Learn what you can expect your child to learn with this list of 1st Grade Skills. Find worksheets to help your child build these skills.
Are you classroom teacher looking for engaging ways to teach your students to comprehend stories? Read this post for primary ideas on how to get children to learn to visualize and build reading comprehension.
Reading comprehension in kindergarten with decodable reading passages.
Grade Level: Kindergarten-1st Grade Topic: Long and Short This game is a great way to get your kinders reading short rhythmic patterns. What You Will Receive Key (Order of the Rhythmic Patterns for Teacher) 16 Full size cards (numbered and unnumbered) 16 Quarter size cards (numbered and unnumbered) Visit My Blog! Check out my blog for free resources and more lesson ideas. Join My Mailing List! Join my mailing list to get updates on new resources.
Check out these cute, 1st Grade worksheets for January. Practice math, reading, and writing with these fun winter themes.
Telling time on an analog clock is often a tricky skill for primary students to master. These telling time activities and hands-on ideas bring high engagement and a whole lot of fun when teaching first, second, and even third graders to read and write the time.
Learn what you can expect your child to learn with this list of 1st Grade Skills. Find worksheets to help your child build these skills.
Boost your first grader's math skills — from telling time to counting change and adding and subtracting 10 — with these math worksheets.
Use these four great books to teach making connections and use the making connections activities to help boost your students' comprehension.
I've got one more summarizing idea to share with you! Did you see my other posts about writing summaries HERE and HERE?
Telling time on an analog clock is often a tricky skill for primary students to master. These telling time activities and hands-on ideas bring high engagement and a whole lot of fun when teaching first, second, and even third graders to read and write the time.
As Spring Break approaches, I find that my fifth graders are in need of some reminders as to what it means to be kind to each other. In general, they are sweet kids, but at times the words they use and actions they take, particularly on the playground, aren't the kindest. Our read aloud for the month is Wonder by RJ Palacio so the theme of kindness fit right into our room. It just so happens that a new book, We're All Wonders by RJ Palacio, a picture book intended for younger readers to access the story, came out this week as well. So the timing was perfect. (the two links above are my affiliate links and will take you to Amazon to buy the books.) I began by asking the students what kindness is. We brainstormed a list of ideas and created an anchor chart. Then I read the picture book to the students. Because we had just finished Wonder, they were so excited to read this new version. When we finished, I asked the kids to think of all the ways, in both the picture book and the novel, that people were not very kind to Auggie (the main character). The kids were able to fill our entire circle map in no time. It was easy to recall how people would scream in his face, recoiling at the way he looked. They remembered the names Auggie was called and the no-touching game that was played. The instantly told me about all the awful things that happened to him. I then asked the kids to brainstorm ways that, if they were in the novel with Auggie, they could be kinder to him. Again, they had no problem thinking of ways they could be kind to Auggie. Next, I asked the students to think about their own real life. I asked them to reflect upon how they personally treat others and how they personally could make better choices when speaking to others. Here is where things got a little challenging. You see, when students are talking about fictional characters, or reading news stories about OTHER kids they don't know being treated unfairly or unkindly, they know exactly what they would do if they were there. Because they aren't there. They know they never will be there. But when confronted with their own lives, and real possibilities for what they would have to do to step in or change situations, it is a bit harder for them. So I asked them to brainstorm 15 different ways they PERSONALLY could show kindness to our classmates. (I drew a lot of inspiration for this next part from Study All Knight's FREE Kindness unit, which you can grab here.) The students then used tempra paint and painted 15 (or so) rainbow sunshine rays. They also drew their own Wonder-Inspired portrait. (I have previously done this before, but had them focus on precepts and writing....if you would like to do that, click here. It is one of my fav lessons too!) The students then glued their Wonder portraits into the middle of the rays, used Sharpie to outline and write the 15 ways they could show real kindness in their lives (one way per ray) and were done. They came out amazing. (See the picture at the top of the post!) What is better though, is that the past two days, my students are actively trying to be kinder to each other. They are watching their words. I have seen people purposefully go up to those who tend to wander during group time and invite them into the group. I have seen students smile at others just a bit more. It truly has been a Wonder. Right now, for a limited time, Amazon has the book available for $3.99!!! Snag up to 4 copies at that price. Use my affiliate link here to get your copy ASAP before they are all gone!! SaveSave
Are you looking for engaging fraction activities, games and read alouds for 1st and 2nd grade? This blog post shares 13 fraction activities and games to teach identifying fractions, comparing fractions, and partitioning shapes to create fractions.
When it’s time to teach my students to summarize, I love to use the Somebody Wanted But So Then (SWBST) strategy. Today I want to share a few tools you can use when teaching this reading strategy.
Quarter Script is a handwritten font which is perfect for adding a personal touch to your projects. It's easy to read which makes it perfect for personal designs as well as branding.
SEPTEMBER NO PREP MATH AND LITERACY ACTIVITIES
This Addition Pancakes activity is a fun and creative way to practice math facts! The activity is self-correcting, so your child can play independently!
Learn how to implement one of the really fun ways to teach inferencing to students at the elementary level: Mystery Mail! Read about it here!
Spring Break is coming to an end :( I have been sick most of it with a Sinus Cold and BF was gone all Spring Break so I’ve had lots of time to tinker around and get things ready for our Tri Conferenc
Becoming an active reader that makes predictions and makes inferences isn't an easy task. Here are some mentor texts for teaching predictions.
Hi teacher friends, Linda here from Around the Kampfire! I'm headed into week 7 (almost to the end of the first quarter!) and I promised myself I would stay ahead of the game this year (even if it's only by the skin of my teeth!). I've been planning and pulling read alouds and thought I'd share a little cause and effect activity I'll be using soon with Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Last year while teaching my kiddos about cause & effect we read all about poor Alexander's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day! I made a variation of a multi-flow map to show the cause and effect relationships in the story. I have several copies of the book so I modeled some first then had groups of three locate and write causes and effects on sticky notes to add to our chart. Students then wrote in more detail and illustrated them on this little freebie I used from my friend Courtney at Swimming Into Second. This year, I'm thinking I'll teach this during my small groups and have my kiddos use this student version. If you'd like to use it too you can! Download a copy HERE. If you follow me at Around the Kampfire you know how much I love Tomie dePaola books! So many of his Strega Nona books are perfect for teaching about cause and effect! Every year we do a Tomie dePaola author study and I like to use Big Anthony: His Story to focus on this because Big Anthony is, simply put, a walking disaster of cause and effect! These are Big Anthony brochures we made during last year's study. You can see more of how we worked with characters, story structure, and lots of comprehension and writing activities in my 4-part series Teaching With Tomie dePaola Books. You might also enjoy my Tomie dePaola board on Pinterest! I hope your year is off to a good start!
While all of our students don’t need ALL of these strategies, I’ve organized a lot of the things mentioned in this series of blog posts into six big categories. I hope that they’ll help you wrap your mind around SIMPLE things that you can do to help your students with some of their biggest learning obstacles in math. Place Holders & Trackers For many of our students, keeping track of their place is HARD. However, I love to have a few tools handy to help them keep track of where they are and what they’re doing. Bingo Markers Desk Pets…
First grade worked on one point perspective. We concentrated on the vanishing point, the horizon line, and how objects are big when they are close to us and how they get smaller the farther away they get.
This simple money worksheet is perfect for kindergartners and 1st graders who are just starting to learn about money concepts and the various values of each type of coin. Simply have your students cut out each coin: a penny, nickel, dime, and quarter, and have them match each one to the correct piggy bank.
Each school year, I like to create a name book for my preschool students to use. I put them together with all kinds of materials but to simplify things for my readers, I created this little name book template. Getting Started I create a book for
Every quarter, 8th graders create a portrait in the style of Picasso. We have created these in a multiple of ways in the past but this collage method has really been a successful start for all students. This lesson was adapted from United Art & Education's recent Project Guide.
hold students accountable while they independently read with these easy to implement reading tips and tricks and strategies
Hi friends! Happy Friday! I am thrilled to have a few days off to relax and spend time with my hubby! I swear sometimes it feels like I don’t see […]
Looking for a fun, simple introduction to music for kids? This free printable music booklet is a playful way to learn music theory.
I hope the weather has been as lovely in your neck of the woods as it has in mine! The sunshine is definitely working to chase away my winter blues! Wanted to share a few resources and freebies for Spring! I just whipped up this Scrambled Sentence station. My kids LOVE Scrambled Sentences because they play like a game, but they are PACKED with K-1 skills. When they are themed, they hit on content. Then there's capitalization, punctuation, fluency, comprehension, decoding, sight words.... all rolled into one easy prep activity! YES, PLEASE! You can grab the spring set for free! If your kids love Scrambled Sentences as much as mine, you might check out the bundle! We usually cover Weather in March or April. I combine weather with seasons and clouds! Kids do lots of observing and they love being able to apply their learning to the world outside those classroom walls. I haven't snapped any pictures yet, but here are the many activities in our weather unit! There are tons of awesome songs and videos to use with your weather unit. You can grab a FREE list with youtube links by clicking the image below! Easter is right around the corner. It is so early this year, which makes March a really packed month. I know we have all discovered the joy of the cheap plastic Easter eggs and the magic powers they have to make kids extra engaged in the same stuff we've been doing all year ;) If you need some recording sheets to go along with your Easter Egg activities you can grab this freebie! These are the activities the recording sheets go with: I also whipped up some Free Literacy Activities for your Easter Celebrations. And once Easter and Spring Break have come along, it won't be long before Earth Day! I really think it's important for kids to learn how to take care of things. Especially in Kinder and First, we are constantly trying to help them understand the importance of taking care of our classroom... that translates out into the world as well! Here are some activities we do for Earth Day (week)! You can grab them here! Alright! Sorry for the choppiness today! So much to do in Spring and so little time! ;) And that doesn't even include plants and insects! Phew!
