colouring, cutting and pasting

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Home : 2002 : February : 1

colouring, cutting and pasting
By Cathy-Dee

While this can be an over-used activity at times, it is one of the more beneficial activities for young students in helping them to develop those fine-motor skills. I have a number of children in my class this year in grade
1, who had never held a pair of scissors until kindergarten and even with the colouring, cutting and pasting they did, they still have weak skills because they didn't do any of this prior to kindergarten.
There are many ways to teach the letters. I couldn't say whether your child's teacher is doing all she can or not unless I saw her program. But these are some of the things I've

seen in other classes and that I use with my first graders as well.

- letter chants or rhymes
- songs
- physical letters - making letters out of playdoh, painting letters, using shaving cream, tracing letters in sand, etc.,
- alphabet tubs - containers with items that start with that letter
- puppet stories
- games, puzzles, computer programs
- stories, poems

The list is probably endless.

You say you volunteer a lot, but if it is for the same time period each day, you may just be missing all the other things this teacher does to teach the letters.

Also as far as boredom is concerned. Some children do not enjoy using their fine motor skills because it is hard work - so they may not put in the effort they would if it was easier.

Also we often have a huge range of abilities in our early grades. While we do like to challenge students it is harder to set up completely different activities with K and grade 1 students because even those who are advanced still need a lot of one-to-one dialog with new activities. I know a few of my booklets may get boring for my top group, but once I have the basics taught to the whole class, I can spend more time challenging those top learners. It may be the same for this teacher and class.

If you are really concerned, talk with the teacher. But I would suggest doing it as a question. Perhaps find a few websites that teach about letters or give ideas. Then mention that you've been doing some reading lately, talking with other people, visiting teacher boards and websites and you've seen all these neat ideas on teaching the letters like using songs, or making letters with play-doh. Then ask, I know I'm not here all day long, do you do some of these things at different times? I'd love to help out at those times just to see some different things.

This way you are not automatically accusing her or putting her in a position where she feels she has to defend her program and techniques. She may not have thought of some of these things and may welcome some new ideas to try with you helping out.

And, if your child is one of the ones who seems bored why not try some of these things at home with him and perhaps he can take some of them to school on show-and-tell days to share. I know as a teacher I get a lot of my new ideas from what I see and hear from others.