Math Monkey: Math Intervention in Kindergarten

Beanie Babies may not live on as collector's items but they definitely have a place in a kindergarten classroom!  "Math Monkey" is a popular partner when there is an "odd one out" at my math intervention table.  Here is how it works:

In my classroom, I have created STEAM centers which run for 15-20 minutes four days a week. (You can read more about my STEAM centers in an earlier September 2017 post.) Students rotate through the STEAM centers in table groupings. When a group arrives at the Math center, they will always find me there.  I'll be wearing my gold crown which means I am busy meeting with my Royal Mathematicians!  Students know to "Ask three before me" when I am wearing the crown.  Sometimes I'm lucky enough to have a volunteer to answer questions but, most often, students work without need of much help in the other centers.

At the Math center, the students will always find one or two math games or activities.  For the past three years, these games have come from our district's math curriculum, Bridges Mathematics. We always play the games as a class on two separate days so the children know what to do when they arrive at the center.  

As soon as the students are settled, I ask one to come sit on the other side of the table with me.  If there is an even number of students and the activity is a game for partners, this leaves one without a partner.  Math Monkey to the rescue!  For the time that I'm working with one student, Math Monkey steps in as the partner.  Kindergarteners absolutely love this! Many are quite ingenuous about moving her about to spin a spinner, roll a dice, count objects, etc.

My table groupings are heterogeneous so I usually have no more than 2 students (out of 4-5) who need to practice a math skill or concept with me. This means I can work with each of those students individually for 6-7 minutes.  I keep a chart in the Math Center bin along with the materials I need to practice the math skills for each trimester.  Our district's report card has not been updated in more than a decade and is definitely in need of revision.  Each time I work with a child I mark a dot to indicate we worked together and an X when the skill is mastered.  This is a blank copy of my chart which you are welcome to grab HERE.

And here is a picture of the simple materials I use for working on these skills and concepts.

Admittedly, math intervention just once every five school days is not a lot.  So, I do send home this note to parents each time I work with their child to let them know their child would benefit from additional practice.  Just click on these words Math Monkey to receive your copy!

Why I Have Devoted 31 Years To Teaching PUBLIC School

Over the long weekend, I had a chance to read a few articles in one of my favorite magazines, The Atlantic.  This monthly periodical has been around since 1857.  It has a reputation for being politically moderate.  I like it.

"The War on Public Schools," by Erika Christakis caught my eye.  "Across the political spectrum, Americans have declared them a failure.  But we've underestimated their strengths and forgotten their purpose."  Right away, I knew I'd agree with this author's perspective.  I also believe that politicians on all sides are too critical of our public schools. We do a lot of things really well, as Ms. Christakis points out. I,too, believe that it is essential to American society that we maintain our public schools.  Most importantly, I believe we must improve our instruction in American history, government, civics, current events and policy issues if our democracy is to survive.

As Ms. Christakis points out, the idea that public schools benefit not only individuals but our society, as a whole, is as old as the nation. The Pilgrims established community schools.  Our Founding Fathers understood the importance of a public education.  Thomas Jefferson wrote that a functioning democracy requires an educated citizenry.  John Adams wrote, "There should not be a district of one mile square without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the expense of the people themselves." Schools during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries struggled--not always kindly--to Americanize immigrants but they largely succeeded. When I was in school in the 1960s and early 70s, we learned American history with increasing complexity in fifth, seventh and tenth grades. We had a civics class in eighth grade, and "Modern Problems in a Democracy" as seniors in high school.  

But, for the past twenty years or so, certainly since the passage of No Child Left Behind and Common Core State Standards, social studies education has been especially weakened. How else can we explain the dismal voting records of young adults and polls showing three-quarters of Americans can't identify the three branches of government?!   In my state of Illinois, new social studies standards will finally be implemented after I retire.  I have seen the standards and been impressed.  However, we have so much we have to teach nowadays and I wonder how it will all be accomplished.

I became a teacher because I loved being with young children as a babysitter, Headstart volunteer, Sunday School teacher, and camp counselor.  I also became a teacher because I believed it could be my way of making a positive contribution to American society.  Although I have never been given a social studies curriculum, I have developed units and lessons on American Indians, Thanksgiving, Dr. Martin Luther King, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, Mount Rushmore, voting, and the American flag.  Students in my class have always known my enthusiasm for these subjects.  I hope to share these lessons in future posts. And I hope that public school teachers everywhere and for all time will make it a priority to teach what it means to be an American.

Click on the magazine title for a link to the article, "The War on Public Schools," in The Atlantic.

My Favorite Bulletin Board of All Time!

So, here it is!  My favorite bulletin board of all time!  My kindergarteners and I have been creating it annually for at least eight years now.  I have fun preparing it, the students love making additions to it and watching it change each month, and I've received SO many compliments from staff and parents.  

Take a closer look:

And now look at a couple of the monthly variations:

Here is October's pumpkin patch.

And here is May's flower garden.

It all starts with a photo of each child that I take during the first weeks of school.

Next, I read a favorite book,  The Colors of Us,  by Karen Katz, and the children choose the construction paper they want for their skin color.

I sit down at home with each child's photo and some construction paper and a pair of scissors and--voila!

Then, at school, I teach the class how to draw all the important details of their faces, one feature at a time:  eyes, pupils, irises, the whites of our eyes, eyelashes, eyebrows, an l or j shaped nose, and a smile.  I share one exciting fact about each facial feature: for example, our pupils are actually holes that let the light come in!  In order to stop certain students from racing ahead and scribbling over their face, I have a little song that I sing to the tune of "Hold your finger in the air"  between steps:

"Hold your crayon in the air, in the air.

Hold your crayon in the air, in the air,

Hold your crayon in the air,

And hold it awhile up there,

Hold your crayon in the air, in the air."

You can get surprisingly good results from kindergarteners if you go slowly.

I usually keep the bulletin board in the class the first month and then move it to a hallway bulletin board above our lockers.  I want the kindergarteners to take ownership of it so that when it moves outside the classroom, they have a desire to look up to see it.

Here are the projects we do each month:

August:  creating our Kindergarten Kids and their faces

September:  torn paper apples 

October:  free form pumpkins of various sizes with vines attached

November:  turkeys

December and January:  winter caps

February:  red or pink hearts with "I Love You" and  crumpled bits of white tissue paper around the border

March:  black pots with bits of gold foil, paper, glitter, candy wrappers inside

April:  umbrellas made with half of a paper plate painted with watercolors and black chenille handles

May:  flowers--this is the one project I definitely request parents to work on with their child at home since we get the most lovely, varied garden

Upper vs. Lowercase: What's the BEST Case Scenario?

Traditional or Modern Manuscript? Handwriting without Tears or Zaner-Bloser? Lined paper or unlined paper?  Uppercase or lowercase?  These are some of the questions that I have pondered through my long career as a kindergarten teacher.

As is true about so many issues in education, there is probably no correct answer. If you ask a reading specialist, you are likely to hear that beginning readers need to be exposed to various fonts, that learning to write strengthens memory for letters and sounds, that knowledge of lowercase letters should precede uppercase letters since text is mostly lowercase. If you ask an occupational therapist, you might hear a strong preference for Handwriting without Tears and the relative simplicity of uppercase letter formation.  If you ask a learning disabilities specialist, she will likely tell you that some children benefit from learning to write along with learning letters and their sounds while others struggle so much with the handwriting that they experience no benefit as readers.

In my 23 years of teaching kindergarten, I've been able to experiment with different approaches to teaching handwriting.  From 1995-2008, I taught handwriting in conjunction with learning each letter and its sound. I used the Modern Manuscript form, or D'Nealian, because I knew research showed it reduced reversals and eased the later transition to cursive.  I taught both uppercase and lowercase letters as I focused on each letter and its sound.  Here is what D'Nealian manuscript looks like:

I used Smart Start writing paper because I found its "sky" and "grass lines" were helpful reference points in teaching letter formation, as was the red broken line that I named 'the butterfly line."  I also used the sun/cloud formation as a reference point for making the "rainbow" that starts the lower case letter f, as well as numerals like 2 and 3.

In 2009, a new principal with a strong background in literacy coaching, recommended that we switch to traditional manuscript because of its closer approximation to print.  We learned to teach lowercase letters first because of their preponderance in print.  We followed a teaching order and verbal directions suggested by Jan Richardson:

Letter Formation – Start with one group and stick with it before moving on 

Group 1: Letters that start like a c

c‐ around like a c

o – around like a c and close

a – around like a c and down

d‐ around like a c, up and down

g – around like a c, down and hook left

 q ‐ around like a c, down

Group 2: Letters that start like an l

l – start at the top, down

t – start at the top, down, cross

h – start at the top, down and hump 

k – start at the top, down, in, out

b – start at the top, down and around

r – start at the top, down ,up, and over

n – start at the top, down, up, hump

m – start at the top, down, hump, hump i – start at the top, down, dot

j – start at the top, down, hook left, dot

p – start at the top, down, up and around

Group 3: Unique Letters

e – over and around like a c 

f – down, cross

s – around like a snake

u – down and up

v – down and up

w – down, up, down, up

x – like a cross

y – down, down

z – across, down, across 

I've followed this approach with some modifications these past seven or eight years and found it to be successful with all the students-- except those students for whom it was unsuccessful!  Each year, there seemed to be about a quarter of the class that persisted in writing letters from top to bottom, or backwards, or who didn't transfer what we did in handwriting practice sessions to other writing tasks.

This past summer, I gave some more thought to handwriting instruction.  I decided to combine what had been successful prior to 2009 with what I had learned in more recent years.  So, what does this look like?  I am explicitly teaching a couple of letters and their sounds each week.  I am teaching the lower case letters first, in an order that will quickly lead to decoding.  For starters, the first 12 letters are c, a, t, d, g, s, f, m, t, l, h, p, and n.  I am referring to letters that start like a c as  "two o'clock letters" and including a drawing of a clock face on modified Smart Start paper.  This is an idea I adapted from Preventing Academic Failure. Here is a link.  

I hope all goes as planned and I will be through the lowercase alphabet before Winter Break.  I'll reassess written alphabet production in January and see to what extent the uppercase letters need to be taught.  I'm excited at the outset of this combined phonics and handwriting program and will update this blog on its progress.

Getting to Know You: A Favorite Lesson!

One of the cool aspects of having taught kindergarteners for 23 years is that I pretty much know how they think.  So, I wasn't surprised by a couple of the little girls' comments about the nylons I wore yesterday.

                 Little girl #1:  So, tell me about what's on your legs.  Are they tights or leggings?
               
                   Little girl #2:  Yes, I like the color of that skin you are wearing today.  Is it peach?

No, I wasn't surprised but, of course, I was delighted!  Five year olds say so many cute things.  It has been one of the joys of being their teacher all these years.  I am also delighted by these remarks because they show curiosity about another person.  Given the egocentrism of young children, it is always exciting when one shows interest in someone other than himself/herself.

So, at the beginning of the year, many kindergarten teachers develop activities to help their students learn about each other. During our initial Morning Meetings, we practice saying our names in audible voices, in complete sentences, by introducing one another, by reading one another's names.  We read and discuss books about how we are all the same yet different like The Crayon Box That Talked,  Leo the Late Bloomer, Ferdinand, Chrysanthemum and Yoko.

My favorite lesson starts with my sending home this homework project:

You can grab a copy of it HERE.

I ask the parents to help their children cut and paste or draw and write one favorite thing in each category.  I also attach my sample:

My favorite color is green, by the way!

Each day, at Morning Meeting, when we pass around Share Bear, the children share what they like best in a selected category.  For example, today we will be sharing our favorite quiet activities.  Everybody is to use "school talk," which means to speak in a complete sentence in an audible voice.  I give everyone a sentence starter, "I like...."  If other children have the same favorite quiet activity, they are to signal their connection by pointing to their chests and raising the other hand like this:

Then, I write the child's sentence on a prepared chart like this one:

We listen to everyone's favorites but I only record some of their sentences each day because of time considerations.  Here is what the chart looks like when completed:

We circled the activity that was mentioned twice.

The kindergarteners love sharing their favorite things and making connections with others who have the same likes.  This lesson gives structure for our Morning Meeting shares for six days, creates a nice bulletin board, and functions as reading material for some of my small group lessons.  As you know, predictable charts can be used to understand sentences, words, spaces, punctuation, sight words, and decoding. 

I like lessons that can be used in so many ways.  But, most of all, I like this lesson because it helps me get to know my students and that is one of the greatest joys of teaching.

Pay Attention! Thoughts on Whole Brain Teaching

I had been teaching a very long time (35 years!!) before I discovered Whole Brain Teaching(WBT.)  Did I know how to capture the attention of young children?  Of course.  I knew and effectively used a whole variety of techniques from proximity control to hand clapping patterns to switching the lights on and off. I complimented Jenny and Jordan who were sitting so nicely knowing that it would likely motivate the same from Jackson who wiggled around between them. I collected and used cute little rhymes from Dr. Jean like 

"Tootsie Roll, Lollipop, We've been talking, Now let's stop."

But when I accidentally landed upon some Whole Brain Teaching videos on YouTube, I was intrigued.  After I spent some time on their website, I was ready to shelf those older attention-getting techniques.  And I've never gone back in these past 5 or 6 years!

Why am I so impressed with Whole Brain Teaching?  I like that it cuts down on excess "teacher talk" around giving simple directions.  Just compare these two examples:

Traditional:  Blue Table, please stand.  Push in your chairs.  Jose pushed in his chair.  And so did Jason and Julia.  We are just waiting for Jayden.  Ok, good.   Oh.  Jenny, Jordan and Jackson are doing a nice job of standing at the red table. NOW, I see Joshua is standing, too. .... etc.

Whole Brain Teaching:  Bodies up.  Oh, yeah! ( clap once and tally a smiley face on the scoreboard) Chairs in. Oh yeah! (clap another time and tally a smiley face on the scoreboard) Blue table come join us. Oh yeah! (clap another time and tally a smiley face on the scoreboard)...etc.

Whole Brain Teaching techniques save time for actual instruction.  Positive peer pressure motivates the class to work together.  

I also like the use of Total Physical Response (TPR) in Whole Brain Teaching.  I learned about Total Physical Response in ELL workshops as a way to improve comprehension and retention of material.  By engaging hands and sometimes whole bodies along with speaking, I also see children paying better attention.  When I say, "Hands and Eyes," and every child folds his hands together and looks up at the teacher, I know I have their attention.  

And the third reason I like WBT is for its emphasis on and the structure it gives to partner learning.  I love using "Teach! Okay!" to get partners to teach one another sequential steps for solving a math problem, completing a project, or remembering ordered information.  I don't use "Teach! Okay!" for every fact I share, however.  I don't think it is necessary for children to repeat everything they hear in order to learn it.

That being said, I should emphasize that I don't fully ascribe to Whole Brain Teaching.  I use it for the attention-getting techniques, the scoreboard, and teach-okay when it is sequential information that I think the children need to rehearse.  I do not use it for the rules--and I especially disagree with "Keep your dear teacher happy."  No one is responsible for my happiness! 

If you aren't familiar with Whole Brain Teaching, I strongly recommend you watch a few videos and try it out.  Here is one from my classroom and links to others are below.

Whole Brain Teaching-Kindergarten

Whole Brain Teaching-Kindergarten Morning Meeting 1

Whole Brain Teaching-Mirror, Teach, Scoreboard

Hallway Walking (also known as Herding Cats)

It's just like herding cats, trying to get those kindergarteners through the hallways to PE, Art, Music, Library, Recess, Lunch, etc!  They are distracted by each other, locker decorations, open classroom doors, what's going on inside their heads.  Someone stops to tie a shoelace and the one behind her doesn't know how to go around her to keep the line moving.  Kids are constantly running their hands along locker doors, stopping to get drinks at water fountains, or just "holding up the walls," as my dad used to say there was no need to do.

Of course, different schools have different cultures. In some elementary schools, a little hallway chatter is acceptable.  In others, absolute silence is the rule.  In our school, we have always aimed for quiet transitions and teachers work really hard to teach the children hallway behaviors.

Here are some of the tricks of the trade that I've learned from others or created on my own over the years.  It would be great if YOU would add your own methods for hallway walking in the comments section below.

• When lining up in the classroom, some teachers use adhesive dots or footprints to indicate where children should stand.  Often, these are numbered and children are assigned a numbered place in the line.

• While still in the classroom, teachers use various props to help prepare the children for the trek through the hallways.  In my classroom, I have wide green ribbon necklaces that I drape around the necks of several students at various points in the line to help them remember to walk on the green tiles that line either side of our corridors.  

• I also have a bottle of invisible Quiet Spray that sometimes does the trick before we enter  the hall.  Asking the children to put a bubble in their mouths is currently quite effective,too.

• Magical Glue sometimes helps kindergarteners keep their hands at their sides. Suggesting that they put their hands in their pockets helps others.

     

•  Sometimes reciting a poem, song, chant, or series of gestures helps the children.

      

•  A former music teacher at our school wrote a song based on this poster.  I don't            have the music but the lyrics are as follows:

My hands are hanging at my sides,

I'm standing straight and tall.

My eyes are looking straight ahead,

I'm ready for the hall.

Zip on my lips, Zip on my lips,

Put the key in my pocket,

And quietly move my feet.

• Once we bravely venture forth into the halls, we are always on the lookout for students who are doing a good job of walking quietly in line without touching anyone or anything.  We reward these students with the honor of attaching an "eagle pride ticket" to our classroom collection which we display on tens frames.  These tickets are part of our school wide positive behavior plan.

• Another kindergarten classic is the Mystery Walker game.  There are several versions. Basically, the teacher announces that she is keeping her eye on a certain person but she won't tell who he or she is until the class arrives at its destination.  If that person is showing respectful behavior in the hallway, he/she will get the "eagle pride ticket," or some other more personal reward, if needed.  If the Mystery Walker doesn't show the desired behavior, no one gets the ticket or reward.  It's silly how well this works...for awhile.  

Kindergarten teachers really do need a full bag of tricks! Nothing works forever.  So, if you have an idea to share, please add to the list in the comments selection below.

Full S.T.E.A.M. Ahead! Kindergarten S.T.E.A.M. Centers

If you put lots of good ingredients in a pot of boiling water, you will soon be treated to some savory aromas rising up in the...steam!  And so it goes with STEAM centers in kindergarten: if you put out a lot of interesting materials, you will soon be delighted by the creativity that arises in your classroom!

I developed STEAM centers for my classroom the summer of 2016 for several reasons.  I had been reading how STEM and STEAM education is gaining traction in the U.S.  It seems that we need to work harder at being innovative to restore our economic standing in the world. Science, technology, engineering and math are undeniably linked to 21st century innovation.  And art and design are also valued skills, whether or not they are intrinsic to STEM.  In one study out of the University of Florida, 93% of Americans said art education was important. You can read more here. 

For me, the choice of STEAM vs. STEM was an easy one because a kindergarten art center is a sure hit...and because I needed 5 centers to accommodate a full classroom. The other reasons I developed STEAM centers for my classroom were to bring back play in kindergarten, and to happily occupy 4/5 of the students so that I could focus on math skills with a small group.

So, here are what each of my STEAM centers look like in kindergarten.

                                                  

Our Science center definitely took the most thought and planning.  I knew that I wanted each center to be self-sustaining.  In other words, I didn't want to spend time updating the centers and changing materials.  So, a fish tank would provide that focus in the Science Center.  The students could observe it and record what they observed each time they visited it. I could vary their observations from time to time with directions like, "Draw only the living things in the aquarium" or " Draw just one fish in the aquarium and label its body parts." They could keep all of their scientific records in journals made of plastic sleeves held together with ring clips. I had just one little problem:  I didn't have a fish tank! Fortunately, the PTO in our district offers a teacher grant program and I requested $250 for the aquarium kit and the fish.  These funds covered all my expenses for the year.  This year, I'm requesting another $100 for replacement filters and, inevitably, fish.  I love this Science Center almost as much as the kindergarteners do!  When I retire in May 2018, I will compile the templates for all the pages in the journal and offer the complete booklet on TpT.  For now, take a peek at the beginning of one student's journal:

The Technology center is very basic: the students use educational apps on the tablets.  I limit the number of apps on the tablets to 10. And I encourage everyone to wear headphones with the volume at a reasonable level.  This year, we may use Seesaw during our STEAM centers, as well.

In the Engineering center, the students have a choice of a variety of construction materials: Duplos, Legos, Magna-tiles, Bristle Blocks, Lincoln Logs, etc.  Last year, some of my kindergarten colleagues worked together to write another grant to the generous PTO in our district.  Each classroom was awarded approximately $175 to purchase these materials.  At the beginning of the year, I let the children simply build whatever they imagine.  By mid-year, I ask them to take a clipboard and a paper and draw their design first, just as real engineers do.  

I like to keep the Art center very open-ended.  At the beginning of the year, I only put out paper, crayons, colored pencils, markers, glue sticks, and scissors.  As the year progresses, I add other materials.  For example, when we learn about force and motion, I'll include paper fasteners (brads) so the children can create moveable art.  When we learn about 3D objects, I'll put out boxes and paper tubes.  Sometimes a student will be inspired by a science lesson and create something on their own as the cute little girl with the braids did the other day.  She was excited to see what happened to construction paper when we taped a cut-out on it and left it in the window for a week.  So, she created something like it in the Art Center. 

                                
                                   Math
The Math center is where I can work with an individual student or two students in assessment, intervention, or enrichment mode.  While I work with one or two students, the other 2-3 students in that center play one or more of the math games from our curriculum.  If there is an odd number of students, then Math Monkey becomes the odd one out's math partner.  Math Monkey is a huge hit with kindergarteners!

I made a management board for our STEAM centers. I ordered the clipart from Etsy but see it is no longer available. Students rotate through the centers over the course of 5 days.  I once read that the ideal timeframe for a kindergarten center is 13 minutes so I set the timer for 13 minutes.  I allot 20 minutes for STEAM to include set-up and clean-up. Here is a picture of my management board:

I hope you consider creating these centers in your kindergarten classroom.  STEAM is a blast!