How to Use the Multi-sensory Methods in Teaching the First Grade

Multi-Sensory teaching methods are effective in the first grade.

In first grade, students are learning the fundamentals of subjects such as math, spelling, and science. To keep students engaged, and to encourage them to want to learn more, you can incorporate many activities into the teaching process. Multi-sensory methods consist of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic activities. Visual activities consist of pictures, auditory activities involve listening, and kinesthetic activities consist of hands-on demonstrations and projects. To use multi-sensory methods in the first grade, determine your lesson plan, explain the lesson to the students, have the students repeat the key components, have the students do a project based on what they have learned, and ask the students their opinions about the lesson.

Things You'll Need

• Pen
• Paper
• Chalk
• Poster paper
• Colored pencils
• Scissors
• Pencils

Instructions

1. Determine the objective of your lesson plan. In order to use multi-sensory methods in teaching the first grade, you should keep the methods centered around a certain subject. This will help the students to concentrate. For example, you may be teaching the students new spelling words. The list of words will be the focus of the multi-sensory methods.

2. Explain the lesson to the students using notes and pictures. First grade students can remain focused if they are taught with both pictures and words. For example, when you teach the spelling words, write the words on the board, and then show the students a picture that is associated with the word. When you write the word "apple," show the students a picture of an apple, or when you write the word "orange," show the students a picture of an orange.

3. Have the students repeat the key components of the lesson. Auditory activities are important for memorization and comprehension. Students in first grade like to actively participate in class. Therefore, having them repeat certain words or phrases will help them remember. For example, after you present the word to the students, have them repeat the word out loud. This will also help the students to pronounce the word correctly.

4. Have the students do a project based on what you have taught. The project needs to involve kinesthetic qualities, in which the students use their sense of touch. For example, for the spelling words, you can do an activity similar to your demonstration of the pictures. You can put the pictures on one piece of paper, and the words on another piece of paper. The students can then cut out the pictures and cut out the words. On a separate sheet of paper, the students can glue the correct picture next to the correct word.

5. Ask the students their opinions about the activities. When using multi-sensory teaching methods in the first grade, it is important to determine how the students feel about the lessons, and whether or not the lessons helped them learn. For example, when asking students which part of the spelling lesson they liked best, they may say they liked the hands-on activity. You may then conclude that you will make more hands-on activities for future lesson plans.

References

• Dyslexia-Parent: Using multisensory teaching methods
• Orton-Gillingham: Every Student Benefits from Multi-Sensory Education
• Resource Room: Multisensory Structured Language