January Poems

Thought I'd get a head start on my blogging commitment tonight... best news? My kiddos' homework for January is completely done! Now if I can just stay ahead... haha

I'm really proud of the homework system I developed this year. I'm sure in the future I'll find some way to tweak it, but for now it's a great balance of allowing students to progress at their own pace while still building community in our classroom. Read on for details and a freebie!

Overview
My kids have 5 homework "routines" they complete every night. 

1. Reading
2. Phonics
3. Poetry
4. Sight Words
5. Math

I train my students (and their parents) early in the year by introducing one routine at a time in excruciating detail. Now we are comfortably rolling with all five, with quite a few reminders from me. By the end of the year, I expect them to be total independent in responsibility for completing their homework - no "mom didn't help me" excuse! The other thing I love about this particular system is that I can tell who is practicing at home but I DON'T get a stack of homework in my inbox every Friday. Only one assignment each week is paper-based. The rest are hands-on/interactive/authentic activities that, let's face it, are better for kinders anyway!

The Nitty-Gritty

1. Reading - My students are expected to read with a family member each night and discuss their reading. I suggest questions parents can ask during reading or activities they can complete related to a story, but this is mostly driven by the student's interests and the reading material their family has. At the beginning of the year, I teach my students three ways to read a book: reading the words, reading the pictures, and retelling a familiar story. We build their independence in reading in the classroom and eventually we talk about independence at home. Instead of saying "I can't read," students discover authentic ways that they can interact with texts, with or without adult assistance!

2. Phonics - If you are familiar with Words Their Way or you use the Daily 5, simply imagine your students completing word work at home. My students sort pictures by their beginning sound every night. They receive a sheet with about 20 pictures for two letter sounds that they practice until they've mastered those two sounds. Then they'll receive the next sort, until they've mastered all letter sounds! I sent parents a script at the beginning of the year with guiding questions they can use to help their child complete the picture sort without doing the work for them. This helps them understand what's going on in the classroom as well, since so many people have a misconception that learning to identify letters is the summation of kindergarten ELA!

3. Poetry - This is the heart of the community-building homework. Students share the other experiences at various times, but we are always working on a poem together! I have the poem on a chart for about a week BEFORE I send their "poetry page" home with them. This way, we have a week to read, discuss, make up hand motions for, and re-read, and re-read, and re-read... the poem. Usually after a week they have the poem memorized, and that is essential to our homework! Students take home a poetry page each Monday for that familiar poem and their most important job is to read the poem every night and POINT TO THE WORDS. At the beginning of the year I'm just looking for them to develop word 1:1 and and understanding of directionality, so the just read the poem and maybe draw a picture to match. Now, there's a blurb at the top of each poetry page with their other assignments. We've just started really pushing the sight words routine, so most of their January homework revolves around finding those words in the poem. It also reinforces the comprehension skills we're working on in reader's workshop. Some of us are working on retelling and others are focused on making predictions and inferences. You'll see those skills incorporated into the homework assignments in the freebie!

4. Sight Words - My students work on lists of 5 sight words at a time. When they can recognize those words, they receive the next list. For homework, they practice reading, writing, and/or spelling their sight words to learn them. At the beginning of the year we did a learning style survey and identified the ways we learn best. So I tell my auditory learners to spell their sight words out loud to practice them, etc.

5. Math - Self-pacing math was a big change for me, but I LOVE it! My kids are rallying around each other and getting into peer tutoring like I have never seen before! When I write my unit plans for math (they would have been two-week units when I taught whole-group math, just to give you an idea of how much content is in each) I create the homework calendar alongside it. Again, it's all about empowering my students and their parents and making sure everyone understands exactly what we're learning and why! The homework calendar for each unit includes the learning targets (objectives) for the unit and a brief explanation of what mastery of those learning targets would look like (what should students be able to do if they have successfully completed this unit). At the bottom is a calendar template WITHOUT DATES (that's key!) that gives ten days worth of homework activities related to the unit. I include something for every learning style and try to match activities to the order of my mini-lessons. Students begin the first assignment when they begin the unit. If they finish early, they can skip the rest of the assignments or do them just for fun :) and if they take longer than ten days, I tell them to repeat the activities for more practice. I make individual recommendations if I think a child needs a different way to practice, but this covers those who just need a little more time.

Finally... the FREEBIE!
Click here to download my January poetry pages! (See above for an explanation of how these work.) Although I normally send poetry pages on Monday, I plan to send the MLK poem the Friday before the holiday so students understand why we're out of school and can spend some time "teaching" their families! And if you're reading this a bit later than January, still check the freebie out! Other than the Martin Luther King poem, they are generic winter poems that you could use through February (and even March for some of us!). Enjoy!

Hi there!

My name is Erin and I am, above all else, a kindergarten teacher. I am passionate about my craft - about the crucial role of early childhood education, about developing my students as people (not just scholars), and about constantly finding ways to make my daily actions as a teacher more purposeful, effective, and engaging. In the bit of time and energy I have left, I love to cook, hang out with my dog, dance, read, and write.

Hence, the blog. Now in my fourth year of teaching, I am no longer totally overwhelmed by the day-to-day, and I want to document some of the constant reflecting that goes on in my head. This is mostly a personal journey, but I am keeping the blog public in hopes that someone might benefit from the ideas I share in my posts! 

My commitment is to post at least once a month about something NEW that I'm doing in my classroom. It might be materials I've created for my students, a new intervention I'm trying out with a specific student, ways I've re-organized to make my classroom more efficient... whatever is most important to my "teacher self" at that time. Feel free to leave feedback in the comments - I LOVE to hear what others are doing in their classrooms!