The aim of this study is to examine the effects of the emergency distance education process on first literacy teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, within the framework of the experiences and opinions of first grade teachers and parents. In the study carried out with the qualitative research method, the data were collected using criterion sampling, one of the purposive sampling methods. The study group consists of 16 first grade teachers working in public and private primary schools in different provinces of Turkey and 9 parents of first graders. Two different semi-structured interview forms prepared by the researchers were used to obtain the opinions of teachers and parents. The content analysis technique was used for the analysis of the obtained data. As a result of the study, three different themes were found, namely “benefits”, “difficulties” and “solutions”, regarding the emergency distance education process. First grade teachers and parents stated that the benefits of the emergency distance education environment for the process of teaching literacy were access to various opportunities through technology and educational portals, and strengthening the communication between teachers and parents. The difficulties experienced in this process outweighed the benefits and included the negative psychological effects on students, problems arising from technology and educational portals, difficulties in the reading and writing processes, and negative effects on teacher parent-student communication. The solutions used by first grade teachers and parents to overcome the problems were aimed at increasing literacy achievement and motivation and eliminating the problem of inadequate internet access.