Math Centers

      The time change really affected my students! This past week was a crazy week with students getting excited about the first snow (even if it was just a sprinkling, it looked like glitter!).
Let's talk math centers now.
      Over the past month I have been incorporating a different set up of math centers. I have 10 baskets each touching on a different aspect of math: number sense, measurement, graphing, adding/subtracting, number order, counting, patterning, sorting, geometry, and anything extra! Each group of students (2-3) visits one math center every day, so they are focusing on 10 different areas over a time of 2 weeks. I like it simply because I am planning new things only every 2 weeks! No requirements of changing it out every day! In the baskets I am working on having a variety of tools for students to use during this time to focus on these aspects of math. With the new state MCLASS testing, I think I'm going to be focusing more on some of those standards in my "extra" basket! :)
      Over the past week (and upcoming week), I have had technology incorporated at 4 out of the 10 math centers! Talk about crazy! It was tricky the first couple of days; making sure that I had everything up and ready to go, but now, it's working a lot smoother and the kids are LOVING them! The 1st 2 weeks that I integrated these math centers during math time, I really struggled with having too many "tricky" centers, where I had to constantly move around the room, helping groups. Now, it's a little more simpler and working more nicely. I'm finding that with kindergarten, the more simpler the center is, the easier it is for them and me! They still are learning, but now I don't have to monitor EACH group EVERY second!
     Another update...I'm in LOVE with using technology in the classroom! Last week I spent hours at school finding more mimioboard activities to use in the classroom! I also searched for more IPAD apps! I'm finding out that looking for these things while watching TV, makes it much more fun!
Feel free to inform me of any specific APPS or computer programs/internet sites that would work awesome in my classroom! :)

Literacy Centers

It's been a few weeks since I have given any updates on here, so here I am!

       We have finished going through all the letters and are starting sight words this coming week. I have been surprised at how well the students are able to write their letters now and their names! What a huge accomplishment for them and I know they have been working hard on that, so it's exciting to see it and to have the students constantly showing me their work! We also have been sharing about ourselves through "All About Me" posters, which has shocked me with how cool all of the students (and me) think this time of sharing is! These kids love hearing about each other!!! 

       The last time I was on here I was talking about my literacy centers and how much fun it is to watch students during this time. I have a total of 7 centers now and I'm adding more in the next couple of weeks. I have a reading center, "big" center (where big poems and charts are), listening center, abc center, word center, computer center, and my soon-to-be guided reading center. I'm in the process of getting things ready for a phonics center, block/word games/puzzles center, sand center, and pocket chart center. I've just finished Debbie Diller's book on literacy centers and that's the format I'm following in my classroom. The more traditional centers have teachers preparing lots of materials and activities for the students, but with my centers, I have more basic things with students being able to choose activities, which is easier and fits ME! With each of my centers, I have created "I Can" posters where the students and I have come up with the things students can do at each center. I will admit, at the beginning of it, I really didn't know how it was going to all fit together and work, but it is! It requires TIME to go through each center and have students practice, and practice, and PRACTICE them! :)

       The Reading Center has students reading books by reading the words, reading the pictures, and retelling the stories. I'm very satisfied with how this center is working because it has students talking about what they are reading and also writing/drawing about what they are reading. Plus, it also is nice to have bean bag chairs and stuffed animals for students to read to! And prepping...I just need to ensure that there is paper, pencils, crayons, and post-it notes there.

       My "Big" Center is neat because students are able to practice pointing to words, reading familiar poems and charts (like ABC chart), and writing/drawing about the poems they are reading. Kids are so creative and come up with the best stories in their writing and drawing! I also have "cool" pointers which makes it more fun with using extra big pointers, chopsticks, pipe cleaners, and popsicle sticks. 

      My Listening Center is becoming more of a challenge just because of the books I have to continually check out from the library! I wish I had my own books, OR even better, IPADS for students to listen to the stories on! I've been having a few students at that center, use my one IPAD and it's worked out great...I just wish I had more! DONATIONS ACCEPTED!! :)

      My ABC Center has been interesting just because it is one of my most diverse centers with all kinds of materials for students to use. I told you that I had banagrams there, but I also have traceable letters in sheet protectors for students to practice writing them, I also have wikki sticks for students to trace out on big ABC flashcards, I had ABC puzzles there, but I'm going to move that to my puzzle center, and I did have blocks and letter outlines, but I'm going to move that to my block center.

       At the Word Center, students are able to move letters around to create words (and match words) on a magnetic board, they can also fill out a chart that has the word listed on it, and they need to make it with letters, and then write it out, and finally they can copy words from our word wall. 

      At the Computer Center, students have been doing a variety of things from working on Sesame Street website, to ABCYA, to listening to books from Tumble books. This, by far, is the students favorite center and I wish that I could provide them with more computers! ;)

      At my "Soon-to-be" Guided Reading center, currently I have been working with groups on Phonics work, such as beginning sounds and rhyming words. We have been manipulating picture cards with this. 

     With the other centers that I will be introducing soon, I'm still tweaking them and trying to figure out how I want to actually present them. I'm not sure if I want to simply add them to my Perfect Number 7 centers, or to create new ones. I feel that if I add them, it would be overload for some students because they would simply have too many things to choose from at each center, which is why I'm leaning towards creating new centers. 

      With my pocket chart center, I'm really excited with having students being able to move around words, letters, and such. 

       My phonics center will be one of the more easier centers since I purchased from Lakeshore some pre-made center material for phonics-type work.

      Now, I have already discussed with several teachers about having a sand center, and I'm really nervous at getting my head chopped off by the custodians if I spill any sand, so that leaves me still debating between having it or not. I have uppercase and lowercase molds and number and shapes molds, so you can see that I really, REALLY want to do this!!! :)

     With my  Word games/Puzzles/Blocks center, I still want to help students develop their motor skills while having it be more literacy-based. I have ABC puzzles, ABC games, and tons of ideas for blocks with literacy. We shall see how this will turn out though...especially with students wanting to use the materials one way, and me, wanting the students to use it a different way!

      I will make sure to keep you updated on how this goes in the next couple of weeks! My next post, I will be talking Math Centers...I'm also reading Debbie Diller's book on that! I'm really not sure how it will all fit in my schedule and how I want it to be done, but I will discuss that next time! 

Just another day

This week completely flew by! I had so much fun with the kindergarteners! They are getting so excited about the different things they are learning and it's making teaching them so much fun! Today we actually had centers running so smoothly! I was able to take a breather and help those that needed it and I didn't have a zillion people coming and asking for help! It was so much fun! I love kindergarten! One of the new things that I did was with the abc center...I had banagrams and the kiddos matched the letter tiles with an abc chart! Wth the listening center I had checked out, from the library, books on cd for students to listen to and read... It's amazing how well these students are listening! I love experiencing everything with them and being there for their learning! This past week we also introduced a new letter every day and I hope this really helps students in learning about different letters and their sounds. We have a lot of work to do this year! It will be fun!

Survival Week

Well I am happy to report that I survived the first week of kindergarten!
It was so much fun to meet all of my kindergarteners in my class and get the year started! It was also really nice to meet the parents during our Open House night! I'm really excited that our class is already on a roll and already working!
This week consisted mainly of repeating various school and classroom procedures over, and over, and over again! I saw a huge improvement over the week and so did many other teachers! By Friday, we were getting so many compliments in the hall on how well we walked!
One of the coolest things I saw this week was how much fun these kids had during our math time! This week I had students each adding a page to a few class books we did. One of the class books we created were how many people were in our family. I had students draw their families and were able to tell me about their families. We used that concept later that day during math time when I asked students to write their name on post-it notes and place on a graph showing how many family members students had in their family. The kids got so excited when we added names because it felt like a competition between the numbers! I was excited that the kids were enjoying this time, doing "math talks" in complete sentences, and understanding all of the "mini-lessons" that came from our time!

I look forward to all of the other fun lessons we have! I also introduced "silly-brations" from teachertipster.com this week and my kindergarteners had a blast with performing them after earning them as a class!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj8f2R-dTAs

Classroom Coloring

Well, this weekend I have been spending quite a few hours in my classroom, but I think I am finally ready to begin the school year with my kiddos! Of course, I will still probably be doing A LOT more decorating and planning throughout the year! I'm hoping that I stay organized and have my room clean, full of colors, and fun! I'm so excited to meet my students and hopefully make them excited about school. I'm praying that I don't have too much crying, but hope instead, that students will be DYING to come to school every day! 
I'll leave you with a few pictures of my classroom...

Goals

As I near my first day with my kindergarteners, I am getting more and more excited about the new year, the new grade level I get to teach, and all of the kindergarten blogs I have found and discovered! I am totally OBSESSED with finding cool new free things on these sites! As a think about this coming year, I have a few goals for myself during the school year. 1. Start a journal of funny/cool things that kids say (one of my coworkers and I last year decided we needed to start this!!!) 2. Have all learning be fun and interesting for students! 3. Get plenty of sleep! 4. Prepare thoroughly for each lesson taught.

I'm sure I will come up with more goals, but those are just a few to start the year. 

Year of Changes

I just got word last week that I am to take on the adventure of being a kindergarten teacher!
What great news! I'm thrilled for the chance to make a difference in the lives of young ones! I am filled with excitement...so much that I went to the teacher's store this weekend, dragging my husband along, to start buying the essentials! I will continue blogging about my experiences during this year and any feedback is welcomed! I recently started reading the book, "Kindergarten through pictures", where a mentor teacher describes and explains her classroom, organization, classroom management, etc. What a fantastic book! I have already learned so much!
During this time, I will also start my Master's of Art in Curriculum and Educational Technology through Ball State. I'm filled with excitement on what's to come this year!
Til next time....

Literacy

       Found some really good reading in the book, Breakthrough in Beginning Reading and Writing, by J. Richard Gentry. Dr. Gentry has a lifetime full of studying/teaching reading education in the classroom and university. He is highly qualified with his 16 years of research and writing in literacy education.  He has published Breaking the Code: The New Scienceof Beginning Reading and Writing and the Science of Spelling.
      Dr. Gentry talks about in his book, Breakthrough in Beginning Reading and Writing, about the process of every aspect of literacy coming together, working harmoniously to create a literate student.
      On page 66, " Writing for reading makes sense because invented spelling is the perfect vehicle for code breaking. Writing puts both meaning and phonics first and helps the child synthesize knowledge enabling her to understand how aspects of reading and writing- such as letter knowledge, sound correspondences, directionality, phonemic awareness, phonics and sleeping, book concepts, and the concept of 'what is a word'- fit together. These are all the dots the child must connect into one grand unified process called reading."

To Correct...or Not to Correct, That is the Question

  
     Over the past week, I have had several discussions with people of various backgrounds over whether we, as teachers, should correct spelling errors when students are writing. From a variety of elementary education classes in college to research done lately, I have been reassured, that as a teacher, I should not always be correcting the spelling of a student.
     Depending on what stage of spelling the student is in, determines how "involved" I am, in their spelling, and in a whole, in their writing. In this particular article,(link included), it informs readers about spelling development, the stages of spelling, and what teachers can do in the classroom to progress them through stages and benefit their individual growth.
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/267
Here is a quote from the article, which supports my standings on correcting spelling errors:
       In teaching students to write, teachers should avoid overemphasis on absolute       correctness, mechanics, and memorization. Early emphasis on mechanical aspects of spelling inhibits developmental growth. When frequent purposeful writing takes precedence, adherence to the rules is secondary. The teacher in no sense abandons expectations for correctness. Rather, correctness is nurtured more effectively through knowledge of the pupils' level of development.

       I understand all of the hype and talk about students today not being able to spell. But can we honestly blame it on their development of spelling and how teachers are approaching it in the classroom of early grades? I think not! I feel that spelling errors are developed from these possibilities: lack of TIME spent in each stage of spelling development (rushed through stages), our "technology aides" (such as spell check), or pure laziness to figure out how words are spelled correctly.

3rd grade Swoop

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/3147954/3rd_grade_swoop

This week for school is B.E.A.R. week...Be Excited About Reading! Today we thought of all of the words that come to mind when we think of reading or what excites us about reading, and created a Wordle! Check it out!

What did I Just Read?

Today I was faced with the problem of comprehension when a few of my students could not answer questions about a book they were currently reading. Lately, we have been so focused on how to help students with phonics and how to help them decode words, that comprehension is often overlooked or placed on the "back burner". It is so hard to have an equal balance between these three, put yet it is so important to have all, to have a well-rounded reader. Therefore, my goal this week is to put a bigger emphasis on comprehension and help my students understand what they read is important to the growth of their reading.

The Importance of a Teacher

With the recent Arizona shootings, my heart aches for the families of the ones that were injured or died from the hand of the young man. Thinking about this young man, makes me wonder if his teachers in school ever had an impact on him, or wonder if they could have tried more to influence him in the right direction.  I often wonder if this kind of thing will happen to my school, if it will happen to my students, and it honestly scares me. As a teacher I feel like I have a responsibility to make a difference in students' lives through their education AND their personal lives. My heart aches for those students who can't focus on schoolwork because they are too focused on issues going on at home, problems they might be having with their families, or negative thoughts that are going on in their head. God has placed me here for a reason; a reason that could be just THAT important that it could change the lives of future Americans and could possibly save millions.