What I learned from a thank you card

One of my Kindergarteners moved today.  When her mother informed me that today would be her last day, I was sad.  I really hate to see my students leave.  She was a great kid.  She had all of the qualities that teachers absolutely love in kids!  Sweet.  Kind.  Smart.  Funny.  Caring.  Hard-working.  You know, the kind of kid all teachers want a class full of.  Of course I didn't want her to leave!  I cry when any student leaves, so I knew I was in for tears today.

When she came in today, she handed me a card.  I immediately opened it, because, lets face it, I have no self control sometimes.  What I saw inside made me start welling up with tears immediately.

This is what it said:

Thanks for being my 1st teacher.  

The words, while simple, struck me in a strange way.  I had never thought of myself as someone's first teacher.  I knew that several of my students had not been to school before.  I knew that several of my students came in to school with a different set of knowledge than we hoped they would due to their inexperience with school.  I even knew that some of my students had been to pre-school, but this was their first experience with formal schooling.

But it never, ever occurred to me, not in a million years, that I was their first teacher.

The enormity of this responsibility is astounding.  As I came to this realization, it weighed on me heavily.  I have a responsibility to these students.  More than I ever realized.

Yes, I know that, as a Kindergarten teacher, it is my job to set the foundation for the rest of their school career.  The skills I teach my 24 (now 23) Kindergarten students will help set them up for success or failure throughout school.  It is my job to make sure that my students leave Kindergarten armed with the skills they will need to tackle first grade and beyond.  That right there is a huge responsibility.

But what that card implied was a responsibility even bigger than I imagined.  

As their first teacher, it is my job to make sure they are hungry.  I need to ensure that they need to learn more and more to satiate that hunger.  I need to create a hunger that will never be satiated, no matter what happens to them in first grade, second grade, or even in middle or high school.

As their first teacher, it is my job to create that love of learning.  That love of reading.  I need to guide them towards the answers to their questions.  Towards the books they won't want to put down.  I have to show them that it's ok to love learning from the start.  They will need that love when things get tough.

As their first teacher, it is my job to make them independent.  They have to learn how to do things on their own, without the assistance of their parents.  It's time to grow up and move on now that we're in school.  I gently guide them towards independence while still allowing them to depend on me for guidance and support.  I help them amaze their parents with all the wonderful things they are capable of doing.

As their first teacher, it is my job to make their first experience with school a positive one.  It is my responsibility to make sure they go home each day with a skip in their step and a smile on their face.  I need to ensure that they are excited to share what they learned in school that day with their families.

As their first teacher, I am their first experience with school.  My attitude and how I handle myself can make or break that child's school experience.  It may be for just this year, or it may be forever.  I don't have any idea how much of an impact my words and actions may have on that child.  I have to be careful what I say and how I say it.  I need to nurture these students through their first experience with school.  I need to make sure they want to come back each day.  If they have a negative experience with school in Kindergarten, it does not bode well for the rest of their educational experience.

Though this responsibility falls on Kindergarten teachers, there is something we must remember.  Each and every day can be a child's "first day" of school.  Each and every one of you, whether you teach Kindergarten or seniors in high school, can be a child's "first teacher."  YOU can be the one who makes a difference in the life of a child.  YOU can change their educational experience from a negative one to a positive one.  

No matter what you heard about that student from their previous teachers.

No matter what the other students tell you about that student.

No matter what kinds of behaviors that child has displayed in your classroom.

YOU can make the difference.  YOU can allow that child to restart their educational experience within the confines of your classroom.  You can be their cheerleader, urging them to do the best they can.  You can teach them independence.  You can help ensure they love learning and will never be satisfied with what they know, no matter what.

Tomorrow could be the first day of school for one of those students in your class.  It could be the tough one who can't keep his hands to himself, or the little girl who feels like a failure because she struggles with learning to read.  You can find that way to connect with them and make them successful.  YOU can change their educational experience from a negative one to a positive one, and set them on a path to success.

Can you be a child's first teacher?

What's In a Name?

Being a first grade teacher for the past 3 years, moving back to Kindergarten was quite a shock to me.  I had gotten used to the independence that first graders have:  Little things like knowing how to walk in a straight line and write their own names- skills that most of my Kindergarteners don't have coming into school!   Even though I knew what I was getting myself into, I really forgot what I was getting myself into!

So we have hit the ground running with our students!  We have been doing lots of activities to help our students learn their names.  I have some students who can't even recognize their own name, so working with our names and the letters in them is so important!

We did a few fun art activities where the students had to decorate their names with different items.  We did both torn paper names and Bingo dauber names.

The torn paper names helped us see who was able to tear the paper (a few of them couldn't!), who could follow directions, and who could trace their names.  They turned out really cute. 

We also used Bingo daubers to stamp our names.  These also turned out really cute.  We had to practice with the Bingo daubers on a scrap piece of paper before we started stamping on our papers.  Doing that really helped the kids learn how to use them so they didn't mess up their white papers!

They turned out really cute!

We also did some other activities with our names and with letters.  

We did a capital/lowercase letter sort.

We did a "Letters In My Name/Letters In My Friend's Name" activity.

We did name puzzles and counted the number of letters in our names.

We also sorted the letters in our names and the letters that weren't in our names.  It was very interesting to see who knew the letters in their names versus the letters that weren't in their names.  Some of my students were very confident, while others really had no idea.  We've definitely got our work cut out for us this year- but I know we will get there!

We also made these cute name trees.  I don't know where the template for this came from, but it would be super easy to make your own!

 One of the last name activities we did was decorate the beginning letter of our first names with something that begins with that letter.  They turned out really cute- except one of my kiddos, whose name starts with a J, had to redo her letter because the jellybeans we put on her J got super gross and then fell off!  But the kids really loved decorating their letters, and they looked adorable when I hung them up.

One of my parents from last year gave me about 6 of these palm trees, so I decided to use it for my Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree.  It looked adorable with their letters on it!

Do you have students who are struggling with their names?  I put together some of these name activities and they are available in my TPT store.

I included the Name Sorts (Letters in My Name and Letters in My Name/Letters in a Friend's Name), Name Puzzles, Counting the Letters in My Name Activity, and the Decorate a Letter activity, complete with ideas for decorating your letters and the templates for all 26 letters of the alphabet.  Sorry, the "coconut tree" isn't included!  If you're interested, you can check it out by clicking on the picture!

What are some fun things you do to help your students learn their names?

Getting Ready for Math in Kindergarten

Whew!  I have officially survived my second full week back in Kindergarten!  I am BEAT!  I am excited, because I really have a pretty good class, overall.  We've had a few incidents, of course, but nothing compared to last year!  It helps that I have an amazing assistant and a Granny to help with these kids!  Thank goodness!!!

We have been hard at work the past few weeks, getting settled into the routine of Kindergarten.  I seriously think it is harder on me than it is on the kids! I'm so used to the first grade schedule and the first grade way of doing things.  For example, we do math in the morning in K, and I'm very used to it in the afternoon, since they didn't switch until I moved out of K!  That is such a huge adjustment, but I do love having more time dedicated to math that doesn't get run over with something else.  :-)

Over the past few weeks, we have been working on counting, sorting, classifying, graphing, and exploring.  We spent a few days just getting used to the math manipulatives through exploration.  We taught the students how to appropriately get the manipulatives they needed, how to use them appropriately, and how to put them away.  We talked about how the manipulatives were tools to use for math, not toys to play with.  I think that is so important, because the students will start treating them as toys.

 

We have explored color tiles, connecting cubes, wooden blocks, attribute blocks, buttons, and pattern blocks. These are manipulatives we will be using a lot of throughout the school year, so it's useful to get them used to them now!  I love giving them a little bit of time to explore.  It's so interesting to see what they come up with!  Some of them make things, while others experiment with patterns.  Some sort and classify them.   It's so fun to watch them work!

(Please ignore my ugly labels!  I'm working on new ones!)

We also did a lot of practice with counting and data collection.  One way we practiced counting, understanding more or less, and collecting data is through graphing.  Throughout the first few weeks of Kindergarten, we do a ton of graphs!  They help us get to know our students better and also gives them many opportunities for learning.  The graphs I used throughout the first few weeks of school came from my "A Graphing We Will Go!" bundle of Back to School graphing activities.  There are several different graphs that you can use with your students.  We just used a few of them.  There are several more that we will probably do over the next few weeks.

The first graph we made was "Are you a boy or a girl?"  This is a good graph to start with because there are only 2 options, and most students already know the answer!  As we add more data to our graph, we recount the pictures we've already glued to the graph, compare to see which data point is greater, and make predictions on what the outcome will be.

When we completed each graph, I let each child tell me what their choice answer was, and then I handed them that picture.  They went back to their seats to color them, and then we met again on the carpet to put the graph together.  This was a great way to practice transitions as well!  

We also did graphs with more data points.  For example, we did the transportation graph the 4th day of school, once the chaos of the first few days ended!  The students needed to be able to tell me how they were getting home from school.  You could add their names in black marker to their picture, so you can use this graph to refer to throughout the year.  It's also easy for you to check that they are giving you the correct answer, because hopefully you know how your students are getting home!  I love to read "This is the Way We Go to School" with this graph- it's a great way to incorporate literacy into math!

Another graph I love to do is "What is your Favorite Kind of Ice Cream?"  I love this one because there is always ice cream involved!  We do this graph, and then we bring ice cream for the students as a surprise.  We usually do this one on a Friday. :-)  I usually don't have more than half my class say strawberry is their favorite, though!  This shocked me!

We also did "What is your Favorite Pet?", "How Many Letters are in Your Name?", and "What is your Favorite Color?"  These graphs help you to see if your students can follow simple direction, and it also gives them practice with counting and comparing data.

After we gave our students lots of practice with manipulatives, and finished our beginning of the year graphs, we started working on teaching our students about math workshops.  We like to use math workshops in Kindergarten.  This allows the students to be working on multiple activities at once, while allowing us to differentiate activities.  Students who are struggling with one skill can continue to practice that skill, while students who have mastered that skill can move on to another skill.  The teachers can work with small groups to enrich or intervene.  I love centers!

We did some practice with writing numbers.  I have a few dry erase pockets, so we created a number writing sheet that allowed the students to get some practice tracing and writing numbers, while using the dry erase markers.  Every teacher knows the students are excited about that!

We also did this counting activity.  Each student had a die labeled 0-5, a birthday cake mat, and crayons.  The students had to roll the dice and put that many crayons on the mat.  Then they had to roll the dice again, and figure out how many candles they had to put on or take off of the mat.  Some of the students did really well with it, while others really struggled.

I also mentioned that we have been working on sorting.  We played "Button Match Up" and "Attribute Block Match Up" as well.  These two games are similar, as far as that the students need to sort the objects based on one similar attribute, such as color, shape, or size.  The students really enjoyed these games.  And since they were familiar with the manipulatives already, they were ready to get focused and play the games instead of playing with the manipulatives!

Attribute Block Match Up

Button Match Up

I love that all 3 of these girls are working together to sort their buttons.  They worked so well together! 

We also did some concept sorting.  We used my Vocabulary Concept Sorts to help sort pictures into the correct category.  The kids really enjoyed this, and it was easy to see which misconceptions they had as well.  

We also played a little game I like to call "What's Missing?"  There are 9 squares on each tray, and 9 different objects on each tray.  The students play in partners.  The first student covers their eyes, while the second one takes one of the objects off of the tray and hides it.  The first student has to figure out which object is missing off of the tray.  They get 3 guesses to figure out which object their partner is hiding.

I love how one of my students is hiding the missing object behind his back.

And here, one of my students is showing her partner which object she took off the tray.

So that has been our math for the first week and a half or so!  So far, my kiddos are loving learning about numbers and sorting objects!

You can find some of the activities we did over the first few weeks in these two products.

  

What have you been teaching?  Lots of sorting, classifying, and counting?  

Please share in the comments!