King FooFooHead

I teach very implicitly when it comes to math, reading and handwriting. We have a mantra in our class: Every time you practice a new skill or strategy, you get this much better! (A finger pinch). For handwriting, I teach specifically where to put their pencil and I use various analogies to help them understand spacing of letters to make words, and spacing of words to make sentences. For math, I teach that pictures can take the math out of almost any problem, and we go over a continuum of strategies, discussing how risky or beneficial each one can be depending on what type of problem we are trying to solve. For reading, we work on letter naming fluency, and my students have laminated practice sheets that they use with a timer to race against themselves with. From there, we build upon that skill with nonsense word fluency (CVC, CVCe, etc) which they also use timers with. We work with sight word bookmarks which utilize the Fry Sight Word List, and I have extended that list to another 300 words to keep my higher flyers challenged until the very last day of school. In my class, we have one word that brings us back into focus: composure. When I say this word aloud to the class, they know to quickly choose their chosen composure pose (kinda like yoga or meditation) and they get complete comtrol of their bodies and hands.