Writing Assessment

I created a Kindergarten rubric because all of the primary ones I found did not really apply to the challenges of teaching writing to Kindergartners. My goal for students who come to K with letter knowledge in place is to reach proficient or advanced in all areas: phonetic knowledge, conventions, and idea. For students who start out with no (or very limited) letter knowledge, I am happy to see them progress into the basic category, especially in relationship to "idea". The scaffold of a basic sentence structure seems to help them to write independently and confidently. These samples show the independent writing of one of last year's students. The date the writing was created is written by me in marker.
This one says "pumpkin".

This page says, "I like to count." You can see how much growth was made in just a couple of months. Conventions like spacing and use of lower case letters are not yet present, but he is well on his way to being a writer.
This is the rubric. I am sorry it is hard to read. If you are interested in a pdf copy, you can email me.
Happy writing!

It's OK to be Different!

One of my favorite art projects of the whole year....


First we read the book It's OK to be Different by Todd Parr. Then at my reading group table each child decides what his or her sentence will say. I dictate the sentences on the back of their papers, and they use their pencils to make a drawing. I encourage them to make the drawing fill up the paper. f they finish the drawing, they use a Sharpie marker to go over all of the lines they drew and erase the pencil marks. If they don't get time to do this, I do it that afternoon. I also type their sentences on the computer. The next day, the students use their watercolor paints to fill the whole page up with color. I encourage them to use non-traditional colors like Todd Parr does in his book. They also write their names into the rectangles and paint those.

Ususally, we make these self portraits during our "All about Me" unit in September. This year I was late, but figured they were worth the effort. I pre-tear the ovals for the faces, but beyond that, the students all tear the pieces. Paper tearing is really good for developing hand muscles used in writing. This page is saved to go into our large art memory books.

Pumpkin Patch Writing

After our field trip to the pumpkin patch, we did this writing activity to begin getting ready for paragraph writing in First grade. This activity is very "doable" for Kindergarteners and we use it again and again throughout the year. We add more writing as we become more capable.
First, we talk about the field trip. We decide together what word works best in our topic sentence, and we all write it. (I use the overhead projector.)
Then, we discuss what we did after we got to the pumpkin patch. I always have students whisper among themselves before raising hands. This gives more people an idea to share, and people who like to share every idea a chance to talk to someone. I call on a couple of people, and we choose an idea.
In this example, it is "First, we walked through the corn maize." After we draw our pictures, we go back and read what we have so far.
We continued on with the other two boxes using the same routine: whisper, share a few answers, choose an answer, draw it, read what we have so far.
The other boxes were, "Then, we picked a pumpkin." & "Finally, we got back on the bus."
Last, we choose a word for our closing sentence, and reread the entire paragraph.

More Chicka

Another fun activity we did for Chicka Chicka Boom Boom was to make a 3-D tree book. We used toilet paper tubes for the trunk and cut the fronds in the same way as on the art page. The students used white glue to attach the fronds and the pom pom coconuts.
Inside the tree we either had a long piece of adding machine tape with the alphabet written on it (if we were feeling very smart) or a page that had the alphabet typed on it that they traced. If they chose the tracing alphabet, I had to cut the page into strips and staple them together before rolling it up to insert into the tube.
But guess what I caught some of my little geniuses were doing? They were putting the adding machine tape on top of the tracing page and tracing right through! So, next year everyone will use the adding machine tape and trace over an alphabet page.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Art

One of our favorite books for September is Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. We especially like to sing along with the CD. If you do not have it, you should rush right over to amazon and get it. It is even worth the shipping fees! We sing/read this book every day after lunch for a good 2-3 weeks. One of our favorite exploration (choice) time activities is to sit on the teacher's chair and hold the book while the song plays on the CD. We also make this adorable art page for our art/writing memory books.
We start with a 12x18 inch piece of orange paper. An adult glues a 10x16 piece of white to the center and adds the pink dots on the border. I use a circle punch for the dots.
First, the kids make a torn paper trunk from a brown rectangle. (Tearing paper is super difficult for K students in September, but I make lots of extra pieces for kids who need to try again.)
Next, the kids cut 3-5 fronds for their tree. They "cut the corners off" then "take some bites" out of the sides.
After that, they add 2 red coconuts. (These are precut using a larger circle punch)
Finally, they add letter stickers "climbing" up their coconut tree. My partner, Diane, used foam letters on hers this year, and they look really cute too. (Hi, Diane!)

Sweetness

So, I have five little boys in my class who are bilingual, or are working on becoming so. They all have varying ranges of ability in English. All five are sweet and helpful and work really hard to figure out what is going on. Last week when I was teaching my reading group, I looked over at the library where my 5 little guys were (since they worked really hard and were finished with their letter page) and my little Joaquin was holding up the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom book and they were all gathered around him singing their alphabet song. It was the highlight of my week.

Promise to be back this week with some fun fall updates.

Chart Writing

There is so much to say about writing in Kindergarten. It is such a HUGE task to teach the concepts of word, letter, segmenting, complete sentence, punctuation. In California, our BIG standard for writing is (and this is my version) to write a complete sentence using sight words and phonetic spelling to convey an idea you have in your head. The easiest route is to stick to "I see ____" and "I like _____" and "I can _____" sentences without ever using sentences from inside the students' heads. I use these sentences at times for scaffolding, but my eventual goal is to have the student write down a sentence the way they would say it.
One of the step I use to get them there is a weekly chart of sentences. Each week there is a sentence prompt.... The first one is "I am (name)."
In preparation, before the student's get to class you write the "I am" part of the chart... I use 2 colors and alternate, so the sentences are easier to distinguish.
On Monday you write your sentence at the top of the chart.
"I am Mrs. Bergenske."
You choose students one at a time to tell you their idea (in this chart it's a little silly, as it's only their name) and you do half of your class. For me this is 11 students.
On Tuesday you write the other half of the class. (11 more students)
On Wednesday, you use a special pointer and each child comes up and reads his or her sentence out loud while tracking it on the chart.
On Thursday, you write a few (4-6) sentences on sentence strips then cut the words apart. The students take turns coming up in front of the class and reassembling the sentences. They hold the word in front of their tummy and when I tap them on the head, they hold it up and we all read in unison. The child who dictated the sentence gets to take it home.
On Friday, we make a class book page. Each student has his or her sentence typed out on the computer. He or she cuts the strip in between each word, then glues it onto the top line of the paper. They copy the sentence on the next line, then illustrate it.
This activity is very multi-level. It helps with concept of a word, left to right progression, tracking, starting with a capital, ending with a "stop sign" (period), putting spaces between words, reading and writing sight words,etc. I have developed this from the Four Blocks Guide to Literacy which you can access at this website

http://www.four-blocks.com/kindergarten.htm

Here is a sample of a chart from the week we began studying colors.
Some other topics I use for charts are...
October: I like (color). For Halloween I will be... Bats are.... My pumpkin is .....
November: I am thankful for... I like (food). There are (#) people in my family. I have a (pet).
December: ________ is my friend. I want (gift). My wish for the world is...
January: If it snowed, I would... Penguins.... A _________ lives in the Arctic. I have a dream that....
February: I love... George Washington..... Abraham Lincoln....

For the sentences about penguins, arctic animals, presidents, etc., I try to read at least a few non fiction books on this topic before having them contribute to the chart.

Good Luck and Happy Writing!

October Fun

So this is my October bulletin board from 2007. I change it little by little throughout the month, until it eventually looks something like this.
I hand cut and laminated the pieces of the scarecrow from butcher paper a couple of years ago using Margaret Wise Brown's The Littlest Scarecrow as a model. The leaves are fingerpainted by the students (using a similar technique as the apples, below). They paint a piece of fingerpaint paper using 2-3 fall colors, then I have an adult or Jr. High helper trace the leaf template and cut them out. I write their names on them with a big permanent marker.
The pumpkins are fingerpainted using red and yellow paint mixed together. I just cut these out any old pumpkin-y shape after they dry. The vine is brown butcher paper twisted up and stapled to the board.
Since we go to the pumpkin patch each year for our first field trip, and they have sunflowers there, we add sunflowers as well. For each sunflower I give the students a brown square which they round into a circle by cutting the corners off (TLC style... if you are not familiar with this company you can google it, they are great!) Then they have several yellow rectangles which they cut into petal shapes. We add a stem and leaves, also cut from rectangles. The best part is when we glue the REAL sunflower seeds to the center. They can outline the brown circle or fill it in or make a design.
The last piece of art is the crows. I created this pattern from an old toll painted crow from the 90's. I really loved toll painting back then! It has a large black heart for the body, 2 smaller black hearts for the wings, a circular head with a "top notch" of feathers, a triangle beak and 2 yellow heart feet. We add big googly eyes to give it a little more character.
The writing I add to the October wall is a chart about pumpkin growth. I hand wrote it on chart paper then laminated it so I can reuse it each year. It says: How a pumpkin grows... First, it is a ___________. (seed) Then, it is a _________. (sprout) Next, it is a ___________. (flower) Finally, it is a _______. (pumpkin) On Halloween it will be a __________! (jack o lantern) Love, Mrs. Bergenske's Class Before each blank is a picture of the item that goes on the line. Five lucky students get to come up and be the "recorders" while we sound out the items that go on the line. We so this as a class and use phonetic spelling to help them practice segmenting and recording the sounds they hear.

So what do you do for your October bulletin boards? I'd love to get some comments with photos or links!! Happy teaching!

Great Math Idea

This is an idea developed by my partner to integrate art and number concept. Each month starting in September we create a quilt square.
1. The background paper is 12 x 12 inches. In this sample that is light blue.
2. The students first glue down 2 squares (each 6 x 6 inches - black). My partner glues these down so they are all straight. I like to have the kids glue them. I use the words top right and bottom left... understanding these terms is part of our Math standards for K in CA.
3. In the top left square we always glue the die cut number (1 - for this quilt).
4. Next we cut out a clip art Earth (printed off the internet) because their is only one Earth.
5. After that we cut a circle from a 3 x 3 inch yellow square to make the middle of the sun. Then we cut the rays from one or more 2 x 4 inch rectangles. I talk about how we only have one sun in our solar system.
6. The next step is to draw our own face on a 4 x 4 inch white square. There is only one of each of us!
7. Finally, (and I forgot this step on my quilt, but can add it later) we add a penny sticker or a photocopied penny next to the number one.

Next month we will make our 2 quilt. It will have a couple of addition sentences on it. At the end of the year, when we have 10 pages, we make them into a book to take home.

First Fingerpainting

I try to incorporate painting... especially fingerpaiting...early in the year. Some children (especially those who didn't go to preschool) have never actually had a chance to slime their fingers around in paint!!

For this project, I just had pieces of fingerpaint paper (you can use regular paper if it's all you have, but fingerpaint paper is better because it's slick!) cut into pieces about 6 x 8 inches for each child. I also put a 9 x 12 piece of scratch paper underneath to try to reduce the mess on the tables. The students get to choose 2 colors of paint from the apple spectrum (like yellow and red or green and yellow). I give a big blob of the first color they say, then a little dot of the second color they say right onto the paper. Their job is to cover the entire page.

When the pages are dry I just freehand cut the apples about 3-4 at a time into an apple shape. If you don't want to freehand cut, you could use a template to make them all perfect. I like them to be a little imperfect. I call it whimsical. :-)

I add a stem, write the student's name with a really fat tipped black marker and staple them up on the tree.

My favorite is Joaquin's. You can see his handprint right on it.

Bear-ly Beginning

So, I always start out the year with a teddy bear theme. It takes about 3 weeks and ends with a teddy bear picnic on the last Friday. Here are some of the activities we have done so far:

Poems: Teddy Bear, teddy bear turn around
1 little, 2 little, 3 little teddy bears (we end this with kids suggestions like "reading books" or "jumping around" or whatever)

Books: Where's my Teddy? by Jez Alborough (love, love, love this series about cute little Eddie!)
It's the Bear! by Jez Alborough
My Friend Bear by Jez Alborough
Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you see? by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle
(We also sing the song to this by Greg and Steve... It's on the Playing Favorites CD)
All the versions I can find of Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Art: Cut paper teddy bears (from TLC book)


Will try to add pictures soon! ETA: Some pictures!!

First Day Project

I like to try to send something home in each child's hot little hand on the first day, so this is what I sent this year.
After a quick circle time where I try to get everyone sitting "criss cross applesauce" (using Herm, of course) and a story (Usually Brown Bear by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle), I let the kids go play. Because let's face it, play is all they really want to do at the beginning! So while they are playing, I circulate around, getting to know them, helping to solve problems, keeping voices at the "inside voice" level. While I am doing this, my aide calls the students one at a time to paint their handprint and place it on the paper of their choice. I have a large variety of colors available and have the tags with the poem already tied on. This year I used raffia for the tying. In the past I have usually used roving yarn, but we have a shortage of roving yarn at my school, and I have a giant box of raffia left over from the 90's just begging to be used up!
The poem says:
Welcome, welcome, school has begun.
Time for work. Time for fun.
I use my hands for fun and play
School has started just today.
(Date)

So, what do you do on the first day of school?

First Day

The first day of Kindergarten is often a trying and exhausting four and a half hours. I have had years when I felt I could collapse within minutes of walking the students out for the day. Luckily for me, the last couple of years things have gone more smoothly. I think one of the reasons for this is "Herm the Worm". He is a puppet I have. A worm who lives in a strawberry. He comes out of the strawberry only when the students are all sitting quietly, AND he teaches them how to sit correctly on the rug. We pretend it is a game... because games are always more fun than just practicing... Herm whispers in my ear what he wants them to do with their legs, then I call it out. After a couple of days they have "criss cross applesauce" down pat!

One of the little projects we make on the first day is a self portrait. You can see how telling a simple drawing can be at this age. What a large range of ability there is already! That's what makes teaching fun and worthwhile, though, seeing the growth that comes for kids. What a fun year I am going to have!

Starting off Right

Quite a few years ago when I was in a "grade alike" workshop (that means a bunch of K teachers from a few neighboring counties all getting together to share ideas and collaborate) I heard about a revolutionary new idea. There were these 2 teachers who had a Kindergarten orientation on the first day of school. The students from each class would be mailed an invitation to come to school for one hour (on the first day of school!) with a parent or other adult. The parents filled out a few papers while the kids played, then the other teacher took the parents on a tour of the school (for about 20 minutes or so) answering all of those new Kindergarten parent questions and explaining the school's policies about lunches, milk, pick up, etc. While the regular teacher has a little time with her class to do an activity. Then, a little later, the teachers switch and have the orientation for the other class.
Wow! I immediately began planning my next year's orientation. Now, I have not yet been successful convincing a principal or superintendent to let me have this orientation on the first day of school, but since then I have instituted this tradition on a day right before the first day... say Monday if you start on Tuesday, or like today (Saturday) if you start on Monday.
It is such a fabulous idea! It virtually eliminates crying on the first day. It gives the teacher a chance to get a sneak peak of the students... It gives the students a chance to meet their teacher and classmates in a less threatening environment (it is only an hour or so long).... It gives the nervous parents a chance to ask a hundred questions and check out the place where they will be leaving their children. Overall, it just really reduces everyone's anxiety. And like I said, that is a great idea!
Today was the day at my school, and although I didn't have the best turn out, I feel really energized and excited to start a new year with my Kinders. And above you can see the note one of them made at play time and gave to me. He learned how to spell "Hi" because he likes to text, and that is what his brother taught him! I just love it!