Tuesday 9 September 2014

Practicing printing in the first grade classroom

I always like to practice letter formation at the beginning of the year, and find there are a wide variety of abilities when looking at printing skills. I'm always looking for innovative ways to practice letter formation, and I love to use centers! (of course)

I know I blogged about this a couple of years ago, but I just had to revisit my revamped printing centers. I have four or five centers, depending on the size of my class. They spend about 5-10 minutes at each center during a Language Arts period. I focus on one letter each day, and we practice the sound, letter formation, and read stories.
I think it is so important to sit with small groups of students and watch how they are forming letters. When it is done as a whole class, I find it difficult to watch each student and make necessary corrections. I use this booklet to practice letter formation as well as beginning sounds.

Find the booklet by clicking on the picture below.

Printing centers are never complete unless you have a play doh center! I show the students how to make long snakes to make little and big lines, as well as curved lines.



My students LOVE getting to write on the SMARTboard. I found a tracing page off the internet and put it at the bottom of the board. Students each get to do one letter, and wait in line for their turn.
We also practice on the whiteboards. I love my whiteboards, they have a red line at the bottom and are interlined.

I also have paint bags the students write their letters on, sorry no picture!

My students love doing these centers, and it's great practice for them.

Mrs. Dunn
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Tuesday 2 September 2014

Classroom Reveal and the First Day!!

Phew, what a big day!! School kiddos first day today, and baby is going to day home. Where does the time go? It was exhausting, as they say, there is no tired like teacher tired the first week back to school.
My kids seem super sweet, I think it will be a wonderful year!

So here it is my classroom for the 2014-2015 school year:
Just loving those ikea mats and how well they go with my classroom decor!


All of my stories organized by theme.



Teacher area 


So there you have it! So excited for the school year.
Mrs. Dunn