Teaching Ideas

The first week is a get-to-know you week, where I learn about them and they learn about me. We establish our classroom climate - the children negotiate the room and furniture, rules, routines, we discuss what will be learnt and how to do it.

I do lots of individual assessment by anecdotal records and checklists. Then I start to prepare individual contracts based on where each child is and where they should be.

I agree with Tessa - year ones need lots of hands-on play and manipulation. I use a lot of resources from this site. I use an interactive whiteboard all the time. I basically use them as the starting block. I hope this helps and have fun and try to be creative think outside the box.

C2C are there to guide us but sometimes they are a blessing, too. The learning place has heaps of things to use. Stop working and relax!!!!!!!!!! It's Christmas, you'll be fine.

I have a VIP each week (name drawn out of a hat so everyone has a go) - the teacher is VIP in the first week.

This is a good way for the class to find out more about the teacher. The VIP wears a badge and sits on a special chair when other children are on the floor. He/she brings along special things to display for the week and then conducts a VIP Show and Tell.

The VIP is always first in line and gets to do jobs such as take messages to the office (with a partner). After Show and Tell, we fill out a chart with details about the VIP such as birthday, favourite colour, friends, favourite TV show, etc.

Then the class writes about the VIP - we do the same style of writing for 2 weeks (one week to learn the style of writing, one week to revise it)- eg postcard, acrostic poem. Whilst the children are writing, the VIP designs a front cover for a book, using Kidpix. The cover is laminated and the children's writing about the VIP is put into a book.

Congratulations-year 1 is a fantastic year to teach. The students have a giant leap forward in capacity with reading, writing and oral skills (and pretty much everything else too) in year 1. Their capacity to negotiate and problem solve is a lot better too! It is an exciting year to teach (in my opinion!)

Yes your students will have short attention spans, some will behave like excited puppies wriggling and unable to sit still or focus on a long story as yet.

First day I would suggest you go armed with some hands on activities that relate to creating a sense of 'belonging' in the classroom. Resist the temptation to completely set up the classroom before the children arrive. Give them the opportunity to participate in creating the space so they have 'ownership' over the space.

Having said that, be very clear in your own mind what you want to achieve. Keep 'serious' conversations or discussions short and have a back up plan (eg really engaging book, heads down, thumbs up-anything that you can just commence doing if things go pear shaped).

For example a tried and true task is having the kids draw their bodies and you photograph and print a head-shot, then the kids cut them out, stick them together and laminate with support.

You then create a space in your class to put the art so each day the children can see 'who has come to school today'. You can use this for teaching/ reinforcing maths concepts later on (1st, 2nd, 3rd, recall of order, patterning etc).

Create a daily or weekly routine on a visual chart with removable pieces with the kids. Make sure it is personal (not just 'stock standard stick figure' off the net) photos of your classroom, your music room, your tables etc.

Be prepared with songs for the first day-getting to know your name songs and activities (a quick google will bring heaps of songs) eg sitting in a circle on the floor, rolling a ball between children and they have to say the name of the student the ball is going to.

Good luck!

Wow thank you for your advice! It seems I'm in for a busy year, but hopefully I can master the content so am more confident with the age group!

I think I am most definitely going to need a repertoire of songs! ha ha.

I'm going to take a closer look at the C2C content so I can go into pupil free days to practice using the IWB as a resource, as the content seems to be focussed on using it.

Thanks again all!

Lots of getting to know you activities.
Circle time is a great way for you to get to know the students and for them to get to know you. Simply sitting in a circle (either with chairs or just on the floor). Children that don't feel comfortable talking in a big group can just say pass.
- Without talking change places if you have/like......etc
- Around the circle. Finish the sentence. I am scared of.. My favourite place.... If I could have anything as a pet....
- Emotions cards (pictures or words) Pick up a card that represents how you're feeling.
- Spider web - Roll a ball of string to each other, say the name of the child (they should know their classmates but might be helpful for you)and say one thing about their family. You end up with a huge woollen web.

Writing -
I always make a Yellow Pages. I am good at....
Guess who - writing about themselves, cover picture up with a flap of paper. Great book corner book.

Maths -
Counting - on long piece of paper, start at 1 and write as many numbers as possible in set time. Or counting by 2s and 10s. Very interesting to see abilities.
Around the world - quick maths with 2 dice. Or counting games like Buzz.

I teach Year One, and my first day sets up my morning routine that I tend to follow every day for the rest of the year. Strangely, the kids never seem to get bored of it they will nag me if I miss a step!

We come in, say good morning and call the roll. I choose a calendar person to go and cross off the day on the calendar, we discuss what day it is and sing a song about the days of the week. We might also do a months of the year chant.

We read a big book. Being the first day it takes some time to do the text orientation and post-reading discussion.

I have a super sentence on the board that the kids read and this illustrates some blend or digraph or reading strategy that I want to focus on. We might then build a word bank of other words with that blend etc.

We sing the song of the week. (Words on the IWB) Which is then sung every morning of that week.

Being the first day of the year, there needs to be a discussion about class rules to set you up and I would probably do this after introducing myself right after I've called the roll because I'm rather fond of rules! Get the kids to tell you what they think the rules should be so they have ownership. Year Ones need really explicit instructions. Eg, don't tell them to sit quietly, tell them exactly how! I do a lot of modelling of how I expect them to behave eg. show how I would sit on the floor with a good listening body (legs crossed, hands in lap, lips closed, eyes looking and ears listening) The kids think its hysterical when I model what NOT to do!

Amid all this, if they've been sitting for more than 10-15 mins at a time, I get them up for a stretch (wide as a house, small as a mouse, tall as a tree etc) or sing the scarecrow song which gives them a good wriggle or heads, shoulders, knees and toes.

Then as it's first day back from the holidays I would have them write a sentence and draw a picture in their journals re. 'On my holidays I...." and have a sharing circle afterwards to give them a chance to have a chat about what they've been doing for the last six weeks. Before you send them to their desks, model writing a sentence on the board and have them contribute words for a word bank so they've got lots of words to use for their sentence.

With Year One, my golden rules are be explicit and model EVERYTHING. And never assume common sense is a common thing! Some kids in my class actually have to be reminded to pick up their pencil before they start work! Or to use the next available page in their exercise book, not just some random one!


Year One's a great age, I hope you have a lot of fun with them! My students make me laugh every day.

Revise all single sounds. Start introducing blends/digraphs. Go to 2 dollar shops and collect little objects to introduce the sounds (eg sp-ider). Put them in a bag or box.

Child pulls one out and tells...

1. What it is (vocab).
2. One thing about it(general knowledge)
3. Its 1st sound(phonics)
4. Place object under the appropriate label (eg, 'sp')[I would have 3 options]

(I really want them to listen for the sounds in words!)Count up which column has the most objects. If you have a parent helpers, they can do this with a group. Kids of all ages seem to like this activity. We also use poems and songs and 'magic glasses' to find features of the text.

Kids find things such as blends, word repeats (all discussed on this site). Also, they write on a small white board(or paper) they have in their lap.

We divide the board into thirds(draw 2 lines) then a horizontal line across the middle(do this step by step and slowly, showing on your board as you go). Get kids to help each other (eg 1st time, put a dot where you think your line will start). In the squares they write one feature from each poem as we go.

Give instructions simply and slowly.
Teach them to write a sentence (ie A sentence is naming something and telling a little bit more about it. Use cute objects and toys for this too).
"Hands on" activities take lots of time but they set a great foundation.
Good luck!
Vivian
Utilise the resources on this great site!

For any year a good start is to focus on the children that are in the class and to begin to facilitate the sense of belonging that children need to have in order to be successful learners.

Take photos of each child, brainstorm things that they can do. Model simple sentences I can...
Display with photos/self portraits. Make a welcome sign for the class and start to negotiate simple rules for the class.

Year 1 children are in their Early Childhood and still need lots of hands-on materials and resources. Big books, stories and rhymes can always be used as springboards for literacy/numeracy learning. Enjoy your Year 1's!