities.

This is a great way to elevate children’s reading skills, as they’ll be able to follow along with the text while also listening to proper pronunciation and intonation. As they listen, encourage your students to pay attention to the emotions being expressed by the reader. This will help them understand how inflection and tone can affect the meaning of a text.

9. Sight Words for Improving Accuracy

While these aren’t particularly fluency passages, these sight word lists from A to Z Teacher Stuff will help your students become more accurate readers and boost their literacy skills by increasing their sight word vocabulary. Why?

Because as struggling readers become more familiar with these 41 high-frequency words, they won’t have to stop and sound them out every time they see them, which will help them comfortably read accurately and at a more reasonable speed. That way, they can focus on reading aloud with appropriate expression instead of getting bogged down by decoding.

10. Think Fluency App

Not only does the Think Fluency app provide you with free reading passages, but it also records and stores your students’ data, so you can track their progress over time using features like timed-reading passages to find out how many words a child is reading in a certain amount of time.

Not to mention, with this app, you can also upload your own passages for extra practice, so it’s totally customizable.

The convenience and ease of use make this app such a valuable tool for any teacher looking to help elevate any child’s reading level.

11. Starfall Reading

Starfall Reading is a great website that provides students with the opportunity to practice their fluency skills with fun and engaging games, decodable books, and skill-based activities. By reading the books multiple times, your students will become more comfortable with the text and increase their reading speed and accuracy.

With this website, your students will be engaged and excited to read, which is half the battle when it comes to fluency!

Jump In: Some of your 1st-grade students might be showing advanced reading skills. Why not introduce them to 2nd-grade reading materials so that they could further improve their fluency with the language? See my post here — 2nd Grade Reading Fluency Passages: 17 Great Books For Kids.

Watch Your Students’ Reading Fluency Soar With These 11 Free Passages

No matter which resource of the above you choose, just make sure that your students are reading aloud on a regular basis. The more they practice, the better their fluency will become! And before you know it, they’ll be reading like pros and impressing you with their improved reading skills.

Do you have any favorite fluency activities or resources? Share them with us in the comments below!

Last Updated on July 22, 2022 by Emily