going into grade 1

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Home : 2003 : May : 22

going into grade 1
By Cathy-Dee

Ok, a lot will depend on where you teach and what type of community you live in.

Where I teach my students do not come in reading and many do not even know the letters and definitely not the sounds so I have to start with
the basics.
However in many schools you will have a few who are reading, some who will pick up reading skills quickly and some who will be like my usual kids. It makes teaching grade 1 challenging in some ways and yet so much fun too.
Generally I find most grade 1 children to be stronger in letter names, sounds and basic reading skills over printing and writing skills.
A good way

to get an idea is to visit your kindergarten class for a short time and see what they are doing this time of year. It will give you insight to what they've been covering.

I always like to start the year reviewing the letter names and sounds. If I have a class who is weak in this area then I'll spend more time in the unit. I think it's important to begin teaching sight words the first day and keep on adding new words each week.

The nice thing is that many of your "resource" books you'll still be able to use in first grade. If you had "favorites" perhaps check to see if you can get the same style books in first grade as well.

Usually September is the learning month - that is it's the month you learn all about your class. Do not worry if you do not seem to be getting work done, it will come in time. I spend most of September doing a lot of activities. Getting to know you games, printing skills, songs, poems, action rhymes, storytimes, art. During this month I test each student one on one. I test them to see if they know all the letter names and/or sounds. I test them to see if they can recognize numbers up to 20 (for now) and if they can count objects up to 20 as well. I check to see if they know any common sight words.
(I start with colour words, number words to ten and sight words such as "the, is, I, am, boy, girl, look, see, in, it,)

I usually focus first on language arts and math and then gradually add in science and social studies lessons.

I try to have one "center time" per day as they are used to having centers in kindergarten and they need the transition. As the year progresses I change from "fun" centers to specific learning centers instead. They usually never even realize the change has occurred.

I often overplan in September as I forget that they can't work as fast in the beginning of the year. Once I have finished my testing (I do a lot of it during those center times) then I have a much better picture of where all my students are and where I need to focus my teaching. If they know all their letter names and sounds, then you can move into introducing more sounds like the long vowels and blends/digraphs. You can also focus more on just reading and learning sight words. If they do not know all their letter names and/or sounds, then you may end up focusing more there to begin with.