Hello friends! I can't believe the first nine weeks is already over! It seems like I was trying to stay updated and suddenly it is now the end of October! I wanted to share with you some beginning of the year activities that might be helpful for intervention or supplement.
The beginning of the year can be difficult for teachers as we lesson plan. For me, I like to lesson plan with my students and their abilities in mind, but obviously that is hard when you don't know your students. This year we are starting off with a quick alphabet letter review. Wedid two letters a day, focusing on letter identification and some beginning sound work.
My favorite thing to use to work on beginning letter skills are these two books I bought a few years ago from The Mailbox Publishing Company. I love the simple black and white pictures because they are clear and easy to figure out what the object is. They are also very up-to-date with the words they use, using items that the children of the 2000s know, i.e. no records or record players on the R booklet or activities. (Not that I am against record players. It just makes practicing letter sounds difficult by having to stop and explain what a record is. Better to save that for a music appreciation lesson! :-) ) Anyway, here are some samples from the books below:
As you can see the pictures are clear and the activities provide great practice with letters and following directions. The D page on the right shows me that this student can identify capital D, but may struggle with auditory directions since they were supposed to draw a line instead of circling the letter. This student wasn't the only one to do that, so we have worked on quite a few activities where we follow directions when they are given out loud. It is fun to make the ABC booklets because at the end, the kiddos will each have a whole alphabet set!
The D and F page are from the Big Book of Beginning Sounds. The activities provide great practice with identifying beginning sounds as well as increasing vocabulary of the students. The students not only love the accomplished feeling with the cut and paste, but they love coloring the pictures. As we build our word wall throughout the year, I am very impressed as they suggest words to add that come from these activities.
Both things provide such good practice with fine motor skills using coloring, cutting, and pasting, I can't imagine starting off the year any other way! It sets a great foundation as we move into reusable items such as puzzles, games, and flash cards.
My favorite thing to use to work on beginning letter skills are these two books I bought a few years ago from The Mailbox Publishing Company. I love the simple black and white pictures because they are clear and easy to figure out what the object is. They are also very up-to-date with the words they use, using items that the children of the 2000s know, i.e. no records or record players on the R booklet or activities. (Not that I am against record players. It just makes practicing letter sounds difficult by having to stop and explain what a record is. Better to save that for a music appreciation lesson! :-) ) Anyway, here are some samples from the books below:
As you can see the pictures are clear and the activities provide great practice with letters and following directions. The D page on the right shows me that this student can identify capital D, but may struggle with auditory directions since they were supposed to draw a line instead of circling the letter. This student wasn't the only one to do that, so we have worked on quite a few activities where we follow directions when they are given out loud. It is fun to make the ABC booklets because at the end, the kiddos will each have a whole alphabet set!
The D and F page are from the Big Book of Beginning Sounds. The activities provide great practice with identifying beginning sounds as well as increasing vocabulary of the students. The students not only love the accomplished feeling with the cut and paste, but they love coloring the pictures. As we build our word wall throughout the year, I am very impressed as they suggest words to add that come from these activities.
Both things provide such good practice with fine motor skills using coloring, cutting, and pasting, I can't imagine starting off the year any other way! It sets a great foundation as we move into reusable items such as puzzles, games, and flash cards.
