Get Ready for First Grade Summer Skills

I teach in an average first grade classroom! I have great students!  I have great parents! Many of them ask for what they need to get to the next grade! Today, I am going to focus on what your kindergartener needs to come to first!

Number sense is so important! Many of my sweet firsties work so hard, but forget over the summer a few numbers.  Some common numbers that they forget are 12, 21, 20, 15, 50, 51.  You can see why! These are just flipped and they look so similar!

Over the summer, the focus is to have fun! That is what you are supposed to be doing!  But in between the lazy days, rainy days, or just a 10 minute time you have scheduled in, take time to practice number sense!

You might do something like this!

Review of letters and sounds are always a great way to practice!

Plan your daily schedule for fun and then take out a few minutes to practice getting ready for first grade!  A little time each day will pay off for next year!

Here are more practice pages!
Get Ready for First Grade Summer Skills

Do You Need More Analog Time Practice?

I teach first grade and the workbooks provided have only 2-3 practice pages with only a couple examples on each page for teaching time! What? That is not nearly enough curriculum to teach this concept! It is fine for introducing the concept of time, but my firsties need lots of practice and then a fun element too!

To help my firsties understand this concept, I usually create an anchor chart on the rug to introduce the lesson.  Anchor charts are too big to include in a resource, so the next best thing is a poster!

Posters are great too, or you can copy the posters in your own style on that large anchor chart!

After I teach the concept, I have to model the concept in whole group on the smart board.  I can do this with a worksheet.  I know, I know!  Worksheets are so, well... Yawn!  But the fact is, many state tests are worksheet oriented.  And if my little guys don't get that practice, they will not be confident!

There are plenty pages of practice! Make it a game and have races to finish!  You can add the fun element to any worksheet to make it more engaging!   Here is a glance at one of the pages!

Put these in a center and follow up with a game! This game is great for 2-3 students.  You will need linking cubes, or other small objects for keeping place.  You will also need a die! And go! First to the end wins!

Do you want more?  Here is a link for more practice!  These are two resources bundled in one to save!

Time to the Hour, Half Hour, Quarter To, Quarter After, Half Past

Rabbits and Raindrops!

Perfect for spring! Are you looking for a great read for spring?  I have the perfect book for you! Rabbits and Raindrops! It is an adorable book about a mama rabbit that teaches her babies how to leave the nest to explore the near grassy area! But when the rain comes, it forces the little family to run back to cover!  Eventually, the sun comes back out and the babies are able to go back into the sun to play!

With this book companion, help your child or students understand the plot, including games, vocabulary, fluency, phonics, comprehension strategies, color by sight word, and even a comprehension test with answer key! Raindrops and Rabbits is written by Jim Arnosky.

This book has great vocabulary! Play a fun game to learn about these new words!

There are many activities to make your job easier to teach!

For more information, click the following link.

Rabbits and Raindrops Book Companion

Finish May Strong!

Do you need morning work, homework, or focus work to help you finish your year out strong in a first grade classroom?  

Read a book, pick a page or sentence, roll the die and read like...

There are sight words, time to the hour, half hour, measurement, and much more!

For more information, click below!

May Literacy and Math First Grade

Double Digit Add and Subtract Spinner Challenge

Do you need basic practice for double digit addition and subtraction?  Do you need to add a spin for the fun factor?  The new common core has students figuring by tens, which is so important for our students to be able to 'see' the tens in their heads!  However, I have those students that still don't 'see' it no matter how many manipulatives I show! I am not giving up on them! I will keep trying to help them see these tens! :)  But, I have a spin for them!

I  show my students the traditional method to add and subtract double digit numbers! It works for those students that aren't visual learners!  I also like to give them plenty of practice! Here are few worksheets I have for them for the practice!

After plenty of practice consider spinning a fidget spinner to see if your student can finish the problems before the spinner stops!  This adds the fun factor!

For the printables, click the following link!

Double Digit Addition and Subtraction