Week Three- Handwriting, Sight Words, Flexible Seating, and Procedures

Our school year has begun.  We just finished our third week of school in first grade.  We have been busy learning our rules and procedures for our classroom.  I've also been assessing my new kiddos to see where they are.  I like assessing the following at the beginning of the year:

Letters

Sounds

Writing Name

Reading Level

Writing CVC Words

Numbers to 20

My free trial of ESGI just ended, so I debated on purchasing it.  ESGI makes my life SO much easier when assessing letters, sounds, numbers, and sight words that I decided to buy it for myself.  I love how easy it is to use and the letters you can print out for the parents.  I know when my mid-terms are due that all I have to do is print and the parents will know exactly what their child can do and what they cannot do.  If you haven't checked out ESGI, please do.  It will make your life easier! Who doesn't want that??!!

I have noticed my firsties still need practice writing their names on lines and using first letter uppercase and the rest lowercase.  I printed out their names on lines and put them in a clear sleeve.  We use dry erase markers and the students practice writing their names correctly. 

My students always LOVE using dry erase markers.  I love walking around and seeing how engaged they are at tracing their names. 

Here is the name packet I use with my kiddos. 

Names - Editable Names Bundle - Names Activities

Our schedule at the beginning of the day is always a little bit crazy.  Starting after Labor Day my school will serve breakfast.  The students bring breakfast to the classroom to eat.  I always struggled with the kiddos that come in right away and the ones that ride the "late" bus and get to school at 9:15.  It makes for a wild start.  This year I've decided to try out Morning Tubs.  I know my students need this social time in their day for SO many reasons.  I thought I would do Morning Tubs right after breakfast.  That way the students eat quickly and then get to enjoy a little social activity right at the beginning of the day.  I recently had a Donorschoose filled with some STEM toys that are wonderful for my Morning Tubs and I bought some building toys over the summer.  So far, my students are loving the Morning Tubs!

Our rules for Morning Tubs are that the students can choose any tubs, but only 3 students per tub.  So far that has worked out well.

This year I am also trying out some Flexible Seating.  My classroom got 2 Wobble Chairs from a Donorschoose.  My students LOVE the Wobble Chairs.  I am hoping my new Donorschoose project of 4 Wobble Chairs gets fulfilled soon so we can have more.  We also have a low table that the students love to sit at.  And we have some other seating options.  Check out my Classroom Reveal to see the other options.

We are still learning how to make "good" choices with the flexible seating and when throughout the day we can use them.  I also have a table spot for all students.  I got new chair pockets this year for my chairs so everyone has a "home" spot.  So far we keep our headphones and take home folder in our chair pockets.  Here is where I purchased my chair pockets {HERE}.  This is my second time purchasing from Jeannine.  She makes wonderful pockets.  I only had to buy more because the size my chairs changed. 

During Math time, we have been working on rotations.  We did do a whole group activity about filling up a tens-frame with a partner.  My kiddos loved the game.  It will be part of our "tub" rotation.

We can get through about 2 rotations before our stamina in up.  Our goal is 4 rotations so I can pull a guided math group.

My hope is do have a short lesson followed by guided groups.  Practice makes perfect (or at least I hope it does) so hopefully soon I will be able to begin my math time the way I really want it to work out this year. 

I assessed my students sight words knowledge.  I learned that I really need to push hard for sight word knowledge.  We have a lot to learn this year so we have no time to play around. :)  Gish, I must have said that a million and one times this week. LOL.  I am using THESE to test my students knowledge of sight words.  I want them to know 100% before going to the next list.

I like to incorporate movement and fun in my classroom.  We plays Swat a Word to help us practice our words as well as have fun with them.

My students told me over and over how much fun they thought the game was. (Wahoo!! Win Win)

I began my whole group reading lesson this week.  My school district uses ReadyGen. (No comment!).  

This was our first time using a book in their hands during our whole group lesson.  We talked about what they should be doing during the lesson.  Where their hands and eyes should be.

They seemed to love following along with their own book.  I told them they get to do that now since they are big first graders!

We had a great week in First!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Have a Wolfelicious day!

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Handwriting and Writing

What do you do with your class to help improve their handwriting? 

 I know I know, I battle with myself sometimes if learning the correct way to write is still important.  But then I remember that my students need to be able to write notes and lists.  People need to be able to read those.  They may not have to write long essays but the will definitely have to write notes and lists for themselves. Therefore, teaching my students the correct way to form their letters is important to me.  With all this curriculum, it is difficult to fit in handwriting.  Here is one of the ways I incorporate handwriting practice into my day.

One of the centers in my classroom is Handwriting Practice.  When it is the students turn to go to this center, they find their Handwriting folder and get started.  They know what to do and they are working on numerous skills.

Cover of the Handwriting Practice folder.

At the beginning of the year I have their first name in the book.

Second quarter I add their whole name to the book.

These pages we use for different things.  I could give them a sound and they write it.  I could give them a letter and they write it.  I could give them a number and they write the number and a picture to match.  Basically, for these two pages there are numerous things.

More name practice and phonogram practice.

Phonograms and Numbers.

 

 

 Letter and Sight Word practice.

Sight Word practice.

Sight Word practice.

This Handwriting Practice folder is so beneficial for the students.  I have seen such an improvement on my student's handwriting.

For Winter, we made adorable Eskimos for our classroom door.

I love how bright the students made their Eskimos.

The past few weeks I have really been working on writing.  Since we have been talking about Dental Health this week, we did a writing about the Dentist.  First we brainstormed what we wanted to talk about.

We used this map to help us.



 

Then we filled out the map together.  Next, we wrote the sentence together using our sounds to help us write words.

The sentence we came up with was...

The Dentist told us to brush twice a day, brush for 2 minutes, and floss.

Then, later in the week I gave the students some pictures.  Then I told them they had to write something about the pictures.

I have a toothbrush and toothpaste.

Brush for 2 minutes a day.

I brush my teeth so I don't get cavities.

I was trilled with their sentences.  They did a Wolfelicious job on these!

Did you read my blog post from last week?  I found out that a lot of us feel the same way!  It is always great to know that you aren't alone with your feelings.  If only we could go back and let our kids be little!

If you missed the post, here is the link to it.

   

I hope you had a great week!

Sight Word Handwriting Sheets

My students have been having a tricky time with their sight words and their handwriting could be better.  I thought, I should make something to help them improve both!  

So, I decided to create Sight Word Handwriting Sheets in D'Nealian to help them out.  We use the Fry's First 100 Sight Word List so I decided to make a page for each sight word.  Check out some of my students trying them out today!

Here is an example of what some of the pages look like.  You could have your students color the bubble letters or trace them or rainbow write in them. 

Go check it out!!!  Let's have the students get all their sight words and have beautiful handwriting. 

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