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Do Learning Games For Kindergarten And 1st Grade Really Teach

By Charles Wood


Kindergartners and first graders can be a lot of fun to teach. They are still enthusiastic and open to new ideas. Some of them have gone to daycare and pre-k, so they are somewhat used to other children and a semi-structured environment. Other kids have been at home the first few years and may be less certain of what happens in a classroom. Little first graders usually know what is going on and are less impressionable. Learning games for kindergarten and 1st grade students can be started early on in order to begin the new year on a positive note.

Schools have a specific curriculum and guidelines that teachers must follow. They have advancement goals that have to be met periodically throughout the school year. One of the easiest ways to achieve success is to adapt lessons to the needs and personalities of the children in their care.

New teachers placed in a roomful of five and six year old kids might be surprised at how little time they have to get their attention and how hard it is to keep it. College classes and textbook instructions will not be much help if you are swamped by twenty-five to thirty active, energetic kindergartners or first graders.

Small children are usually very visual. They are easily engaged by pictures and stories in books, cartoons, and puppets. Many of them will already be used to playing on electronic devices, and most of them are very good at it. Students can learn important lessons through visual and other creative play.

As a teacher, you should consider yourself an authority figure to be respected and obeyed. Most young children will want to please you and will respond well if you praise their accomplishments and encourage their participation. Having a respectful and pleasant attitude toward them is critical if you expect cooperation. For whatever reasons, there are some children who find it difficult to interact and tend to sit back and keep quiet. With work, these kids can greatly improve their communication skills.

You will need to games that allow students to move around, because small children just cannot not sit still for extended periods of time. This is a great chance to teach them about the difference between inside voices and behaviors and outside ones. Some may already understand this, but others may not have been taught.

Music and art seem to be among the first areas to fall to budget cuts. You can still introduce music and creative time in your classroom with a game. The link between music and math is well established, and children who are encouraged to participate in the arts tend to excel throughout their academic lives.

Games will help reinforce the idea that learning is fun. The more creative and imaginative you, as their teacher and guide, can be the more they will absorb and retain. Students remember good teachers all of their lives.




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