Double dog dare.

I've written about it before. My dear friend, Mrs. F. teaches third grade. I see those big, almost gangly, third graders limbering down the hallway and I know there is a universe between them and my tiny sprouts. Sometimes I forget how challenging the academics can be as the children grow.

Yesterday in the teacher's room, I ran into Mrs. F. at the copy machine. We began chatting about this and that (her son just turned one and is quite simply one of the most adorable little boys in the world...) and I couldn't help but notice what she was copying.

"What is that?" I asked with a tinge of fear.

"It's their homework for tonight," she replied.

I picked the paper up and studied it. I was intrigued by her 'double dog dare' - I loved that. As for the actual math problem, I kid you not, it might has well have been in Chinese. Here it is:

"Um, I see the multiplication sign, but that's about all I see..." I mumbled.

She then proceeded to try and explain to me how this problem would be worked out. Mrs. F. is a patient person. She's an amazingly gifted teacher. She achieves amazing results with her students. She was totally lost on me.

I was polite because she's my friend. I nodded and said 'yes' and 'ah, I see' from time to time, but really I felt like Homer Simpson with 'Turkey in the Straw' going on in an endless loop in my head as she spoke.

Today she emailed me to let me know nineteen out of her twenty-one students got it correct. This did not make me feel any smarter. I adore kindergarten and never want to leave it... bumping into Mrs. F. making copies only reiterates this for me.

Portal.

Ah the internet (or World Wide Web as the local newsman calls it...). I'm never surprised at the amazing networking opportunities it provides. I get tweets and emails weekly from teachers, students, and parents. Usually they are kind comments and questions. Occasionally, I'm asked to read and review a book (who doesn't love a free book?) - a few weeks ago I got a most unusual email.

Rachael Stefanussen, an Industrial Design student, emailed and asked if I would take a few minutes to look over her senior capstone project. Being the busy person I am (yes, the kids leave at three, but we all know how that goes), I agreed, but it took me a few weeks to give it the attention it deserved. When I finally sat down to view her project, I was blown away.

Rachael's video was entertaining, professional, and, most importantly, thought provoking. She has envisioned a Portal that would connect teachers across communities to collaborate on classroom management, lesson planning, and all aspects of teacher mentoring. After viewing the video twice, I emailed Rachael with my thoughts and ideas. What about crossing all boundaries and making this international? What about integrating Facebook and twitter and using the already built networks many teachers have created?

Part of what excited me about Rachael's video is the simple idea that someone is thinking outside the box and trying to push the teaching experience even further into the future. I love progressive pondering and Rachael has really impressed me with her ideas.

Rachael was very gracious and we had a nice email dialogue back and forth. I asked her if she minded me sharing her wonderful proposal with others... she agreed on one condition - she'd love feedback from others too. So here it is. Please take a few minutes to watch and leave a comment for Rachael.

New Math.

Well it's been raining all week long here... we haven't been able to go outside at all and I swear I can see the skin literally crawling on some sprouts... as I drove home today, thankful for a respite for a few days, a math formula popped into my head.

Now I teach kindergarten.  We don't do much algebra, so I have no clue how accurate this is, but here it is:

A few clarifications:

1. I realize the + in front of rain kind of looks like a 't' making it look like 'train' which would totally change the formula... it's not.  It is a + not a 't'.
2. X = the grade level exponentially increases the value... maybe it should be -X because the lower the grade the higher the value
3. Y = Teacher Frustration

There you have it... the new math!  I'm praying for sunshine and rainbows next week!

Algebra.

Oh how I love working in a K-3 school…

This morning, our math lesson was a dice game where sprouts worked in pairs. Each child got a pair of dice, rolled them, and then had to total their dice. Whoever had the higher number got a chip. There were ten chips in each cup, when all the chips were gone, they were tallied and a winner identified. The tricky part was we’re working on 'counting on' as opposed to just counting all the dots on the dice. 'Counting on' can be tricky for kindergarteners…

We worked all morning during our math time and even played again in the afternoon… many got it, but many struggled too.

I also popped into my dear friend Mrs. F.’s room. Mrs. F. teaches third grade and her students are also our reading buddies. When I opened the classroom door, the room was totally silent. The boys and girls were all sitting and working in their math journals. I looked at the board and saw a problem much like this:

In third grade. Coming from my classroom, this looked downright like college algebra to me. I consider myself a reasonably intelligent guy and I had to look at the problem for a few moments before I realized how to solve it… not only were her students solving it correctly, I was told by more than a few that this was ‘easy peasy, lemon squeezy’ and felt even dumber than before… are all the hugs and hand holding turning my brain to mush?

I turned to go and was eager to return to kindergarten.  Hats off to Mrs. F. and her third graders. They are doing some amazing stuff up in that second floor classroom. I’ll stick with 'counting on' and counting to one hundred… hey, we all have our roles to play.

Marbles.

I forgot this funny tidbit from our one-hundredth day… Audra had brought in her collection of marbles to count. She diligently counted and recounted them with no issue. We even gave her a tray to use so they wouldn’t roll around the room.

At the end of the day, Audra raised her hand, I walked over and she showed me four loose marbles.

“Oh Audra, you better put those with your others, you don’t want to lose them,” I warned.

“No, Mr. ________, these aren’t mine…” she began.

I cut her off with, “Wait, I didn’t think anyone else brought in marbles…”

“They didn’t, someone has lost their marbles!” She exclaimed.

Not being familiar with this idiom, she didn’t get the humor in her statement, but I sure did and wanted to share the joke.

I shouted across the classroom to Mrs. D., “Mrs. D. someone has lost their marbles!”

She laughed and I repeated myself a few times for added effect.

We identified the owner of said marbles and headed home for the day.

100 ways.

Oh the one hundredth day of school… I try to explain it to my non-teacher friends and they just don’t get it. It’s like Christmas, Valentines, and the Fourth of July all on one day. Maybe it’s something about kindergarten and the fact that it is their first hundred days in school, period… whatever the reason, the exhilaration is palpable.

During calendar time, as Jason did the careful work of counting our straws to make sure we indeed had one hundred, the grounds crew decided to remove the icy, crunchy snow that had piled up to almost the top of our windows… with shovels, at the exact moment he began counting… the shades were pulled and we talked about ignoring distractions, but it was hard.

As Mrs. D. read the first of many read alouds about the one hundredth day of school, the first page read, ‘Little Johnny came to school and plinked a penny into a jar. Mrs. Madoff told him his would be the first penny in the class jar.’

Yes, Mrs. Madoff. Mrs. D. burst out laughing… I let out a howl. The class looked at us like we had ten heads. It really is nice having another adult to appreciate references that fly over the kids heads.

When each sprout was counting their collection of one hundred items they’d brought in, I heard a desperate Rebecca call out, “One of my marshmallows, it’s missing!”

I ran over.

“Rebecca, what’s wrong?” I asked.

“My one hundredth marshmallow, it’s gone… Luther ate it!” She cried.

I shot a look at Luther. He looked guilty, but he always looks guilty.

“I didn’t eat it, Mr. _______, I’m being honest,” he proclaimed.

With that, Mrs. D. wandered over.

I explained the dilemma to her.

“Well, Rebecca, you’re missing a marshmallow because you ate one… remember you thought you had an extra?” She asked Rebecca.

“Oh yeah…”

Later as we made our necklaces with one hundred pieces of Fruit Loops, Sarah made me bust out laughing again.

We had instructed the class not to eat any cereal as they counted and worked. We were using communal plates of cereal and we promised when we finished the necklaces everyone would get a small cup to eat. This satisfied the kids and while they moaned and groaned about how amazing the cereal smelled and how they all wanted to eat it so badly, nobody did.

As we finished and I was about to announce we were ready to pass out the cereal for eating, I glanced over at Sarah… her necklace was in her hands and she was gingerly licking it. I lost it… laughter that probably alarmed the teacher next door. Oh well, it was funny.

There were probably one hundred ways I laughed or smiled today. Loving your sprouts and job is a brilliant way to spend your day.

29 Days.

Wow, this one is interesting. I was quite naive in my early kindergarten days. I've learned since that almost every child, no matter what they come in knowing, can meet our benchmarks. Am I an amazing teacher? Not really... the kids are just sponges and they make my job easy. Kind of. Chris is doing well in first grade. I remember fondly how excited I was after this assessment... it's awesome to feel like you've made a difference.

In my classroom, we have a calendar routine. Each day, we add another number to our chart, where we keep track of the days we’re in school. There are many reasons why we do this, most of which revolve around building number sense. It’s a good way for the kids to apply what they’re learning (reading and writing numbers, and counting) to a real-world situation.

One day, however, I realized that the routine is also for me. Each day, when we chart how many days we’ve been in kindergarten, it helps me reflect on what we’ve done and how much farther we have to go. I had this epiphany on day twenty-nine, and I’ll always remember it fondly.

That morning, we took a field trip to the local public library. It was a blast for the kids and filled with many amusing moments, but those aren’t what I’ll remember about day twenty-nine. I’ll remember something that happened in the afternoon.

Towards the end of the day, while the kids were working independently in Choice Centers (blocks, dramatic play, puzzles, etc.), I pulled a few of them aside to assess them for upcoming parent conferences and report cards. Before each report card is prepared, I have to assess each child’s understanding of letters, sounds, numbers, and some other basic skills. I began with Chris, who had begun school knowing only eight letters of the alphabet. I had been worried about him from the start. He was quiet and a little slower than the other kids; mostly, he just seemed very young. (I know, they’re all young in kindergarten, but Chris was really young. Honestly, I wasn’t sure he was ready for school.)

When I assessed Chris that day, however, he knew twenty-five letters. Twenty-five letters. Out of twenty-six in the entire alphabet. In twenty-nine short days of school, he had gone from knowing barely any letters to almost all of them. I was surprised when I realized this—and pleased beyond belief. I tried not to overdo it with the happy dancing, but I was on cloud nine. My school has a set of benchmarks, or standards, each child is expected to meet by the end of the year. As I assess each child throughout the year, these benchmarks are like a target we’re trying to hit by the time June rolls along. All along, I’d been pretty sure Chris would never meet the benchmarks by the end of the year (many kids don’t) but now, after such a short time, I felt quite confident that he would not only meet them but perhaps surpass them. Whatever I was doing, I thought, it was working!

Day twenty-nine was a Friday, and Fridays are tough sometimes—we have no specials, such as Library, Music, P.E. or Art, and therefore I have no planning time. Chris’ assessment was a gift that I needed at that moment.

If you ask yourself what you’ve truly accomplished in the last twenty-nine days, what do you come up with? I did, and I’ve never been so pleased with an answer.

Giveaway - HeidiSongs!

Recently, as I perused the data from my first report cards, I realized, as a whole, my class was really struggling with teen numbers. They are TRICKY - that's for sure, but we needed to focus on them and try to get the majority of the class on track. As I was flipping through my resources at school, I stumbled upon my HeidiSongs CDs and DVDs. Heidi Butkus is a kindergarten teacher who created these resources to help her own students. They are extremely catchy tunes that really do help with remembering skills and concepts.

HeidiSongs has a CD or DVD for almost everything you can think of... sight words, letters, sounds, numbers, math concepts, you name it. In my classroom, we have been singing and moving to the songs for numbers 11-19 for a few weeks and I'm starting to see a big improvement. Her catchy tunes really do hit the spot. Heidi also has a blog with LOTS of free resources. Her music and blog are truly invaluable.

As my holiday gift to one lucky winner, I'm giving away the following HeidiSongs prize package (click on each for a product overview):

• Jumpin' Numbers and Shakin' Shapes CD
• Musical Math CD
• Sing & Spell #1 the Sight Words CD
• Jumpin' Numbers Vol. 2 - 11 through 30 DVD

Pretty cool, huh? How do you enter to win?

Click here and leave me your name (first name is sufficient) and email address. That's it. No need to follow or 'like' me on facebook, although I always appreciate both. The contest is open to friends in the United States only (sorry my international friends, but this to keep my shipping costs down). You can enter up to once a day until Wednesday, December 29th. The winner will be announced Thursday, December 30th. Good luck to all!

This is my chance to say thank you and help someone else utilize a wonderful resource that has proven so helpful in my own classroom.

Backwards.

Oh those tricky teen numbers. For some reason (I think it’s developmental) kindergartners have the hardest time learning numbers eleven through nineteen. I’m not sure who decided we’d say ‘twelve’ instead of ‘two-teen’ or ‘thirteen’ instead of ‘three-teen’ or ‘fifteen’ instead of ‘five-teen’, but surely they’ve never tried teaching five-year-olds. These numbers don’t make much sense.

In a constant effort to drill these numbers, we sing songs and play games at every opportunity. One of the simple games we play is Teen Tangle. We lay large teen number cards out on the floor out of order and a child has to step on them in order while saying each number. The other day after we play a few rounds, we decided to challenge a few of the sprouts that have already mastered these numbers.

“Can anyone start with nineteen and go backwards?” Mrs. D. asked.

A few friends volunteered. This was going to be complicated.

Dan was up first. He walked over to the nineteen card and began. As he said each number, he would look over his shoulder straining to see the other cards and then take a giant step back to reach it. When he finally made it to eleven, we gave him a big cheer and then Michael came up to try it. He did the same thing. I shot Mrs. D. a look and we both realized at the same time, they thought we meant in addition to counting backwards, they had to walk backwards.

We both smiled with the realization of our mistake. These kids are so literal, when you say ‘count backwards’ they really do it backwards.

Distracted.

Lately, during calendar time, Mrs. D. and I have been trying to let the calendar helper do as much of the work independently as they feel comfortable doing. Most kids who have been listening and paying attention know what to do, but it’s a little overwhelming standing in front of the entire group with the proverbial spotlight shining on you, so one of us usually hangs back to assist. Today was my turn.

As I walked over to Dan to help him, my nose caught a whiff of something… something pleasant! The smells in kindergarten aren’t always pleasing, so this was surprising. As anyone who has spent more than five minutes with me knows, I’m easily distracted (poor Mrs. D., she certainly is one of he most patient people I’ve ever met, I’m not sure how she puts up with me…).

“What’s that smell?” I asked.

I was greeted with lots of curious looks… what was this mysterious smell?

“It smells nice, something very sweet…” I clarified.

“It’s my hair… I use coconut shampoo,” Rachel offered.

Needing to know, I walked over and smelled her hair. This might sound strange, but not in kindergarten.

“Nope,” it wasn’t her hair.

Mrs. D. walked over and tried to help me find the culprit, most likely to help move along our calendar time. She couldn’t identify the perpetrator either. I’ve had students in kindergarten wear excessive amounts of perfume before, so I was wary.

Trying to ignore my propensity to distractions, I walked back to Dan to continue calendar. The sweet smell strengthened. I leaned over and smelled his shoulder…

“It’s you!” I exclaimed, happy to have solved the case.

Dan looked at me like I had ten heads. He had no idea why he would smell so nice.

“I think it’s the detergent your mom uses to wash your clothes,” I explained.

He smiled, grabbed the pointer, and turned to the calendar.

I am officially a crazy man able to be distracted by laundry detergent. Call me Distracted Man. At least I can admit it.

Styles.

When I did my education coursework many years ago (ugh, it wasn’t that long ago…) one of the buzz terms flung about was ‘Multiple Intelligences’ more easily understood as learning styles – apparently every person has multiple ways of accessing their education. Some children prefer to see everything, others need to hear it, still others need to use their hands, etc. You can go a little deeper and say some sprouts prefer a logical/mathematical or musical approach to learning.

To make matters more confusing, most people don’t prefer one style, but rather a spattering of one or the other or some combination of all of them. With so many approaches to learning, how is a teacher to reach all his students successfully?

Now I adore being a kindergarten teacher… I think that’s rather clear. I don’t mean to suggest teachers of other grade levels are lacking in any way, shape, or form, but what I’ve found is that in kindergarten, we hit upon every learning style in almost every lesson just about everyday. It’s just the nature of dealing with five-year-olds.

• Linguistic intelligence ("word smart") – You can’t begin to think about words until you’ve mastered letters and sounds… something we do almost every second in kindergarten. Using The Three Habits of Highly Successful Reading Teachers, my sprouts have already mastered almost every sound and most of them can read about eighteen sight-words. It’s only the end of October – this is revolutionary word work we’re doing here people.

• Logical-mathematical intelligence ("number/reasoning smart") – It all begins with numbers and counting. We count the numbers of days in school starting on day one. The number increases by one each day, moving us forward at a developmentally appropriate pace. We also sing about writing numbers to help us remember the strokes involved, but we’re not talking about music… yet.

• Spatial intelligence ("picture smart") – A picture really is worth a thousand words. Kindergartners know this better than anyone. Before we’re ready for letters and words, we’re writing complicated stories using nothing but pictures. Staying in the lines is encouraged, but not imperative. Scribbling (i.e. rushing) often turns into careful crayon control as the year progresses.

• Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence ("body smart") – When you deal with five-year-olds all day long, you learn they don’t sit still for long. We have a motor break, on average, every ten minutes or so. Sometimes we sing, sometimes we dance, and sometimes we move from our tables to the floor or from the floor to the tables. Sometimes we take an extra long way to the cafeteria. Whatever we do, you can bet we’re not sitting still for long.

• Musical intelligence ("music smart") – Sing, sing, SING! We sing and dance all day long. I’ve never actually counted the number of songs we sing and move to on any given day, but my guess would be the total would be somewhere around fifteen. Yes, we could record (a rather long) album of tunes in a single kindergarten day. We don’t all sing in tune, but we ALL sing. We all don’t have amazing rhythm, but we ALL dance. Quite simply, in kindergarten, we love music.

• Interpersonal intelligence ("people smart") – Have you ever watched a group of children navigate the tricky trail of playing with LEGO pieces? When there are only a few treasured wheels in the set, sharing and negotiation skills are developed quickly. Ditto for the dollhouse and the playground.

• Intrapersonal intelligence ("self smart") – There is no more explicit instruction on the identification and understanding of feelings than in kindergarten. We read, write, and talk about our feelings daily.

• Naturalist intelligence ("nature smart") – We go outside at least twice a day (many times more). 'Nature Walks' are standard fare. We use nature to discover symmetry and learn about life cycles.

I’ve only touched on how we hit upon each intelligence in kindergarten here. The examples are numerous and ongoing. The simple fact is, kindergartners are an open book. They are, by nature, divergent thinkers. A kindergarten teacher incorporates all of these styles daily, often many times each day. The energy and spirit of my sprouts demand it and, thankfully, it helps keep me vigorous and young.

Bonus.

Kindergarteners are like sponges. They really do soak up knowledge and experiences like little critters starving for a drink. As my experience with this age group expands, I’m realizing the absorbency of each sprout isn’t the same. Some of them come in with their sponges already saturated and others come in with theirs bone dry.

Nelson is one such friend. Like a newly opened sponge dehydrated of all moisture, this sweet little boy came to us with nary a clue. I swear I wonder sometimes how some of these little guys get through the first five years of life with nobody exposing them to learning, but there are always a few that appear to have been raised in a cave with no letters, words, pencils, paper, or books.

The first few days of school, it became clear Nelson didn’t know how to write his name. He didn’t recognize his name. He didn’t know any letters or even the ABC song. Math wasn’t much better. He couldn’t count past two. Two. The poor kid was five and couldn’t count up to his own age.

What happened after those first few days, when we settled into the routines of school and began learning was nothing short of a miracle. Nelson’s sponge began taking in water like a cactus longingly awaiting rain. Slowly, but surely, he began learning to write his name, recognize his name, and count.

One afternoon, while playing count around the circle – a simple game where we count to a specified number and the sprout who says the target number sits until there’s only one child standing – I literally saw Nelson learn to count.

We start with low numbers so those who can’t count can learn the pattern quickly and this day our target number was nine. The first few times around the circle, each time it was Nelson’s turn to shout out his number, he looked at me, clueless and scared, and I’d whisper the number to him. After a few minutes, though, he began catching on. He was determined in his study, soaking up the numbers.

At bus time, I asked him to count for me, and right on cue, with a huge beaming smile he counted for me.

“One, two, free, four, five, six, seven, eight,… nine!” He shouted the last number.

He couldn’t go any higher then we’d practiced, but wow, he did it and will only learn to count higher. Watching that light bulb go off and the accompanying smile is what makes me feel like I’ve earned my paycheck. Nelson’s hug when he walked out of the room counting aloud was my bonus.