Objectives and Standards

I printed off some quick, ocean-themed subject titles and laminated them with a magnet. I write objectives for Phonemic Awareness, Reading, Writing, and Math.

I bought from www.teacherspayteachers.com the ocean-themed Common Core State Standards for kinder. I plan on hanging them around the room. They are super cute!

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"Sea Goals"

Get it?! Like sea gulls?

Anyway, we are beginning a school-wide goal setting program. We are setting short-term student goals, class goals, and school goals. These Post-Its on my bulletin board are advertising a specific goal for each student to master. When the goal is mastered, they will get a new Post-It. These goals are checkpoints for the long-term goals listed in the Common Core State Standards. We advertise it because we are each others' cheerleaders and every one is working on something positive at their own pace. Our class goal is: we will learn the letter sounds. Once we master that, I printed the next goal on the back, so I can just flip it over. Sequentially, the second goal is: we will sound out to read.

Each child's goal is sent home on this form, so parents can help, too!

I have designated the first day of each month as "Goal Day," when we review our goals and if possible, set new ones. It took me about 30 minutes to set a goal with each child individually. I called one kid over and asked, "What do you want to learn?" Together, we decided on each goal. Below, is a calendar tag I'll put up on the first day for each month.

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Lesson Planning

In the Clark County School District, we now use an online lesson planning tool to create and share our lesson plans. The lesson plans are time consuming but extremely thorough. When plans are printed out, there are around 10 pages for a week of plans. For an obsessive person like myself, I enjoy the ability to color coordinate, plan far ahead, and not require paper copies of the Common Core State Standards when planning. Standards can be clicked on and dragged to where you need them. When you click on the colored subjet, the detailed plans come up in a new window.

Another useful feature is sharing the plans. I am able to share lessons with the other kindergarten and special education teachers.

www.curriculum.wiki-teacher.com

Report Card Comments

My report card comments include sentences on:

1. letter recognition

2. reading

3. writing

4. handwriting

5. math

6. behavior

7. homework

For example, "Mickey Mouse has made tremendous growth this school year. Mickey has learned every letter of the alphabet and its sound(s). He is able to read simple texts and he participated in the AR (Accelerated Reader) program. Mickey’s handwriting is extremely neat. He is able to write more than four sentences with punctuation. He no longer frustrates easily when doing so. Mickey is able to add and subtract with and without manipulatives. He correctly identified pennies, nickels, and dimes. He was unable to tell the difference between a question and a statement orally. Mickey is a very sweet boy and displays appropriate behaviors in school. He has made many friends and is more outgoing. Thank you for your support with Mickey and his impeccable homework completion. I am very proud of what he has accomplished! Please continue reading with him over the summer. Good luck in first grade!"

Progress Reports

We send progress reports home every other week-ish. :) I include the child's behavior, missing assignments, and academics. It is a carbon copy and the parents have to sign it and return it the following day. Here's what it looks like...

Birthdays, Addresses, & Phone Numbers! Oh my!

We finally know our birthdays, addresses, and phone numbers. We have been taking attendance by them since we started school. Every day, the children come into our room and move their names, then after about a month, we switch to birthdays, and so on. We put them in the tree.

(Obviously the door was not finished during our renovation.)

At the beginning of small groups during math centers, I have them punch in their phone numbers to an old, unplugged phone. No rocket science here. :)



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Alphabetical Order

These are shoelaces and plastic letters. The children demonstrate ABC order in a small group by stringing the letters.

All Standards, All the Time

Today in reading group, I noticed my flashcards were looking pretty nasty... so I gave each kid a baby wipe and asked them to clean a stack of cards. While they scrubbed each letter, they had to make it's sound. :)