Assessment w/Tickled Pink in Primary

Do you dread report card time? It can be very time consuming to pull each student back and give assessments. I have an assessment system that I use that I find helpful in organizing student work and checking their progress. 

A few years ago, our district implemented data dashboards. We have to have a bulletin board graphing the progress of the class as a whole on certain skills. I decided to also create individualized folders for students to track their own data as well.

Instead of pulling students back all at once in October for report cards, I work with students individually periodically to see how they are progressing. Sometimes I work with them at center time so they don't even know I'm assessing them! One thing I love, is having all of a child’s assessment data in 1 spot! This makes it very easy if a parent or administrator has a question about how a kid is doing. I can also have my aide or parent volunteer take the folder to see what skills that particular students needs to work on.

For the cover of the folders, I use full sheet labels that I got a Office Depot. I also found them on Amazon below. Of course, you can just glue them on too. I have a variety of covers, so you can customize a folder to your student’s skin color and hair color. :)

I have tracking sheets included in the folder for things such as letters, beginning sounds, sight words, and numbers. My Kindergarten Assessment & Data Folders set includes some flashcards as well to use with these tracking sheets.

I use different colors of pens and crayons to graph the results and show how students are progressing.

I think it is very important to let the students color in the graph. This helps them take ownership and pride in their work and progress.

The folder contains very basic Kindergarten skills and doesn’t include every single thing I need for report card time, but these are the basic skills I felt that I needed to test verbally. I can use other worksheets to test number sense, math facts, etc. therefore I didn’t include that in the folder.

The Dolch Primer sight words are the list I used for this file since it is a common list. However, since we all don’t teach the same sight words, I created an editable file so you can edit the sight word tracking sheet and the sight word flashcards.

I’m sure you have your own set of assessment sheets for report card time, but hopefully giving you the idea of creating individualized folders will help save you time by having everything for each kid all in 1 place. If you're interested in my Data Dashboard folders, you can find them here. Do you have any tips/tricks for assessment time?

Cramming It All In & a FREEBIE {w/Tickled Pink in Primary}

Trying to squeeze as much learning into your day as possible and keep your students engaged can be hard. I think that we are putting so much pressure on students and increasing the expectations, that sometimes we forget that they are kids. 

I try to balance my schedule throughout the day, so we have some whole group learning, then small group or independent work, then back to whole group, and small group. This breaks up the learning a bit and gives students some time to interact with their friends. My schedule is the same every day so students know what to expect. They know when they'll get a chance to talk/share with their friends, and when it's time to listen to me.  I see my students checking out a picture schedule often to see what is coming next or how many things we have to get through until recess. LOL! Having a set schedule every day is easier for me to lesson plan because I can just quickly change out a skill, book title, etc. but overall I have a plan of what our day will always look like. You can grab these schedule card for FREE here. 

As a Kindergarten teacher, I think is important to let our little ones get a little bit of down time throughout the day. They still need to develop social skills and shouldn't be expected to just go, go, go all day long at the age of 5!  I have reading centers & math centers during my day so students can work on the skills I've taught, but do it by playing games/activities with their friends. Our reading centers are in the morning and our math centers are in the afternoon. Here's a picture of my reading center rotation chart. All of my supplies are right by the reading center (same for math), so students don't have to go all over the room looking for their tubs/materials. I also have 1 person in each group as the designated person to get out the tubs & clean it all up. This helps the transitions go smoother and not cause any arguing.

Inside each tub are a few activities for the students to do. I let them choose what to do, but once they've played the game once they have to switch to another activity. These low-prep Beginning Sounds activities are easy to prepare and great to throw in centers.

BINGO markers are definitely a favorite activity to do, so I created these Dot It! worksheets for reading & math centers. I love creating centers that can be used all year long, and all you have to do is simply change out the worksheets/cards. They kids already know how to play, so this makes lesson planning and explaining new centers a breeze!

Assessments are a necessary evil. It's something we all have to do, to see how our students are progressing, but it also takes time away from us teaching the rest of the class.  One way to constantly and quickly progress monitor my students on their letters is with this letter fluency sheet from my low-prep Alphabet Activities bundle. I can pull kids back and have them do this 1 minute assessment to see how many letters they know and if they know them quickly and fluently. As student's scores increase, I only have to do this with a few kids. In Kindergarten we don't do real grades or give homework that we keep grades on. I dread report card time because even if I mentally know how my students are doing and what they need help on, I still need to pull them all back 1 on 1 and give them a lot of formal assessments. This takes quite a bit of time! I don't have a classroom aide, but I try to do most of my assessing while the other students are at centers. I also like to use some of our center activities as assessments as well. I can sit with a group of kids as they are working on an alphabet game and I can take notes on which letters they are missing. This is more of an informal away to assess, but it doesn't interrupt the schedule of the day, and students are more relaxed and not feeling like they are getting quizzed by the teacher. :)

Fluency & Fitness is definitely a class favorite! These students below are working on naming their 3D shapes (shapes & real world images included), but then they have to do exercises every so often. They absolutely LOVE doing these and forget they are even learning. :) I love that I've found a way to make learning fun, help them get some energy out, yet not lose instructional time. There are over 40 bundles of Fluency & Fitness, so we can use these during math & reading, and all year depending on what skills we are learning.You can find this Shape Fluency & Fitness here.

It's tough trying to cram it all in, yet make learning fun. Sometimes we just have to trust our gut and do what we know is best for our kids.

Sensational Science with KookyKinders!

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Science is a fun learning opportunity in kindergarten. Hands on learning is the most effective way to get my students engaged and excited. This year we were lucky enough to have science students from the local college come into our classrooms and assist/teach science lessons. 

One of my favorite activities this year was releasing our butterflies.

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Our garden in a bag was very successful. I was so happy that I didn't have to drag a bag of dirt to school!

We loved exploring seashells and sand!

What do you do for science in your classroom?

2nd Annual Teacher-Blogger Interview {Tara West}

Hey friends! I am extremely excited about my interview this year! This year... *drumroll* is none other than THE TARA WEST!

Yes, I said the before her name. She is so sweet, creative, talented, and so giving. There is no one else that I would rather interview this year. Luckily, she agreed! I met her last year in Vegas and was so stoked to see her in person. All of her creations that I've had the pleasure of using in my classroom have been hands down phenomenal. She is seriously the guided reading and guided math and everything in between GURU. Alright, enough of that. :-) If you don't know about Tara, you SHOULD!

I started blogging after opening my TPT shop, which is opposite of a lot of TPT sellers!  I started my shop by offering packets that would assist teachers in transitioning into the Common Core State Standards and guided reading.  I knew that I would need a platform in which I could blab, and blab a lot at that!  My first post was noticed by Miss Kindergarten AKA Hadar!  I never knew that one post would create a life-long friendship!

Blogging has made such a huge impact on my teaching.  There is something about typing out the words of what you will be teaching and/or what you just taught.  You quickly realize that there is a lot that goes into each lesson within your school day.  When you teach the lesson you are not only thinking about how the lesson is going in your classroom, but I analyze each and every lesson of my curriculum... thinking about how it is going in the other teacher's rooms as well. 

So, we  can never quite balance everything in our lives, but I give all the props to my husband.  He is so supportive and understanding when it comes to the time and dedication of me blogging and creating.  Since we were not able to have kids on our own I don't have that constant pull in my life between spending time with my children verses blogging.  I am so impressed with those that are the ultimate jugglers of school, blogging, and raising a family!

For me, I will always say to blog from your heart!  If it's on your mind to share with your readers then go for it!  I try hard to make sure each blog post I write encourages teacher and leaves them with a mental, "Oh, wow I am trying this on Monday!"  As a teacher myself, I am a complete sponge!  I like to learn new things each and everyday, so if  a teacher is going to take the time to read my posts, I want them to leave with solid ideas and information that can be used immediately within their classroom!

My favorite resources that I have made would for sure have to be my kindergarten curriculum!  It would be too hard to choose between them because they are equally important and so special to me!  After spending hours each week to change out and "supplement" my district curriculum, I decided to do that no more!  I put my foot down that I would take the time to make comprehensive programs that I could open and teach from each week!  I didn't want to track down games, books, worksheets, crafts, etc anymore!  I wanted to spend my time prepping and expanding our learning, and not rewriting curriculum!

Thank you so much to Tara for allowing us to interview her! Be sure to head over to her blog, Little Minds at Work and read some of her jaw dropping ideas!

Why I'm Lucky To Teach Kindergarten (With The Kindergarten Smorgasboard)

Turkey Time Traditions with Enchanted Kinder Garden

Can you believe it's almost Thanksgiving break? I absolutely LOVE teaching during Thanksgiving.

This week we're talking ALL things Thanksgiving. This includes past and present, Native Americans, Pilgrims, Mayflower... all of that. We'll be focusing on past and present. My practicum student has been teaching and we didn't really talk about this already.

One of my all time favorite things to do during Thanksgiving week is to talk about traveling on the ship. After we talk about what they couldn't take and that they could only take one suitcase, we always make our own suitcase. This is always REALLY interesting to see what they would take. One year, I let them just write in what they would take. However, this year I'm going to print out some pictures and let them only glue in what will fit.

I added things like brush, comb, pet, doll, truck, shoes, pants, socks, and so on. I also added a few things that I don't think are as important such as iPad, mirror, food, and other little things that will take up space.

You can grab this for free here! Just click on the picture.

We'll be making these really cute turkey hats inspired by Miss Kindergarten for our "Charlie Brown Feast" again this year. I won't use LONG brown paper this year to make them.

We'll also be using these during Math Workshops again this week.

They LOVED using these! It helps all of my kiddos get an easier sense of numbers. We've been doing a really great job with number fluency and recognition as well.

Ten Frames for Thanksgiving! I just call them the Gobble Gobble workshop. My kids pretend like the turkeys are gobbling up numbers. I have different groups use it a different way. For my kids that still need help with writing numbers, we use the ten frame frame version and write the number to match. For my kids that need help producing a ten frame, they choose a number card and make the ten frame. They EAT this one up.

An InLinkz Link-up

Kindergarten Homework {from Keri at Enchanted Kinder Garden}

This is a very controversial, well can be, topic in school.

Homework.

To give or not to give? Well, I stand on the give side. I actually love homework. I think that homework in kindergarten provides them with the routine at home for studying, practicing working at home, and gives their parents that relationship to build a bridge between school and home. I’ve had parents ask so many times how they can help there child at school. Complete everything that I give you in the homework binder. What do I include? Here’s a quick look into my kids’ homework binders this year.

I make the binder something that becomes a staple. From the beginning, I include a bag of books, an alphabet chart, numbers, color words (depending on the child), the homework, weekly assessment sheet and a snappy word ring (sight words).

This bag is the reason that I use a binder. My former principal purchased these for the student pencil bags, but they are HUGE. They came with a strip inside of it to hang in crates. We ended up using them to store headphones. I also used them to store books to go home. They are kinder proof (well almost), big enough to store readers AND almost waterproof. The material that the white part is made of pretty much allows liquids to roll right off. I don't worry much about spilled water in backpacks getting on the books. My kids get new books every week. They can choose to read which ever book that they like at home. This is ALWAYS a hit to see which books they'll get next.

I send home a letter with the homework binder explaining all of the parts. As certain students master certain skills, I’ll take it out of their binders and replace it with new things. When a child has mastered the letter names and sounds, I usually add in a nonsense word fluency sheet and a letter naming sheet to practice on their fluency. We are starting DIBELS again this year so I’ll be doing this in a few weeks.

The homework sheets are actually the morning work sheets from The Printable Princess.

I take out the 1-10 numbers and add in 11-20 when students are ready for these. As the year progresses, I may change this to a hundreds chart. I provide parents with ideas on how to use the 100’s chart. They may circle a number and tell the child to count on, play a guessing game with what number am I thinking of (greater than, less than), count by 10’s and so on. The homework binder ends up being individualized for that particular student. Everyone’s looks the same, but what’s inside is a little bit different.

The snappy word ring is the same way. I use Rainbow Words from Hello Literacy. In the past, I went with her word list. This year, used the editable versions and made my own lists that go with our progression. I added the first 14 words as RED words. With rainbow words, they will work on a group of words until they have mastered all of the words. Then, they get a new set of words added to their ring in the next rainbow color. They are trying to make a rainbow of words. I like this MUCH better because it is individualized as well. I don’t have to worry about putting too much on my students that can’t learn them as fast as others. Yet, I can push my higher kids to learn more words and be exposed to more words while they are with me. This system worked wonders when I first used it two years ago. I tried something quite different last year, but decided to use this in my tweaked version this year.

This is the assessment sheet that I have from a few years ago. I forgot to snap a picture of the current one and this just so happened to be at home. A few years ago, our team decided that we wanted to hold parents and students accountable for the skills we were learning every week. We came up with a quick and easy assessment. I keep it in their folders. It lists five weeks of skills. I have a letter skills which will eventually change and show the word family, blends or whatever phonics skill we are on. I have a math skill. It currently has number identification. I also list the sounds. On Friday mornings during our Golden Ticket Free Play time, my kids are playing and I have free time to assess them one-on-one. It’s super quick and I just put a check next to each thing that they mastered. If it is not mastered, I just highlight it. The parents have to initial on the following Monday that they’ve seen it. This helps parents to help their children at home. It’s really difficult to jot down what parents need to help their child with week by week and be specific. I can tell a parents that Jessie need to work on sounds, but when they see that /m/ and /p/ are highlighted, they can work on those two sounds. This is also VERY helpful for me when report card time rolls around. I pull these sheets back out and refer to them. I can see if there is a trend, what I need to focus on with certain kids as I’m planning for the next week and so much more.

That’s pretty much it. I love sending home homework and hope that whatever makes you happy is the decision that you should use for homework with their kids. Do ALL of my kids do homework nightly? Of course not. I think it makes them accountable.