Literacy and numeracy build the foundation for most of later school learning. As teachers of std. 1 and 2 we often feel challenged by the digital mode of teaching in the pandemic as we are far away from our learners and are unable to extend our support in practical ways. However, we are happy to see that many parents are actively present with their students and they often lend constructive support to their children in different ways. To make learning more interesting for the students, we the teachers of std 1 and std 2, tried to design some hands-on activities in the month of July 2021 to engage our young learners in more practical ways. A round of discussion with colleagues helped us to decide on a bunch of activities. It was especially heartening to see how parents supported their children and made our attempt a success. Their constant help & support helped in making the class activity fun and more importantly, they ensured meaningful learning.
Flashcards made by std. 1 students
Brazillia and Trupti teacher helped students who had just transitioned from preschool to std. 1 by revising and recapping letters of the alphabet. Since this is an important foundation of all consequent learning, they wanted to give students practice in different ways. Letters A-Z were practised and teachers encouraged students to make letter flashcards, after which they were encouraged to make word families.
Word family flash cards made by std.1
In maths, counting was reinforced using concrete objects. Students counted numbers 1-10 making dough balls, arranged them sequentially and revised the digits. Additionally, this also helped them develop their fine motor skills which are very important as they begin to write.
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Flashcards made by std. 2 students
To make learning more meaningful, fun and relevant for different kinds of learners, we asked the students to make a number grid from 1 to 100. Number grids are a wonderful, low cost resource to develop and strengthen numeracy skills in students. Using number grids allows students to become more proficient with a range of mathematical concepts like number sequence, number patterns, addition, multiplication and even factorisation in later classes.
The objective for our activity was to help learners to scan through the number grid for different mathematical concepts (before, after numbers, addition etc.) which in turn also develops other skills like listening and observing.
Flashcards made by std. 2
Similar to std.1, we asked students to make flashcards of words of a family and illustrate it as they like. Practising words in this way improves their vocabulary, enhances their decoding skills and also alerts them to patterns between words and strengthens letter-sound association (phonics). Our hope is that such activities not only bring in more fun to virtual learning but will also help students build their word recognition skills.
Written by
Anjana M Solanki
Std. 2 Teacher