Portfolios: Authentic Assessment

Do you use portfolios? 

A portfolio is a great way to collect and save work throughout the year. It provides parents, teachers, and even students with a tool for assessment. It also serves as a wonderful keepsake of the kindergarten year.

What goes in a portfolio? You can include anything that you consider important. Some suggestions include writing samples, recordings of science experiments, and art or construct projects. Include a variety of other work such as periodic handwriting and math work pages to show the scope of your curriculum. To round out your portfolio, add a few photos. You may even want to include copies of report cards or testing results.

If you haven’t started collecting items for a portfolio this year, it’s still not too late to begin. Start simply, saving one or two selections each month. Collate the pages, punch holes in them, and place in a 3-prong folder. If you save three or more samples each month, you will need a binder for each student.


Students and parents will enjoy looking through the portfolios. They can show growth while preserving memories of the year. For ideas and templates, check out these products:

   

Native American Thanksgiving Fun


Art activity: Native American Children. Instructions can be found in our thanksgiving Unit.
I love teaching my students of the Native American Culture that is represented in my classroom. 

This Thanksgiving unit is strategically linked to the Common Core Standards! It is divided into areas of literature, media, music, art, literacy activities, math activities, worksheets, science activities, creative writing, word wall words, and guided reading. The activities are clearly written, easy to use, and need limited amounts of preparation. 



Literacy Activities:
Hop To It: Identifying Letters and Sounds
Turkey Lurkey: Producing and Generating Rhymes.
Turkey Twist: Kinesthetic Practice With Letter Recognition
Dinner Rush: Naming & Generating Beginning Sounds
Thanksgiving Races: Developing Fluency
Rhyming Worksheet


Math Activities:
Turkey Guesses: Making Estimates
A Feast For All: Counting Objects to Show Physical Representation of Numbers
Thanksgiving Feast: Counting Forward From a Given Number in a Set of 10
The Turkey Dance: Identifying Numbers and Recording Results.
Thanksgiving Parade: Ordering 1-10 Ten Frames
The Turkey Bowl: Comparing Groups of Objects

Songs
Gobble Gobble Gobble
5 Fat Turkeys
I Like Turkey
A Very Fine Turkey


Writing Prompts/Word Wall (Style Choices)
Thanksgiving
I am Thankful For
Thanksgiving Word Wall

Art Projects
Handprint Turkey
Easy Construct Pilgrim
Construct Indians
Tangram Indian
Draw a Turkey

Guided Reading Books
Happy Thanksgiving

Social Studies
Pilgrim Kids: Compare and Contrast Facts

Teaching Students To Give Thanks: Gratitude and Other Important Life Skills

Wondergrove Kids are at it again!

Thanksgiving is coming! Food, fall, and football! It’s a time for families and friends to gather and give thanks. One of my favorite teacher spots,  Wondergrove   has posted five Thanksgiving videos you can share with your class. These videos offer valuable tips to remind your students that Thanksgiving is more than a big meal. It's also a moment to reflect and be thankful. Each video is less than 60 seconds so you can show one a day leading up to the holiday. Check it out here! 



Developmentally Appropriate, Family Friendly Homework

For more than two decades I have sent home monthly homework packets with my students. Why?

  1. Because, all parents want the best for their child.
  2. Because, parents are partners and deserve to be given the tools to help their child succeed.
  3. Because, homework time between parent and child can be a bonding time.
  4. Because, homework offers opportunity to develop responsibility, time management, and persistence.
  5. Because, homework increases student academics.
  6. Because, homework improves study skills.
  7. Because, homework enhances parent understanding of classroom academics.
  8. Because homework does not have to involve worksheets.
  9. Because, homework can be given that is respectful of parent's valuable time.
  10. Because, homework can and should be fun!
Following are samples pages from my monthly homework packets. These packets are fun, engaging, flexible and easy to use. Best of all, children love them, they increase academic performance and allow parents to be true partners in their child's education. 




















The Three Bears and a Family Thematic Unit

Thanksgiving is the perfect season to talk about the importance of families, and to celebrate the importance they play in our lives.

To begin my unit study on families, I love to start with two of my favorite books, "Hairy Bear," and  "The Three Bears." 

After discussing fantasy stories, where animals talk, we move to the discussion to the families of each of my students. This unit always seems to be a favorite for all! And it should be, who is more important to each of us than our families!


Family Unit Contents:
This developmentally appropriate thematic unit: The Family offers a variety of family themed activities that will connect all facets of the Kindergarten, Pre-K, or Homeschool curriculum.

Contents Include:

Literacy Games/Activities:

Family Vacation: Segmenting Words
The Family Reunion: Producing and Generating Rhyming Words
Family Camping: Identifying Upper and Lowercase Alphabet Letters
Family Camping: Identifying Sight Words
Animal Families: Fluently Naming Upper and Lowercase Alphabet Letters
Animal Families: Fluently Naming Sight Words

Math Games/Activities:

Birth Order: Gathering, Sorting, and Interpreting Data
Family Counting Tree: Addition and Subtraction
Cookie Jar: Counting On
The Family Tree: Matching Quantity and Numerals


Guided Reading Books

The Family

Songs/Fingerplays

With My Family
Families
My Family Tree

Writing

My Family Tree: Scaffolded Writing Lesson
Family Word Wall
My Family: Writing Prompt

Social Studies

Family Traditions: The Patchwork Quilt
Birth Order: Family Combinations
My Family: A Family Home-Connection Activity

Art

My Family: Shape People

Thanksgiving: Teaching Thematically

Looking for a great Thanksgiving Song?


    I'm a very fine turkey and I sing a fine song.
    Gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble.
    I strut around the barnyard all the day long.
    And my head goes bobble, bobble, bobble.

    And when Thanksgiving Day comes round,
    Gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble.
    I'll go and hide so I can't be found.
    Then my head will still bobble as I gobble.

And check out this great Thanksgiving Unit:

This Thanksgiving unit is strategically linked to the Common Core Standards! It is divided into areas of literature, media, music, art, literacy activities, math activities, worksheets, science activities, creative writing, word wall words, and guided reading. The activities are clearly written, easy to use, and need limited amounts of preparation. 



Literacy Activities:
Hop To It: Identifying Letters and Sounds
Turkey Lurkey: Producing and Generating Rhymes.
Turkey Twist: Kinesthetic Practice With Letter Recognition
Dinner Rush: Naming & Generating Beginning Sounds
Thanksgiving Races: Developing Fluency
Rhyming Worksheet


Math Activities:
Turkey Guesses: Making Estimates
A Feast For All: Counting Objects to Show Physical Representation of Numbers
Thanksgiving Feast: Counting Forward From a Given Number in a Set of 10
The Turkey Dance: Identifying Numbers and Recording Results.
Thanksgiving Parade: Ordering 1-10 Ten Frames
The Turkey Bowl: Comparing Groups of Objects

Songs
Gobble Gobble Gobble
5 Fat Turkeys
I Like Turkey
A Very Fine Turkey


Writing Prompts/Word Wall (Style Choices)
Thanksgiving
I am Thankful For
Thanksgiving Word Wall

Art Projects
Handprint Turkey
Easy Construct Pilgrim
Construct Indians
Tangram Indian
Draw a Turkey

Guided Reading Books
Happy Thanksgiving

Social Studies
Pilgrim Kids: Compare and Contrast Facts

The Best Halloween Video Ever Made: For Kids

I have owned the old VHS copy of this for 20 plus years! Halloween "Tales" acted out by a theatre troupe. Children are captivated by the live action. So, if you have an extra 27 minutes tomorrow, try to squeeze this in and enjoy:

Halloween Tales: The Biggest Pumpkin Ever, Monster Manners, Bony-Legs


Skeleton & Mummy: An Easy Halloween Art Project

We read this great book by Steve Metzger. In this story there are two skeleton friends, one of whom dresses up like a mummy to scare his friend! Following the story, we had a guided drawing lesson making a skeleton and mummy. Supplies needed are a large sheet of black paper, white oil pastels (crayons), paint brush, and tempura paint. The instructions for this easy project follow.
Find the center of the paper and draw the hips.


Add a spine and a skull.

Add a shoulder bone. Draw the arm bones and hands.

Add the leg bones.

Add The Ribs.

Draw a second skeleton to the side of the first. And begin to wrap this skeleton using paint.

Keep a light touch with the brush and you slowly wrap and wrap and wrap.

Paint the eyes and add a mask if you wish.




Voila! You have the two friends, skeleton and mummy!

Skeleton Thematic Unit

D’em Bones
 The human body is amazing! It can lead to a number of different science studies including a study of skeletons. With Halloween around the corner, this is a fun time to learn about skeletons. Books, art projects, posters, playdough, letter (or word) and number (or addition) games, songs, models, and puzzles can add to the scientific information that you present. 



Although skeletons can give a Halloween atmosphere to your classroom, they are fascinating at any time during the year. Just find a few books and some supporting materials and you will have the beginning of a captivating unit of study. For learning games and related ideas, check out our Skeleton unit.


This "Developmentally Appropriate Thematic Unit starring Skeletons will thrill the students in your classroom or homeschool setting.

The Skeletal System is intriguing to learners of all ages, and Halloween is a great time to strengthen science knowledge of the human skeleton with a little bit of haunted fun! However, this unit is intended to be used anytime during the year to teach about human skeletons. 

All activities have clearly defined objectives and are strategically linked to the common core standards.


Activities include:

Literacy Activities
Six Swinging Skeletons: Naming and Generating Beginning Sounds
Black and White Party: Naming Opposites
Skeleton Dance: Matching Letters
Skeleton Dance: Matching Letters
Skeleton Town: Uppercase Alphabetical Order
Skeleton March: Identifying and Writing Alphabet Letters

Math Activities:

Skeleton Match-Up: Matching Quantity With Numbers
The Bone Yard: Counting Backwards
Skeleton Squeeze: Greater Than/Less Than
Collecting Bones: Counting and Cardinality
Skeleton Family: Writing Numbers

Songs
The Skeleton March
The Ghost of John
Bones: Metacognition Activity

Art Projects
Skeleton Construct

Science
Q-Tip Skeletons: Following directions to make a skeleton.
The Human Skeleton


Guided Reading Books
Skeleton
The Skeleton

Writing Prompts
What I Know About Skeletons
Skeleton Word Wall Words (Realistic Photos)
Label-It Skeleton


November Alphabet and Sight Word Game Cards


Use these handy cards as Flash Cards or for any activity that calls for alphabet or letter cards such as:Write the Room
Boom (Or a similar type game where all cards are lost if the extra card is drawn). * Each set contains an extra "Boom" type card
Go Fish
Old Maid
Memory Match
Draw and Write


*Sight words include all kindergarten level words in Wonders, Journeys, and Imagine It reading series.

Fall Themed Clip Art Set

This adorable clip art set will enhance your fall creations, activities and/or games. It is on sale now for only $2.00.

The Orange Ghost and Halloween Themed Activities


Deep in my file cabinet, under "H" for Halloween, I have music for the delightful song, "The Orange Ghost." Now I would love to give credit for this little treasure, but it has been in my possession now for 24 years, left behind by a teacher who began her career in the 1950's. I suspect it may have come from a elementary music text of that era.

 I have used this song now for quarter of a century and my students love it! And, they especially love to make the orange ghost! If you would love to get a copy of this sheet music, the poster above, the art activity, as well as 110 pages of learning activities, you will want to check out this Early Learning Thematic Unit developed for students ages 4-6.


This Cross-Curricular Thematic Unit Contains the following activities that are strategically linked to Common Core Standards:

Literacy Activities:
Pumpkin Smasher: Identifying Initial Sound
Mystery Letter: Identifying letters
Pumpkin Bingo: Identifying Letters
Trick or Treat: Using Onset/rime. 

Independent Activities
Ghostwriter: Writing Uppercase Letters
Fall Into the ABC’s: Tracing & Writing Uppercase Letters
Halloween Sounds: Matching Sounds

Math Activities:
Monster Math-Mash : Identifying More or Less
Candy Count: Building Equivalent Sets of Numbers
Missing Pumpkins: Ordering Numbers
Candy Match: Matching Quantity to Number

Independent Activities
Halloween Buddies: Number Recognition
The Great Pumpkin: Matching Numbers & Quantity

Writing Prompts/Word Wall
My Costume
Halloween
Halloween Word Wall Words

Guided Reading Books
Trick or Treat

Class Made Books
Trick or Treat

Science
Witch Stew: Making Conclusions Based on Observations and Experiences
Monster Slime: Following Directions to Complete an Experiment

Art Projects
Pumpkin,Pumpkin Puppet
Construct a Jack
Orange Ghost 
Triangle Witch
Pumpkin Lantern

Song Posters
Pumpkin-Pumpkin
The Orange Ghost (includes sheet music)
Ten Little Ghosts
The Old Witch
There's No Such Thing as a Witch (includes sheet music)
Halloween Is All Around

Printfriendly