You're teaching first grade this year. What do you need to know? Margaret Berry Wilson gives you practical information about daily routines, furniture, and much more. She starts with a concise review of first graders' common developmental characteristics and then shows how to adjust your classroom and your teaching to fit these common characteristics. The result: Students can learn, and you can teach, with minimum frustration and maximum ease and joy. In a warm, conversational style punctuated with anecdotes and examples from her own classrooms, Margaret shares practical know-how on topics like this: Arranging a circle, desks, and tables Choosing and storing supplies Scheduling a child-centered day and teaching daily routines Planning special projects and field trips that maximize learning and build community Understanding the special concerns of first graders' parents and finding the best ways to communicate

After more than 30 years of teaching, Pat Barrett Dragan indeed knows everything needed to teach the first year of school. And she can teach you, too, with this step-by-step guide to creating a smoothly functioning, literacy-rich primary classroom. Dragan has virtually opened her file drawers and rounded up every detail to get you off to a good start with the three Rs and more. Even veteran teachers or teachers changing grade levels will find loads of helpful information-forms, checklists, activities, copyright-free poems, and reproducibles-all forming a substantive resource bible to keep handy for reference. Most important, Dragan highlights the best teaching and learning strategies culled from years of teaching and studying with the experts. Read Dragan and learn how to: Bond with your new class and create a happy and cohesive classroom community. Help your children develop organizational skills and self control. Inveigle, wangle, and keep children's attention to help them learn. Teach them to have confidence they can read--on the first day of school. Ensure that they learn to read and write well, whatever your reading program. Draw on their innate curiosity to develop their math and problem-solving skills. Use children's photos and artwork to help them practice reading and writing. Integrate children's literature and the arts into all curriculum areas. Work with English language learners and children having little help at home. As Dragan demonstrates, perhaps the most effective strategy for successful teaching is to infuse the school day with joyful learning throughout that magical first year.

A mentor teacher shares insights, strategies and lessons for teaching reading, writing and math--and laying the foundation for learning success.

Engage your child in active learning with First Grade Essentials. This workbook covers these skills: -vocabulary -consonant and vowel sounds -addition -subtraction -counting money -telling time Packed with fun practice pages, this workbook helps first graders develop skills for success in today’s classroom. Help your child learn how to apply classroom learning to everyday life with First Grade Essentials. This workbook encourages children to have fun while learning key skills in these areas: -basic skills -reading -math Filled with grade-appropriate activities and practice, First Grade Essentials offers opportunities for active learning and supports the skills children need to think critically and communicate effectively. By focusing on important school skills, the Essentials series for prekindergarten to second grades helps build a strong foundation for your child’s success, this year and the next. Each practice page features a “One Step Further” activity to help your child apply the skill to real-world experiences. The books also include fun puzzles and mazes in a bonus “Games and Activities” section. Essentials is a complete resource to help your child develop twenty-first century skills!

In this off-beat book perfect for reading aloud, a Caldecott Honor winner shares the story of a duck who rides a bike with hilarious results. One day down on the farm, Duck got a wild idea. “I bet I could ride a bike,” he thought. He waddled over to where the boy parked his bike, climbed on, and began to ride. At first, he rode slowly and he wobbled a lot, but it was fun! Duck rode past Cow and waved to her. “Hello, Cow!” said Duck. “Moo,” said Cow. But what she thought was, “A duck on a bike? That’s the silliest thing I’ve ever seen!” And so, Duck rides past Sheep, Horse, and all the other barnyard animals. Suddenly, a group of kids ride by on their bikes and run into the farmhouse, leaving the bikes outside. Now ALL the animals can ride bikes, just like Duck! Praise for Duck on a Bike “Shannon serves up a sunny blend of humor and action in this delightful tale of a Duck who spies a red bicycle one day and gets “a wild idea” . . . Add to all this the abundant opportunity for youngsters to chime in with barnyard responses (“M-o-o-o”; “Cluck! Cluck!”), and the result is one swell read-aloud, packed with freewheeling fun.” —Publishers Weekly “Grab your funny bone—Shannon . . . rides again! . . . A “quackerjack” of a terrific escapade.” —Kirkus Reviews

Be your child's best advocate! Children with special needs who succeed in school have one thing in common--their parents are passionate and effective advocates. It's not an easy job, but with The Everything Parent's Guide to Special Education, you will learn how to evaluate, prepare, organize, and get quality services, no matter what your child's disability. This valuable handbook gives you the tools you need to navigate the complex world of special education and services, with information on: Assessment and evaluation Educational needs for different disabilities, including multiple disabilities Current law, including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Working within the school system to create an IEP The importance of keeping detailed records Dealing with parent-school conflict With worksheets, forms, and sample documents and letters, you can be assured that you'll have all you need to help your child thrive--in school and in life!

Just as athletes stretch their muscles before every game and musicians play scales to keep their technique in tune, mathematical thinkers and problem solvers can benefit from daily warm-up exercises. Jessica Shumway has developed a series of routines designed to help young students internalize and deepen their facility with numbers. The daily use of these quick five-, ten-, or fifteen-minute experiences at the beginning of math class will help build students' number sense. Students with strong number sense understand numbers, ways to represent numbers, relationships among numbers, and number systems. They make reasonable estimates, compute fluently, use reasoning strategies (e.g., relate operations, such as addition and subtraction, to each other), and use visual models based on their number sense to solve problems. Students who never develop strong number sense will struggle with nearly all mathematical strands, from measurement and geometry to data and equations. In Number Sense Routines, Jessica shows that number sense can be taught to all students. Dozens of classroom examples -- including conversations among students engaging in number sense routines -- illustrate how the routines work, how children's number sense develops, and how to implement responsive routines. Additionally, teachers will gain a deeper understanding of the underlying math -- the big ideas, skills, and strategies children learn as they develop numerical literacy.