Have you been looking for some tips and tricks for first grade distance learning? As the coronavirus continues to spread students all over the world are forced to continue their learning process at home. As a result, teachers and parents are left scrambling on how to continue their first grader’s education in an isolated environment.
At this time, no one knows how long this isolation period will be. Don’t panic! Take a moment and see if any of these tips & tricks for first grade distance learning may help you in this journey.
Tip One 1: Don’t Panic!
I know it has already been said, but please don’t panic! It is different time for everyone, teacher, parents and students. Take a minute to just breathe and then just take one step and one day at a time.
Tip 2: Organize a Study Space
There is no right or wrong place to study. What works best for you and your child or students. Whether it is the kitchen or dining room table, an office table or desk, or little nook in your home just pick the study place and set it up for learning.
You may also want to consider a few places in your home to use as study areas. Most kids in first grade do not stay in one place in the classroom, so you may have a main area where paper-pencil activities occur, a computer or iPad area, and a reading area.
Tip 3: Establish Routines and Structure
It is important to establish a routine for your children or students, so they know the expectations up front. Discuss how this new way of learning will look and get their insight on what they might like to see happen.
Just as they have in school, it is important to sit down and write out a daily schedule. This may change day to day, but to have a blueprint of how a day may look can be calming for some children and may relieve some of your stress.
Check out the possible schedule below and see if it may work for you and your children or students.
Tip 4: Set Goals
This goal setting can be done daily or weekly. Plan out what you want to accomplish daily or weekly and set goals for each area of study. This is also a good opportunity to get your children or students involved in their own learning. What do they want to learn and how can we get there?
Your goals may be very simple, for example learning my addition math facts to 20. Or the goals can be a little more complex and be themed based goals, for example learning about the life cycle of a butterfly and being able to integrate other academic areas into this theme.
However, you set up your goals, write them down and decide how you can achieve them with your children or students that day or that week.
Tip 5: Prepare Materials
This may be the tricky part, especially for parents, what do you use for your first grader? I know some schools have been allowed to send home packets or are doing distance learning with their students set up through their school districts.
Unfortunately, this is not the case for many students. Some districts have not been allowed to send home anything due to equitability issues, so parents have been left to prepare materials for their children on their own.
Hopefully some of the suggestions I put on the chart above will help as a guide, but I thought it may be helpful to give you some more in depth ideas of literacy and math materials you can use for the time being.
Reading
Oral & Independent Reading
- home library books: practice reading favorite books
- books from school: practice books that have been sent home
- online books: many websites have leveled books that can be downloaded and sites that have video Read Aloud
Reading Comprehension
- retell story
- recall the story parts: characters, setting, problem, ending
- ask specific questions: who, what, where, when, how
- use graphic organizers to retell story
- write a summary of story
- comprehension assessment worksheets
Phonics, Decoding & Spelling
- decoding unfamiliar words
- rhyming and spelling word families
- phonics sound packets
- decoding worksheets
- online reading sites
Reading Fluency
- sight word flashcards
- practice sheets for sight words
- games
- Roll It! Read It! Words & Sentences
Handwriting & Writing
Handwriting
- practice sheets
- tracing letters & sentences
- practice writing on lined paper
- write words & sentences
Writing
- daily journal
- writing letters to family & friends
- D.E.W (Drop Everything and Write) Topic or Themed Writing: School, My Friends, My Family, I Would Like to Visit, My Teacher, Spring, Bugs, Butterflies, Baseball, Easter
Mathematics
Calendar
- monthly calendar
- weather report
- math skills review
- date in money
- story problem of the day
Math Facts Practice
- flash cards
- math facts games
- Roll It! Read It! Say the Sum or Difference!
- online math sites
Math Skills Practice
- specific skills practice: addition & subtraction; tens & ones; greater than, less than or equal to; missing numbers: ten more, ten less, one more, one less; ten frames
- word problems
- online math sites
Tip 6: Use Literacy or Thematic Units
You may want to prepare your distance learning around specific literature or with a theme. Your children or students may have a specific interest that they would like to learn about.
Develop your distance learning lessons around this theme and prepare a variety of cross-curricular activities that your first grader can do around this topic. It is much easier to pull in the academic areas of science and social studies when a theme is chosen.
Here are some suggested themes:
- spring
- butterflies
- bugs
- Earth Day
- flowers
- baseball
- soccer
- camping
Grab Your Free, Camping Build a Word Game Here!
Tip 7: Use Online Resources
This I cannot stress enough! There are so many materials already developed and out there for you to use. Many of these resources are free for the taking and some are very minimally priced. Here are just a few for you to look at.
Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT)
- free resources for every age and subject
- paid resources for every age and subject
- themed materials and ideas
- literature based materials
- ideas for every age and subject are
- themed materials and ideas
- literature lists
- academic materials for every age and subject areas
Computer & iPad Learning Sites
- ABC YA: abcya.com
- Fun Brain: funbrain.com
- Star Fall: starfall.com
- PBS Kids: pbs.org
- Storyline Online: storylineonline.net
- Into the Book: readin.ecb.org
- National Geographic for Kids: kids.nationalgeographic.com
Tip 8: Build in Brain Breaks, Art & Play
Just as if your child was in school, your child needs to have frequent breaks throughout the day. These can be in the form of play time inside or outside, computer or iPad time, arts and crafts or just a little free time that he or she can decide on what to do. Breaks are an important part of the day so your child can then focus on the learning activities.
Hopefully, some of these tips and tricks will help you in your first grade distance learning journey. Remember this will not last forever, take the time to enjoy what is going on in the moment. Stay healthy and safe!
Grab some free Spring Math Games Here!
Find some more reading activities and assessments in my store, The Teaching Scene by Maureen.
To read more first grade topics check out my blog, “Five Ways to Develop First Grade Reading Comprehension”
