This school year I decided to take a different approach to reviewing letters during the first weeks of school. Each year I work on letter recognition, sounds association, formations and a list of words with the same beginning sounds. The kids never seem too engaged but it's important to review since a good percentage with my school demographics come into first with limited exposure and a big summer slide from kindergarten.
This year I reviewed the letters and formations then sent the kids to their team to work on five letters at a time. For each day of the week, the kids would work on the same five letters; however, I rotated the stem bin in which they built the word. They worked at their own speed and found additional ways to challenge theirselves, often trying to build the lowercase letter.
This independent exploration allowed for me to pull for beginning of the year assessments so that I could begin to place the kids in appropriate SIPPS and reading groups. Now we are moving and grooving with 1st grade content.
Here's a glimpse at the resources...
And a glimpse at the Alphabet STEM Resources...
The file is created with all 26 letters for each of the five STEM resources. I had the kids attempt to build off the mats but if needed they could use the mats. So you will see both modeled from our class morning practice.
Here's a glimpse at the Number STEM Resources...
Since we were not yet ready for math centers at the start of the year, I set up 20 minutes after our math lesson each day to rotate the Number Stem Bins to each team. Just like the alphabet, we worked on five numbers each week, rotating the same five letters with a different STEM resource each day of the week.
If you're interested in either of the files, click the cover graphics below...
