I Teach K Conference

I am so excited I found this on Pinterest.
http://rockinteachermaterials.blogspot.com/2013/04/calling-all-kinder-friends-youre-gonna.html?showComment=1366588566986#c771981976187235554
Rockin Teacher Materials is giving away a voucher to attend the 'I Teach K' conference in Las Vegas this summer!
I have been trying to figure out how to get to this thing since I first heard about it a year ago. The tuition is so expensive for a classroom teacher to pay herself (or himself) and we have ZERO grants that would cover the  cost of tuition. I am even willing to pay for my room and flight myself if I could somehow get the tuition cost paid for!
Here's hoping I win!

Whoooo is Ready for School?!

Apparently I was feeling pretty crafty the other day (and by the other day I mean July 3rd). I tackled several Pinterest ideas and actually remembered to take pictures along the way! Sadly, only one of my crafts had anything to do with my classroom. My mom got this great chalkboard owl cutout for me from Zulily and I wanted to do something special with it.

 If I just stuck it on the wall, I wouldn't be able to take it with me to a new classroom if I have to move rooms later. I thought about putting it on a piece of painted metal so it would also be magnetic, but I didn't feel like waiting around for my husband to cut a piece of metal for me and I couldn't find any cookie sheets large enough.

While roaming the isles of Hobby Lobby I came across their damaged frames section. I love this section. They REALLY discount frames for damage. I mean seriously. Check this out.

That's right. Originally $41.99, I got it for $8.39. First of all 39 cents is an odd amount, I wonder where that came from. Second, what a great deal! I also love how the frame looks like rough wood, reminiscent of a tree. :o)
Did you even see the "damage" to the frame?

I had to zoom in for it to show up. Nothing my trusty Sharpie can't handle! Can you spot the damage now?

I didn't think so. Neither can I, and I am the one who fixed it!

So, now I have a perfectly good HUGE 16X20 frame for $8.39 and a large vinyl chalkboard owl. I knew I had to apply to the owl on the outside of the glass for it to still function as a chalkboard. But, crafty me knew that if I put decorative paper behind the class I could use the glass surface as a dry erase board as well. Double fun!
Here is the owl on the glass.

Chevrons are all the rage right now and I love them. The only chevron paper I could find at Hobby Lobby was black and white, but it will do since my owl is black.
I flipped the piece of glass over so I was working on the back, behind the owl. I taped the paper into place. See the tape? I placed the tape in the areas where the owl covers the front of the glass. That way no one will see my tape from the front.

Time to flip the glass back over to see what it looks like.

Oh! Scary! My owl looks demented! I don't think chevron eyes are a good look for my poor owl. I am pretty sure this would scare my students (and me in the dark).
So, I flipped the glass back over to the back side and cut out the portion of paper covering the owl's face.

Here is what it looks like from the front. Much better!

Time to add the rest of the paper. I flipped the owl over once again and lined up the chevron pattern with the other pieces of scrap booking paper, and popped it into the frame. 

Pretty good, huh? Just needs some chalk.

Now, I just need to hang my owl on the wall in my classroom under my tree!

Occupy Kindergarten

Apparently I am not the first person to think we need to bring the fun back into Kindergarten! This video is great and exactly what I am trying to do in my kindergarten classroom:


This teacher has a website: www.RockAndRollKindergarten.com Check it out. If someone wants to buy me his book, just let me know :o) I will gladly accept donations. Or if a certain teacher out there would like me to do a book review and send me a copy ::cough, cough:: I would love to "help" him out! Now, I am off to find the "Occupy Kindergarten" badge for my blog.

KD5: Chapter 3

1. Establish a gathering place for brain and body breaks. (Do you call your gathering place anything special? A few of my teammates did. Annie called hers the "Family Room" and Kim calls hers the "Learning Space." I need to come up with something better than "the carpet" lol!) 
 I just moved my classroom at the end of the school year, so I do not currently have ANYTHING set up! Unfortunately, I am really boring and call my meeting place "the carpet" which is silly because I don't even have a special carpet designating our meeting area. I hope to find a better idea here!





2. Developing the concept of "good fit" books (There are LOTS of examples of different good fit lessons in blogland AND Pinterest)

I LOVE the book "Goldi Socks and the Three Libearians"by Jackie Mims Hopkins.

Then, following the Sister's advise, I have students model a book that is too difficult, a book that is too easy, and a just right book. 
 
3. Create anchor charts with students How will these be visual in the room? Where will you store them? What about small spaces?


I am VERY limited in wall space. I even have to cover up my chalkboard to display my CAFE menu! (Yes, I still have a chalkboard.) I put our anchor charts on the wall where I can find space and refer to them throughout the year. 
Next year I plan on having students fill out their own personal anchor charts while or after I fill our our large class version. I learned this from KinderGals this summer while blog hopping. Kim showed her lesson for persuasive writing and how she used a large anchor chart for instruction and the students filled out their own mini-version at the same time. I think it would be great to have students collect these in a tabbed folder to keep inside their book bins.
 
4. Short, repeated intervals of independent practice and setting up book boxes (How are you going to keep track of stamina? What will you use for book boxes? What are you going to put in those book boxes on the 1st day of school?)

I plan on posting this outside our classroom next year. 

Courtesy of Teaching With Style, you can get yours here.
I posted last week about how we compete with the first graders down the hall to increase our stamina. Posting our stamina in the hall would really help with this. 

I use these for our book boxes. 

I am on my fourth year with the same boxes. Worth the investment. A few could stand to be replaced from students drop-kicking them across the room or sitting on them (discouraged behaviors, students had consequences ;o).
Before school starts I put a few books in each bin. I select one book with no words (they came with our reading program), two easy readers, and two picture books--something girly for the girls and something boy-ish for the boys. This gets students through until I teach them how to book shop. 
Speaking of book shopping... I really like this idea, from here: 

 
5. Calm Signals and check in procedures (Do you already have a signal? How will you handle check ins?)

I have a little set of windchimes I ring when I want the students to clean up and come back to the carpet. I ring the chimes, then sit down and begin counting backward from 30 to give students time to appropriately clean up any work on words materials and get back to their place. 
I mention some positive behaviors I saw during the last round of Daily 5 and share some excellent work or a wonderful example with students. 
We had Title 1 teachers pushing into our classroom last year during D5, so I felt bad about having a mini-lesson and taking up their time during rounds so I generally just had students pick another choice. 
Next year, I WILL have a mini-lesson, and do a quick brain break before students choose their next choice. I spoke with the other teachers about my guilt of wasting their time and they assured me they don't care. ;o) Teacher guilt, what can you do!
 
6. Using the correct model/incorrect model approach for demonstrating appropriate behaviors. (Will you keep track of inappropriate behaviors? If they are not doing what is expected, then they are calling out for attention...what other ways can you give them some extra attention so that they can be more independent during D5?)
I can't wait to read what everyone else answers for this. I don't keep track of inappropriate behaviors during Daily 5. I mean, unless someone does something extreme like punches another student in the face. Then they obviously get in trouble. 
I model, model, model at the beginning. Then when someone is off track with behavior I call everyone back to the carpet for a new round. I give extra praise to the people exhibiting the desired behaviors. If, after a week or so when everyone else is really showing a growth in stamina, a student is still squirrely, I address their behavior individually. During a round I will sit with that student and give them a clearly defined area to work within. I have used a minute sand timer to have the student work for one minute, play with silly putty for one minute until time is up. When they have that mastered I give the student a one minute timer for using the silly putty and a two minute timer for work. Etc. 

KD5 Chapter 2

Still playing catch up...
Chapter 2 is brought to us today from Kindergarten Smiles:

1. Do you trust your students? How do you build this trust? Are you able to trust them and allow them to be independent throughout all aspects of your day? Are you going to be able to stay out of their way? ;)

 I am going to be honest, this was hard at first. At the beginning of the year, I have to learn to trust them. I do this by teaching the behaviors and expectations over and over again. Once they demonstrate the appropriate behaviors I have no problem trusting them to work independently...during Daily 5. I am not very good at doing this during the rest of the school day. 

This year I am going to implement Daily 5 Math or a version of it. I also want to do Calendar notebooks so students can take control of that aspect of our day as well.

 

2. How much choice do you give your students throughout the day? (would love for you to share some examples!) Do you go over your daily schedule with your students or is it just 'posted' in the room?

 I post the agenda with the students each morning. We set the non-choice items first (specials, lunch, 90-minute reading block, recesses, etc.) then we fill in everything else we need to get done that day. I have an idea of how I want the day to go, but if students would rather go to the computer lab before doing math I don't have a problem with that. 

Students obviously choose what they want to do during Daily 5, they will be able to choose what they want to do during Daily 5 Math, and they help make our agenda. That is about all, I think. :o)

 

3. How are you going to create that sense of community where students will hold each other accountable?

 When beginning Daily 5 students begin to notice when their friends pop up from their choice I ring the chimes and call everyone back together. Some students will groan or begin to chastise the student who got up. I use this as a teachable moment to brainstorm ways we can help our friends gain more stamina. This also leads to a lesson about how our choices affect others. 

Every morning we begin with a morning meeting, I think this helps us create a sense of community, too.

 

4. Student ownership in learning? How do you instill this in every child?

 This is hard. I use a chart for each essential learning for each child. Each student has a "target" paper. I give a pre-test and their score is put on the paper with a sticker. (Center dot is desired goal, middle ring is some mastery, outer ring is mastery only with support, outside of the target is no observation of skill.) I meet with each student to show them what they know regarding the skill and where they need to go. We talk about what we are going to do to get there. This actually takes surprisingly little time and makes a big impact. 

For skills like ABC identification, letter-sound correspondence, and sight word recognition I have a list of all the words/letters and I highlight the word/letter when the child has the specific skill mastered. 

For example: If we are working on letter-sound correspondence, and the child consistently tells me "B" says /b/ I will highlight b. 

The students know the goal is to have all of them highlighted and they like to compete with themselves to get more letters or words highlighted each time we meet.

 

5. Stamina! How are you going to build stamina with reading? independent work? Will you use a timer? Will you set goals? ...

 I do not use a timer. I look at the clock on our wall to keep track of our stamina. We write it down and try to beat our time next round. Next year, I want to use a visual tracker in the hallway to show off our stamina to the rest of the school. 

Something that really helped build stamina in my students was to compete against the first grade classes' stamina. The first graders were only able to last a few minutes at the beginning of the year. Kindergarten students are generally so timid at the beginning they have more stamina purely because they don't know anyone else to talk to! 

Having longer stamina than the big kids really helps motivate them to work hard.

 

Kindergarten Daily 5 Book Study

I am a little late in linking up, but that's okay! Better late than never!

I am going to go ahead and just copy and paste the instructions from Live, Love, Laugh Everyday in Kindergarten 
I hope that's okay, if not please let me know, and I will remove them.

For Chapter 1 I should have linked up to this and then post my answers. But I am a little late, so I am just going to post my answers and add my linkey. :o)
Since I have already taught using Daily 5 in kindergarten for 2 years I think I have a little bit of a different perspective on how it works in kindergarten compared to using other methods.

1. How do I teach new behaviors? 

At our school we use the Boy's Town Education Model for behavior expectations. I use explicit instruction to teach new behaviors, such as "how to get the teacher's attention." I use the same words to describe the procedure each time. "You raise your hand, remain calm, and wait for the teacher to call your name." The same words are used throughout the entire school. It is amazing how well it works.

Other than that, I think everyone in kindergarten does it the same. Over, and over, and over again. Until you find yourself correcting people in the grocery store on your way home from work. Just kidding. :o)

2. How do I teach expectations?

Modeling. This goes right along with behaviors in my book. 

3. How do I monitor student behavior? whole group? small groups? individual?

I used a card system for individual behavior throughout the day. Every day I send home a parent-communication sheet letting parents know how their child did during the day. 

During Daily 5, when I see a student getting off track I call the entire group back together. If I am working with a small group or an individual, I finish as quickly as possible then call the group back together for a brain break before we begin the next round of Daily 5.

4. What do I do when a student is not exhibiting desired behavior?

If just one student is having difficulty I work with that student to correct the behavior. We do a lot of modeling and practicing. At the beginning of the year we work on our stamina. If one or two students are still struggling I will work with them on their stamina individually.

5. Whose classroom is it?

The students'.

6. Locus of control?

I have goal sheets for each student so he or she can monitor his or her own academic progress. This really helps place the control within each student instead of with me. Students WANT to do well and want to take ownership over what they can achieve.

7. Where are supplies stored?

 As I introduce how to use the supplies, they are ALL out for students to use all the time (scissors, crayons, staples, tape, etc.) I only put enough for the class to use out at one time, so if I have 75 glue sticks I will only put 23 out at a time. As one is used, I replace it with the backup supplies. They LOVE getting refreshed supplies throughout the year.

 

Ch-ch-ch-CHANGES!!!

Sooooo, it is pretty difficult starting a blog about my classroom in the summer...when my classroom is shut down. Hmmm. Clearly, I didn't think that one through.
However, there is plenty to share about the land of kindergarten in my school. In my previous post I mentioned how my teaching partner and I were tired of how kindergarten was going last year. I thought, and thought, and thought and determined what we were missing was what made kindergarten fun. We need the themes, units of study, a focus where we could integrate all the subjects again and includes some crafts. We had forgotten about using all learning modalities and the fact that kindergarten students need to PLAY and experiment to learn.
Well, my teaching partner also thought, and thought, and thought. She determined she needed to leave kindergarten. At least for now. See, she was teaching five- and six-year old children all day then was going home to her four-year old child and almost two year old. So in addition to not enjoying the academic/high stakes test atmosphere kindergarten has turned into, she also was never getting a break from kindergarten behaviors.
So, now I am the Queen of Kindergarten in our hall. I was on the hiring committee and we have selected someone who will (I hope) make an excellent addition to our staff and will be able to bring a lot to our kindergarten program. At the same time, I have begun working with teachers at other schools in our district to bring the fun back into kindergarten while still maintaining our high academic expectations.
YAY!!!