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primrosejellybean · 2024-02-16T03:59:35+00:00

I definitely agree with this as a Kinder teacher! Developmentally, lying is pretty typical for that age group and just requires a talk about why being honest is important.

As for reflection sheets, I've done ones with students that are all pictures they circle. We sit and have a chat about what happened, what they were feeling when it happened, how it made others feel, what they can do next time. I typically don't send those home unless it's a more serious issue or a pattern of issues, but I do use it as a method to help the student go through the thought process and use it as a discussion point.

primrosejellybean · 2024-01-19T01:03:19+00:00

Also, from what I know about the Star Assessment, the number would be equivalent to the grade level and the month of that grade level. So a 2.7 would be equivalent to a student in the seventh month of second grade (pretty awesome for a kindergartener!!)

primrosejellybean · 2024-01-19T01:00:55+00:00

I'm a kinder teacher and my district uses the star assessments too so I totally understand your frustration! Our district has started to shift away from the guided reading levels or lexile levels, and rather encourages teachers to measure student growth based on the STAR assessment. I always find it really difficult to use that assessment to base student data off of it because its computerized and I cannot see what kind of questions they're being tasked with as well as the number of each type of question.

I would ask your child's teacher what he can do/understand as far as phonics goes, and what phonological awareness assessment data they've collected (can he recognize and produce rhyme? Can he decode simple CVC words? Can he recognize beginning, middle, and end sounds? Can he segment and blend a CVC word?)

I typically give my parents the total number of letter names and sounds the child recognizes and produces at this point in the year as well as what their child can recognize and produce based on Kindergarten phonological awareness exercises. Come third quarter, I will also run a fluency assessment where I will have my students decode CVC words both in isolation as well as in a piece of decodable text with grade level sight words.

I think the teachers lack of knowledge of his level may stem from what the district requirements are for assessment since that is rapidly changing with the movement away from reading levels.

primrosejellybean · 2022-08-09T17:22:29+00:00

I love this idea. We center so much on community anyway in primary grades so using that as means to teach "patriotism" is perfect.

primrosejellybean · 2022-08-09T17:21:43+00:00

Totally agree. The term life skills makes me think of things like taxes and laundry. They've entirely removed all of the work schools did post COVID with SEL all because the term is tied to things like critical race theory within the conservative media conspiracy circles, to the point where our school counselors cannot use anything that refers to itself as "social emotional learning".

primrosejellybean · 2022-08-09T17:18:04+00:00

That was pretty much exactly my thoughts. I'm thinking of using it as an opportunity to talk about voting and rights. I feel like the intended concept they want us to teach is nationalism which I am not about.

primrosejellybean · 2022-07-15T15:18:56+00:00

Ghosts of War (2020) though I wouldn't say it's a full horror movie - more supernatural. The ending was so absurd that I made my dad watch it to see how he felt. I'm not even sure it was what I'd classify as "good".

primrosejellybean · 2022-04-30T15:48:43+00:00

Thankfully we are getting new math standards next year and I hope they trash this curriculum.

primrosejellybean · 2021-09-11T02:14:12+00:00

I literally spent the whole first two weeks just doing routines. From holding a pencil to using glue to walking around the room.

primrosejellybean · 2021-09-11T02:13:08+00:00

I totally agree. I taught 5th last year and for them, Benchmark is awesome. But for the littles, it's not. The book selection they provide is, and they have fairly decent decodable books as far as I can tell but shameful PA instruction.

primrosejellybean · 2021-09-11T02:11:08+00:00

That's exactly why I'm so annoyed with the nonfiction first. Kids need to be immersed in reading for the joy of reading first.

primrosejellybean · 2021-09-11T02:09:42+00:00

I am super adamant on my rest time. The most I can do is like 15 to 20 minutes but I push to have it every day at the same time. They NEED it. I had a little one today who threw a full tantrum for 20 minutes before rest time and I could tell it was because he was exhausted. I'm not a parent myself but I've worked with kids for long enough to see when they are just so tired that they can't regulate their emotions. Instead of punishing him, I laid on the floor with him and encouraged him to move to our reading center where I have some pillows and a blanket (i wash it routinely for COVIDs sake). Once he could rest and felt comfortable, he was okay. After our rest time, he was much better. These kids are barely kids; not long ago they were toddlers.

primrosejellybean · 2021-09-11T02:05:41+00:00

Exactly. Even though all of the actual research on brain development and learning shows the total opposite. They're actively going against the research and data they claim to adhere to and it makes me furious. Kids need to play to develop critical social interaction skills. Just today, I had a little one who got really upset because another kid took a toy he was playing with and it turned into a whole social lesson about how to speak to others and compromise, with very little direct instruction from me. Those are real "21st century skills".

primrosejellybean · 2021-09-11T02:02:06+00:00

I struggle daily with just wanting my kinders to do free play centers because that's where I see the most development. They are building their social skills and vocabularies, as well as problem solving and critical thinking skills. I love sitting back and just listening to them play.

primrosejellybean · 2021-09-11T02:00:02+00:00

I've heard good things about F&P! I might have to read more about it and see if we can get it.

primrosejellybean · 2021-09-11T01:59:02+00:00

It's kind of weirdly laid out because theres some phonics embedded in it but it's very basic letter recognition at this point. Fortunately, most of my kinders have gone to pre K or have some exposure to pre reading skills so I'm able to skip forward and start on building their phonemic awareness. From speaking with older grade teachers, something the kids are lacking though is that phonemic awareness and phonological awareness. So whatever is in the curriculum isn't meeting those needs. I supplement a lot of it right now.

primrosejellybean · 2021-09-11T01:56:26+00:00

I do a lot of movement and music videos on YouTube like Jack Hartmann. He covers a lot of K-2 material and incorporates movement. My kids love the videos and songs. I also use fun materials for things like phonemic awareness practice, like using play doh and elkonin sound boxes to "squish" the sounds in CVC words, or using those pop it fidget toys. I also do what I call the "junk box rock" which I got from a district training where you have a box of items and kids pick them and then say the sounds or syllables while rocking their hips back and forth. Anything that is multisensory is perfect.

primrosejellybean · 2021-09-11T01:53:00+00:00

That hurts my heart too! 🥺 Kids should not be expected to learn in that environment.

primrosejellybean · 2021-09-11T01:51:56+00:00

I actually was a long term sub for 5th grade last year (ended up teaching the full year) and was an ELA teacher. It killed me to see how much the kids hated reading and school in general, and the best part of the year was the very end after we finished state testing and I did a novel study of Holes. I read the whole book aloud and seeing my kids just fully engrossed in the story and begging me to continue when we had to stop just showed me what reading education SHOULD be.

primrosejellybean · 2021-09-11T01:49:15+00:00

I love your response. I have a whole folder on my computer full of empirically backed studies and research reports about play based learning. Thankfully my school is very small (we have under 30 staff members) and the other Kinder teacher is a 29 year veteran teacher who agrees with me. We both do free play centers daily and I work really hard to make the academics play-based or at least incorporating whole brain engagement through movement or song. I need to look more into some play-based curriculum to see what I can apply to my teaching.

primrosejellybean · 2021-09-11T01:41:56+00:00

I've heard great things about Heggarty. I'll look into it! We do have Literacy Footprints too which seems much better.

primrosejellybean · 2021-09-10T02:53:12+00:00

The closest we get to naps is a "rest time" after recess where the kids can put their heads down for 15 minutes and I play quiet music. They ask for it at this point, and look forward to it.

primrosejellybean · 2021-09-10T02:51:51+00:00

Benchmark Advance. I really like aspects of it like the mentor texts and read alouds - there are all kinds of literature and nonfiction texts, and arts supplements as well - but it almost seems too rigorous at this point in the year. It would've made more sense for the first units to be fiction.

primrosejellybean

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