Activity Books for Kids to Advance Early Reading Skills

Like most parents, chances are you’re looking for ways to boost your children’s reading skills as they kick off the school year. Or maybe they’ve been diligently knocking books off their reading list, but now you’re looking for that extra boost to sharpen their skills.  

Whatever the case, now is the time to help your first or second grader strengthen those reading and grammar skills to thrive throughout the school year. No need to feel overwhelmed! Here’s a little secret: These three workbooks will give them the tools to succeed. Think of it as jump-starting learning — the fun way.

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1. Scholastic Success With Grammar

This grammar activity book has editions for both first graders and second graders, and each focuses on building basic grammar skills through fun activities. First graders will find practice with using capital letters, punctuation, adjectives, verbs, and recognizing the various parts of simple sentences. It’s all woven into 61 pages of fun challenges, fill-in-the-blank games, and sentence scrambles with fun illustrations and large, easy-to-read text. 

Meanwhile, second graders will bolster important skills like identifying and using past-tense verbs, quotations, and contractions, while also reviewing the basics of sentence structure, parts of speech, and subject-verb agreement.

Both the first and second grade editions are designed to meet the requirements of basic standardized skills test in a number of states. Most importantly, they present the information in a clear, entertaining way that makes children want to practice these skills, because it doesn’t feel like work at all. 

2. Scholastic Success With Sight Words

From kindergarten through second grade, children practice recognizing sight words to boost their reading skills, and the Scholastic Success with Sight Words accelerates that! The book starts out reviewing the basics and allowing children to work their way up to recognizing slightly more challenging words.

It does so through fun activities like word scrambles, “secret” messages, and even some coloring exercises, so it feels like a game every step of the way. By the end of the 46-page book, children will recognize the top 100 most common sight words, and will be ready to excel in reading all year long.

3. Scholastic Success With Reading Comprehension

By second grade, it’s crucial for children to start reading on a deeper level. This means not just recognizing the words they see, but being able to understand what they’re reading and start to draw conclusions and bigger ideas from the text. That’s why Scholastic Success with Reading Comprehension: Grade 2 is so helpful for their progress! 

The workbook includes 43 unique short stories (each around a paragraph long), along with reading comprehension-building puzzles, brain teasers, and other fun games to get kids diving deeper into what they read. Each of the stories is designed to help children build specific skills, like recognizing fact versus fiction, reading for details, using context clues to understand new words, making predictions, and drawing conclusions. 

But the best thing about all of these workbooks? They get kids learning while they’re having fun, and they’re easy on your wallet. Prepare with them now, and you’ll help your child nail a successful school year. (Browse our full selection of fun workbooks and activity books at The Scholastic Store.)

Get ready for your child to go back to school with our guide — it's full of recommended books, teacher tips, more activity books for kids, homework help, and more resources for a successful school year.

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You'll also get 10% off your first order at the Scholastic Store Online.