~~~ Ready or Not ~~~~

Soon we will all be heading back to our classrooms! Are you ready? Many teachers are filled with mixed emotions! Excited about the new students, and new adventures. Worried about the many hours and dollars that are being put into their classrooms to enhance their home away from home. I personally have spent the last few days perusing websites,blogs and teacher stores for ideas and materials to spruce up the classroom. While the passage of summer quickly comes to a close, the new year quickly approaches. Ready or not we will enter the doors of our classroom in hopes of meeting the many needs of our students, hopefully touching their lives with a lasting impact on their future and education.

Kindergarten Readiness

      It is that time of year when parents start thinking about school. Especially parents of young children, those just starting kindergarten. Every year parents are tasked with the decision of deciding whether their child is ready to start kindergarten. There are many things to consider, but I can't stress enough how important it is to consider the WHOLE child! There are two areas that many consider to be a deciding factor, one being chronological age and the other is cognitive(academic) ability, but let me stress these are NOT the only or always the best way to determine whether children are ready for school. Consider your child's physical, emotional and social strengths. These areas are very important to your child's success in school.  Here are a few examples of each area:

PHYSICAL: 
Your child independently takes care of personal needs.

COGNITIVE: 
Uses books and enjoys stories.
 Follows simple directions.

EMOTIONAL: 
Excited about school,and eager to learn.
Demonstrates self control.

SOCIAL:
Respects personal space.
Takes turns and shares.


The final decision is of course up to the parents, but as educators we need to inform parents of important factors in the decision process!



 

Encouragement... It Does a Child Good!

I was enjoying a bit of summer vacation today, relaxing by the pool when I observed a family. A mom, dad and young child. What I observed troubled me. So when the day is long, stress abounds and you can't find one ounce of patience in you here is some help ...

 

101 Ways to Praise a Child

 

 

WOW • WAY TO GO • SUPER • YOU’RE SPECIAL • OUTSTANDING • EXCELLENT • GREAT• GOOD • NEAT • COOL  • WELL DONE • REMARKABLE • I KNEW YOU COULD DO IT • I’M PROUD OF YOU • FANTASTIC • SUPER STAR • NICE WORK • LOOKING GOOD • YOU’RE ON TOP OF IT • BEAUTIFUL • NOW YOU’RE FLYING • YOU’RE CATCHING ON • NOW YOU’VE GOT IT • YOU’RE INCREDIBLE • BRAVO • YOU’RE FANTASTIC • HURRAY FOR YOU • YOU’RE ON TARGET • YOU’RE ON YOUR WAY • HOW NICE • HOW SMART • GOOD JOB • THAT’S INCREDIBLE • HOT DOG • DYNAMITE • YOU’RE BEAUTIFUL • YOU’RE UNIQUE • NOTHING CAN STOP YOU NOW • GOOD FOR YOU • I LIKE YOU  • YOU’RE A WINNER • REMARKABLE JOB • BEAUTIFUL WORK • SPECTACULAR • YOU’RE SPECTACULAR • YOU’RE DARLING • YOU’RE PRECIOUS • GREAT DISCOVERY • YOU’VE DISCOVERED THE SECRET • YOU FIGURED IT OUT • FANTASTIC JOB • HIP, HIP, HURRAY • BINGO • MAGNIFICENT • MARVELOUS • TERRIFIC • YOU’RE IMPORTANT • PHENOMENAL • YOU’RE SENSATIONAL • SUPER WORK • CREATIVE JOB • SUPER JOB • FANTASTIC JOB • EXCEPTIONAL PERFORMANCE • YOU’RE A REAL TROOPER • YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE • YOU ARE EXCITING • YOU LEARNED IT RIGHT • WHAT AN IMAGINATION •WHAT A GOOD LISTENER • YOU ARE FUN • YOU’RE GROWING UP • YOU TRIED HARD • YOU CARE • BEAUTIFUL SHARING • OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE • YOU’RE A GOOD FRIEND • I TRUST YOU • YOU’RE IMPORTANT • YOU MEAN A LOT TO ME • YOU MAKE ME HAPPY • YOU BELONG • YOU’VE GOT A FRIEND • YOU MAKE ME LAUGH • YOU BRIGHTEN MY DAY • I RESPECT YOU • YOU MEAN THE WORLD TO ME • THAT’S CORRECT • YOU’RE A JOY • YOU’RE A TREASURE • YOU’RE WONDERFUL • YOU’RE PERFECT • AWESOME • A+ JOB • YOU’RE A-OK MY BUDDY • YOU MADE MY DAY • THAT’S THE BEST • I LOVE YOU!

 

Math Work Stations/Chpt 4: The nuts and bolts of Math Work Stations!

The beginning of math stations in my classroom and early number concepts will be the Nuts and Bolts! of my math curriculum this coming fall. We as teachers must all begin with basic  number concepts. Sounds like common sense I know, but we need to really explore the concept of what each number represents.
The author explains that many children can rote count before they come into my kindergarten classroom, but that doesn't really mean they deeply understand the number! Through my math lessons I need to "attach meaning  to numbers as quantities."(p72)Many parents tell me how well and or how high their little kindergarten student can count, but do they really know what those numbers mean!
This has been a great chapter for giving me ideas of adding more joy to my classroom through math stations! I have received numerous ideas on games that we already have in the classroom but how I can differentiate and make them either more challenging for an advanced learner or add helps for a student who might need more guidance!  I will increase the use of "math talk" in my classroom and lessons: use of the words, bigger, more, less, equal.
I have used up tons of ink printing off ideas, games and lessons to enhance my classroom this fall: Now off to make my shopping list for a few needs to include in my math stations and definitely printer ink to be ready to print off more ideas from other great teachers who are participating in this book study and blog party!!!
Yes it is summer, but between visits to the pool, checking out other blogs and shopping for new materials I am prepping for an awesome start to the next school year!

Math Stations Chapter 3: Getting Started! Getting Organized!

From that to this!!!

I must say that I have a lot of work to do! I have not used math stations as they are presented in this book, so I am excited about getting it all organized and ready to roll this summer! The new school year will be a fresh start!

My main focus will be on organizing, but... I do need to improve how I have exploration and modeling. I will focus on these areas a lot in those first few weeks of school. I really like the quote, "Assume nothing; model everything"p.49 So often we as teacher assume our students know what it is that we are talking about or what we want them to do.

Here are my goals in getting started:

1. Organize: I think this is first and foremost a must to make my math stations successful!

2. Develop a daily routine: Young children learn a lot through routine and repetition. This needs to be

3. Teach mini lessons before introducing a math station: this enables my students to understand exactly what their expectations are in the station. These mini lessons can be revisited again later once the stations is established.

4. Model: This is so important and key to the success of my stations as well as the success of my students.

~ ? Relevance ? ~

I went to a workshop this week and have been participating in a blog "party" which is basically teachers not confined to walls but around the states doing a book study and then sharing ideas via their blogs. Through these two events I have been reminded over and over again, I need to make my lessons relevant! One of the speakers at my workshop stated, " If we can't reach them, we can't teach them" Wow that is powerful! The image above reminds me of a student that isn't being reached. Does he look involved, engaged, excited? NO! We as educators need to have our students engaged in activity and movement, this requires hands on learning, talking among each other and as one of the speakers at my workshop said, "Organized Chaos" Is teaching having students sit at a desk and listen, read and write? This goes back to my original topic how is this making it relevant to the student? After recently graduating with my Masters Degree, I will never forget the words ringing in my ears as I paraded by one of my most respected professors... " Make it MEANINGFUL, Make it Meaningful"

Summer Learning!

I wasn't kidding when I said I was going to think about how to enhance my classroom this summer. I already have begun participating in a blog party. I along with other teachers are reading a book, pictured below and then discussing and sharing ideas on making our math curriculum the best it can be, and I will strive to make it meaningful and relevant to my students. One of the main areas that I am excited about is learning the many ideas and suggestions on differentiating my math stations for the varied learners I have in my class. I have experienced that in kindergarten this is so important. Some of my students may just be learning and introduced to a particular math concept where other students need to go 1 even 2 steps further to be challenged. Join with us or follow my blog to have some math fun this summer!

 

1.  Currently my differentiation is very poor. I basically have all my stations as one and split what I have based on the student using it. I now realize how to make some changes and labeling by stickers or number or color coding will be an easy fix and doable this summer!

2.  Storage of my math stations is haphazard!! I have some in a cabinet that I pull out when needed, some on the shelf for access all the time and others in files that again are pulled out when I want to use them. Hopefully in the future my storage will be more organized and accessible for both my students and myself!

3.   Most of my math items are stored in clear plastic tubs or bins. Some are labeled but hopefully by the end of the summer before school starts again in the fall they will ALL be in clear, plastic, visible tubs and bins with labels!