Kindergarten Today

Oh my!!

My class is settling into the daily routine of school, obeying most of our class rules, and figuring out that they have work times and play times. We are getting to know each other better through morning meetings and our “question of the day”. Yesterday one of them finally asked the BIG question:

“How old are you Mrs. Maurer?”

“62.”

Big, BIG eyes all around.

“Wow! That’s a big number!”

Yes, it certainly is. LOL 

Painting

Planning Ahead

I have finished giving our first test to determine how much my students know. It’s a simple test of what they should have learned after a year in pre-school:  some personal information, the order of the alphabet, the names and sounds of the letters, rote counting to 20, numbers 1-10 by sight, color recognition. The test is given at my desk, one student at a time, so it also gives me a chance to really pay attention to speech patterns and ask a few other individual questions that might give me an insight into abilities. I don’t expect perfection, just a starting point for lesson planning.

The results for my current class are pretty typical. About half of them know 50% of the information. Three know 90%.  Five know less than 25% of the information.

Of course the first bump in the road is always the number of children who have not been to preschool at all. Even with all of the programs out there, I usually get at least one student who has never been to school. Most have very legitimate reasons for staying at home, and while I understand and agree with parent choice, it usually means their child will start school with some disadvantage: academic, social, or basic skills (color, cut, glue) that will require extra time and effort for both of us. Imagine having twelve students cutting out a teddy bear while you are teaching three students how to hold their scissors correctly.

My usual plan is “teach to the middle, challenge the top, and support the bottom”. Sounds easy enough on paper, but it is very difficult to actually do each day, each week, and each month for a whole school year. For most lessons it means some individualized instruction, individual work, and constant monitoring. And each day I try to incorporate one group lesson that requires everyone to work step-by-step as I give instructions, so they will learn to listen and follow along. It also teaches them a logical sequence for tasks and gives me a chance to observe everyone and work on pacing and fine-tuning my instructions. Yesterday we cut out five illustrations representing the senses and then pasted them beside illustrations of things that match: nose/skunk, mouth/food, etc. For some it was a simple task and for some it was a frustrating struggle.  This is the reality of education. You can have a set of expectations and a list of state requirements and a plan for achieving them, but if you don’t adapt to the individual needs of each student you are just going through the motions of teaching.

 

All About Me!

That’s our theme this week and I’m learning lots of information about my new students:

“I have five brothers and a sister.”

“I have a dog and he’s black.”

“My house is red and it has bricks.”

I’m going to have a baby sister by Christmas.”

“I don’t like cheese.”

“I can tie my shoes.”

“I love pizza.”

“Elephants are my favorite animal.”

You know that last one and I are going to get along just fine! He even told me that elephants are the real “king of the jungle”. However, after seeing the four elephant statues on my desk my smart little boy asked, “How many elephants do you have?” When I replied “112”, he told me that’s “way too many!” LOL

One of the skills we stress in kindergarten is public speaking. I know that sounds strange at this age when most of them have to be reminded at least ten times a day to “be quiet”. But this is also an age of shyness for many students, especially if they have to answer a question in front of their peers. So we incorporate lots of fun activities into our day that teach and encourage a relaxed “question/response” procedure.

Every other day I ask a circle question, such as “How many brothers do you have?” The response must be a complete sentence- “I have four brothers.” and I often follow it with another, such as “How old are they?” or “Can you tell me their names?” etc.

On alternate days the students answer a question on our “Question of the Day” chart by listening to the question and then placing a little name card under the column that matches their answer. Some of the questions we have answered so far are, “What is your favorite color?”, “Can you tie your shoes?”, and “What is your favorite color of popsicle?” This chart and the questions and responses are a kit I bought several years ago. There are yes/no questions, color and number questions, and questions relating to family and activities. When everyone has answered the question we graph the results and talk about them. This is a great way to let children know that they are not alone in their preferences.

During reading circle I pass out photo cards.  This month we are using them to discuss sentence structure. I start by saying a word, such as “dog” and ask them what that word “tells” them. Not much. We discuss what we know about dogs, but I stress what the word does not tell them- size, color, shape, hair, name, etc. Then we look at my photo card of a dog and I tell them about my photo. “My dog is brown. My dog is big. My dog can run.” I write those sentences on the board and we talk about the difference between what the word told us, the sentences told us, and what else we might infer from the photo and our knowledge of dogs. Then I let them tell me a sentence about their photo. As we progress each week I will control their sentences by asking them to include the color or size of their animal/object, tell me what it can do, tell me what they can do with it, or tell me where they might find it, etc. By spring they will be able to use a photo card and write three sentences about it!

Of course the best thing about all of these questions and answers is that it gives me the opportunity to begin to learn more about my students, their families, and their personalities. One little girl told me yesterday that her best friend is her cousin, and I shared with her that mine is too! This helps her relate to me in a different context other than just “teacher”. I find that as we get to know each other better everything we do is a little more fun! 

Testing

I will be testing my students this week so I can determine how much they know and where we need to begin on our journey toward first grade! 

 

First Progress Report

Weekly Progress Report

Name ______________________________________________   Date____________

O= Outstanding  S=Satisfactory  N=Needs More Effort

Classroom/School Behavior		Work Habits
Listens respectfully to teacher during circle times, lessons, etc.		Cooperates with others during table work and does not distract others from working.
Listens respectfully when classmates are speaking during circle time.		Cleans up after projects and center time.
Follows playground rules and plays cooperatively with others.		Follows directions and completes tasks without asking excessive questions.
Follows rules in halls and restroom.		Stays “on task” and completes work within a reasonable time.
Behaves politely during meals and does not disturb others.		Controls talking and excess noises (humming, whistling, growling).
Listens to teacher during rotation class (music, art, library).		Works independently and does not copy the work of others.
Keeps hands to self and uses polite speech.		Does his/her best work. Uses good handwriting and colors carefully.

 

Follow, follow, follow directions...

That’s part of a little song we sing at morning circle. And it is also one of the major problems I encounter with new students each year. Following directions is a key component of education, from now through college, yet adults don’t often give the skill enough serious consideration. Perhaps because we want our children to be independent and creative, we don’t always stress following directions and paying attention to how things are supposed to be done. I believe that is a mistake and I spend a great deal of time in kindergarten making sure students follow directions correctly.

Following directions involves four steps:

1. Listening- This is the stage where most students fail. They may be accustomed to constant noise (television), may not be required to listen to their parents, or they may not yet understand that they will be expected to perform a task.  It takes some students months to grasp the true meaning of “look, listen, learn”.
2. Processing- I have found over the last ten years that children are being given less and less time to actually process information and think before an adult or an electronic device steps in and explains something or does something for them. Waiting for a child to process information and make a decision might take a little time, but it is well worth the effort if it results in skill and confidence.
3. Understanding- It is important with young children that you use consistent vocabulary when giving directions, and that you follow a repetitive process for the basics of any task. You can’t rattle off confusing terms or ask them to do something new in the middle of a lesson. It is also important to give instructions both verbally and visually. Children process information in different ways. I have difficulty just listening to instructions and have much more success if I can see an example. For this reason I always demonstrate as much as possible and provide finished examples of projects. (I don’t color or paint my art or craft pieces because I do not want students to copy my color choices.) We use a process in our class- Color/Cut/Glue- and it is posted on our board as a reminder. I also ask children to repeat directions back to me to check for understanding.
4. Applying- Children need to complete tasks in order to develop skills and confidence. I can’t tell you how many times I have witnessed parents telling children how to do the simplest things, such as opening a milk carton, yet they continue to do it for them for months and months. Children have to fail and practice and fail and practice. We can’t be afraid of the “fail” part. It is just a fact of life that we aren’t born with every skill we require, nor are we born with the same level of skill as everyone else. I never could play sports well- I lacked speed, coordination, and competiveness. But I still played, because it was required of everyone in school. I applied what I was taught and did the best I could.

Teaching our young children to follow directions gives them a solid foundation for the assignments and tests that are ahead of them in higher grades. And it doesn’t negate their individual talents or strengths. They still have numerous opportunities for independence and creativity. 

 

No School Today...

So sad to report that I am still at home this morning, due to storm damages last night in the community where I teach. There are trees down, power outages, property damage, and some injuries. Waiting for updates now that it is light. I will post more when I know more. 

 

Kindergarten, 1948

A dear friend was kind enough to think of me recently when the library was discarding some older books and she spied “Education in the Kindergarten” by Josephine C. Foster and Neith E. Headley, published in 1948. I have been enjoying it so much this week! There are several passages that I plan to share during the year, but this one just has to be the first:

Motion-Picture Projectors

“The motion-picture projector is seldom the property of a kindergarten. The machine is usually owned either by the school or by the school system. Motion pictures provide wonderful educational opportunities for older children, but so far as kindergarten children are concerned, they are often confusing and confounding. The action, in most cases, moves so quickly before the eyes and so much takes place in a short period of time, that the five-year-old often gets a very distorted idea of what is really happening in the film. If the five-year-olds as a group are to see moving pictures, it would be well to limit the experience to very brief showing which can be run through more than a single time. It is not in the interest of five-year-olds to go to a general school auditorium for the viewing of a forty-five to ninety-minute film. There are, of course, some movie films which supply in a simple and direct way desirable information and interesting entertainment for five-year-olds; but most of the materials could better be presented to the kindergarten children through still films. Films cost around $50 to $60 and can be rented for approximately $3.50 per day.”

 

Herding Cats

My son says that teaching kindergarten is like “herding cats”. I’m sure you understand that analogy if you have ever owned one of the strong-willed independent creatures. And I mean the cat. lol

Getting ten to twenty five and six year olds to function as a group is a challenge from the very first day. So… much of yesterday was spent teaching the basics of listening, transitioning from one activity to another, and moving down the hall. I only attempted the basics of our daily schedule and will add a bit to it each day until we are completely on track by the third week. You can’t just “teach math” until you have gone over the basic procedures of using mats and manipulatives and paper and pencils. You can’t just “go to the library” without discussing a dozen factors involved in moving from one building to the next. Group dynamics are so very different from the one-to-one interaction of parent to child that most of these children have enjoyed during the summer!

The next few weeks will be difficult for some students. However, thanks to experience I know that my little herd will be a cooperative community of learners within a very short time. They will be able to recite our schedule and procedures and rules and most of them will follow them. They will work together and learn together and even walk down the hall together without too many behavior problems. If you think about it that is one of the most basic applications of education to the real world.  Most of us must function within a group of some sort. Most of us must follow a schedule and procedures and rules in order to get a paycheck. Most everything I know about life I learned in kindergarten!