Rhombus.
Mar 23
The other day, we were reviewing shapes. For some reason, most of the shape names aren’t too tricky. Circle – well we all know that. Square and Triangle too. Rectangle can be challenging, but a little explanation of the two short and two long sides usually does the trick. It’s the darn Rhombus that gets us every time. Back when I was a kid, we just called it a...
100th Day!
Feb 11
Well, it really doesn’t get much better than the 100th day in kindergarten. It’s kind of like Christmas, Valentine’s Day (coming Thursday!), and the Fourth of July wrapped into one. Well, it is in my class anyway. I used an entire bottle of glitter to make this for the doorway: We sang our hearts out. We sang the 100th Day song by Jack Hartman and while we didn’t...
Ten in the bed.
Dec 02
This week, I was fortunate enough to have a visit from the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Coordinator for my district. She is leading a book group I’m partaking in on the book Number Talks and volunteered to come in and demonstrate with my class. It’s always eye opening for me to sit with my class as opposed to in front of them. If you can get someone else to...
Hidden treasure.
Nov 03
As any of you know who have taken over a room from someone else, there is often hidden treasure lurking around every corner. The room I took over at my new school was from a teacher moving schools and changing grades. She took most of her belongings, but left quite a bit too. I tried to go through it and get rid of whatever I didn’t think I would use, but more often than not, I kept...
Buddies.
Oct 28
A few weeks ago, I attended an afternoon of professional development with some teachers from my school. It was lead by our amazing literacy leader and all about flexible grouping. Like most, I thought flexible grouping was all about putting the low kids in a group, the high kids in a group, etc. Boy, was I wrong. After learning some amazingly varied ways to group kids I decided to try one...
Teaching in the Digital Age Blog Party!
May 31
This summer (well, starting next week) I’ll be participating in another wonderful book study blog party. This year’s book looks very interesting and thought provoking. We’ll be reading and discussing Teaching in the Digital Age by Brian Puerling. As someone who tries to integrate technology into my classroom whenever possible, my interest is definitely piqued. Here’s...
20.
May 19
Yesterday we took our field trip to the beach. Wow – as if on cue, after a cool and rainy week, the sun came out and warmed us to the point of leaving our jackets and sweatshirts in our backbacks. On the bus ride I sat with Billy. Never one to shy away from difficult questions, he looked up at me, smiled and asked, “How old are you?” “How old do you think I am?”...
Octopus!
Apr 30
Oh shapes. We’ve been really trying to master our shape identification, especially the harder ones – Rhombus, Trapezoid, and Hexagon. Most kids get the good old Circle, Triangle, Square, Oval, and Rectangle, but the other three are just plain hard. In order to meet the end of year benchmark for shape identification, they need at least two out of those three. Ugh. So,...
Common Sense.
Apr 01
For anyone working in a public school, you’ve most likely at least heard of the Common Core by now. A national list of ‘standards’ for K-12 education the Core is defined as follows: The Common Core State Standards provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. The standards are...
Cups.
Mar 10
As we head into the Spring, our assessments are showing a few sprouts really struggling with number identification (especially teen numbers) and certain sight words. After vacation, Mrs. D. came in with a new game – one I’d never seen used in kindergarten, cup stacking. Now I’ve seen cups stacked as a game, but this was a little different. Each cup has a number or sight word...
