Back to basics

Today I realized the importance of going back to the basics.  The school where I teach is a "Back to Basics" school which means we teach with whole class instruction, use a reading program that is strong on phonics, our math program emphasizes memorizing math facts, and science, history, and geography are an important part of our day.    Many people do not agree with our philosophy, but many kids thrive in it.  The theory is to set the bar high for students to achieve more.

Our Kindergarten curriculum is pretty amazing.  By the end of the year our students have learned about the  seven continents, including a famous landmark and animal from each one.  They've been exposed to over 100 high frequency words with the expectation that they can read at least 50 automatically.  They've had a strong exposure to phonics and phonemic awareness.  Our writing program creates Kindergarten writers who easily compose 2-3 sentences on a topic, with a good number of students writing more.  We work hard and the pace is fast in my classroom - there's a lot to cover in only two and a half hours! 

Today, however, we stopped for a few minutes and had fun.  I played a song that is a medley of the Chicken Dance, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Head Shoulders, Knees and Toes.  We sang, we dance, we laughed, and were just plain silly.   As we sang, however, I began to notice how many students found it difficult to do the spider motion with their fingers!  More importantly, quite a few students did not know the words to Itsy Bitsy Spider or Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes!

Earlier this week we sang London Bridge is Falling Down.  My aide and I made the bridge and told the class to make a line to go under the bridge.  My class is pretty good at walking in a line to go to recess, but this was a different type of walking in line.  They had a very hard time with it and it took way more supervision than I thought it would.  Then when my aide and I captured a child for the part "Take a key and lock her up..." the class was hysterical!   I think most of them had never played London Bridges before!

So I'm going back to the basics and teach my students to play the old fashioned way!  

A new record

I think I set a new world record today.  I met with a parent regarding her struggling child and actually mentioned the high probability of Kindergarten retention.  It is only the 7th of October!  I've never had that discussion before February!

He has made some progress.  At the beginning of the year during the letter assessment he named letters, numbers, and shapes - not the actual letter names.  During our most recent letter assessment he randomly named letters.  OK, so they weren't the correct letter names, but he wasn't saying numbers and shapes!  He has also learned to write his name, but if there are other names that begin with the same letter he cannot identify his name.  These are small steps, but he is making them.  Most importantly, this little guy can rhyme.

I've taught fourth graders who read at a first grade level and they were easy to teach compared to a child who cannot rhyme or identify if two words rhyme or not.  Children who cannot rhyme are not able to tell me that "cat & hat" rhyme or that "dog & cat" do not rhyme.  Sometimes they get it right, but they have a 50/50 shot!  Or if I say tell me a word that rhymes with "cat" they respond with "dog" or "car."  Yes, it is important to rhyme.  It indicates that you can hear the similarities between words and isolate sounds within words.  A child who is struggling but can rhyme is much easier to help than a struggling child who cannot rhyme.

This little guy in my class is learning, but so are the other students.  The learning gap will get wider and wider as the year continues.  He really should be in preschool, but mom told me they couldn't afford to send him.  Hopefully, if this little guy spends another year in Kindergarten that gap will be closed.

Flip flops and Mary Janes

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away I had to learn how to tie my shoes.  I was around five years old, I guess.  We lived in an apartment in the Bronx and my mother had spent all morning trying to get me to tie my shoes.  I couldn't do it.  No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't tie my shoes!  The way I remember it, I gave up and in a fit of frustration my mother stormed out of the apartment.  What really happened - my mother left me to my temper tantrum, went next door to ask our neighbors something, and came back within five minutes.  As my mother told her version of the story, I asked her why it was so important for me to learn how to tie my shoes.  Her response, "They wouldn't let you go to Kindergarten at St. Mary's if you couldn't tie your shoes!"

In my classroom, I am asked at least once a day to tie someone's shoe.  I think to myself, why don't these parents buy their kids velcro shoes like I did for my kids!  My class is full of flip flops, Cars shaped Crocs, sandals, sneakers and Mary Janes with velcro.  Not only do our children not have to learn how to tie shoes, they don't even have to learn how to use a buckle!  By St. Mary's criteria, only one or two of my students would have been admitted to Kindergarten this year.

And I must confess, I covet the pair of sparkly, pink Mary Janes with velcro straps one little girl wears in my class (just don't tell Sister S. from St. Mary's).