Adventures in Teaching Kindergarten.

I knew, from a very young age, that I wanted to be a teacher.  It’s more than a job, it’s a calling.  I’ve taught fifth grade, pre-k, first grade and kindergarten.  Teaching, especially in the primary grades, is unlike anything else.  I spend my whole day surrounded by five and six (and sometimes seven) year olds.  They somehow are equipped with all the skills to push every single button you have, test every ounce of your patience, and bring you to the verge of tears of frustration.  But they also have brilliant minds, enormous amounts of creativity and big hearts.  I love my job.  I can’t imagine doing anything else.  All teachers develop different coping skills to manage going an entire work day with maybe ten minutes of adult interaction.  My favorite coping mechanism is documenting the craziness that comes hand in hand with five year olds to share with my friends. 

So here they are.  Some of my favorite Kindergarten moments from my class last year. 

 

Student handed this paper to me just like this and asked, “Guess what it is….?”
Um…Broccoli?
”No, it’s a tree!”

 

“Bad people should have to wear evil hats, so kids know not to talk to them.”
Adorable.  Seriously.  Bad people should have to wear evil hats.

 

For Mother’s Day, I surveyed the kids and wrote down their responses.  Because what mom wouldn’t love to know that she’s really good at putting on movies?  And she’s super special because she let’s her kid eat!  And she’s clearly a really good cook.

 

Student: I made you a picture! We are ninjas. Those are evil snowman ninjas. They are the worst. We are winning. Don't worry.

 

It was Valentine’s day and I had car duty (you help kids get in and out of cars and into the gym before school starts).  I saw one of my kinders having a heated argument with mom.  He clearly did not want to get out of the car.  Eventually his older brother convinced him.  When they got out of the car, big brother handed my kinder a flower.  This kinder would not even look me in the face, he was so embarrassed.  This is how our interaction went…

Are those for me…?  They’re beautiful!
He heaved a heavy sigh, shoving the flowers in my general direction, still not looking at me.  “I wanted to get you ninja turtle chocolate, but my mom said you would like this better.”

 

Student: Look, Mrs. T!  I made a turkey.  He has a word bubble.  Guess what he is saying?
Uhhh…I have no idea, what is he saying?
Student: Gobble, gobble, silly!  See!  (He points to both of the word bubbles, as if I am the craziest teacher ever).
Oh yeah, kid, you’re right.  I’m the silly one. 

 

Student: I drew you a picture.  This is you, because you are tall.  This is me, because I am small.  And I have blue hair
(No, student does not have blue hair in real life)

 

Sometimes the best moments don’t come with pictures.  They come via words. 

Kindergarten parent affirmation that I chose the correct career path…

 

 

Sometimes crazy things happen in other classes and you have to cover for other teachers so they can deal with the craziness.  One day I had to spend a few minutes in the Pre-K classroom.  I just had to supervise them for five minutes while they played at centers.  That’s all it took to overhear this gem.

 

Sometimes Kindergarten thought processes are difficult to follow.  Case in point:
Kindergarten activity for Veterans Day. Our conversation went something like this...

 

These types of statements happen frequently…

 

And finally…

 

 

But my all time favorite quotes occurred when the local fire department came to talk to the kids about fire safety.  Because, of course when you want your students to be on their absolute best behavior, students act like a special kind of crazy.  The firefighters had me dress in all their gear to teach the students about their equipment, so first this happened…

 

And then, this happened…

 

And with that, I’m excited for a new year, new kids and new reasons to love my job.

long and short vowel posters

If you are a parent or teacher to a young child, you know the joys and challenges of teaching a child to read. If you, like me, are a teacher (at a small school with limited resources), you are exceptionally familiar with the challenges.  I teach Kindergarten at a school that does not have a literacy program or curriculum.  Instead, all of the teachers are left to build their own.  Which, sometimes, is a blessing.  I have taught at a school with scripted curriclums and that is awful.  But building a literacy program is tough (especially when it's your first year teaching this grade!).  I am using the Daily 5 program and loooove it.  It's amazing.  I would highly recommend it to everyone.  I had some doubts about how it would work for Kinders, but I am finding that it's adaptable and wonderful and the kids are gaining so many skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking--but also how to work independently and take ownership of their learning).

I've taught Pre-K (2 years), 1st grade (1 year) and Kinder (this year) and find that young readers struggle with the differences between the short vowel sound and the long vowel sound.  We talk a lot about how short vowels make a sound (the short sound) but sometimes they also say their name (long vowel sounds).  I teach lots of silly rules about when to use the long vowel sound (when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking/bossy "e"/etc).  My students needed concrete visuals for reminders of the differences between the two sounds...So I made posters!  They have a permanent spot on a wall in my room and students frequently look to them.  They are great visual anchors for activities.  Here are two examples for long a and short a.   (Disclaimer: I do not own the photos, I am not selling the photos, they are simply a learning tool).

You can download the entire vowel set here.  Let me know if you have any problems accessing the pdf file.    

A is for...apple and angel

E is for...elephant and equal (love when you can combine math with literacy!)

I is for...igloo and ice cream

O is for...octopus and ocean

U is for...umbrella and unicorn

If you have any requests for a different picture to go with the vowel, let me know.  I know angel might not work for all teachers but I am blessed to work at a Catholic school where that kind of thing is embraced :)  I didn't write the words on the posters because these are meant to be purely visual sound clues and I don't want to the spelling of some of the trickier words (i.e. ocean) to throw them off!  

Here are a couple of ideas of how you could use them with your class:

• Make long vowel and short vowel flap books (saw this idea originally on Pinterest!), modified for my group.  We made two books, one for long sounds, one for short.

• Make picture sorts (provide the pictures or find in a magazine and sort by beginning, middle or ending sound)
• Brainstorm word lists with the sounds, have students write them down
• Go on scavenger hunts around the room for items that have a certain sound (i.e. look for an object around the room that has the short a sound)

Teaching children to read is no easy task, especially for struggling readers.  My struggling readers really thrive with visuals, so hopefully you will find this helpful!  

maggie.
places to find inspiration.