Week 6

Small Group Reading Instruction

I cannot believe I am nearing the end of week 6 in kindergarten. Wow, how time flies.

The past week has been great so far. The students are really starting to develop and are starting to feel comfortable in kindergarten. Mrs. Swann decided this week would be a great review week, I agree. There is a very wide range of ability levels in our classroom. This week was designated to review and assess, review and assess.

The key componets of this week have included: Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, Ee, Ff, I, am, little, the (in reading) and one, 1, two, 2, three, 3, blue, red, and green (in math). The students not only need to know the letter but the sign and sound for each letter in phonics. Some of the lower level students are still struggling with some of the concepts, but are progressing. It is very exciting to see one of those children really get it and know those letters!

I am still doing math time with the students. This week we are working on graphing (picture graphs, real graphs, bar graphs) and patterns. I am still working on the best teaching methods and ways to teach the material. I do have a hard time with the large group instruction, and I am considering better ways for classroom management during that time. I also want to be better at allowing the students to be actively involved in the large group instruction, but also be able to keep the students under control. They tend to get out of hand quickely, especially in the afternoon. Math is always before or after a specialist, so the students are always pretty wound up during math time. :)

I am excited to be taking on Morning Circle time next week. I am also excited to have my Action Research under way starting this week! (See Action Reasearch posting for more info).

Our Word Wall

Kristin,
I enjoyed reading your blog and can tell you are learning a lot about classroom management and kindergarten! Let me know how your first week of AR goes. Mrs. Morris

Action Research

9/16/08
I sat with Mrs. Swann today and discussed my project that I will be doing in her classroom. Be discussed areas of which I need to change a bit to make it fit four our classroom and specific children.

Over the weekend I will be considering the following areas:
the 6 students I will collect data on (2 low, 2 middle, 2 high)

• the timeline of the project



• the time of day in which we will work on the project (3 times a week?)



• the 6 books I will be using
  


• comprehension questions (setting, characters, beginning, middle, end, etc)



• motivation?



• project ideas?

9/24/08

This week I started my action research project which asks the question:

How does the use of integrated arts instructional activities affect comprehension detail use in stories used in Kindergarten?

This week I began with "Caps for Sale" as the storybook that will be assessed for reading comprehension detail. I created a rubric and data scoring sheets for the 6 children that I chose for the study. The schedule is as follows:

Monday: Reading of story (ask 6 students questions individually)

Wednesday: Reading of Story and do arts project

Friday: Reading of Story and complete arts project (ask 6 students questions again

Here are some pictures from todays project. We made "caps."

Sept 29-Oct. 3

This week for Action Research we read the book, "The Giant Jam Sandwich." For the arts activity we listened to violin music and did "bee' movements....first sloooow, then FAST! Each student had a di-cut bee and moved the bee to the music and listen to my directions. The students loved it! Afterward, we had Jam Sandwichs for snack time. Inside there was a little surprise....smashed bees (raisinettes). They thought it was funny they were eating "bees."

October 10

"Make Way for Ducklings"

This week for Action Research we read the book, "Make Way for Ducklings." The students really loved this story and fell in love with the cute little Ducklings in Boston. For our Arts integration activity we created fancy "city ducks." I made a di-cut duck for each student and they were able to decorate their duck with feathers and sequeins and gems. They were very excited to use these different materials. Then we used the ducks to decorate our classroom door. (See above)

October 13-17

WHERE THE WILD THINGS DANCE

Week four of Action Research, we read "Where the Wild Things Are." Following the story, I instructed and directed the students to do a pantomime to retell the story. First we put on our "wolf suit" then our room grew and grew and GREW! The we sailed off to land of the Wild Things. We did the wild rumpus and we were crowned kings (and queens) of the Wild Things. We said goodbye to our monster friends and got back into our boat and bend back home and ate our dinner, that was waiting for us...and it was still hot!

The kids did a great job using their imaginations as we acted out scences from the book. Afterward we danced to a song called "Monster Boogie" by children's singer/songwriter Laurie Berkner. The song was perfect for the book. Mean monsters with a playful side that liked to dance! This was such a fun activity.

The students seem to really like the art activities we have been doing from week to week. Just 2 weeks left of Action Research.

Oct. 20-24

"The Dot"

This week was week 5 for Action Research. We read the story called "The Dot" by Peter H. Reynolds. THis is a story about a little girl, Vashti, who thought she couldnt draw anything. She was very down and frustrated with her art work. She has an inspiration teacher who helped her to use her imagination to let her artwork come to life. The teacher made sure that Vashti always signed her work.

This week the students painted dots! We used potatoes which were cut in half. They made perfect sized dots. When students were finished making their dot project, I instructed them to sign it with a black marker. The students felt very proud of their artwork. The really liked painting with potatoes!