Kindergarten??

Well I made the jump...I am now a Kindergarten teacher. I know..I know...everyone I have told has usually fallen into 2 categories:  "Are you crazy?" and  "You will do so good!" I much prefer the 2nd reaction. :)

It was a hard decision. I love 2nd grade. The age group is wonderful! They love you, love learning, and can do so much. Much more than I ever thought they could now that CCSS has come along. But much more than that I have taught with a certain teacher for 8 years. 8 years! I have grown so much under her that it is just amazing. She pushes me to be a better teacher. And her friendship...she has gone through 2 pregnancys, two newborns, 2 stubborn toddlers, all those rough patches that you go through in life, she has been there.

As I was faced with this decision I prayed for God to open doors that need to be opened and close doors that need to be closed. Doors kept getting opened and then opened wider. It got to the point that I was going to need an engraved invitation to go :) Finally I realized that the only thing keeping me in 2nd was my teaching partner. Then I took that big leap. Another thing that I prayed for was peace with my decision and as I have mulled this decision over in my head was such an amazing peace about it.

So I am beyond excited! I've picked up books I haven't read in years and read them with a whole new light. I am excited for this opprotunity and looking forward to what kindergarten will bring. I will be that first teacher to so many, what an awesome and amazing responsibility. As I have looked at different kinder blogs, I saw how kinder teachers usually live in 2 different trains of thought. One - kindergarten is what it has always been: centers, ABCs, and counting. Two - kindergarten is changing: reading real books, writing about their little world, and thinking mathematically.

I feel that I am coming at it from a place of advantage...I know what they are going to be expected to do. I know the things I thought 2nd graders could never do....they could. I know this coming year will challenge me and grow me in new and different ways. But I know it will be for the better and better yet, I know this is the place God wants me.

digestive presentations

We technically began unit 6 during the week of testing, but didn't really get into the meat of it until testing was over. We having really been working on taking notes in our reading response notebooks. We really struggled with translating their great thinking to paper at the beginning of the year and reading response notebooks have been a great place for them to record their thoughts about a particular book, interact with the objective, and a place for them to practice anything new we work on. As a teacher it is wonderful that all of their materials are in one place. I walk around while they are working and score them on our objective score sheet, it makes grading beyond super easy! Well we began our unit by having students take notes on the digestive system by reading a few books and watching several videos. We discussed how to organize our notes and site our sources. Everyday it still blows me away that I am having 2nd graders do research, take notes, and site different sources. I didn't do that stuff until high school.

After we had taken notes on the digestive system as a whole we worked on taking notes on a complex text. I have a variety of student text levels in my room all the way from a DRA 3 to a DRA 40+, so for some it would be more difficult then others. We have an example page from our book and practiced taking notes on that.

Then we practiced taking our note sheet and using that information to come up with 3 key facts and then a concluding statement about why scientists think this information is important. This went right along with what we had already learned about having students create meaning with the 3 questions of "What does it say?" ( taking notes), "What does it mean?" ( summarizing key facts ), and "What does it matter?" (why is this information important). After we we practiced with our class sheet, we broke up into groups to take notes on our individual chapter. Students took notes while reading in their reading response notebooks.



After students finished their notes independently, they got together in their groups to discuss their thinking and what they thought were the most important key ideas from the text. This hits several CCSS objectives, such as "Describe how reasons support specific points the author makes in a text" "Identify the main purpose of a text" " "Write informational texts in which they introduce a topic, use facts to develop points" " Participate in collaborative conversations with diverser partners".

In the group were designated leaders who lead the conversations and made sure everyone had an opprotunity to talk. After they had created their 3 key points, students then put notes away and worked together to create their concluding statement. This statement was about why this chapter was important and why someone should read it. After this we came back together and talked. For many students the concluding statement was the most difficult. They wanted to summarize the learning, instead of telling why it was important. Then we worked on how to take that information and make it into our presentations. Students were given various jobs including creating diagrams, reading and inputting information into a smartboard presentation, and leading and supervising both groups.



They did wonderful! After they were done we used smartnotebook recorder to record the information and create a window movie player video to upload to our class webpage so they could share with their parents. All of the students showed alot of pride in their work and were very happy with the end result. As I was picking the leaders, I picked one student who is a resource student who at times has difficulty with authority. He has great potential, but he himself struggles to see it. At the end of the group project time, I was reminded again why it is important to not look at the student before me, but beyond that to what they can be. I have another child in my room who has been struggling a lot this year and we are looking at a variety of ways to help him. He really struggles with group work and staying focused. So my "leader" sat down with him and had him look for how to correctly spell all the words in the presentation. He did this with no direction from me, but because that was his job. He said it was his job to help all his group members to do their job, and this was a job he could do. :) 

Testing!

Well...notice that I am putting these posts up only about a month late! Life has been crazy. We finally finished testing at our school. I really work hard on putting test prep into our curriculm all year long with just a couple questions here and there. I think it is more importnat to put the focus on helping them become better thinkers than test takers, but I also don't want them to get caught up on the format of the test. I am very proud of how far they have come this year. One thing that we did this year was to create anchor charts on how good thinkers think about a test.

We really worked this year on putting deeper thinking into everything we do. The kids have done a marvelous job, but that is a skill that doesn't easily translate to a bubble test. So we just worked on different ways to help understand the way test makers design the tests. We won't know for awhile if it helped the kids, but I do know they were prepared for the test.

At the end of the day I know I did all I could to prepare them for that test. I know they did everything they could during the test and there is really nothing else that matters. At the end of testing we always have a bubble party to celebrate the ending of testing. Well thanks to pinterest, it got an extra dose of cuteness!

Fables -- Ireland

We moved to Irish folktales. In our nonfiction study of Ireland, one of the folktales that we learned about at National Geographic for Kids was Finn McCoul. So we started with him. Our big standard in CCSS was to recount stories, including fables and folktales, and determine their central message or moral, so our objective in most of the lessons with just that, finding the moral of the story. After that we read Jamie O'Rourke and the Giant Potatoe. While we were reading both the students would rate themselves on the objective and then take notes about the book. I told them I wanted them to think about the objective, but also any thing that made a lightbulb in their reading brain. (At the beginning of the year we discussed how we had a reading brain that would talk to us. It was like a light bulb...lightbulbs don't make any noise but you know they are there)

 
Finally, we ended up with Jaime O'Rouke and the Pooka. We followed the same pattern that we have for the previous books. The kids were taking notes while I was reading. At the end of the reading they got several minutes to finish writing down whatever they were working on, then they were able to share with a partner what they were thinking. Finally we shared out whole group.

We were about at the end of study of Ireland and it was almost St.Patrick's day, so we learned about the real St. Patrick. We started with an anticipation guide and then took notes while we read Gail Gibbon's St. Patrick's Day and watch Brain Pop. At the end they shared. One little boy was making connections between St. Patrick and Harriet Tubman. He was taking about how Patrick and Harriet Tubman were both slaves and came back to their home to try and free people.

Nonfiction with Unit 5

When we set out planning our unit, we decided to do the first part of the week as nonfiction learning about the country and then the second part as the fables from the country. So we began with China nd then moved to Ireland. We began with a review of nonfiction text features and discussed how internet sites have nonfiction text features as well.


I had the kids make a quick list of nonfiction text features in their reading notebooks. Then they shared this information with a partner. We made our class list of nonfiction text features. Then looked at the ones we had and discussed how they were similar and different from the ones we see on websites.

We pulled a lot of our information from national geographic for kids. They had several of the nonfiction text fetures such as headings, bold words, etc. that we were able to discuss and use to located information. Then the kids began making a web in their notes by taking notes while we went through the different web pages.

Stone Soup

We recently started our 5th unit in the new CCSS. It is all about fables and folktales from all different parts of the world. We started with all the different varieties of Stone Soup.

We read the orginal Stone Soup and began our study. The CCSS says 2nd graders should.."Compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story by different authors or from different cultures." So we created a table and used that information to compare the different versions of the story. Some of the information that we put on the table also corresponds to CCSS " Describe the overall structure of a story,"  We put our lessons in a smartboard file. We also talked about all the different countries that the different versions of stone soup has come from. At the end as a piece of assessment we created and used a venn diagram where they picked two of versions and discussed the similarities and differences.

We have been doing a lot with notebooks this year and had been taking notes on all the different versions, so the kids used the table I had discussed earlier to create their venn.  Another CCSS that we have been addressing in their unit is..." Write opinion pieces where they introduce a book, state an opinion, supply reasons to support that opinion, and provide a concluding statement or section." So after they had created their venn, they used that information again to write about their favorite one using an plan we created.



Read Across America

Well last week was a bit of a challenge! We had our district testing...just makes me think about ITBS coming all too soon. So on Friday we had a day I look forward to all year...Read Across America. A celebration of reading and all things Dr. Seuss.

We got to have guest readers in our room and read with stuffed animals all day long!  

First off...our principal, Mrs. Kinkade. She read Horton Hatches An Egg. The kids were enthralled! We have been talking about being fluent readers and after she left several of the kids said, "Mrs. Davis she was a very fluent reader!"

Then we had our literacy coach, Ms. Simpson come in. I was enthralled in the story, I forgot to take a picture. All I can say is, "Dave!" Then later in the afternoon came Mrs. Toney, our assistant principal.

She read Pigsty. (Quite appropriate for some of the kids in my room.) Hopefully they learned the "moral" of the story and will work to be responsible and take care of their stuff. 

Finally at the very end of the day we had our PE teacher come and read to us. I know it is very memorable to kids. In fact, while Mr. Brown and I were discussing the time and place in the hallway, a 5th grader who I had in 2nd grade came up and wanted Mr. Brown to come and read the same story (that she had heard in 2nd grade)  to her class.  

At the end of the day...it was a reminder of the joy of being a teacher. To see kids just laying around...reading to their animals...listening to some special people in their lives reading to them. Sometimes I think I get caught up in pushing them to meet this standard, meeting with all seven (yikes!) small groups, or wrapping my brain around these new CCSS that I forget the joy in playing a small part in the lives of some pretty neat 7 and 8 year olds and seeing them fall in love with reading.

CGI

I know most of my posts have been about literacy, but....I am also a math teacher! I know,  big surprise! I have started taking a 3 year course called CGI or Cognitively Guided Instruction. It has really changed the way I teach math. It involves a lot of problem solving and a different way of thinking about numbers. When we talk about putting kids in a sense of disequilibrium when we are teaching them that is exactly how CGI makes me feel. But the thinking coming out of my kids..amazing!

Well we were continuing that journey this week. At CGI this week we were focusing on 2 digit addition and fact fluency.  To give you a little background any time I have ever gone to CGI it has been complete brain overload! I seriously have a enormous headache after each day....tears....frustration. It totally puts you in the perspective of your "kids." I totally feel their pain! Well I was really ok until they started talking about negative numbers in 1st and 2nd grade...then the pain began again! I just don't think I am ready for that....


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The 2nd day we worked on fact fluency. It was really great! It totally helped to tie some loose ends together. I saw a teacher do a number talk and see all the amazing ways different children solve problems and how to push them to the next level without actually telling them how to solve the problem. We learned how to give a math fact inventory to see exactly how they solved the problems. It was something I went back and tried in my classroom the next day! It is definitely a journey, but I think that it will be worth the work.  

Ruby Bridges...

We are wrapping up our unit on "The Long Road to Freedom" this week.  I really wish we had more time to focus on some different important people...Ruby Bridges. I really think the kids would be able to relate to her so much better if we had some additional time. I know I learned about her as a child, but now I look back at it as a teacher of 7 and 8 years old...a mom of a 6 year old...a grown up...It is just beyond me how such a little girl was able to survive such persucution. We started our study with this video .  Wow! The first time I watched it I had tears in my eyes. After we watched that we did a quick write on "How we would feel if we were Ruby Bridges." It was interesting to see how different students reacted to the question. After we shared our thougts we watched the "real" Ruby Bridges talk about her experiences.

Several different opinions on what they would do if they were Ruby Bridges.

Similar and Different

We have been reading all about the Civil Rights Movement as a ending to our 4th unit in the common core units. This week we worked on the beginning of the "sit in" movement with the Freedom on the Menu and Sit ins.

We read each of the books and made connections between this protest movement and slavery. Using Freedom on the Menu, we worked on our 3 important questions "What does it say?", "What does it mean?" and "What does it matter?" We used our "What does it say?" to practice summarizing and "What does it mean?" to practice inferencing using characters feelings.  The final part "What does it mean?" was a chance for them to practice author's big idea or what the author is trying to teach us. The funny part is that most of the kids struggled with "What does it mean?"

 The next step we worked on was comparing the two stories and what was similar and different between the two of them.  We recently went to a conference and learned that our kids need a chance to struggle with "frustration" level text. This was a difficult concept for me to get.  As a teacher who has been trained in "instructional" and  "independent" level texts it was a struggle, but looking at how some kids have not had their reading levels increase at the level I wanted I was willing to try anything. So we have worked on giving them a chance to struggle through and then using that text as evidence for writing about their thinking. So they got a sample of text from each book and then write about how it was different.

Mentor Authors

We begin our study of Ezra Jack Keats.  His books are simple and easy for 2nd graders to copy.  We pulled out A Snowy Day to begin our study.  We also watched a video where the "real" Ezra Jack Keats is talking about his ideas and where they come from. As a class we talked about where Keats might have gotten his ideas, we came up with "his ordinary life." We created a list of ordinary life topics we could write about. The next day we looked through Keats book A Letter To Amy.   The 2nd graders got into small groups and looked through his book as a group. The ideas they came up and are reflected in the anchor chart.

Sentence Types

We were working on types of sentences today. As I am writing this anchor chart and working towards making this learning meaningful to the kids...I asked myself...why is this meaningful? I learned the types of sentences and you know when exactly I have used that type of knowledge...when I am teaching types of sentences. So I smile as I create the chart with my brillant 2nd graders and hope one day they don't come back and ask why?

Freedom

We are working on our 4th unit in the new common core curriculm units. We are currently working on freedom. Today we were reading Freedom Summer and discussing the difference between it and The Other Side.

The kids were coming up with some wonderful ideas. I am continuing amazed at how deep their thinking as become as we have moved through the common core units. They are understanding such complex themes...We are working on putting our thinking down into different notebooks...reading for reading, writing for writing...Check out some of our thinking below...