Student Writing in Kindergarten

I was doing my lesson plans tonight and I had to interact with this calendar of writing prompts from my school.  I get so irritated I want to spit every time I look at it.  First off, it’s just too broad of an age spread to combine K-2nd grade.  Note the current prompt for my kids:  

Explain the difference between a solid, liquid, and gas. Give two examples of each.

Never mind that our current science unit is FABRIC…….  My kids can hardly put the sentence together, “I like (insert something here)”   I would have to do a whole unit on solids, liquids and gases just to get to the point where we could put a sentence together.  THEY WANT TWO EXAMPLES OF EACH.  That is so ludicrous that it defies words.  I’ll  just shut up now……..

Writing Prompts

2009 – 2010

K – 2^nd Grade 

9/8/09 – 9/11/09	No Prompt – 4 Day Week
9/21/09 – 9/25/09	My favorite holiday is _______ because…
10/6/09 – 10/9/09	No Prompt – 4 Day Week
10/19/09 – 10/23/09	In a letter to the President, persuade him to change a law of your choice.
11/3/09 – 11/6/09	No Prompt – 4 Day Week
11/16/09 – 11/20/09	Explain the difference between a solid, liquid, and gas. Give two examples of each.
11/30/09 – 12/4/10	Think about what you like to do the most. Write a paper telling what you enjoy doing and at least three reasons why you like this activity so much.
12/14/10 – 12/18/10	Dear Santa Friendly Letter
1/11/10 – 1/14/10	No Prompt – 4 Day Week
1/25/10 – 1/29/10	Light is very important because…
2/8/10 – 2/12/10	Sometimes we give help, and sometimes we get help. Think about a time when you helped someone or when someone helped you. Tell a story about what happened.
2/22/10 – 2/26/10	Write a poem about your favorite food. Use all your 5 senses to describe your favorite food.
3/8/10 – 3/12/10	A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away lived a…
3/22/10 – 3/26/10	If you were given a free two-week dream vacation, where would you go and why?
4/12/10 – 4/16/10	Write about the butterfly life cycle.
4/26/10 – 4/30/10	Write a personal narrative about an event you enjoyed doing with family members or friends. Give details and tell what happened in time order.
5/10/10 – 5/14/10	Write about how plants grow.
5/24/10 – 5/28/10	Write about your favorite animal. Be sure to include descriptive details about your animal.
6/7/10 – 6/11/10	On a deserted island I’ll need…
6/21/10 – 6/25/10	Write a description about your favorite place. Use your five senses to help describe the place for the reader.
7/6/10 – 7/9/10	No Prompt – 4 Day Week
7/19/10 – 7/23/10	Write about what you’re looking forward to next year.

 

I could DO all that…. if I didn’t have an already full curriculum (which this of course isn’t alligned to).  Building the background knowledge for half of these would take most of my day. Many days.

I found my little beaver with the pencils.

One of the other kids said, “Mr. L,  Sammy’s chewing on a pencil!”  I looked and, that pencil looked a lot like the one featured in a previous post.  I said, “Sammy,  why are you chewing on that pencil?”

His reply?  “Mr. L, They are DELICIOUS!”

So once again we had, “The Germ Talk“

The lunch lady has got to feed them more…………

They are just gross though,  for snacks most days, I give them a choice between a 4 oz cup of dry cereal, Gold Fish, or animal crackers.  We do other things on other days but that is one of my basic stand bys.  It’s cheap, and since I’m usually doing it out of my own pocket, that’s the primary factor.   Anyway sometimes kids don’t eat their whole cup full and will toss the rest.  Yesterday one of my favorite little darlings was digging some of it out of the trash and EATING IT.  He’s the same one that has to swab down the entire toilet with Clorox Wipes after using it because he doesn’t seem to get the idea that he needs to lift the seat and his aim isn’t good.  He’s marginally potty trained at best, I could go on, but won’t.

Disgusting!

Note from our Principal about Halloween next week

Email from the Principal this morning.

“Classes may have their Halloween parties on Friday, October 30th. Some intermediate teachers have elected not to have a party. If you are planning a celebration you may draft your own note home. According to the guidelines, parties are the last 20 minutes of the school day. Students may dress up in their costumes. ONLY kindergarten and 1st grade will parade through the school.  Students may change into their costumes no earlier than 2:45.

There are many academic games you can play during your party with a festive theme. Remember there may be students in your class who will not be able to celebrate Halloween.”

The three kindergarten teachers who will be here next week got together  and decided that if the party was only for 20 minutes, and they can’t get into costumes until 2:45, and we get out at 3:10, we didn’t want to even TRY to do the parade.  As grade level chair, I went to the Principal and told her we didn’t want to do the parade.

1.  SHE thinks the kindergarten kids are “cute” in their costumes.

2. SHE thinks we should do the parade.  She wants to see them.

3. But she isn’t giving us any help. 

Hummm, lets see, 29 kids and one teacher…..  

She said, but you will have lots of parents. 

I said, I had ONE parent last year…..

Oh yeah, and don’t forget the academic games for the 20 minute party.

 

Today We Started “The Test”

District test, given three times a year at or near the end of each trimester.  They had a big testing meeting yesterday where they give us all of the testing procedures, all the does and don’ts of test giving.   You know, like cover all the alphabets up in the room, and all the numbers.  Yeah, right, they don’t have enough butcher paper at my school.  ALL the tables have alphabets  and numbers to 20 on their individual name tags.  I have maybe 10 alphabets up around the room and about the same for numbers to 20.  I refuse to cover them up.  The kids smart enough to look don’t need to, and the ones who would need to,  are too clueless.   Pages of testing rules and procedures, that we all had to sign off on.  The principal was adamant that we follow all of the procedures as outlined.  One of the 5th grade teachers raised his hand and asked about the help (extra proctors) that was required for classes with over 28 students, (that would be half the school).  Well, no,  there would be no extra proctor help,  we would just have to make do.

Funny how rules and procedures can be so situational…….. for some people.

I hate taking time away from teaching to do all of the testing.  When you mess up the routine for several days like this, it takes DAYS to get the routine back.  I also hate watching normally smart kids picking the wrong answers on the tests too.  The only consolation is that half of the low kids get lucky on their guesses to sort of balance it out.

On one of the math pages, they had to pick the one out of four pictures that did not fit the set.  Three cakes and a fish.  They pick the cake they like.  Wonderful.  Three flowers and a bear, they choose one of the flowers.  A marker, a crayon, a pencil and a cat,  they choose the pencil.    Go figure.

Next Week is a Four Day Week…….. for the kids.

Teachers on the other hand, have to show up on Monday, at the usual time and be bored to tears all day.  At 2:09 today, they sent out an email that said this:

On Monday we will have an all day training on Personal Narrative in the library from 8:30 – 3:16.  Please bring your Write Tools Binder. It is requested that you bring 2 sets of student samples if you have them available as we would like to quickly review writing strategies we used last year. Also, please check and let me know if you need a personal narrative insert for your Write Tools Binder.

At 2:09….. and school gets out at 3:10.

One of my favorite sayings is, “A failure to prepare on YOUR part, does not constitute an emergency on MY part.”  Heck, they knew we would be doing staff development  last spring.

And I just have oodles of  FINE examples of Narrative Writing from my kindergarteners that have been in school now for lets see…….TWENTY EIGHT days.  Some of them can even write their names.  Wanna bet, they don’t have anything else planned for the kinder and even the first grade teachers?  What a stinking waste of time Monday is going to be…….

Somethings about the beginning of the year I hate:

I’ve barely got my kids settling into the routine of school, (we were on day 18 today) and they are really pushing us to get into small group differentiated instruction.  That’s fine, but the problem is, what are the rest of the kids are doing while you are doing differentiated instruction?  They aren’t set THAT well into the routines of school yet.  Many of my kids are still coping with the sheer joy of being around a bunch of other kids for the first time in their lives in what they view as a social setting.  And I agree, they really need that socialization.  But they don’t know how to control themselves and make good choices yet.  Many of them can’t stay on task doing  their seatwork when I am NOT doing small group instruction, when I start the small group instruction, their behavior and amount of time on task will not improve.

It wouldn’t be so bad if they would let us ease into centers, but they want to micro manage the center activities as well.  They have placed so many conditions on what the centers can or cannot be that it’s almost impossible to comply.   None of the old traditional centers are good enough, or academic enough anymore, no puzzles, no housekeeping, no blocks.  During the reading block of time, the centers had better be language based.  During math, the centers have to be math.  The math centers they have for kindergarten that come with our math series, are two kid centers, take longer to explain than they do to do, and all require manipulatives.  So if my intervention group is 5 or 6 kids, that means I have to have 12 or 13 centers set up for the rest of the class, with the manipulatives all counted out……..  And of course the math lady sees nothing wrong with doing her centers during language arts and the language arts specialist really doesn’t have a problem with you doing language arts centers during math, but they really have a problem if you do something else in THEIR time block.  And anymore, you hardly can fit the required number of minutes of ANY subject into the week.

I was looking at how many conferences I need to set up for kids I have concerns about.  Nine.  Nine out of 29 kids I have concerns about how they are going to do if they don’t have some serious help at home.  And of course most of them haven’t had any of that help yet, that’s why they can’t do anything.

The first week of school

The week is finally over, and I even got home by 7:00 pm! On Friday…. (had to get those pesky homework folders set up and loaded for Monday).  I do homework, but it’s really not much, a reading log for the week, name practice sheets right now, one number writing practice sheet, and that’s about it.  Later on, it’s mostly practice with their sight words and a little math.  Homework goes out on Monday and comes back on Friday.

I spent a lot of MY time with my kids this first week.  I spent my entire lunch period helping them in the lunchroom (until yesterday anyway, more on that later) and part of each of my preps getting them settled with the different specialists, so they wouldn’t freak out.  It might have taken up my time, but I think it paid off in keeping them from stressing out.  In each instance, they came back to me calmer and less stressed than they otherwise would have.   Still the first week of school takes it’s toll, a number of kids had meltdowns throughout the week,  One little girl was fine the whole week, and today was just too much for her.  We had to pry her off mom this morning, and have mom leave and then she threw a fit for about a half hour before she quieted down.

They have been amazing this week.  They have really started to come together with the routines and procedures.  I’m actually teaching now.  But I’m still having a hard time adjusting to the babies at the beginning of the year though.  I was still teaching my previous class just three weeks ago, and they are first graders now, so I have to get my brain into the right place, I’m still trying to get them to do things that are too hard for them.  Like write their names……….

These little guys crack me up.  I have at least 6 out of my 29 who have to sing in the bathroom every time they go.  I had a talk with the music teacher, apparently it’s not coming from her……

There are some seriously wacky kids in my class.  I have one boy I can’t understand a word he says.  The speech teacher was coming into my room to visit one of the kids she will be working with and I asked her to listen to him.  She pulled him out into the hall and did a quick diagnostic with him and OH YEAH, he’s a candidate.  In her short 5 minutes she also thinks he might be learning disabled as well, but it’s hard to tell with kindergartners.  Most of them anyway.  I have another little boy who can’t do ANYTHING with paper, glue, pencils or scissors.  He had one paper he was supposed to cut some parts out of and glue onto the other paper, he made confetti out of both papers.  I got him a couple more and demonstrated the task, he did it again.  He’s everywhere in the room too. Can’t sit still and is into everything.

I’ve been going into the lunchroom and helping my kids get their lunches, seated, and helping them with opening their milk,ketsup, etc.  One little boy had been a bit of a whiny pain all morning.  When he got to lunch yesterday, he deliberately poured his milk on the boy next to him.  So I chewed him out, and made him move over to a vacant table to eat his lunch in “timeout”.  A mother who was in the lunchroom, saw me and complained to the principal that I had yelled at him, (I did speak sternly, but I didn’t YELL) shook him (NOT true), drug him by the arm over to the other table and “slammed” him onto the bench( again not true, but probably her perception) all for no reason.  She didn’t know what he had been doing all morning, she didn’t apparently know about the milk, and frankly, I could not care a bit whether she thought I was “mean” or not.  But I did have to explain to the principal what happened and told her to talk to some of the other staff who were present and hear their side.  Never-the-less, I was uninvited from helping in the lunchroom.  Apparently, I need more time away from my children.  Like THAT will make me cry……

They Are Gone

I hate to say goodbye.  I mean these kids have become such a part of my life, it’s hard to let go.  I want to take them all home.  One of the only things that makes it a little easier is to see them interact with their parents, and knowing that they love and are loved by their families.  Most of them. 

They sang their song, had lots of pictures taken,  got tummy aches from all the snacks they brought and ate.  It was generally a nice day.  Don’t tell anyone I said that, I might get stuck doing it again next year.  There was a period of time between the end of our promotion/party and the official end of the school day.  Some parents wanted to take their kids and go (which the Principal allowed if they signed them out) and kids didn’t want to leave, so  we had this weird dynamic of everyone just hanging around not knowing what to do.  We couldn’t really start the food part of the party with so many people there, because it would have created this horrendous mess, and I wasn’t sure if we had enough stuff for that many people.  So we did a lot of picture posing and finally most everyone trickled out.  About a third of the kids left early.  The rest stayed the whole time.  If I was organized… wait, that would never happen. 

Finally all the goodbyes were said, and all the children were gone.  Then the fun began.  One and a half paid days to tear the room down and set it back up for the beginning of the year.  Which takes place in two weeks.  I got a good start on all the stuff on the check list.  I could go in this weekend, but it would be without air conditioning.  Not nice.  We’ve been told that we are persona non grata at school during the week off because the office staff will be busy, and the custodial staff will be busy, and neither one wants us bugging them or in their way.  No class lists until two days before school starts.  After 19 years of teaching I’ve learned not to fret it.  Schools going to start when it starts, room ready or not.  Teacher ready or not.

And it will be OK.

Yesterday

I have three more days of school for the 2008-2009 year.

One of my kids yesterday picked a scab off his arm, and ate it, then he went over to my aide and told her it was delicious…….

He ate it.

He thought it was delicious……

I sometimes hate 5-6 year olds, it’s just a step above drinking out of the toilet around here……….

I Teach K Conference

I start back to school Thursday, so I’m spending some time in the room getting it and myself ready.  I emptied out my mailbox (which was full) of all the stuff that has accumulated while I’ve been out.  I saw the Title One person and asked her about the conference (the last word I had heard was that the 5 kindergarten teachers would be able to go, with Title footing the bill).  She gets this kind of funny look on her face and says, “We had to have that turned in a couple of weeks ago……”   And I said, “AND??????”   And she said, “Did you want to go?”  I said, “Of course I want to go.”   And she said, “But you weren’t here, you were on break.”  And I said, “I do have a phone, and email….”   And she just looked at me.

Apparently she is going to “try” to get me registered.   Who knows how THAT will go.

See, one of the biggest problems with year round scheduling is that when you are out on break, it’s like they forget you work there.  Then when you get back, they want to hold you responsible for all the stuff, they “think” you should know, but don’t, because you weren’t there.  If they were better organized, they would put something in place to cover all that.  They do a half-hearted attempt, but they don’t do it very well.  Just enough to again treat you like it’s your fault if you don’t know, or don’t do something they think you should.