1st Grade Common Core and a Free Tool to Improve Your Student’s Writing!

1st Grade common core standards

Hey everyone, I’ve got a freebie for you all to use with your kids, but first let me explain.

If there is one thing I am learning from writing this blog, it is that there is a ton of Common Core State Standards for each and every single grade. None of them are more blatantly, in your face, related to occupational therapy as is CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.1.1.A – “Print all upper- and lowercase letters.” This standard screams occupational therapy to any 1st grade teacher who 1) knows what OT is, and 2) sees a child continuously squishing their letters/words together or forming all lowercase and capital letters the same size with no regard for the base, mid, and top line.

For me, these 2 concerns have got to be up there in the top-5 reasons for a referral, along with sensory worries (more on that in an upcoming blog). While it may be a first grade standard, a referral to OT almost always stems from a child being unable to meet CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.1.1.A. Well today, I Just want to provide you all with a support tool. This is one I keep handy at all times and hand out to special education teachers and general education teachers alike. It’s nothing special, but it helps kids with sizing, spacing, and placing their letters on the line. The best part about it, is that you can make as many copies as you’d like.

I call it Gray-space paper and I recently created several versions that can be used from pre-K up to about 3rd grade if we are talking about typically developing kids. You likely have seen paper that use aspects of this paper, but when I couldn’t find paper that had both aspects of the paper kids seemed to respond to, I create this paper.

So anyways, I want you to have it. Just click anywhere on this paragraph to sign up. Simply leave your info and you will soon receive an email with the Gray-space paper attached.

And if for some reason you do not want the paper for free, but still want it… You can purchase it for $1.99 at teacherpayteachers.com. You may also want to take a look at the Hi-write paper down at the bottom of the page. This is also a commonly used adapted paper.

Thank you again. I hope this resource is able to help at least one of your kids and maybe even an entire 1st grade class.

-Jayson

Hi-Write paper (Picture is a Link to Amazon)