A Beginning of Year Assessment

Happy Sunday!


I know that I just posted yesterday.  But, I came up with a great idea at about 4:30 this morning.  I'm not sure why I get my best ideas during the night or in the shower but that is usually how it happens.  Anyways, I was thinking about the assessment that I give my students on the 1st or 2nd day of school and then again at the end of each quarter.  (This isn't an original idea, I have it on another teacher's website several years ago and of course I don't remember where I found it.  If you know, please let me know so I can give that teacher credit.)  The assessment shows how the student writes his/her name, draws a picture of himself/herself, and writes the letters and numbers he/she knows.  The paper has 4 different boxes for the students to write/draw in.  The boxes have shapes in the corner so the student can easily find the correct box.  Before, I just drew the lines to divide the paper into 4 parts and drew the shapes in the corner.  But early this morning, I thought it would be a great idea to make a worksheet that looked more professional.  So that is what I'm sharing with you today.


In the box with the circle in the corner, the student writes his/her name.  In the box with the triangle in the corner the student draws a picture of himself/herself.  In the box with the star in the corner, the student writes all the letters he/she knows.  In the box with the heart in the corner, the student writes all of the numbers he/she knows.  As the school year progresses, many of my students can write more numbers than fit in the box.  I let those students turn over the paper and write the numbers on the back of the paper.  Also, don't forget to write the date the students take the assessment on the papers.  This makes it easier to put them in the correct order when sharing with parents.


My school has student-led conferences at the end of the 1st quarter and the end of the 3rd quarter.  Even my most outgoing students can become VERY quiet when 2 or 3 adults are listening/watching them.  So this assessment is a great way to get my students to talk during the conference.  Both the parents and students (and I can't lie, me too) love to see the students' progress during the school year.  Many of my students come to school barely able to write their names and by the end of the 3rd quarter the student is able to write his/her first and last name (with correct letter formation). 


 Here is a link to get the freebie.

Assessment Freebie

Thank you for looking at my blog today.

I have linked up with Classroom Freebies Manic Monday.

Classroom Freebies

One of My Favorite Websites

Hi Everyone,

I'm so sorry that it has been forever since I have posted on my blog.  The end of the school year is a SUPER busy time for me.  I planned our Kindergarten Graduation, complete with my students singing 6 songs, diplomas that I bought and printed names on using my computer and printer and a slideshow with 4 songs and approximately the same number of pictures  of each student.  (A great use for my tallying skills, as I watched the slideshow and made a tally mark next to each student's name.)  WHEW!  Thank goodness I made it to summer vacation.

I wanted to share a great website that I found a few months ago.  The name of the website is Reading Teacher.  Here is the link to the website:

Reading Teacher

I used it as an intervention for a few of my struggling students.  They loved being able to read the printable stories.  I was very surprised that the website was free.  For fear of revealing my age, the characters and stories are the same ones that I used when I learned how to read in kindergarten.  We didn't have the letter cards the website uses or of course, the online part.  Please check out the website and let me know what you think.

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

A Science Lesson - Push and Pull

I just wanted to share a science lesson that began when I was reading the book, "The Wild Toboggan Ride".  It is one of my favorite winter stories to share with my kindergartners.  I think this is because they laugh when some of the toboggan riders land in the garbage can.  The more I can help my students enjoy reading the more they will love (and want) to read.

After reading the book, I was thinking that in the story, the child and her grandpa push and pull the toboggan.  What a great way to reinforce the concept of push and pull!  So I read the book to the students again.  I think they had more fun the second time I read it.  Then I had the students draw a picture of someone pushing a sled and someone pulling a sled.  Most of my students were able to label their pictures, too.  Here are some examples of their work.

I love it when I can figure out a way to combine literature and science.  I hope someone can use this idea.

Happy Middle of the Week,

I Won My First Award!

Happy Weekend Everyone!


I'm so excited!  I just won my first award!  Sarah Stoll at Teachers Cannot Live by Apples Alone nominated me.  She has a wonderful blog and I'm very honored that she chose me.

Here are the rules:

1.  Thank the person who nominated you!  Thank you so much Sarah!!!

2.  Tell 7 things about yourself.

3.  Nominate 15 newly discovered blogs and let them know they received the award.

Okay, here goes:

7 Things About Myself

1.  I have 2 teenagers.  (Not sure when I became old enough to be the mom to teenagers, but it happened.)

2.  My whole family contributes to my teaching.  My husband makes things for my classroom, my son helps with my blogs and graphics for my freebies and things, my daughter helps me get my classroom set up, grades papers, etc. and my sisters contribute different items for my class or come in and help out.

3.  I love teaching kindergarten and I wouldn't want to do anything else.

4.  I look organized but that's not always true.

5.  I write and edit textbooks for an online textbook company called Complete Curriculum.

6.  I'm not always very good about updating my blog.

7.  Paperwork isn't my favorite thing to do.

Fifteen blogs that I have found recently and I love:  (in no particular order)

1.  Mrs. Plant's Press

2.  KinderGals

3.  Kindergarten Tales

4.  Krissy's Kindergarten

5.  Lisa's KinderLand

6.  Mrs. Albanese's Kindergarten

7.  Mrs. Miner's Kindergarten

8.  Time 4 Kindergarten

9.  Stepping into First Grade

10.  Queen of the First Grade Jungle

11.  Reading Writing Connection

12.  the Kindergarten Chick

13.  From Kindergarten With Love

14.  Mrs. Patton's Patch

15.  The Very Busy Kindergarten

Writing Rubric Freebie

Happy Sunday!


I'm so sorry that I haven't been posting regularly.  I have been super busy (just like everyone) with my own kids, report cards, and conferences.  Also, I was asked to edit some textbooks for the publisher that I wrote some textbooks for (I'm not editing the ones that I wrote).


Anyway, my school is working very hard at improving our students' writing abilities.  This of course is being guided by the students' scores on the writing part of the state test, in our case, the MEAP. So even though my kindergartners don't take the test, I have been asked to come up with a rubric to grade my students' writing.


I thought that other teachers might be able to use the rubric so I have included it as a free download.  


Here is the link to it:


Writing Rubric


I hope you like the rubric.  Please leave me feedback and let me know if you like the rubric or if there are any changes you would like to see made to it.


Thanks for taking time to visit.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Oh my goodness, where does the time go?  I can't believe it is the last week of September.  I am so sorry I haven't been posting on my blog.  It has been a very busy time.  I have a student teacher, I have never had one before, so I am getting used to that.  My daughter is playing JV volleyball (practices or games every night).  It has been crazy.  


I would like to share with you what we have been doing in my classroom since the beginning of the school year.  First, I began this school  year with the students' materials being organized in a different way.  A teacher on another blog used the plastic shoeboxes to organize the students' pencils, crayons, etc.  So I decided to try it.  Here is a picture of what mine look like:

These seem to be working better than the caddies I used before, mainly because their are 3 cups with crayons, so the students can each have their own crayons.  When I used the caddies, the students fought over where the caddy should be on the table.  The cups can be taken out of the plastic box and each student can have his/her own cup.


Here are a couple of my centers from this past week:

My students always seem to come to kindergarten needing practice using scissors.  I put newspaper in our sand table and let them cut and cut.  It was one of the favorite centers last week.

At my ABC center, I had snap cubes with letters on them for the students to put in order.  I also have teddy bears that have letters on their bellies for the students to put in order.

At my Puzzles and Games center, the students played a matching game with cards that had environmental print on them.

I am extremely lucky this year to have a student teacher and a full time aide in my classroom.  The At-Risk teacher is also in my classroom at center time.  This allowed me to begin having my students go to centers a week earlier than I usually do.  The students are doing a great job and cheer when it is center time.

Have a wonderful last week of September,

First Day of School

Tomorrow is our first day of school.  It is such an exciting and busy (kinda crazy) day in my classroom.  One of my favorite books to share with the kindergartners is "The Kissing Hand".  Some years it is more difficult to read without tearing up than others.  This year will be a little difficult since my own daughter is beginning high school on the same day.  I can remember when she was in my classroom and I read the story to her class.  How quickly they grow up!


Here is a link to the story being read online if you would like to take a little break and share the story with your students tomorrow.

The Kissing Hand

Good luck if tomorrow is your 1st day of school,