first grade Archives - Page 5 of 7

Black Friday Starts TODAY for Pre-K – 3rd Grade TEACHERS

November 24, 2021 teachersbrain education

Starting TODAY until November 29, 2021, you can make plans this winter easier and increase student engagement with these DEEPLY DISCOUNTED Black Friday Resources!
We listened to what you wanted to help you take your weekends back!

SAVE 50% and MORE on these LIMITED TIME Black Friday Special Bundles!

BLACK FRIDAY SPECIALS:

Escape Room Bundle for First Grade
According to our survey, a lot of you have never tried escape rooms in your class. I would love to see that change this year! The students get so excited while learning! I think you will love them if you give them a try. Once you do one, the others follow the same pattern and become easy for you to set up and students to participate. There are 9 escape rooms for in-person teaching in this bundle. All of them can be used in first grade.
Reg $47 ONLY $19.99

Winter Activities Bundle K-3rd Grade
This bundle was the most requested from you. It includes:
Winter Would You Rather
Winter Directed Drawing with Writing
Winter Sports Interactive Notebook
A Melted Snowman Craft and Bulletin Board Set
3 Weeks of Winter Creative Writing with Animation
Holidays Around the World In-Person Escape Room
Winter Snow Literacy Center Activities
PLUS a BONUS! Editable Thank You Cards, Bookmarks, and Writing Paper

Digital Escape Room Bundle K-2nd
If you like digital lessons because of the low prep and no printing, this bundle is great for you!
It includes 10 Digital Escapes created using Google Sites. You don’t have to have Google Classroom, but you will need to make sure your IT has your computer and your student computers cleared for each site. This is easy by practicing on my TEST SITE using the link provided in the description.

ALPHABET Centers Bundle for Pre-K & Kindergarten
Regularly $78 ONLY $19.99
It covers every letter of the alphabet with crafts and worksheets! Over 450 Pages!

Kindergarten Curriculum ALL YEAR, EVERY SUBJECT
(Guided Reading, Math Centers, Writing, Science and Social Studies) You will find lots of bonus material in this bundle.
This price is the lowest its ever been priced.
OVER 3000 PAGES You will never scramble for another resource. This gets updated often too.

Free Activities for Teaching Forms of Energy

October 22, 2021 teachersbrain Science, Teacher's Pay Teachers

Teaching sound, light, and energy is an important part of early elementary education. Energy is all around us! The sun that shines down on us, the food we eat, the lights in our home. Understanding forms of energy is essential knowledge to have to understand the way the world works.

Getting our kindergarten, first, or second grade students to understand this concept can be really fun if done right!

When teaching with younger students, just remember to take it slow to start. This lesson can get a little overwhelming. Explain what energy actually is first, and then introduce examples (sound, heat, light).

After that, you can read some books on the topic of energy. This is a great way to add variety to your lesson and increase comprehension.

Then make it fun with science experiments! This is a great time for some hands-on learning. Think Diet Coke and Mentos eruptions or popsicle stick chain reaction activities. These are a great way to see forms of energy in motion.

For more tips for teaching forms of energy, check out my post here.

One of my favorite ways to do that is to use these free forms of energy activities.

These printable activities are easy and fun for kindergarten or first grade students.

Included in this free resource you’ll get:

HOME CONNECTION – Parent Project
Energy – List the items that produce energy
Heat & Light Energy Mini-book
I Spy SOUND objects
What is energy? POSTER

If you want more, you can check out the full resource here. It covers Sound, Heat, and Light with a 3-week plan including 3 inquiry lessons, data notebook pages, a rubric, a home project, and so much MORE!

These activities are great for helping your early elementary students really understand the topic of energy in a fun and engaging way! They will love learning and it will set them up for success in later grades.

What are your favorite ways to teach about forms of energy? Let me know in the comments!

Engaging Geography Lessons For Kindergarten And First Grade

July 30, 2021 teachersbrain kindergarten survival, Teaching Tips

When you think of teaching kindergarten and first grade students, you often think of letters, numbers, reading, math, etc. Those subjects are extremely important, but it is also beneficial to them to introduce the subject of geography!

Learning about the different countries around the world is so important. To these kiddos, they may not even realize that there is more out there besides what they can see. It’s so fun to teach them about all of the different countries, continents, and people around the world and watch their eyes light up in wonder.

Learning about geography is so vital to students because:

It teaches them about the diversity of locations and cultures in other countries around the world.
It helps them know where they are and what else is there- giving them a sense of location.
It helps them understand the impacts of changes in the environment on land and people.
It helps them understand and appreciate nature.
It helps them understand the world and their place in it.

For kindergarten and first graders, you want to start with the basics to introduce the topic. First, teach them about maps and globes, cardinal directions, landforms, bodies of water, etc. This will help them understand the essentials as you get more detailed in your lessons.

After they understand that, try introducing our country and the states. You can teach students where they are located. Make it extra engaging by teaching about the locations of famous landmarks or attractions. Next, get the students involved by asking them about their favorite vacation destination and then finding it on the map together. Geography can be so fun!

If you are ready to dive into geography with your students, I have THE go-to geography resource for you.

My Geography Resource includes 9 weeks of geography lessons and hands-on activities that are perfect for kindergarten or first grade students. It has everything you need including lesson plans covering positional words, landforms, bodies of water, cardinal directions, maps, globes, personal information, and seasonal weather changes. It has crafts, interactive notebook pages, posters, a “Me On The Map” flip book, and a write the room activity.

Here is a breakdown of the 9 weeks:

Week 1: Positional words to describe locations
Week 2: Identify maps and globes
Week 3: Cardinal directions
Week 4: Identify land and water on a map
Week 5: School and community places
Week 6: Personal information (phone number and address)
Week 7: Landforms
Week 8: Bodies of water
Week 9: Seasonal Weather

Additionally, you will get posters and directional signs for your classroom, a fun Earth hat, photo instructions of how to put materials together.

Check it out here!

For more social studies resources, check out my TpT shop!

Sight Words Made FUN In Elementary

June 25, 2021 teachersbrain kindergarten survival, Reading, Teaching Tips

Learning to read is one of the biggest goals in the early grades. It sets the foundation for their entire education experience! To do this, we start with the basics, letter recognition, letter sounds, blending sounds, etc. Then we move on to a crucial step- sight words!

These words are words that students practice and become so familiar with that they recognize them instantly and don’t need to sound out. This helps them become more comfortable and fluent readers in less time.

But how do we teach students sight words in a way that they will remember?

We practice every day! The more students practice them, the better readers they will become. This can be done by practicing reading them in class, writing them out, creating sight word chants “T-H-E THE” to get stuck in their head, sending home sight word lists for students to go over as homework, and assigning books with sight words in them for students to read.

These are all great ways to practice them on a daily basis. However, if you are looking for something to really take it up a notch, I have you covered. Get students so engaged in learning their sight words that they won’t even realize they are learning because they are having so much fun with my Sight Word Escape Room!

This Mystery Sight Words Escape Room is perfect for kindergarten and first-grade students.

Use these step-by-step instructions to guarantee student engagement while they learn about sight words to solve a classroom mystery. With little prep, your students will work as a team to break into a box, which breaks them out of the classroom as they beat the clock!

Included in this resource you get one PDF file with step-by-step instructions, a link to incorporate a video to hook your students into the mystery, and 3 pre-made clues for your class to solve. The other file is an editable PowerPoint to make it easy for you to add your own team names to personalize the experience and allow the students to take ownership of the lesson. You can also change the mystery letters to create your own sight words, sentences, and riddles.

This escape room is guaranteed to be a hit with your students!

Looking for more fun ways to practice sight words? Check out my post here!

What are your favorite sight word activities? Let me know in the comments!