After more than 30 years of teaching, Pat Barrett Dragan indeed knows everything needed to teach the first year of school. And she can teach you, too, with this step-by-step guide to creating a smoothly functioning, literacy-rich primary classroom.

Dragan has virtually opened her file drawers and rounded up every detail to get you off to a good start with the three Rs and more. Even veteran teachers or teachers changing grade levels will find loads of helpful informationforms, checklists, activities, copyright-free poems, and reproduciblesall forming a substantive resource bible to keep handy for reference. Most important, Dragan highlights the best teaching and learning strategies culled from years of teaching and studying with the experts.

Read Dragan and learn how to:

• Bond with your new class and create a happy and cohesive classroom community.
• Help your children develop organizational skills and self control.
• Inveigle, wangle, and keep children's attention to help them learn.
• Teach them to have confidence they can read--on the first day of school.
• Ensure that they learn to read and write well, whatever your reading program.
• Draw on their innate curiosity to develop their math and problem-solving skills.
• Use children's photos and artwork to help them practice reading and writing.
• Integrate children's literature and the arts into all curriculum areas.
• Work with English language learners and children having little help at home.

As Dragan demonstrates, perhaps the most effective strategy for successful teaching is to infuse the school day with joyful learning throughout that magical first year.

arning strategies culled from years of teaching and studying with the experts.

Dragan highlights the best teaching and learning strategies culled from years of teaching and studying with the experts.

PAT BARRETT DRAGAN has taught first grade in South San Francisco, California, for more than thirty years. She also teaches reading/language arts classes at San Francisco State University and conducts university extension workshops in childrens literature, art, and social studies. In addition to her books with Heinemann, she is the coauthor and illustrator of five published books for children.

Introduction: The Magic of First Grade

Getting Ready to Teach

Designing and Setting Up Your First-Grade Classroom

Celebrating the First Day of School

Managing Your Classroom and Motivating Your Students

Connecting with Families

Helping Children Work on Discipline and Self-Control

Our School Family

The Beginnings of Literacy

Reading IsnOt Just Curriculum, It's a Miracle

Creating and Maintaining Literacy Centers

Teaching Writing

Math Matters

Ya Gotta Have Art!

Making Social Studies, Health, and Science Come Alive Through Literacy and Play

Making Music

Physical Education

Assessing Your Children, Evaluating Yourself

Saying Goodbye

Appendixes, Resources