Beth’s Rocks–A Mathematical Performance Task

This week, we tackled another Math Performance Task.  It was about a girl named Beth who had two pockets and five rocks that she kept inside her pockets.  The question was: How might the rocks be divided between the two pockets?  How many rocks might be in each pocket?   This question drew upon our recently acquired knowledge of the number pairs for 5 and challenged us to put this knowledge to use–to see if we could recall the various ways to make five and how to split the whole (5) into parts.

Before we began this task, we actually spent an entire math lesson discussing the question, what was being asked, how to best tackle solving it, and how to communicate our ideas effectively.  It’s very important to set the expectations for these sorts of tasks, as students, especially Kindergarten students, don’t automatically know what teachers are looking for in solutions to these more open-ended performance tasks.  However, I did not tell them the answers to this task; instead I guided them through the thought process where they discovered possible solutions on their own.  My part in this task was to guide their communication so that I could better understand their thoughts and ideas as they worked through the problem.

The next day when I handed over the problem to the students, the results were extraordinary.  Every child was able to give me at least one possible solution to this problem of how the rocks may have been divided into Beth’s two pockets.  Lots of children gave me more than one possibility and several were able to show me all six possibilities.  What makes my heart full and what put a smile on my face was how far the children have come with their ability to communicate their thinking to me since back in the fall when we did a performance task with patterning.  Back then the children made a pattern and turned in their work.  Very few had any sort of writing, mathematical notations, or explanations of any kind.  But on Tuesday, I saw very different thinking and communicating from my class.

Here’s an example of a response that was very well done in terms of communicating ideas and solutions:

This student communicated her ideas with a combination of words, pictures, and mathematical symbols (numbers).  I could see from her drawings that she understood the question as she drew Beth, her two pockets (on her pants), and how the rocks could be divided between them.  I was also able to see that this student knew that there wasn’t just one way to divide the rocks, but many others, as she drew other sets of pockets on her paper and showed the other divisions that were possible.

Here’s another great example of this performance task:

Again, I could see Beth and the possibilities for the rocks in her pockets as shown by drawings of small rocks and labeled with numerals.  This mathematical communication was clear and concise and helped me to understand this child’s thinking in solving this problem.

Students did not need to find all of the possibilities in order to score a 3 on this task (a 3 on a performance task is a VERY good score!).  While this child did go on to add more solutions, she began with just one at first.

What makes this response so strong is her communication of ideas using pictures, words, and numbers.  And because the task doesn’t expect ALL possible solutions, but simply asks “How many rocks could be in each pocket?” the children only need to give one possibility for a solution to be considered valid.  However, the more solutions that are given, the more I know what the child knows.

I’d like to share one more solution to this problem.

This one I share because this child was able to show me, through his pictures, that he already has an understanding of how these part-part-whole solutions are really just basic addition facts–that when we add one part to another part we end up with a whole.  While I have not yet taught addition in any form to the students, this child has an understanding of the concept and was able to apply it to the problem.  I love these performance tasks because they help me to better understand what the children know and what background knowledge they may already possess.

We have one more performance task slated for the end of April (on patterns).  I am anxious and excited to see how the kiddos tackle this problem! If this current task is any indication, I suspect they will do quite well communicating their ideas as they provide a reasonable solution (or solutions) to the task.

Happy 100th Day of School!

Happy 100th Day of School!  We have made it more than half-way through Kindergarten and we were so excited to celebrate on Tuesday!

We started the day with a fun activity: decorating party hats with 100 stickers!  Peeling and sticking stickers is great fine motor practice for Kindergarten students, but they just love stickers so they have no idea they are doing something to strengthen their fingers and hands!  And the hats are just too cute!

Doing our daily calendar routine on the 100th Day is extra special because we finally get to count to 100 and we do this by both ones and tens.  We are now being held accountable for being able to count to 100 by ones, so if your child still needs practice with this skill, please practice counting every day.  We will be counting to 100 daily, but if additional practice is needed, please make this part of your child’s homework routine.  We practiced counting to 100 with Jack Hartmann and his fun 100th Day celebration song. Here’s the LINK to this fun song if you’d like to sing and dance at home and practice counting to 100!

The 100th Day collections that the children brought in this year truly showcased the student’s personalities and interests.  Children shared collections of beads, cereal, candies, marshmallows, beans, and pieces of pasta.   Each collection held meaning for the children and all were able to explain why they chose that special 100th Day collection item.  I love getting to know the children in this way!

We also did a very special 100th Day directed drawing activity!  We learned to draw what we might look like when we are 100 years old!  This listening and following directions activity was so fun for all of us as we added our own special touches and our own flair to these drawings.  Here are some of us at age 100!  I hope I look this good when I am 100!

At the end of our day of celebrating all things 100, we got our bodies moving by doing certain actions for 100 seconds.  While that doesn’t seem like a long time, clapping for 100 seconds, hopping up and down for 100 seconds, and singing the ABC song for 100 seconds is hard work!  Our clapping was loud at the beginning and by the end of 100 seconds you could barely hear us.  But it was a fun experiment, of sorts, and it got us up and moving, which is always a good thing.

So now that 100th Day has come and gone, the school year is on the downward slope to summer.  But we’ve still got a lot of learning to do and I can’t wait to spend the next 80 days or so learning with your child!

Thanks for 100 great days of school!

We are eggs-cited about Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!

This week we learned about the life and contributions of Martin Luther King, Jr. While some of the the causes Dr. King fought for may be a little beyond the developmental grasp of Kindergartners, they are easily able to understand that Dr. King helped change the world so that we could all be in the same classroom together, regardless of what we look like on the outside.  To drive home the point that we are all people, that our skin is just a covering, and that we are all the same on the inside, we did a little experiment this week with a couple of eggs.

Take a look at the results of our experiment:

 

First, we observed two whole, un-cracked eggs.  After using our sense of sight to observe the eggs, we discovered that they are similar in that they are both eggs and they both are oval.  We noticed that they are different because their shells are different colors.  We then predicted what the insides of the eggs might look like before I cracked the eggs one at a time.  The children were so interested to see that the eggs were exactly the same on the inside.  The only real difference between the eggs was the color of the outer shell.

On Monday, as we honor Dr. King, I hope the children will think back to our egg experiment and will remember that while we all may look different on the outside, we are all people with the same feelings and emotions on the inside.  I also hope for them, and for us all, to follow Dr. King’s example and use words to express emotions and to always, always just be kind to one another.

Happy Birthday, Dr. King!

George’s Problem: A Lesson in Mathematical Communication

On Monday of this week, during Math time, I posed a problem to the class called “George’s Pattern.”  Here’s the problem: George made a pattern with three different objects.  What might his pattern have looked like.  Explain your thinking using pictures, words, and symbols.

Before sending the students off to work on this activity during independent work time, we talked about the problem and what was being asked of them.  Most of the students quickly recognized that because George had made a pattern using three different objects, he had made an ABC pattern and that their job was to show me one possible ABC pattern.  However, I also let the students know that they needed to explain their thinking (or why they made the pattern they did) using words, symbols (like labeling the pattern), or pictures (if they couldn’t write the words).  Because the students were sending their solution to this problem to me via Seesaw, I also let them know that instead of writing their ideas, they could record a video to explain their thinking.  They could what ever they needed to do to get their ideas across to me.

I was so happy to get these responses and to see their mathematical thinking and problem solving when given a rather open-ended problem.  My Seesaw inbox was filled with one cleverly created ABC pattern after another.  I loved seeing the different objects used, as most often they were representative of the interests of the children.  But this problem was about more than just solving the problem and creating an ABC pattern.  This problem was also about being able to communicate WHY the problem was solves as it was.  So, I was very please to see that lots of the children labeled their pattern to let me know that they had created an ABC pattern.  This is the representation piece that I look for when a child solves an open-ended math problem like this one.  Can they create a mathematical model and label it to show their thinking?  Yes!  Those who labeled their patterns did just that!

But mathematical thinking goes one step beyond the representation stage, too.  Can children provide a reason for their solution and their representation?  Can they explain WHY they solved the problem as they did.  This is the hardest part of effectively completing a performance task like George’s Pattern.  And it’s not just a challenge for Kindergarten students; it’s a challenge for all students of all grades.

For this particular math problem, I was looking for the children to say/write/record something like this: I made this pattern and this pattern could be George’s pattern because it’s an ABC pattern.  ABC patterns are made with 3 different objects and George’s pattern had 3 different objects.  So, George’s pattern must be an ABC pattern.   But’s let be realistic–how is a Kindergarten student supposed to know that he/she needed to give this sort of explanation?  And, how many Kindergarten students can even explain their thinking in this way?  Well…that’s why we practice and that’s why your child will continue to be given these sorts of problems  throughout the school year.  To practice and to grow as a mathematical thinker and problem solver.  Children aren’t born knowing how to solve math problems or how to express themselves in this way.  It’s a learned skill and one that improves with practice.

In the same way you talk with your child about the books he/she reads, PLEASE also talk with your child about math.  Ask questions about the tasks he/she is doing.  Probe deeper when he/she give you a surface-level answer.  And don’t ever settle for “because” or “I don’t know” as answers.  Make your child think, talk, and reflect.  It will take time, as all learned skills do, but in the end, you will have an amazing mathematical communicator!

A word about sight words

One of the first steps towards becoming a fluent reader is for younger learners to develop a sight word vocabulary.  Knowing the importance of this step, HCPS has developed a series of poems that Kindergarten students use to not only learn how print is organized and read, but to learn sight words within the context of a familiar text.

Each Monday, I teach our class a new poem.  We first “read” this poem through pictures.  I teach the poem to the class and they echo it back to me.  I also use this introduction day to teach the new sight words for the week, encouraging the children to listen for the words as we say the rhyme together. On Tuesday, I introduce the printed text to the students, showing them how we read from left to right while also pointing out the sight words for the week.  The rest of the week is spent re-reading the poem, and playing games to learn the sight words, both in and out of the context of the poem.

We have been learning new sight words since September and now our words wall looks like this:

We have learned 31 sight words to date (this number includes the color words, which are not posted on the word wall in the classroom), which is amazing!  During the first marking period of school, which ended today, students have an expectation to read a “few” sight words, along with their first name.  Because of this rather gray grading guideline, we (the KG teachers) chose not to take a grade on sight word recognition during this marking period.  However, we will for the second nine weeks (which ends in late January) as that guideline is more clear: 20 words.  Your child will need to read any 20 of the sight words we will have learned to that point in the year in order to earn a 4 for this skill.  We already have 31 on our list now and we will add about 2 words a week during the second nine weeks.  So, by then we will have roughly 50 words and your child just needs to know ANY 20 of them to earn a grade of 4.*

If your child has been reviewing the sight word slide show in Schoology, or practicing our words using flashcards or some other means, I suspect that being able to read 20 words by the end of January shouldn’t be too difficult.  But for some recalling sight words can be a challenge, if for no other reason than practicing them isn’t always the most fun.  Because of this, I have attached a handout for parents and caregivers to this week’s newsletter that should help give you some additional ways to review sight words at home.  Pay attention to #4 on the list to get suggestions for ways to make sight word practice more hands on and fun!  And please know that you do not have to always practice sight words with the google slides.  That is just there as a resource.

Here are some other ways to practice sight words:

  • Spell them with magnetic letters/cookie sheet
  • Write with crayons or markers
  • Write on dry erase board with colored markers
  • Write in shaving cream or finger paints
  • Write outside with sidewalk chalk
  • Write them using a writing/draw app on the iPad
  • Practice reading and recording them on Seesaw
  • Read to older/younger siblings or stuffed animals
  • Make sight words out of Legos
  • Spell sight words by rolling out playdough and forming it into letters
  • Spell sight words with letter beads

I am sure there are other ways to practice these words that I haven’t even thought of yet.  If you find something that works for your child, let me know so I can add it to my sight word activity list.  Use your imagination!  Have fun with this! Sight word practice can be fun and exciting!

Happy reading! -DW

 

*In the past, Third Nine Weeks required 30 words to earn a 4 and Fourth Nine Weeks required 40 words to earn a 4 for reading sight words.

Talk About What You’re Reading!

5 Finger Retell Poster {FREEBIE!} by The Simplified Classroom | TpT

This week we have begun to learn more about Story Elements during our whole-group reading time.  The elements that we focus on in Kindergarten are: characters (the people/animals a story is about), setting (where a story takes place), and beginning-middle-end events.  To make these 5 story elements easy to remember and recall, we use the image of a hand, where each finger represents a story element.  We call this a “Five Finger Retell” and we use this to retell a story with all of its important components.

We have used this strategy all week to name the story elements and to retell the stories we have read in class, and we will use this strategy all year as we read and discuss stories, but this strategy isn’t just for school!  I highly encourage you to use this strategy at home when you are reading stories with your child(ren).  The more children begin to think about and talk about (either through words or pictures) how stories progress from beginning to end, and to think about character development within stories, the stronger their overall listening/reading comprehension will become.  However, don’t feel as though you need to do this every time you read a story.  Some stories are just meant to just be read and enjoyed and that’s OK!

Talking about what we read is a natural part of the reading process.  I encourage you to read with your child nightly and to talk about what you read.  But, don’t just talk about the Five Finger Retell story elements!  Talk about your favorite parts of the story.  Talk about what you liked and what you didn’t like about the story.  Talk about what surprised you, or scared you.  Talking about stories and hearing someone else’s ideas about the same story is exciting and challenging.  I thank you for reading with your child each home and for starting these valuable discussions about what you’re reading.  You’re working to grow a great reader and I am grateful for your partnership on this exciting journey with your child!

 

Kindergarten Writing Journal: Does Your Child Have One?

Today was Day 30 of the 2020 school year.  I can’t believe that we’ve already been in school for 30 days!  We’ve gotten into a groove for sure and I continue to be amazed every day at what my fabulous 5 and 6 year olds are capable of learning and doing each day.

Without question, students are more engaged when they are actively involved in the lesson.  It is for this reason that we often use whiteboards in our daily lessons.  I love the ease of using whiteboards during lessons: they are quick, they seem to be readily available in the student’s virtual learning spaces, and the kids love them.  Mistakes are easily corrected and, let’s face it, they are just fun to write on!

But, there’s a time and a place for white boards and then there is a time and a place for journals.  As we begin to wrap-up the first nine weeks, and look forward to the second nine weeks, journal writing is going to become a bigger part of our weekly work.   This is not to say that we won’t use white boards–we are going to use those all year for the reasons mentioned above.  We are just going to make sure that we are also writing in our journals.

If you have not yet had the time to get a writing journal for your child, please take the time this weekend to get one for him/her and please make sure this journal is in his/her learning space and available for use during the school day.  And if your child learns away from home, PLEASE make sure that his/her whiteboard, marker, AND journal make it into his/her backpack each day.  The following pictures are of a writing journal I have in the classroom, and this is the journal that was listed on the KG supply list that you received when you registered your child for KG.  This primary writing journal is the one we prefer, as it has both lines and a white space for a picture.

 


 

However, if you were not able to find this kind of journal (and there are different versions of this journal, depending on the brand/maker), that is totally fine!  Here are some other notebooks that can be used as writing journals:

Amazon.com : Black Marble Composition Notebook, 100-Count, Wide Ruled, 9 3/4" x 7 1/2" (12 PACK) : Writing Pencils : Office Products   Spiral Notebook Wide Rule Yellow Cover 70 Sheets - Schoolbox Kits

 

It doesn’t matter to me what a writing journal looks like.  What I care about is that your child has a place to write that doesn’t get erased at the end of the lesson (like when we use white boards) and that the writing stays inside the notebook and doesn’t get ripped out or thrown away.  Unfortunately, kiddos without journals have done some writing for me this year on a plain piece of paper and I am concerned that the piece of paper is now lost, and with it, a wonderful piece of writing is now gone.  It’s ok to write on a random piece of paper sometimes, but a journal is an essential school supply.  It is something your child is going to need every year, as journal writing is an activity used in every grade.  So, again, if your child doesn’t yet have one of these notebooks, please take the time this weekend to go find one for your child so that he/she will have it next week for his/her classwork! We are going to practice writing numbers 0-5 next week and having a journal for math next week is going to be essential!

And, if you want to help me instill good journal writing habits with your child, lets work together to teach him/her to use the front of one page, and then turn the page to use the back, and so on and so on, moving systematically through the journal, just like reading the pages of a book (rather than just opening the journal to a random page and writing on that one).  I have seen one parent use a binder clip to mark the next page to be written on.  A paperclip would work, too, or even a traditional bookmark, or even the name plate I sent to each child inside the at-home learning kits.  In this way, the writing samples that your child works on will be in order from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, showing progress in a way that no other work that your child will ever be able to do.  I still have the journals that my own daughters used while they were in elementary school, and it’s amazing to look back and see how they wrote their name on the first day of school and then compare that to how they wrote on the last day of school.  The growth is amazing!  Or even comparing what a sentence looked like when they were writing in Kindergarten to the stories they wrote as second graders.  These writing journals are time capsules and I promise they will be something you will treasure at the end of the year.

Thank you for making sure that your child has this essential school supply.  And if you are interested in getting one of the journals like the one I have at school (with lines and a space for drawing), send me an email and I can get you the information on where to find one.   -DW

At-home Sorting Ideas

Next week in Math, we will begin a two week sorting unit.  This is traditionally one of my favorite math units.  As a Kindergarten Teacher and a math-lover, I just love sorting.  There is something comforting about sorting items into groups and creating order out of chaos.  And, sorting is a life-long #lifeready skill.  Think about the things we sort every day: laundry, utensils, dishes, papers, mail, toys, and the list can go on and on.  Kindergarten students are too sweet and new to school to ever say “How am I going to use this when I am an adult?” But if they did, imagine what we could tell them about sorting: “You’re going to spend the rest of your life sorting things!”

As our team was planning to teach sorting during Virtual Learning, it became clear that some of the things we love so much about sorting (namely, the fun and engaging manipulatives that we KG teachers tend to collect in droves) we couldn’t quite do like we always have done.  Never fear…we are still going to read some awesome sorting stories and will work through various sorts on flipcharts and Google Slides, but there are some amazing hands-on sorting opportunities that you can do with your child at home to reinforce our learning “at school.”

For instance, do you have a pile of socks at home like this on laundry day?

Sorting Socks - Sew a Fine Seam

If so, let your Kindergarten student help you sort them!  Even if you don’t want your child to fold the socks, I bet he/she will amaze you at the speed at which like socks can be found.

 

Is it time to unload the dishwasher/dish drainer and put the utensils away?

Sorting Silverware | Vocational tasks, Life skills classroom, Train activities

While you might want to pull the utensils out of the dishwasher/dish drainer so that little hands don’t get cut or scraped, sorting utensils is a life skill that is never too early to learn.  And what a feeling of accomplishment when those utensils are neatly sorted and put away!  Your child will be so very proud of him/herself! And you can be proud for fostering independence and responsibility within your child.

Does a room in your house look like this?

Messy Toys photos, royalty-free images, graphics, vectors & videos | Adobe Stock

I had several rooms that looked like this when my girls were little–all filled with Barbie clothes and accessories!  But, if you want to be amazed, challenge your child to sort his/her toys.  You will be so surprised with the groups he/she is able to come up with (all the round toys, all the blue toys, all the Legso, etc).  Before you know it, the toy chaos will be sorted, grouped, and ready to be put away.

All of this hands-on sorting is what I will miss the most during the next two weeks of math time.  In the past I have given students a simple bag of foam shapes and NO directions with what to do with them.  Suddenly I see kiddos sorting by color or shape.  Children tend to naturally know how to sort and categorize.  I love to buy the tiny erasers that you can find in the Dollar Spot at Target for my classroom.  When students are allowed to “explore” the containers of these erasers that I have at school, they come up with the smartest, most clever ways to sort them.

Even though our sorting during the school day will need to be digital at this time, I offer up these suggestions to make household chores a little more fun (and a learning experience at the same time).  Encourage your child to put his/her sorting knowledge into practice and help you get things sorted around the house.  You never know…some of these tasks could become regular jobs for your child!

And if your child does get busy sorting things around your home, have him/her take some pictures of their sorts and send them to me via Seesaw.  I love to see a good before and after sort!

Happy sorting!

PALS Testing: Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening

PALS-K | Curry School of Education and Human Development | University of VirginiaPALS Order Form | Printing & Copying Services, U.Va.

What is PALS testing?

PALS stands for Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening.  It’s a test that all Kindergartners in HCPS will take three times a year: in the fall, in the winter (January), and again in the spring.  PALS formally assesses several reading and literacy skills that your child currently has mastered.  This data is essential information for me, as it helps me know what your child knows so that I can more effectively design reading instruction to reach your child where he/she is currently performing.  PALS also helps me know where gaps in learning may exist so that I can better differentiate our classroom instruction to build these skills within each child.  If a larger gap exists, a student may qualify for extra intervention beyond what I am already providing during whole-group and small-group instruction.

This test has several subtests:

  • rhyming
  • beginning sounds
  • lower case letter recognition
  • letter sound production
  • spelling
  • sight words
  • blending
  • sound to letter

These tests are traditionally administered in person, but due to COVID, the PALS office has developed ways for us to administer these tests virtually, using a user-friendly Power Point presentation that I will be able to screen share with the children as we work through each sub-test.

I will schedule a 30 minute appointment for each child from 12:35-1:05 each day beginning on Monday, October 12th and I will communicate this date to you before Monday, October 5th, so that you may plan accordingly.  Not having ever given all of these tests during one sitting, I am hopeful that we can get through all of the tests in 30 minutes.  We may need a little longer, depending on the child.  If more time is needed and the child seems to need a break, I will contact you and talk about a good time to finish testing.

The results of these tests will be shared with parents/guardians during conferences in November, provided that we are done with testing at that time.  If we are not yet finished with testing, I will be glad to set up a time to chat with you about your child’s results so that you are in the know about your child’s developing literacy skills.

Please be on the lookout for an email from me this weekend that will contain your child’s scheduled day in October to participate in PALS testing.  -DW

 

Optional Pencil-Paper Packets

Today is the first day of getting Optional Pencil-Paper Packets for your child, so I wanted to mention a few things about how this process will work each week.

First, these paper-pencil jobs will always be ready on Fridays.  I figured that it may help some of you who have asked to come get them for them to be ready on Fridays so that you will have the weekend to come grab your child’s packet, if you’ve opted to pick them up.  For those who wanted them emailed, it gives you the weekend to get them printed and ready, especially if you are sending these jobs to daycare/sitter for your child to work on throughout the week.

Second, I am always going to send these assignments in an email to everyone.  I am doing this so that those of you who have asked to pick up the papers will know they are ready for you to come pick up.  When you get the email, know that the papers are in my box (see picture above) outside of the main doors and are ready for you to come get.  And, if there is ever a week where you can’t make it to school,  you will have the email and will be able to print them on your own.

We (The SPES KG Teachers) are hoping to give these to you for more than one week at a time, to help minimize trips to school, but it was a tight squeeze this week with one week’s worth of papers, so stay tuned for more information about this.  In the meantime, happy working!