For Teachers

No matter what subject or grade level, children must continuously work at expanding their vocabulary to understand the world around them. With so many words to learn, it’s important to offer exciting new ways to master them. Let’s explore fun, interactive activities to boost your students’ vocabulary that are perfect for a variety of subject areas.

In the previous article, we explored why boys face more struggles in school — from their focus and self-control to managing frustration. But understanding the problem is only the first step.

This follow-up article will dive deeper into the how: how we can support boys’ social-emotional growth so they can have better focus, cooperation, and help them handle their emotions in positive ways. Drawing on research and classroom experience, let’s look at the issues, what could be the reasons, and the strategies we can use at home and in the classroom.

Over the past six years in the classroom, I have watched a familiar scene unfold: girls often excel academically, while boys sometimes fall behind. Year after year, I see girls quietly absorbed in the task given to them, while boys fidget and wrestle with staying on task. Because focus and attention are the cornerstones of learning, their absence can make the journey through school much harder and leave lasting effects.

To understand why boys often fall behind, it is helpful to first look at how their development differs from girls, so we can better support their needs.

When introducing pronouns to first graders, be prepared to deal with some confusion. Students will need to make sense of the different categories of pronouns, and all the words that fall within each group, which could make pronouns looks like a big intimidating topic. However, often little learners get to love pronouns realizing that they function almost like a shortcut. Instead of repeating someone’s name over and over, one can just use a small word called a pronoun!

In this article we review the theory on each type of pronouns relevant for Grade 1 and offer some free interactive learning resources for your students to practice this topic.

If you’ve ever read a social media post in which a user leaves out punctuation, then you know exactly how frustrating it is to make sense out of the words on the screen. That’s because punctuation is at the very core of effective written communication. Without it, readers often struggle to make sense of the writer’s words and intentions. Punctuation allows sentences to form complete thoughts and signal whether the writer is making a statement, asking a question, or conveying emotion.

Because it’s so vital to clear communication, children begin learning about the simplest forms of punctuation as they learn to write sentences and questions. In general, first graders typically begin by learning how to use end punctuation.

Capitalization is an important concept to teach because it helps readers understand where sentences begin, and to distinguish proper pronouns, titles, and dates. Later, when children grow into more sophisticated writers, they will be expected to adhere to writing conventions, such as capitalization, when writing essays and in professional contexts.

It may seem tricky to figure out where to start when it comes to teaching your little learner to use proper capitalization. To begin, start with what they already know: names, sentences, and dates.

After mastering common nouns, it’s time to introduce proper nouns. Some proper nouns are tough for first graders to understand because some words can be both a common noun and a proper noun depending on the context in which the word is used.

Let’s explore more about the differences between common and proper nouns, and how to teach kids to properly capitalize proper nouns when they write them.

One of the first grammar rules children must master is the parts of speech. This refers to how words are used in sentences; does the word describe an action, or does it describe a person, place or thing? Parts of speech consist of many different types of words, from verbs to adjectives, and beyond. The simplest first step in teaching parts of speech cover common nouns. These are everyday words that kids use all the time!

In this article, you will learn about the types of common nouns and will find a selection of activities to practice this important topic.

One notoriously difficult concept for first graders to master is possessive nouns. Confusion often stems from learning to use apostrophes in a new way, and the difference between singular and plural forms. Even adults struggle with knowing where to put the apostrophe, and what to do when the word naturally ends in the letter “s”. 

The best way to tackle this tricky skill is to face it head on and practice as much as possible! Keep reading to discover all the resources that Kids Academy offers to help your first grader master possessive nouns.

From my time in the classroom,  I can tell you that math confidence isn’t something that can  just happen overnight. It grows with small moments of success (seen throughout the year), and summer is the ideal time to add in those moments at home. The skills I highlight below are the ones I used to reteach in the first few weeks of 1st grade, so staying sharp on them makes a noticeable difference.