Preparing for First Grade Academics-Spring and Summer Practice

WEBVTT

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Well hey there, I'm Robin Wilson and welcome

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to the Education Connection where we help parents

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and teachers set young learners up for success.

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If you're a parent, a teacher, or homeschooler

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wondering how to get your child ready for first

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grade, you're in the right place. So last week

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I covered kindergarten academics. So if you want

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to back it up, about a month ago I kind of did

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an overview of all of them and all of the things

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and I just barely touched on some of the things

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that you'll need. But last week I did a deep

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dive into the academics of kindergarten and tonight

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I'm going to do a deep dive into first grade

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academics. Hey this episode though, let's let's

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talk about this for a minute before I get started

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It's extra special to me because it marks 30th

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of my 30th podcast So did you know that most

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podcasts don't make it past 10 episodes and among

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the ones that do only a small percentage reach

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30 episodes and beyond. I'm so grateful for your

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support and for being on this journey with me

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and together we're making an impact on young

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learners everywhere. But before we jump in, I

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also want to remind you that I have worked on

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a Bible curriculum. It has 13 lessons and it's

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available to support your child's faith based

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learning journey. You can find more details in

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this show notes. Right now it is available on

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my teachers pay teachers store and I do share

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that link in the show notes. I am working on

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getting that turned into a book on Amazon. So

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I'm in the process in the kind of learning curve

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of that right now because I have never done that

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before but I do want to make it available for

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as many people as possible. So let's talk about

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something incredibly important getting your child

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academically ready for first grade. I know it

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can feel overwhelming but today I'm gonna guide

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you through the key reading and math skills they

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need and share some simple no prep activities

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you can use right away. So there is a let me

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share a story It was a first the first day of

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first grade and little Emma held tightly to her

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mother's hand at the classroom door now as a

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first grade teacher I've seen this many many

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times She looked around at the bright posters

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the books on the shelves and the other kids chatting

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excitedly When her teacher handed out the first

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activity a simple word game Emma hesitated for

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a moment The letters look similar and she wasn't

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quite sure where to start. But then she took

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a deep breath and remembered the word game she

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had played at home. Slowly she sounded out the

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letters forming a word. A smile spread across

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her face and she realized I can do this. So this

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is because you did the hard work at home in preparing

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your child for the next year and if you're a

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teacher you did the same thing with your students

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in your class and I just want to give a little

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extra activity to do this evening for some of

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the things that you will need to help them know

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for next year. So as a parent or teacher, this

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is the moment we want for every child. They walk

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in, they're a little nervous, they're looking

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around but then they start seeing things that

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they recognize and they start seeing letters

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they recognize and numbers they recognize and

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the friendly faces and they start feeling the

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confidence to take on new challenges and the

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excitement of learning. That's why today we're

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focusing on the academic skills that will help

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your child thrive in first grade. So if you are

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a homeschool mom and you want to also help your

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child get ready for the next year's academics

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and you want to make sure that they're staying

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on task for the year coming up for the things

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that we're actually teaching in first grade in

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the public school too. I'm just connecting all

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of those things together. First grade is a big

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transition and without the right skills Children

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can struggle to keep up and you might be wondering

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does my child know enough? How can I help them

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feel confident in reading and math? That's where

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I come in I'm here to make it simple and show

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you how to build these skills in fun and engaging

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ways So we are going to master rate reading readiness

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And reading success comes from five key areas.

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Phonics, phonemic awareness, and that is recognizing

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letter sounds and manipulating the sounds within

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words. Number two, fluency. That's reading smoothly

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and accurately. I know when they're leaving kindergarten

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they may not be reading big books fluently but

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if they can read the CVC words fluently cat dog

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hug those three letter words that are CVC and

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I'll break that down CVC means consonant vowel

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consonant so for example the word dog D is a

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consonant the O is a vowel and the G is a consonant.

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So when we say they can read the CVC words pretty

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well, that is very helpful for going into first

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grade. Comprehension, understanding what's being

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read, and that is including a listening comprehension.

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So if you read to your child and they're able

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to discuss it and hear what you're saying and

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they're able to talk about What they understand

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and what they don't understand That is what the

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comprehension is. So it doesn't they don't have

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to be reading to comprehend So vocabulary expanding

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word knowledge for better understanding So I'm

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gonna go through each one of these and I'm gonna

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break it down into smaller steps and some activities

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that you can do for each of these so for phonics

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and phonemic awareness We're going to play a

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game called try the say it change it game so

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we're going to start with a simple word like

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cat c -a -t so you're going to ask your child

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what if we change the c sound to b what word

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do we have now the answer would be bat. Now you

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can do this as simply as a marker on a paper

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and you can write C -A -T and then ask them what

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if we change that C to a B and then just rewrite

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the word underneath. If you do go to the Dollar

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Tree or something like that you could pick up

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some magnetic letters But if you don't have that

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and you have some three by five index cards You

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can just cut those into like maybe a third and

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just write them write all the alphabet on them

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And you can use those for letters that keeps

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you from having to spend any extra money For

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fluency try echo reading so read a short sentence

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aloud and have your child repeat it Mimicking

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your expression and speed This builds confidence

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and improves reading fluency. So if you're reading

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a book to your child, just have them read a few

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words with you and you read it first and they

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can repeat after. If you have some small readers

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or some simpler books, you can do this with the

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books that they are reading. For comprehension

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you can ask the W questions and so the W questions

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are who what when why and where So after you

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read after you read a book or even just the page

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of a book So I wouldn't You could do this with

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any book. You can do this with chapter books,

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but I'm thinking of the smaller books, the picture

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books that you get from the library. So if you

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read a page together like you're reading to them

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at night, and you just stop after that page and

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ask, who's in the story? What happened there?

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What just took place? This will strengthen understanding

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and improve their memory, their work, their recall.

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something else you can do for vocabulary is you

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can play Word of the Day. So introduce a new

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word and use it in a different sentence throughout

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the day. So ask your child to use it in their

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own sentence to build word knowledge. So you

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could come up with the word lawn because lawn

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you know a lot of times will say go in the front

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yard. but maybe they don't hear it called the

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lawn and so you could make lawn the word of the

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day and then just have them use you make a sentence

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and then have them make up a sentence and then

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try to see how many times you can use that word

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during the day so that's fun all right so now

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we're going to talk about math so we're going

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to switch gears to math readiness And there's

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a lot of things that we need to know in math

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and reading, but just to keep it within our 15

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-20 minute time frame, I'm going to hit on a

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few of the most important in both reading and

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math. So in math, it's very important that we

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build these three foundational skills. So there's,

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like I said, there's lots of things that we learn,

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but here's some three very basic foundational

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skills that will help your child be ready. to

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build on their knowledge going into first grade.

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The first one is number sense. So just getting

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a sense of numbers, recognizing numbers is the

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first thing. So just pointing to letter sorry

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to numbers and being able to recognize a two

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or that's a five. Writing them and being able

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to write them the correct way. I have children

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writing twos over the years that I've taught.

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They'll write a 2 and it looks like a backwards

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5 And they say that's a 2 like they're really

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believing that that is a 2 or they'll put a Z

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as a 2 So just practice those numbers and being

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able to write them. So that's recognizing numbers.

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So if you call it a number They can write it

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It's also fun to have them call out a number

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and you write it so you can play it the other

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way around too have them count forward to ten

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and backward and understanding place values so

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understanding ones and tens so if you have a

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two -digit number knowing that that first digit

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to the right is is their ones place and the next

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digit right to the left if it's a two -digit

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number is your tens place Number two for math

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readiness is addition and subtraction so practice

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simple addition and subtraction within 10 and

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20 So start with 10 once you get that down, then

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you can move on to 20 patterns and sequences

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Identifying and completing patterns to strengthen

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logical thinking so patterns and numbers is a

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real good one counting by twos two four six eight

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ten and then you can do one three five seven

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nine. Also just recognizing that we're counting

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by ones it's one two three four and then know

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how to count that way one two three four but

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knowing that that is counting by ones and if

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we're counting two four six eight knowing that

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that is counting by twos then 5 10 15 20 is by

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fives and then 10 20 30 40 is by tens now let

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me back up a little bit counting by twos is probably

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one of the harder ones so actually if you want

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to I'm gonna back up a little bit on that so

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if you want to do ones counting by ones is the

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most important that they can count to 20 or even

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to a hundred we go to a hundred twenty by the

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end of first grade but just going into first

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grade you could you know stop at 20 or 30 but

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understanding by counting by fives 5 10 15 20

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so a fun thing you can do with that one is get

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the jump ropes out and start counting by fives

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and see how high you can go also with tens 10

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20 30 40 50 and just going on up doing that So

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here's some quick win activities number sense

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counting on Say a number five and see if your

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child can go from there and count on From there

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after you've gotten one through ten down Then

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what if you we just start at five what comes

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after that this reinforces number order and place

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value addition and subtraction Play make ten

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so you can call out a number and have your child

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say the number that makes 10 so the answer would

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be 4 so for making 10 and I call out a 2 they

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will know that they need to call out 8 to finish

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the to make it 10 and I've already gone over

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this one patterns and sequences counting by 2

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so say a number pattern 2 4 6 8 10 you could

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also find the missing number so if I say 2 4

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8, 10, which number did I leave out? So that's

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fun. And you can make it harder by skipping numbers

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or counting backward. So the confidence to thrive

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in first grade by practicing these skills your

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child will gain the confidence they need to succeed

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in first grade. Imagine them walking into the

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classroom excited and ready to learn because

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you've given them the tools they need. And hey,

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listen, if you didn't get all of these things

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by the time they start first grade, even if you

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get part of these things, you are on a good path

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to be ready to go. So this episode has helped

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you. Please take a moment to give me a five star

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review. Your support helps other parents and

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teachers find this podcast and prepare their

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little learners for success. Thanks for listening

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and see you next time!