Scoring Kinder work

How to Score Kindergarten work???

So my first year in kindergarten I would give out work, we would complete it together, and then I would put a smile, sticker, or something cute on it and send it home. Many times students would need lots of help to complete work and we would sit with them and guide them through it. I didn’t want to students to ever leave something wrong! I am a strong believer in immediate feedback. We often fixed stuff on the spot.   This is all good…But I found a HUGE problem!  My sweet babies’ parents thought their students were always getting everything right!  Oh no!  So when I had my first conferences or would call for concerns, they were shocked.  I should have known this would happen, but it was a bit of a shock to me!  I adjusted pretty quickly and for the past four years, after helping students I have been writing with teacher’s help on the paper.  This has gotten old…my hand is tired and sometimes it takes a while to this on each kids paper.  

                   This year I have found a new solution!  I sent a note home yesterday. If children receive a star on their paper they completed it individually with little or no help. If they have a smile, they had some help.  If they have a check, they were guided all the way through it or had to fix a large portion of it.  This is quick, easy, and simple.  We had a class discussion about it too!  Now my kids want stars and are trying their absolute best, especially on the handwriting…yay!!!  We discussed that everyone needs help sometimes, even Mrs. Nelson.  So far so good!  Hopefully this new system will save some time, some hand hurting, and encourage my students to do their absolute best!!    

If you would like a copy of the note click here.  

• This is a word doc, so you are welcome to edit it!  It is set a little low because I printed it on super cute superhero paper, so you can adjust it for your needs =).

Bubble Gum Numbers

  This year I want my students to understand numbers inside and out.  We are starting this year with numbers the common core way!   Here is a cute glimpse of what we will do this week!  It’s a face lift to the  bubble gum book I have used the past several years.  My kids love drawing the gumballs and then we share some real gumballs and count how many times we chew and graph the colors too.  Click here for a copy.

Class Room Tour

 Okay so a new year has started and this year I plan to actually keep up with my blog to help me track all the great things we do in our kindergarten room!

 This year my sweet boy has been obsessed with super heroes, hence my motivation for a super hero classroom. I am usually pretty successful connecting with the girls in  my room, but I really want to make sure that I make connections with my boys in the first days of school.  So for the past couple of years I have tried to theme my room in ways that will pull in the boys.  With inspiration from pinterest and my favorite little man, I designed my classroom:

Welcome to room 303!

I drew and painted our giant superheroes with help from my kiddos.

Password

A different word will go on a index card here each week for students to say before they come in the room. After we have been going a few weeks, their will be two or three passwords so I can switch them up on the students.

Super Vowel Friends

I created our super vowel friends in hopes that my students will gain a better understanding of vowels this year. Their names are their short vowel sounds and I am working on little books to go with each super friend. 

Super Reading Area

 Another awesome teacher at our school painted the superheroes several years ago and passed them to me this year. It really brightens up my reading area and saved me some precious time!

 

Daring Data Bear

Our Daring data bear will help us track our classroom data this year. The chart on the left is our sight words. As children master each sight word list their little superhero will go up.  The chart on the right shows how they are progressing in their phonics knowledge. Each child will have a purple target for the things they have mastered and a red target for the items they are currently working on. The superheroes and the targets will have each student’s number on them so info stays confidential.  The chart in the middle will be signed by students once they know all their letters and letter sounds.

Super Hero Centers

My centers groups for the first several weeks will be super heroes.  There are lots of centers on the board, but we usually start with just one and then grow as we learn our procedures.  My picture frames have our weekly sight words and weekly sounds, and I have got to remember to bring get those hanging straight!  We also have word bubbles for our lunch graph which we go over each day. My kids can usually spell and understand more, less, and equal like pros from our lunch graph!

Super Hero Procedures

Our school has school wide rules which are posted as PAWS and our top procedures in our classroom are below them. We practice them each day during our morning meeting using the Whole Brain Teaching method.

Chicka Chicka

 Boom Boom. 

We begin our year with my favorite book. I have been taking their pictures this week in front of the tree and we will post them on our tree with our names. This coming week.!

Super Shapes

I replaced my old shapes with super shapes to go with the theme…just for a fun twist!

Open House Requests:

  I displayed this sign at open house and set out little coconuts with items we needed.

View of the back!

  My table is a mess. I took these pictures after the first day and didn’t think about cleaning the table first!  My science board will have all our fun giant science items and student work.  Our vowel friends are also on the cabinets so that we can post cvc words with the correct vowels on the doors.   

Thanks for touring my room!  Please feel free to leave questions and comments!