Fun in First

A Teaching Blog by Jodi Southard

Aubree Malick

Back to School for First Grade

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It’s that time again! Summer is winding down and your students are preparing to come back to see you. While that may be in person or virtual for your school, it is still important to make that first week special and memorable for your students. Check out these ideas for your classroom as you head into the first week. 

 

First Week of School Ideas

 

Morning Work 

I like to have something for my students to do at their desk, especially on the first day of school. This allows them to have something to keep them busy while I’m chatting with parents, collecting notes and supplies, or anything else that might arise on the first day of school. Some of my favorite morning work activities for the first week of school are in this back to school resource. 

 

Photo Op! 

That first day/week is crazy but I always try to remember to take pictures of my students from the first week of school. It’s a great way to snag a photo of them for future projects, but also to compare to the end of the year! You’ll be surprised at how much they change in ten months! 

 

Get to Know You Activities

“Get to know you” name games are so fun to play and it’s helpful for the teacher and the students! One of my favorite games to play is where students sit in a circle and each student has to say “Hi, my name is ____” and then they also have to repeat the students names that came before them. There will be lots of laughs and giggles, but students love trying to see if they can remember all the names in the circle!

 

Classroom Management

 

Classroom Meetings

Classroom meetings are SO important, especially that first week. It’s a great way to build classroom community. We use this time to talk about our classroom rules, check in with their emotions and reflect on different situations. My students absolutely love this time and look forward to it. 

 

Procedures

You can never spend too much time on procedures, right? Depending on what your school is doing for health procedures, a lot of your procedures will be different this year. It’s important to give plenty of opportunities for your students to practice new routines, transitions, etc. in your classroom. I like to pick a few to practice each day and then we review our procedures that we’ve learned previously at the next classroom meeting. 

 

The Perfect Back to School Resource 

 

This first grade back to school resource is the perfect way to start your school year! If you are a new 1st grade teacher or you just need some fresh and new ideas for the first week of 1st grade, this First Week of First Grade includes everything you need to have a successful first week of first grade. It has welcome letters, complete lesson plans, activities, morning work and more! You can check it out here! 

 

 

 

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Quick and Easy Phonemic Awareness Activities

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If there is one thing I know to be certain about teaching reading instruction, it’s that students need many opportunities to learn and practice their phonemic awareness skills. Phonemic awareness sets the foundation for efficient readers and writers. Because time is always limited, I wanted to give you some phonemic awareness activities that you can use with your students that are quick and easy to implement. 

Segmentation & Blending

Some of my favorite activities to practice segmenting and blending are materials that most teachers already have in their classroom. Give students a small ball of Play Doh.

Pro tip: allow students a small set amount of time to play with the Play Doh before your instruction begins. Then let them know that once that time is up, the Play Doh becomes a learning tool and we have to use it appropriately. 

Tell your students a word and have them pull out smaller balls to determine how many sounds are in the word. Then, your students can touch each part with their finger and then blend together. Super simple, but effective and easy! You can do these activities with chips, unifix cubes, sticky notes, etc. Students can push down on the objects, push forward, drag their finger underneath or just simply touch to show the segmenting/blending. 

Phoneme Deletion & Substitution 

You don’t need to have anything fancy for this! This is a great skill for students to practice through listening. The best way to work on deleting is to say a word and then ask your student to remove the beginning or ending sound. You can also use unifix cubes for visual learners and have students delete or substitute new sounds. 

Rhyming Words

A fun, interactive game to play with students is to use a beach ball and ask students to come up with a word that rhymes with your given word. You will pass to a student, and then they can continue to pass around the ball, each coming up with an additional rhyming word. 

Phoneme Isolation

A great way to practice phoneme isolation is to have your students identify which sound you are stating. For example, if you were practicing CVC words, you can have a 1, 2, 3 card for students to show you which sound you isolated.  

Putting It All Together

I have used this Phonemic Awareness at Your Fingertips pack for years! This assessment and activity packet is perfect for small group instruction. The packet includes assessments and editable checklists for each of the phonemic awareness skills, which makes tracking super easy. You will also find numerous engaging activities for practicing each of the phonemic awareness skills with your small groups including onset and rime, phoneme blending, phoneme segmentation, phoneme deletion, phoneme substitution. You can grab the pack here! 

I hope that you and your students find these phonemic awareness activities fun and engaging! When you can start incorporating practice on a daily basis, your students will be well on their way to building their phonemic awareness skills!