First Grade Checklist

I made this checklist when my Little Buddy was starting First Grade.  I wanted him to start taking some steps toward independent seatwork.  And who doesn't love crossing things off a checklist?  I certainly do!  So, I figured my Little Buddy would feel good about what he's accomplished each time he crosses off another box.  And he did!  Having his own checklist for his schoolwork, helped him feel "bigger".   :)

I set this form up to go with our ABeka books. And filling it in was as simple as writing the date at the top and filling the page numbers in the boxes.  I would fill it in for him, often with him, so I could show him what was expected for the week.  As I filled it in, I would often write a number in the top corner to indicate how many boxes he would need to cross off each day in order to finish his work by the week's end.  This would sometimes vary, but if we were having just a regular 5-day week, he would need to do 7 each day. 

I gave him the flexibility to choose if he wanted to do one of each subject, or if he wanted to do a couple of just a few subjects.  I thought it was important to let him have a little "say" in his work.  If he's feeling like he's on a roll with his Math and wants to do another page, he can just go ahead a do it.  Or if he sees the next page in his language book is a fun word search, he can choose to do more than one Language page that day.  As long as he met his quota for the day, he could make some choices.  But I did try to guide him a bit.  He was just starting cursive this year, so I encouraged him to do one cursive page each day, so he didn't end up with multiple pages in one day, which could be quite tiring for his little hand!  Reading was another one that I encouraged him to do one of each day.  If he got, behind on reading, it was overwhelming trying get all that reading done in one sit down session with Mom.  But even with my encouragement, he occasionally had to come to learn these things on his own.  But he also learned the perks to working ahead.  If he found a particular day's work to go quite smoothly for him, doing a few extra pages would end up lightening his load at the end of the week.  He even had a few Friday's with only one or two things to do!

It was such an asset to us, that I am using it again with my Curly Girlie.  And I thought I'd share them with you too!  I updated it a bit.  When I used it with my Little Buddy 2 years ago, I would just give him one checklist at time, and he would keep it on top of his book bin.  This year I thought I would make it into a booklet.  I made a title page for it.  Actually I made two title pages - one for my Curly Girlie and one for my Little Squirt - time flies, so I might as well be ready!  I am printing one title page and about 18 copies of the checklist page.  When I cut them apart I will end up with a cover page and 37 checklists.  This will give me a few extras for those flop weeks - you know they happen!  I take mine to a local office store to have it spiral bound.  They can even add a clear plastic cover and a vinyl back page to help keep it looking nice for longer. 

Happy Planning!

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