Hi friends, it’s AUGUST! School is quickly approaching {maybe some of you are already back in school}!
I saw an awesome post from Mary at Sharing Kindergarten about Kindergarten tips and I thought {and asked her permission} I could use it to start a “First Grade Teacher Tips” blog. So here are my 3 tips for a successful first grade classroom!
First graders have the attention span of a gnat {pretty sure I do too…}. This means you only have about 6 minutes to get your point across and MOVE ON. Thankfully, I’m a bit ADD myself, so if things are taking too long, I get bored {sometimes I have to entertain myself}. The rule of thumb is, kids have the attention in minutes as their age {example, if a student is 5 years old, he/she has a 5 minute attention span}.
This does not mean you have to change subjects EVERY 6 minutes. BUT you as the teacher should not be talking solo for over that amount of time. Introduce concepts in small, understandable chunks. Once you’ve hit your time limit, get some practice in with activities or small groups {I know this doesn’t work for EVERY lesson, sometimes you have to plow through ;)}.
I learned from the great Rick Morris {the king of classroom management}, one option is to set a timer, when it goes off, switch your activity.
Small groups are wonderful. Their attention span tends to expand when they are working independently on what THEY want {or at least what they THINK they want to be doing, we teachers are great at making kids think they are choosing ;)}.
Catherine from The Brown Bag Teacher is the queen of small group Daily 5. You should most definitely check her posts out!
Set high-measurable expectations. Your students WILL meet them! If you only expect them to write one sentence, that’s all they will write. How should they act in the classroom, how should they respond when they are upset, what does finished work look like, what does my teacher expect me to do during this time? Push your students, they need you to expect much from them! We all know you believe in your students! Expect much of them, and they will exceed your expectations.
{disclaimer: I know there are some outliers in our first grade classrooms, but some of them will not test your boundaries if you set your expectations early and strong}
This is likely a no-brainer, but entertain, entertain, ENTERTAIN. I am the silliest of silly teachers. Not all first grade teachers are and that is perfectly fine! For me though, sometimes I just have to sing a song, talk in an accent, or dance-because some things I teach are BORING and I just can’t make them exciting. Thankfully Teachers Pay Teachers and Teacher Bloggers have made it a little easier to think of those crazy entertaining ideas. Ya’ll, we are competing with cartoons, iPhones, etc! Step up your game 😉
Here are a couple examples of making everything engaging for FREE {and it doesn’t take much effort either}:
{this is a great pinning image ;)}
Do you have some simple {& easy to implement} tips for teaching first grade? Share in the comments! Need more TIPS? Take some advice from my friends who have also been in the trenches of first grade mayhem. Click their links below to get more tips for teaching first grade.
LMNO pond says
Tip #1 is so important. When I moved from fourth to first last year I told my co-teacher early on that I felt like I just was not at all effective at teaching them math. Once she told me about the 6 minute attention span and gave me tips on how to get them rotating through a math block it made all the difference. 🙂
Learning in Wonderland says
Great tips Jen! I could not agree with you more about the attention span! I was used to end of the year second graders so when I saw my firsties glaze over after just 10 minutes… I panicked a little. It took me a couple of weeks to see how I needed to focus on the important stuff in my lessons and then move.
Lauren Shirk says
Amen to #1!!!!!! #theyreonlysix
The Brown-Bag Teacher says
This is a fabulous post, Jen! I love that my first grade friends love being entertained. I actually just received a cape in the mail today. I can't wait to be it into action. 🙂 Thanks for the shout-out!
Kristen Sullins says
Last year was the first time I had heard about the age=attention span rule. Now I keep that in mind any time I plan a new lesson and it has made things run so much more smoothly! I glad you addressed the misconception that you have to change subjects every six/seven minutes because that's what I thought at first!
Kristen
Where The First Graders Are
Emily Yerty says
I loved reading this post Jen! I kept thinking "Me too!" "Me too!" It sounds like we have really similar teaching styles. You can never be too silly for firsties!
Emily
Polka Dots Please
Elyse Rycroft says
Entertaining is so important! I have a blast making the kids laugh and they really connect with you when you show them you can have fun! Thanks for the fun linky!!
Elyse 🙂
Proud to be Primary
Jessica Preece says
My first read of another first grade teacher's blog (as a new firstie teacher)! 🙂