Jessica Kaiser

Gibbs Elementary School

Kindergarten
1/8/24-3/15/24

Student Teaching Reflection Journal

Week 1: January 8-12

Oh, my kindergarten is so fun. The first week went by so quickly. On Monday driving to
Gibbs, I was both nervous and excited to start my student teaching. It was exciting to meet all
the students. During the week, I was able to get to know them. Being in kindergarten, I have the
unique opportunity of getting to know students during choice time. During this time students
have the choice of playing with the toys in the room or coloring. The students love to come up to
me and show what they have created. Some of the students have even made pictures for me. It
has been nice to get to know the students better and start to form relationships with them. They
love to talk with me and always have such great stories to tell.
In the mornings, students have math and reading bins. During this time, they get to use
many different learning resources. There are so many different activities for students to get
students engaged in practicing different math and reading skills. They can use matching number
eggs, number popsicles, trace letters using cars, interlocking letter tiles, and more. Students can
use these individually or work with their classmates. Plus, it allows students to use their
imagination and be creative. The students are playing but are also practicing important number
and letter recognition skills. We also do reading stations in the mornings. The students are split
up into four groups with five students each. The groupings are based on ability level. This week,
I jumped in and helped at one of the reading stations. Throughout the week we worked on
beginning letter sounds, CVC words, and journaling. Working in small groups with the students
helped me get to see where they are at academically. It also has allowed me to see the diverse
academic levels that are present in this classroom.
Throughout the week, I also got to work with the lower-achieving students in the
classroom. In the afternoon, when they came back from lunch and recess, we would call these
students to the teacher's table to go through beginning sounds. I worked with them one-on-one
with beginning sounds using teaching tubs (containers that have objects that all start with the
same letter). Using two different beginning sounds, I would tell the student each object. Then
the students would tell me what each object is and sort them into the right tub with the
corresponding beginning letter sound. Doing this helps the students get extra practice and
repetition, which will help them strengthen their knowledge.
This week looked a little different because the teachers had to do FastBridge testing.
They did this for both math and reading. This testing takes a bit of time because the testing is
done with students individually. It changed the schedule a little bit, but the testing showed how
students have grown since the beginning of the year. It is interesting to see how students'
scores have changed since the Fall. It is exciting to see how much knowledge each of the
students has learned since the start of the school year.
I also got to be part of an IEP and PLC meeting this week. It was my first time
participating in an IEP meeting. It was interesting to see how all the different teachers and
specialists came together to talk about all of the growth the students have made this year. They
also asked if the parents were also seeing this growth. It was nice to hear about all of the
positive progress the students are making. These meetings help keep the child’s team on the
same page. They also adjusted the plan and updated the student's goals. During the PLC
meeting, the kindergarten teachers discussed some of the testing they had done this week.
They also talked through different activities they were going to do regarding the upcoming
Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
I observed a lot during the first week, to get a better sense of how the classroom flows.
On Thursday, I did Heggerty with the students and read them a story. It was my first time
teaching the whole class during this experience. It went well, but there are things to improve a
little. I need to work on being a little louder when doing Heggerty. Since I have not done much
Heggerty, I need to work a little bit more on the hand motions, so I am a mirror for the students.
Before my next read-aloud, I will want to read through it so I can come up with questions to ask
students about the story. I was excited to get to do more on Friday, but we had a snow day on
Friday so I will have to wait till next week. I can’t wait to get back into the classroom.

Week 2: January 15-19

This week went by so quickly. It is probably because we only had 3 days with students.
We had no school on Monday because it was Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Friday was a
Professional Development (PD) day for teachers. I love getting to spend time with the students
and build relationships with them.
In the morning, the students cycle through four different reading stations. The students
separated into four different groups based on abilities. Having the groups split up like this allows
us to differentiate for the highest and lowest students. This week I was mostly helping at the
word work station. At this station students were working on heart word color by word, trying out
different sight word reading bins, and looking through alphabet books. The students were
diligent workers this week. They did such a good job focusing and completing their jobs while
rotating through reading stations. Since this week we were learning about Martin Luther King Jr.
the students also colored the hats that said, “I have a dream!” on them.
On Thursday, I worked with a group at the teacher table. We worked on segmenting
words. Each of the students had a sheet with sound boxes and a magic wand. I would say a
word and they would repeat it. Using their magic wands and sound boxes, they would segment
the words into individual sounds. It was great to see what different tasks they work on while at
the teacher table. The students enjoyed segmenting the words using the magic wands. Usually,
they segment words by counting the sounds on their fingers, but it is exciting for them to get
different experiences. Using the magic wands helped them to stay focused and gave them a
different way to practice an important skill.
This week I started teaching part of the Really Great Reading lessons. We do these
lessons in the morning before playtime. Sometimes the students need prompting to help them
stay focused, but for the most part they are good listeners and participants. I have been co-
teaching these lessons with Amy this week. Getting to teach part of it, while also still observing,
has been nice. Since I am still learning, it has been helpful to have the opportunity to keep
observing part of the lessons.
Each day in the afternoon, I also got to work with the lower-achieving students in the
classroom. When they came back from lunch and recess, I would call a student to my table in
the back to go segment CVC words. I would read the students a CVC word from a card, and
they would segment the sounds using a pop-it. The pop-it had three in a row (green, yellow, and
red). They would pop the green as they said the first sound, yellow as they said the vowel, and
pop the red one for the final sound. Most of the students would not see the card with the word
until the end. For some of the students it was beneficial to see the word, so they could match
the letter sound to the letter.
Every day this week, I read aloud to the students. For the read aloud, I spent time
looking the stories over before reading them to the class. Then, when I went to do the read
aloud, I had already planned places to stop and questions to ask the students. This helped the
read aloud be more interactive for the students. They are so excited to share ideas and
participate in discussions during the story. Even though it takes a little bit of time to prepare, it
helps the read aloud go much smother. I really enjoyed asking the students questions
throughout the story. Doing this helps keep the students engaged and thinking. I cannot wait to
read more stories aloud to the kindergarteners.
I also did Heggerty with the whole class this week. The first few times I did this, it was a
little rough. Having done it a few more times, I am starting to get the hang of it. The students are
doing great. Most of them do a great job participating. A few of the students need some
reminders but are easily brought back to what they are supposed to be doing. I usually will ask
specific students who are off task to get ready for the current section of Heggerty. Amy
suggested that I try to praise students who are listening and ready to learn. I have found that
doing this does seem to work because students want to be better so they can get that positive
praise too.
On Friday, we had a PD Day. In the morning we went over some of the FastBridge
testing we finished last week. In the beginning we did an ice breaker. It was nice to get an
opportunity to meet some of the other people in the school. It also gave me a chance to get to
know more about other teachers in kindergarten. For the FastBridge data, we went over the
school wide data first and then looked at grade and class wide data. For the entire school they
achieved the goal they had created at the beginning of the year. While looking at grade-wide
and class-wide data, they set a new goal for the spring and planned out what extra they will do
in class to reach the goal. It was fun to see how much the students have grown since they
started Kindergarten. Then I went out to lunch with the Kindergarten Team. It was a great
opportunity to get to know them better. In the afternoon, we did science training with all the other
K-2 teachers in the district. It was a great experience to meet others and get a chance to
collaborate with them. We looked at a science lesson and went through it to see how you might
go about teaching it.
I am excited to get back to the classroom and hopefully have my first full week of student
teaching. It has been great to begin taking on more responsibilities in the classroom.
Kindergarteners are so fun and are always ready to learn.

Week 3: January 22-26

This week was my first full week with students, and some of the days seemed longer
than others. I love spending time with the students and teaching them new things. They are just
so excited to learn new things.
In the mornings, the students do reading stations. This week I led some groups at the
teacher's table as well as helping students at the word work station. At the word work station, I
helped students build heart words (and letter sounds for students still learning them) using
kinetic sand and color by sight words. The students are doing well with learning their heart
words, some of the students can even use them in a sentence. I also led groups at the teacher's
table this week. We read decodable books and went through some comprehension questions,
did writing for their penguin craft, and went through a sound search book. Since the students
are grouped by ability for reading stations, working at the teacher's table allows us to
differentiate for the higher achieving students. For example, this group is learning about silent e
and the decodable book they had words with silent e throughout the story. The other groups had
a story that was mostly CVC words. On Tuesday and Wednesday, I worked with a few of the
groups on reading their decodable books. On Thursday, we worked on the writing for their
penguin craft. Friday, we went through a sound search book focusing on the sounds f, n, and m.
At the beginning, we went over different words that started with these sounds. As I read the
story to them, the students would look at the illustrations and find images that started with f, n,
or m. It was exciting to see what the students know and how engaged they get when it is
interesting.
In the mornings, we also do Really Great Reading before the students have playtime. I
continued to co-teach this with Amy this week. It is going well. Usually when teaching it, I am
sitting at the computer, so I can see all the students and click to the next part. On Wednesday, I
stood up by the board for part of it. It was good to try, and I liked having the ability to teach it
from a different place in the room.
I had my first observation on Tuesday, and it went well. For the observation, I did a read-
aloud about penguins. I was a little nervous at first, but then she smiled at me, and I
remembered she was there to help me, so then I was more at ease. It was nice to see Liz and
talk with her about all the happenings in the kindergarten class. I enjoyed the conversation we
had at the end of the observation. It was nice to hear all the positive things about the read-aloud
and get different ideas of things that I can improve on to help me become a better teacher.
The students have been learning about penguins and got to make their own penguins
this week. I have been doing different penguin read-alouds to the class over the last week or so.
This week we also watched a few Mystery Science videos about penguins. They learned about
why penguins have wings and if a kid would win a race against a penguin. We also had
students do a writing about what they would do if they were a penguin. Finally, on the penguin’s
belly, they put a mixture of shaving cream and glue which is fluffy like the penguin feathers.
On Thursday, we were going to have our PLC meeting to talk about letter sounds and
decide which students would be eligible to work with the reading teacher. In addition, we went
down to the gym to look at more of the FastBridge data. We looked at the scores for the entire
class and put the students into four different categories: below-benchmark low growth, below-
benchmark high growth, above-benchmark low growth, and above-benchmark high growth. It
was interesting to see where all the students were and exciting because the students have had
high growth since fall. So, even the students who are above benchmark are still learning new
things.
Last week when we looked at the data, we looked at the interventions we would do for
tier 1 (whole class) and tier 3 (individual students). For our whole group intervention, we have
been working on segmenting words into the different phonemes. We are mostly working on
words with three sounds. This week we tried a few different strategies for doing this. We had
them jump in three different hoops while saying the sounds in a word, we used a fitness and
fluency PowerPoint where they stretched the word out and jumped each sound, and we also did
it whole group where individual students segmented out the word and then could lead the rest of
the class in segmenting the word using their arm, body, or jumping. The students have done
well with this, and they love jumping. This week the class has chosen to segment the word by
jumping all but one time.
For the tier 3 intervention, we have been working with the lowest students on their letter
sounds. Each day we go over the different letter sounds with each student. When working with
them, I use a fishing or bug-swatting game. Both games are very similar, they are bugs or fish
with a letter on the back both lowercase and uppercase. The student catches a bug or fish, then
looks at the letter and says the sound it makes. The students have been learning the letter
sounds along with a movement and a word that goes along with them. The students are doing
so much better with the different letter sounds, practice is helping them improve.
On Friday, in the afternoon we had 5th grade buddy time. Working together, they created
a buddy book. They drew pictures of themselves, wrote out some of their favorite things, and
drew a picture of them together. It was so fun to see the kindergarteners and 5th graders
interacting with each other.
I can’t wait to get back into the classroom. We have a field trip this week and will be
learning all about bees. It seems crazy that I have already been in the classroom for 3 weeks,
time is flying by so quickly.

Week 4: January 29 – February 2

It seems like my time in the kindergarten class is going by so quickly. This past week
flew by. Getting to spend all day with kindergarteners and teaching them is awesome. They are
learning so much every day.
 At reading stations this week, I was at the teacher table for a couple of days. At the
teacher table, I led the students through a decodable story and helped them build words using
their letter tile kits. For the decodable, we read through the story as an entire class before doing
it with the small groups. Doing this helped the students because they knew what the story was
about, so we were able to read the entire story during the reading stations. Something I can
work on is pacing with all the groups. Since the students are grouped by ability, I need to be
more aware of each group's skills so that I can use all the time and keep them engaged the
entire time. For the word building, I observed Amy doing it with the first group and she started
the second group. It was helpful to watch it and then immediately be able to teach it to another
group. The students did well with this, and it was nice to try something different. Building the
words also allowed for more differentiation between groups. The highest students built four
sound words and the other students worked on building three sound words. We stretched the
words out together. Then they used their letter tiles to build the words. I also built the word with
them, so the students could see if they were doing it correctly. After building the words, the
students were able to use the words in a sentence.
I also worked with students who were writing in their journals. The students are better at
doing journals, they are spending more time writing rather than just drawing pictures. Since I
have been in the kindergarten classroom longer, I have gotten better at helping students sound
out words they want to spell. It is so important for students to try spelling words by themselves
rather than having someone tell them how to do it. Most of the students can stretch the sounds
and spell words with little help. It is so fun to see them excited when they can spell a word by
sounds all by themselves, they are so proud.
I have been doing two of the three parts of the Really Great Reading lessons again this
week. I like being able to still observe part of it and see different things that I can try. We do this
in the morning before they have choice time. The students have been having a really hard time
focusing during this, so we have been thinking of different ways we can incorporate movement
into the lessons. This will help make it more engaging for the students. Since the students knew
the movements for each of the letter sounds, we were able to use these movements to change
up some of the lessons. For example, when we did a letter sort (where students identify the
beginning sound of each word) in addition to the students saying the word, I also had them do
the movement. This helped them stay much more engaged and they were excited about the
lesson. Doing this also allows you to easily see which students are understanding and following
along with the lesson.
 This week in math I taught a couple of lessons to the students. The students are
learning about teen numbers and counting the say 10-way. It went well, it is something different
because I have mostly been teaching literacy-related things. For the lessons, all the students
were on the rug in front of the board. I read the directions, so they knew what we were doing,
and we went through a couple of examples as a class. Then they went back to their seats to
work in their workbooks. While they are working, Amy and I circulate to help students who are
struggling and to check the work of students who have finished.
I have also been teaching Heggerty to the students in the afternoon. It is going well. I
taught it four days this week and watched Amy teach it on Thursday. It is helpful to watch her
teach because I saw different things that I can work on when teaching it. For example, I need to
work on getting the students’ attention and making sure they are ready before starting a section.
It is important that they are all paying attention and participating, so they are learning. I am not
always great at making sure they are ready and doing the movements with me. When Amy was
teaching, she made sure they were all ready to go and the students stayed focused better. We
are also trying to find ways to use different ways to keep students engaged and change some of
the movements. One way we changed it up this week was by having them jump for each sound
when they segment phonemes in a word rather than using their hands to count the sounds.
At the kindergarten PLC meeting on Thursday morning, they looked over letter sound
data that had been collected for all the classes. The students are making good progress on
letter sounds. They talked about some of the different ways that were helpful in teaching letter
sounds in their classrooms. It is great that they can share ideas, as it helps them gather ideas
for different things they may try in their classroom. For example, our students are getting so
much better at letter sounds, but some of them are still struggling with letter names. One of the
other kindergarten teachers has a student come up in front and show the other students a letter
card. The rest of the class says the sound that the letter makes and the student in front guesses
the letter. We tried it in our classroom, and it was a new way for students to practice letter
names.
We also looked at the agenda for the other February PLC meetings. They talked about
segmenting and the main ideas of stories because that is something that is assessed on the
report card. For segmenting, they will be using a Heggerty assessment to see if students can
segment five different three-sound words. They also looked at how they were going to assess
addition and subtraction. They are looking at reading math number stories and having students
use manipulatives. They need to determine how they are going to assess it so all the students in
their kindergarten classes are being tested in the same way. It is interesting because all the
teachers have a list of what needs to be assessed for the gradebook, but not how they should
assess it. The teachers work as a grade-level team to decide how they will assess students for
each item on the report card, but there is no standard way that students are being assessed
across the district.
We have also been working with our lowest three students on letter sounds. They are
making so much progress with their letter sounds. We work with them each day on going over
certain letter sounds or working on their fluency with all the letter sounds. They have learned so
many sounds and are so proud. They are getting closer to knowing all the letter sounds. It has
been so exciting to see them learn more.
February is I Love to Read month. In addition, Gibbs is decorating the entire school with
an under-the-sea theme. We have been decorating our classroom window with different sea
creatures. Our students made fish and jellyfish to hang up in the hallway. They cut the fish out
of construction paper and decorated them with jewels and gold and silver paint. For the jellyfish,
we used plates which they decorated with glittery paint, and used streamers for the tentacles. It
is fun to see all the decorations going up around the school.

Week 5: February 5-9

I can’t believe 5 weeks have already gone by. It seems like I just started, but I am
already halfway through student teaching. I have loved every moment of it.
I started leading the morning meeting this week. The students have math and reading
bins they use in the mornings, and then they clean up and listen to the morning song. After the
song, the students come over to the carpet for the morning meeting. During the morning
meeting, we read the message chorally. We also go over the day of the week and look at the
schedule for the day. Since I led the morning meeting this week, I wrote them a message each
day. The message includes the date, a greeting, the day of the week, and special (art, music,
PE, or library) for the day. We dismiss them from the morning meeting to their reading stations.
This week during reading stations, I was mostly at the teacher table, sometimes I helped
the students with their handwriting books. At the teacher table, we worked on heart words,
segmenting, beginning, and ending sounds, and read through a decodable. We went through
the different heart words we have learned and then worked on two words (is, and) in more
depth. The students traced them, rainbow wrote them, and then wrote them. We also used pop-
its to segment three and four-sound words. With the highest group, we went through different
four sound words, the rest of the groups segmented three sound words. After they segmented
the words, I had them think of and share a sentence about the word. On Wednesday, we used
Splash Jr. to help students identify the beginning and ending sounds of words. They drew a
picture card out of the box, said the word, and then identified the beginning or ending sound. To
keep all students engaged, I had them listen to the others in their group and give a thumbs up or
down if the student correctly identified the sound.
On Thursday and Friday, I led the students at the teacher table. We read through a
decodable (silent e words for the highest group and CVC words for the other three groups),
looked over sounds and words from the story, built some words with the letter tile boards, and
went through questions from the story. It went well, the students were engaged and
participating. Since the groups went through the decodable at different speeds, it was helpful to
have extra activities planned. This way, we did not just read through the decodable over again.
This week I did all three parts of the Really Great Reading lessons a couple of days this
week. It is still helpful to observe and see different strategies to use. We also looked at the
lessons ahead of time to brainstorm different ways we may be able to incorporate movement
into the different parts of the lesson. Having movement helps students stay engaged. Some
parts are hard to add movement to, but it is so helpful to use movement to break up the lesson.
One thing that I need to work on is looking around at the students as I am teaching to see if they
all are participating. It is important that they pay attention because we are learning about
important reading and phonics strategies that some of the students need more practice with.
There was a staff meeting on Wednesday. Since they had talked a lot about academic
data at the professional development day in January, this meeting was about deeper learning
and mental health. They talked a little bit about what deeper learning is, why it is important, and
ways to engage students in deeper learning in the classroom. Deeper learning has three main
components: creativity, identify, and mastery. Some strategies they mentioned were checking
students' understanding throughout the lesson, creating anchor charts with the students’ help,
and having students create their own notes. At the staff meeting, they also talked about mental
health. The biggest thing with mental health to focus on is helping students with solving
problems, as this is something that students here are saying they are struggling with.
Since February is I Love to Read month and ocean-themed, I have been reading aloud
stories about the ocean this week. They have been going well, the students have been enjoying
the stories. They also enjoyed learning more about some of the creatures that live under the
sea. I plan places to stop and ask questions along the way. I like to do this because it breaks up
the story a little bit and it allows students to participate and share their thinking about the story.
One thing to work on is asking more open-ended questions. Sometimes, I have something I
want them to understand, but I don’t always have good questions to guide them there. It is
important to allow students to have the opportunity to think about what is happening in the story.
Doing this will also help see which students are listening to my story.
I also have been doing Heggerty in the afternoon. We have been thinking of different
ways to change it up and some of the students are excited about Heggerty now. Adding in some
different 4 sounds words. With Heggerty, there haven’t been any four sound words, but for
FastBridge, they have to segment and blend four sound words. When we first started adding
four sound words, they struggled with it. They had only been doing three sound words, so they
just combined some of the sounds to make it a three-sound word. Now that we have been doing
it for a while, they have gotten so much better and are so proud when they can break up all the
sounds.
In addition to Heggerty, we have been doing whole group segmenting as it is our Tier 1
intervention. Usually, we have been calling on students to lead the class in segmenting the
word. They pick a picture of a CVC word and then decide if they are going to segment it using
their arm, body, or jumping. Most of the students want to jump, but more students are choosing
to use their arms or body. On Thursday, we put 3 hoops on the ground and told the students a
word. Then they hopped or jumped into the different hoops as they said the three sounds from
the word.
This week in math, we finished up the book we had about teen numbers and worked a
lot on making 5 and 10. For making 5, we used red and yellow double-sided counters to play
shake and spill. The students each had five counters which they shook and spilled. Then they
noted how many yellow and red counters they had. First, they practiced this on a laminated
sheet of paper and then they used a recording sheet to write down the different ways to make 5.
For combinations of 10, we used 10 unifix cubes and had them make two separate groups of
numbers that made 10 (1 and 9, 2 and 8, etc.). It was hard for a lot of them, so it is something
we need to work more on.
I had my second observation on Friday. For this observation, I led the teacher table
during reading stations. We read through a decodable, and I asked the students some
comprehension questions about it at the end. It went really well, the kids were following along
and engaged in the story. It was so nice to see Liz and talk with her about my lesson and all that
is going on in the kindergarten classroom. I like having conversations at the end of the lesson,
so we can talk about how the lesson went. It was nice to hear how she could tell that I am more
confident working with the students and could see the relationships we have built.
Next week, we have a lot going on in the kindergarten classroom. Monday is the 100th
day of school, so we have many different fun activities planned throughout the day. Then, we
have Valentine's Day on Wednesday. The students decorated their Valentine’s Day bags on
Friday. It will be a busy, but fun week.

Week 6: February 12-16

This week we had both 100s Day and Valentine’s Day, it went by so quickly. It was such
a fun week, getting to see all of the different activities to do for the special days in class.
I have continued leading the morning meeting this week. Our message looked a little
different this week since we had some special days. We had the 100th day of school on Monday
and then Valentine's Day on Wednesday. We also celebrated a student's birthday on Monday.
The students are good at reading the message and figuring out the new words that are in our
morning message. I also began to talk about what they would be doing at each of the four
reading stations. I have been dismissing them to their stations at the end of the meeting.
During reading stations this week, I have been leading at the teacher table and helping
out at some of the other stations. On Monday, I helped students come up with different ideas of
their favorite thing they did in their first 100 days of school. A couple of days at the teacher
table, Amy led the first and second group while I observed. Then, I led the third and fourth
groups. It is so helpful to watch her and then transition to teaching, especially for new things that
we are trying. I can see how she is leading the group and important things to make sure I
include when teaching them.
Next week, I want to work on leading rotations of students from station to station. This
past week, we taught them different calming strategies they can use when it is time to transition
between stations. Some of the strategies are belly breaths, rubbing their temples, and twirling
their thumbs. Doing this has helped us to see who is ready to move and gives students
something to do while everyone gets ready to transition. It is also nice because the strategies
are something quiet students can do independently.
For Really Great Reading this week, I led all three parts of it all week. Amy sat back
more, so she did not jump in and tell students to focus. I realized that it is hard to keep their
focus on the lesson, so I have been working on using attention-getters or giving out penguin
tickets to students who are doing a great job listening. We try to give penguin tickets to students
who are making respectful, responsible, and/or safe choices at school. On Fridays, they draw
two penguin tickets from each grade and those students get a prize. Although it is challenging to
get their focus on the lesson, it has been really helpful for Amy to step back, so I have to find
different ways to help them focus. On Friday, she suggested that I try going faster to see if that
will help keep their attention. So, I will definitely try because it is so important that they are
paying attention and learning.
We do the read-aloud shortly after the students come back from lunch and recess. They
have a couple of minutes of quiet time and watch an Alphabet Adventure video. There is a video
about each letter of the alphabet, they go to an island and learn about different things that start
with that specific letter. Then, we do a movement break and the students transition to their
shapes to get ready for the read-aloud. I feel like I am doing pretty well at asking questions and I
have gotten better about guiding them to an understanding, sometimes even rereading part of
the story, so they know what I am talking about. One thing I still need to work on is giving better
directions on how to respond. The students either raise their hands or shout out the answer. I
usually just let them do either, but sometimes when I call on one student another student will
just shout out the answer. I think that if I specifically told them what to do, it would be better
because then all students would know what to do.
On Valentine’s Day, I read aloud The Day It Rained Hearts. After the read-aloud, we did
an activity about raining heart words. We used an umbrella to make the heart words rain on the
students and then they each read one word. It was fun to have an activity that was connected to
the story we just read. Next week, I am going to try something different for a read-aloud. We
have Geodes that we sometimes use during reading stations. They are something we don’t
always have time for. One of the other teachers I observed did it with the whole group, so I am
going to try doing that on Wednesday next week instead of doing a read-aloud. We still be
reading the story aloud, it will just look a little different because the students will also be reading
part of it with me.
Since the report cards for the second trimester are due at the end of the month, we have
been looking at all of the different things that we need to assess for reading and math. There
are so many things that we need to check in with students for the gradebook. Being in
kindergarten, it takes time to assess all of the students because we are doing it one-on-one. We
have been working on checking the students now. This way, we have time to work with them
and recheck the skills they are struggling with before the report cards are finalized. We have
made good progress, but still have ways to go.
We also will have conferences at the beginning of March, so we have been looking at
what we will do for conferences. Usually, they have a paper that they fill out to give to parents to
show how the student is progressing/where the student is currently academically. We will also
talk about the student's SEL growth and work habits in the classroom. They also usually make a
slide show that they can use to show parents at conferences. They talked about it at our PLC on
Thursday and shared the different forms and slides. I think that it is nice to be able to bounce
ideas off of others to see what they are doing and share what you are doing. Also, it is helpful to
make sure that the entire grade level team includes similar things while talking to parents at
conferences.
The 100th day of school was so busy and fun for the students. We had so many different
fun activities to celebrate. We had a couple of different writing papers for reading stations in the
morning. Students got to write about their favorite part of kindergarten so far, what they would
buy with $100, and make paper crowns to wear for the 100th day of school. We also had two
different math activities for them to do. Plus they got to make a necklace with 100 Fruit Loops
on it. We had so many activities to do on 100s day that we hid 100 ducks for them to find on
Tuesday for math.
Valentine's Day was Wednesday. We also had a few fun activities planned for this. Plus
students got to hand out valentines to their classmates. We had a Valentine’s Day color-by-word
paper, journaling about Valentine’s Day, and lovely beginning sounds for reading stations. We
also did candy heart graphing in math and candy heart observations in science. In the afternoon
the students frosted, decorated, and ate heart-shaped cookies for snack.
On Thursday this week, I went around to the other kindergarten classrooms to observe
their reading stations. It was a great experience, getting to go in and see how some of the other
teachers do their literacy block. It was interesting to see the different rotations that other
teachers use and different things that I would like to try out. I enjoyed seeing what the other
classrooms had going and how they moved from station to station. In one classroom, the
teacher said a movement word that told the students to put their stuff away and move to the
next station. I liked this idea because then the students have to listen and be quiet, so they
know when to move. In another class, I observed Heggerty. When they were doing it, she had
the students come in close and incorporate movement into many parts. The students were very
engaged and excited about Heggerty. It was fun to see how just a few simple changes helped
the students be more interested in it.
Next week, I am looking forward to taking over more of the responsibilities of teaching. I
will be doing the majority of the literacy block and all of the math. Plus doing more transitions
and taking over more of the other classroom routines.
 Week 7: February 19-23
I have been with this kindergarten classroom for seven weeks now and have loved every
part of it. This past week, I have been doing more teaching and leading more transitions. I
realized that there are so many moving parts involved to help the classroom run smoothly.
We had a Professional Development Day on Monday. In the morning, we learned more
about math instruction. All the K-2 teachers from the district were a part of it. There were a lot of
different hands-on activities during the morning. We learned more about the importance of
creating more open-ended questions to get students thinking and collaborating to find solutions.
In the afternoon, we learned about trauma and the effect it has on the brain. We also learned
more about the child and adult brain and how they are different. It was interesting to hear about
how the child’s brain processes situations and being able to make connections to things we see
happening in the classroom.
In the mornings, I have been doing more of the small tasks, like taking attendance,
ringing the bell to have them clean up, and starting the morning song. This week at the green
table during reading stations, they were working on their beginning sound books. Each morning
before we went to the morning meeting, I would lead the students through the letter they were
working on that day. First, the students would use their fingers to write the uppercase and
lowercase letters in the air. Then, I would pull up the page on the SMART Board and trace the
letter, telling them where it belonged on the lines. Finally, we went through the pictures at the
bottom together and I would circle them if they began with that sound. After that, I dismissed
them over to the carpet for the morning meeting.
The morning meeting is very similar every morning. The different parts of the meeting
change a little each day. We read the morning message together. The morning message
includes the date, day of the week, and special for the day. They are good at reading the
message and can usually read the entire message with me, even when there are new things in
the message. We also go through the calendar, looking at the date and the day of the week.
Going through the schedule and talking about any special things we have going on. At the end
of the meeting, I talk about what the different reading stations are and dismiss the students to
go to their stations.
This week during reading stations, I planned and led the teacher table all week. We
segmented words with magic wands on Tuesday. I showed the students a picture and told them
the word. They repeated the word and used their magic wand to tap it out. The highest group
worked on segmenting four sound words and the other groups are working on three sound
words. I also had them share sentences using some of the words we segmented. I love having
them come up with sentences because some of them say such elaborate sentences and it is fun
to hear their ideas. On Wednesday and Thursday, we went through a decodable. Our decodable
was about a big red bug, so instead of using witchy fingers to track, we used bug fingers. It was
nice to try something different and our story was about bugs, so the bug fingers went with our
story nicely. The high group read the Geode on Thursday rather than reading the decodable
again. On Friday, we went through all the heart words they have learned and completed two
pages in their heart word books. For their heart word books, students trace the word, rainbow
write the word using three colors, write each letter in separate boxes, and write the word three
times using the top, dotted, and bottom lines. It is so important to watch the students as they are
writing the words so that they are doing their best work. In addition, I led the transitions of
students between each station. When I ring the chime for them to clean up, I have them show
me a calming strategy, so I know they are ready. For reading stations, I need to be better at
checking the time, so they are not at one station for a long time. On Friday, for timing, I used a
ten-minute sand timer, and it was helpful for me to have a visual reminder to rotate through the
stations.
Really Great Reading is going well. I have been trying to go through it faster and it has
helped keep their focus on it. Sometimes the students need a little reminder, but more of them
can stay focused for the entire time. It is nice to be able to go through most of it without having
to give reminders to pay attention. I have also been trying to add movement to at least one part
of it, so the students are not just sitting and looking at the SMART Board the entire time. Some
parts are easy to add movement to, but I have not been adding movement to all three parts. Not
only does movement get students moving during the lesson, but it also helps me to see which
students are following along with me. In addition, some of the movements make it more fun for
students to participate. Since we are further along, we have added in different activities, so it
has been nice to not be doing the same parts all the time. One activity we have recently begun
doing is changing the beginning sound to make a new word. On Friday when we did it, the
students were engaged and doing well with it.
I taught math all week. Three of the days I taught the lessons for my EdTPA. We just
started our unit on measurement. We started with size, then moved on to length, and on Friday
we started learning about height. This unit is something they are enjoying, and it is nice to be
doing something different. We have been working so much on teen numbers, so measurement
is a fun change. Even though we use a curriculum, it took some time to put the lessons into the
lesson plans. Since the lesson plans have so many parts, I used many different activities, so
that students were engaged in learning. There are so many parts of teacher instruction, but with
kindergarteners, it is important to keep the lesson moving so students do not lose focus. Using
manipulatives and having students talk with each other was helpful to add some different
learning throughout the lesson. While teaching, I learned that it is hard to keep their attention for
such a long time, even when having different activities. Trying to keep math short and engaging
is the key to effective math instruction.
For read-aloud, we are still reading stories about the ocean because February is ocean-
themed. I have still been working on telling them how to answer my questions during the story. I
have been trying to do better about telling them how to respond to questions before asking
them. This way, they already know how I want them to respond before asking. We did a Geode
on Wednesday. It was a different way to read aloud. Our Geode, Fly Amelia Fly, was a duet
book where students read part of the story and the teacher the other part. Each two-page
spread has a part for students to read and a part for the teacher to read. The part that the
students read is made up of decodable words and heart words. Most students can keep up and
read the story. The lowest students were not always reading with us, but they were listening to
the story. Our story was about Amelia Earhart, so it was fun to talk with them about it. The end
of the Geode had a little blurb about what Amelia did in her life with a real picture of her. I am
planning to do another Geode next week. It was fun to try something different and the students
enjoyed it.
This week, since I was doing more of the teaching, I taught a Second Step Lesson and a
Pip the Pup Lesson. Second Step is RPS’s social-emotional curriculum. We are currently
learning about kindness and this week’s lesson was about kindness at school. The lesson
begins with an activity and then we watched a video. As the students were watching, they were
looking for the kind acts they saw in the video. After we finished watching, we talked about the
kind acts in the video and students shared times when someone was kind to them. At the end,
we looked at a few different scenarios and students brainstormed how they could be kind. It was
fun to teach because the students really liked them. I felt like it was a little rough, but it was only
the first time, so overall it went well. The Pip the Pup lessons are just something that we do in
addition, they are also social-emotional lessons. Our lesson this week was about impulse
control, at the beginning of the lesson we talked about what this was. Then I read them a
scenario and asked some questions to guide them through what an impulse was and why it is
important to think before acting. It was fun to talk with them about different things they could try
instead of acting on their impulses. I liked teaching these lessons and I think that they will go
smoother once I teach them a couple more times.
 Since the end of the second trimester is next week, we have been working on all the
different math and reading assessments needed for the report card. We have finished almost all
the assessments and are now working with and rechecking some of the students. One nice
thing is that the kindergarten team is very collaborative, so they are always sharing different
ideas of how they are doing things and asking other teachers if something is not working. It is
nice to have a great team with which you can collaborate. We have also been getting stuff ready
for conferences that will be happening during the first couple of weeks of March. There is so
much to get ready, but it will be helpful to have it ready, so the conference runs smoothly.
This week, I went down and observed two classrooms in first grade. It was interesting to
see the difference between first grade and kindergarten. Even though they are only one grade
level apart, the first-grade students are so much more independent. It was also helpful to see
the different strategies they used in their classroom. In one of the classrooms, the teacher went
through the three jobs students had during work time. Then she had them count out the jobs on
their hands with her two times, so they knew what they were supposed to be working on. She
also wrote the jobs up on the board, so students could just look at the board to see what to do.
In the other classroom, they were working on sorting words based on the number of syllables.
She had them say the word using whale talk (saying the word while keeping their lips closed) so
they hear how many syllables each word had. I thought it was a unique and fun way for students
to listen to syllables in words.
Next week will be another busy but short week. We will be working on finishing
assessments for the end of the trimester and working on getting stuff ready for conferences. On
Friday, we have a workday to finish grades and work in the classroom.

Week 8: February 26-March 1

How have I been with the kindergarteners for eight weeks already? It seems like I just
started last week. I love being in the classroom and have been teaching more. They are so
much fun and love learning new things.
This past week, I have been doing almost all the teaching. Trying out different things and
it is nice to have the opportunity to do most of the teaching. This week I did one morning all
alone. It was so helpful to see all the little things I need to be more watchful of when teaching.
Some things I need to work on are timing and keeping students’ attention. It is so important to
get the morning started and keep things moving, otherwise everything just takes so much
longer. I have been doing better at making sure I wait till I have all the student’s attention before
starting, but also working on making sure that students are paying attention the entire time.
They can get off task so easily and it can be hard to bring their attention back. I feel like
because I was on my own, I had to try different things and they worked. So, it was a great
opportunity for me to see that I could do it.
I was at the teacher table all week. The other stations were working on journals, heart
words, or in Really Great Reading Rockets on their iPads. At the teacher table, we segmented
words using counters and sound boxes. I did four sound words with the high group and three
sound words with the other groups. I said a word and the students moved the counter into the
sound box as they said each sound. Then they wrote the word down as I stretched the word out
again. Finally, we checked our work by blending the sounds they wrote down together. It was
nice for the students to practice writing the words, as some of them still struggle with writing
neatly. On Wednesday and Thursday, we read through a decodable. With the high group, the
decodable had CVCe words, and the other groups read a CVC decodable. It is nice to have
something different to do with the highest group, otherwise they would just breeze through the
easier decodable. On Thursday, we changed some of the groups and the order of the rotations
to better meet the students’ needs.
Really Great Reading is going well. I like it and the kids do well with it most of the time. It
has three parts, which is nice because it helps break it up into smaller chunks. Plus, this allows
students to know when we are almost done. Trying to do the lessons at a quick pace to keep
their attention. If I keep it moving, they are so much better at listening and participating. Also,
adding movement or standing at the board for part of it is another good way to keep their
attention. On Tuesday, Liz came in and observed it. It was nice to have a conversation about it
afterward. For the most part, they did good with the lesson, and having movement was so
necessary because they were starting to lose focus. I did have to move one student, but it was a
positive change because they did so much better after they were moved. Even though Really
Great Reading is a whole group lesson, there are so many opportunities to listen to individual
students to make sure they understand it. We have been moving students' spots around on the
rug and hopefully have found good spots where all students can be successful. Next week it will
look different because we are going to begin learning about consonants and vowels. The
lessons won’t have 3 separate parts anymore; it is just one bigger part.
This week we read a few more stories about the ocean. The students struggled with
listening this week. They were interested in the stories, they just also wanted to talk to their
classmates. We are in the process of moving students around on the rug, so they are in a spot
where they can be successful. We also read a Geode again. This week we read The First Car to
Get That Far. Our story was about the first car that drove across the United States. It was
another duet book, so the students read part of it, and I read the other part. It is fun to do the
Geodes, but kind of hard to get all the kids to stay with me when we are reading. Then I read
the Geode with the high group during reading stations on Thursday. It is fun to read these with a
small group as well because I can ask questions and all the students get an opportunity to share
an answer. On Thursday, we read a story about Leap Day because Thursday was February 29.
It was fun and a cute little story explaining why Leap Years happen.
This week during math, we were working a lot on making 5. A lot of our students were
still struggling with this, so we did extra practice with it. On Monday, we looked at different
combinations of numbers that make 5 using red/yellow magnets as a whole group. Then the
students did one page in their math journals. On Tuesday, we did a pizza shake and spill with
the red/yellow counters. They spilled the five counters out of their cups and put them on the
pizza, like toppings. Then they counted how many red counters and yellow counters there were
and wrote it on the bottom of their papers. It is nice to have the ability to use something else
when students need extra practice, it breaks up some of the stuff we do a lot. It is helpful to
have other things that the students can use to practice and solidify a skill. Next week, we are
going to work on making 10.
We are also still working on measurement; this week we were learning about height and
weight. When we talked about height, we talked shortest to tallest. The students cut out little
pictures and ordered them by height. On Thursday, we were looking at comparing weight and
when teaching them about it, I used a balance to show them how some things were
heavier/lighter. When I put different objects into the balance, they could see that one side went
down meaning that object was heavier. I began with just putting one object in one side. Then I
put the same object in the other side, so students could see that they weighed the same
because the balance was equal. Then, I added different combinations of objects to show them
how to change the balance. Then we let them use the balances at play time. It was fun to watch
them experiment with different objects. They were so excited when they were able to balance
the scale.
It is so important to remind students of the directions more than you think you need to.
On Wednesday, when we talked about height, so many students did the worksheet wrong. We
talked about the directions and had examples up on the board. During work time, I had to ask so
many students to fix their work because they did the wrong thing. On Thursday, when we were
working on weight, I went over what to do, drew examples up on the board, and had them
review with me what to do before dismissing them. All the students did it correctly. It has been
really helpful to see how important it is to go over directions.
 This week we did CVC Fluency Find It, Really Great Reading Build a Word, and part of a
7-minute video. For the CVC fluency find it, we used a PowerPoint that had different CVC
words. Each student had a paper with pictures that corresponded to the words. We would
stretch out the word together. Then students would find and color the picture of that word on
their paper. Some students colored the wrong pictures in because they weren’t sounding the
words out, they were just guessing. For the most part, though, they did a good job and had fun
with it. It was a quick activity to do and there are many ways to change it up. The PowerPoint
had a part where the students could switch spots every couple of words, but we didn’t do it the
first time. I think that if we did again it would be fun to have students move around to different
papers. We also did Build a Word on their iPads in the Really Great Reading Rockets. I give the
students a word and read a sentence with the word in it. Then we stretched the words out. Each
student is then able to build the word on their iPad. The nice thing about this activity is you can
see what all the students are building. So, if a student needs to check it, you can see it on your
screen and direct the student to check it. When all the students have the word built, it shows
them on their screens if they got it right. We have done this activity a few times now and they
are doing so much better with it. For a 7-minute video, all the students need a whiteboard,
marker, and eraser. In the video, they show a picture of something and say what it is. We
stretched out the words and the students wrote them down on their whiteboards. Then the
answer comes up on the screen, so students can check their work. They erase the word and get
ready for the next one. We only got through part of it, but the students did a good job with it. All
these activities give students a chance to practice segmenting, building, and reading words. It is
fun to try some of the different activities.
On Monday, we did Heggerty at the teacher table during reading stations. It was nice to
do it in a small group and interesting to try something different. It was kind of hard to get all
students focused and on task even though it was a small group. For reading stations, our
students are grouped by ability. When working with the higher groups we were able to get
through it so quickly, but it was much harder for the lower students to keep moving through it. I
liked being able to take more time with the lower groups to make sure they were all doing the
movements and saying the words with me.
For the rest of the week, we did Heggerty whole group. I have been trying harder to
make sure students are ready before starting. While doing it I watch and make sure that the
students are doing it with me. Heggerty teaches them so many important skills, but the students
must pay attention and participate to learn it. I have been praising students who are ready to
listen, and it has worked effectively to encourage other students to get ready. Along with
Heggerty, we have been reading through all the heart words they know. They have learned 27
heart words, and they are so good at remembering the words when we go through them as a
whole group.
On Friday we had a teacher workday. We mostly just worked on different things around
the classroom, lots of cutting and laminating. We also moved a few students around in their sit
spots on the carpet and rug to hopefully help them be better listeners.
I also helped plan and type up the lesson plan for next week. Some things on the lesson
plan just changed a little from last week. Other things take a little more thought, like math and
reading stations. For math, it is helpful to look at our math journal and see if there are parts that
would be better taught using a different activity. Reading stations take a little bit of time to think
about the different activities to do at the teacher table. There are so many different things that
we can do there and it is important to change it up, so we aren’t always doing the same things.
Next week is already week nine. I can’t believe how quickly it is going. We have
conferences next week, so we have been working on getting everything ready for that. Next
week, I am also going to observe an entire morning in one of the other kindergarten classrooms.

Week 9: March 4-8

This week, I did all the teaching. Since I was in charge of the class, I tried out so many
different strategies to get the students' attention. I have also been doing better with waiting for
kids to quiet down before starting. Using positive praise for students works well to help others
want that positive praise too.
During reading stations this week, I led the teacher table and transitions. This week we
did segmenting, orthographic mapping, and read a decodable. For the segmenting, we used
shaving cream. I told the students a word, then we broke the word apart and talked about how
many sounds we heard. Next, the students wrote the word using shaving cream. It was a fun
way to practice segmenting, plus it also allowed them to practice writing letters and blending the
words back together. Orthographic mapping is when you break up a word and identify the
different letters and sounds in it. We were doing orthographic mapping with heart words and
looking at the tricky parts. I showed them a word, we read it and wrote it down. Then we broke
the word apart and colored in how many sounds it had. Next, we wrote down the letters that
spelled each of the sounds in the word we were reading. Since these were heart words, they
had tricky parts. This meant that sometimes the letters in the words did not match the sounds
that we heard. The last step in orthographic mapping is to write down the tricky part of the word.
They do well with this and seem to enjoy it. On Thursday, we read a decodable, The Pet Bat. It
was a fun and cute little story that they enjoyed. I read the same decodable with all four groups.
Even though I was able to get through it quicker with the highest groups, I was able to ask them
questions and get them thinking about the story. On Friday, we read the Geode and Liz came in
and observed reading stations. It was so nice to talk with Liz one last time about how things are
going in the kindergarten class.
Really Great Reading looked a little different this week. We only had one part and we
introduced the workbooks to the students. The students began learning about vowels and
consonants. We learned what they were and reviewed the sounds that they made. When going
through the lessons, the letter tiles are different colors on the screen. Vowels are red and
consonants are black, so students can easily identify the difference. We also reviewed all letter
sounds and names. On Thursday, we talked about words and how they all need a vowel. We
then went through different letter combinations and determined if they could be a word. We used
the workbooks on Tuesday and Thursday, they are doing well with the workbooks. We have
them working on them on the rug. Since it was the first time we had used them, we went
through all the questions together. The questions in their workbook were also up on the screen,
so students could check their work and make sure they circled the right answer. On Tuesday,
we looked at different letters and decided if they were consonants or vowels. On Thursday, the
students looked at different 3-letter combinations and determined if they could be a word. They
did so much better on Thursday and seem to be enjoying them.
We read another geode this week, Call a Cab. The students enjoy these, and they are
better at reading them along with me. Our story was about cabs. It was an interesting story and
something that they did not know much about. Since the story was about how cabs have
changed, the students got to learn more about how they used to look. They liked the story and
learning more about cabs. We read three Geodes together as a class. It is fun to be able to
connect all the Geodes we have read so far because they are all about transportation. When we
reread the story during reading stations on Friday, they remembered so many different facts that
we had read about cabs. All the groups have different reading abilities, but they all enjoyed
reading the story. It was nice to read them with all the students in a small group setting. This
way I knew all the students were reading along with me. Even though the text they are reading
is decodable, the Geodes also have so many pictures. They love to stop and ask different
questions about the illustrations in the story.
This week, I also observed an entire morning in another classroom. It was nice to see
what another kindergarten classroom looked like. They do a lot of similar things in the morning
but with different activities. For example, we do all our reading stations and then move on to
Really Great Reading. In this classroom that I observed, they did two reading stations, Really
Great Reading, and then the other two stations. Each group of students had a container with all
their materials in it. So, when they moved from station to station, they already had all their
materials. For their stations they were working on handwriting and heart word books, Really
Great Reading Rockets on their iPads, decode and draw writing papers, or working on
beginning sounds and blends at the teacher table. The students were grouped by ability and
had differentiated activities to work on at some of the stations. It was nice to get the opportunity
to spend a good chunk of time in another classroom. There were many things she did a little bit
differently that I had not ever really thought of. One simple thing she did was create a movement
pattern for students to do while she was waiting for everyone to get ready for the next task. It
was a quiet and easy way to see if everyone was ready.
They enjoy listening to stories being read aloud. It is so important that I make sure they
are quiet and listening when reading aloud. For the most part, they are great listeners, and a lot
of them like to share when I ask questions throughout the story. On Friday, I was reading a story
by Dr. Suess and the students were just having such a hard time focusing. I had to stop a lot of
times and give reminders. It took a long time to get through the story, but it was so important for
me to stop and make sure they were listening, so all the students could hear the story.
I led math all this week and they are doing so much better with listening and following
directions. Going through at least a couple of examples on the board is so helpful to make sure
they know what to do. We have been working on making ten this week. We also looked at
ordering weight and did number writing. On Monday, we did shake and spill with ten counters.
They shook and spilled ten yellow and red counters. Then they wrote how many red and yellow
counters they had. It went well, and the kids were getting it. On Tuesday, we did a page in their
math journals about ordering weight. They had to cut out pictures of different objects and then
order them based on weight. In the first part, they ordered from lightest to heaviest. We went
through all the pictures and had an example on the board for them to follow. After they did that,
we had them come back to the rug and go through the next part. For this part, they ordered the
objects from heaviest to lightest. It was helpful to have them just do half of the page and then
come back for the rest, this way they all knew what to do for each part. On Wednesday, we
worked on fluency combos to ten. In their math journals, there were ten boxes and some dots.
The students drew dots to make ten and then wrote down how many dots they drew. This went
quickly for the students, and they all understood what we were doing. They had done so well
with the shake and spill on Monday, that we decided to have them do a recording sheet on
Thursday. On the paper, they colored in and wrote how many red and yellow counters they
spilled. It took them a little bit of time, but they all did well with it. We did number writing on
Friday; we have not done it for a couple of weeks. We have students writing up to twenty, thirty-
one, and fifty. The students who are confident and able to write to the number they are currently
working on are being moved up to the next number. Next time some of our students will even be
writing up to one hundred.
I taught the Second Step and Pip the Pup lesson this week. They went so much better
this time. Our Second Step lesson this week was about demonstrating kindness. We talked
about the different kind acts the students have seen and done at school. They enjoy talking
about this and sharing about the kind acts they have seen. It is so important that students think
and talk about what kindness is and how they can show it to others. At the end of the lesson, we
talked about why it is important to be kind and they knew that kindness helps others feel good.
For our Pip lesson, we talked about voice volume. I read a scenario, and we talked about what
was wrong and how the characters' voice levels made them feel. Then I read a little paragraph
that looked at what voice volume was. The students then helped me brainstorm places where
we could have a loud voice and a soft voice. We talked about how both are okay in the right
place. At the end, we went over what the voice level in our classroom is.
This week Heggerty went well. We can get through all of it so quickly when they are all
listening and paying attention. They get so excited when we are on the last part, especially
when we have been able to go through so quickly. Sometimes I stop to refocus their attention,
but most of the time they are good listeners. I have been trying to make sure they are all ready
before starting, this also helps them to stay on task because they are doing the hand motions
with me. After we do Heggerty, we go through all the twenty-seven heart words that the students
know. They are doing so well with all the words. We have also been rechecking some of the
students individually on heart words. They have learned more and lots of our students know all
twenty-seven of them. Along with Heggerty, we also do whole-group segmenting. For this, we
have a student pick a picture of a CVC word and then we segment it as a class. We either do
this by using their arm, body, jumping, or swirl (they bend their knees as they say each sound
and then swirl their legs as they blend the sounds) to segment the word. The student who
picked the word gets to choose what movement we do. They are getting so good at segmenting.
We also had conferences this week. For conferences, we had a slideshow with all the
information about students’ progress on it. We also had a packet for parents that had a paper
showing where the student is academically, a number writing sheet, a journal page they had
written, a paper that talked about their SEL growth, and how many heart words they knew. In the
hallway, we also created two class books for parents to look through. Each of the students wrote
and drew about their favorite part of kindergarten. We also listened to the story, The Day the
Crayons Quit. Each student picked their favorite color and drew pictures of things they liked to
draw with that color.
Next week is my last week. I cannot believe that I have been with them for ten weeks
already. I am looking forward to spending all week with them. I have enjoyed teaching and
getting to know all of them.

Week 10: March 11-15

Since it was my last week, I was stepping back and letting Amy take over more of the
teaching again. It was a little strange to not be doing as much, but it was also helpful to get to
observe again and take note of different strategies I want to remember.
For the morning meeting, I only did it on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. We read
the morning message, went over the date and day of the week, and went through the schedule.
At the end of the meeting, I went over what students would be doing at each of the reading
stations. It is so helpful to have everything written up on the board and stations already for
students so that once they are dismissed, they can just get started.
For reading stations this week, I was mostly at the teacher table. We worked on
sentences, segmenting, and reading a decodable. On Monday, we worked on a sentence
paper. Before we started, we went over the four important parts of a sentence: capital letters,
spaces, punctuation, and that it makes sense. For the paper, they had to cut out the words and
then we went over what the sentence was. After all the students had the words in the right
order, they glued the sentence onto their paper. Then they traced over the words they just glued
down and wrote the sentence underneath it. After they were done, we checked to make sure
that their sentence included all four important parts that we had gone over at the beginning.
Finally, students were able to draw a picture that went along with their sentences. At the teacher
table on Tuesday, we worked on segmenting using their Really Great Reading boards. For the
high group, we worked on four-sound words. The other groups mostly worked on three-sound
words, although I did one four-sound with the higher middle group. We stretched the word
together, using our hands to count the sounds. The students then moved three or four color tiles
onto their little board to show how many sounds the word had. Then we stretched the word out
again slowly while they matched the letters to my sounds and built the word. As they were
putting the letters away and getting ready for the next word, I had them tell me a sentence using
the word we had just built. I love having them tell me sentences, they are just so creative. On
Wednesday, we read a decodable. I read it the same decodable with all four groups. We used
pointers with googly eyes for them to track the words as they read them, it was fun to use
something different. They are getting so good at reading the decodable without having to sound
out every word. It is nice that the students are in groups based on their abilities because then I
can differentiate better when teaching. On Thursday, I did a little bit of everything during reading
stations. For the first rotation, I helped at the word work station. Students each have their list of
heart words that they are working on learning. They were using smelly markers to practice
writing the words on their lists, as they were writing the words, I was asking many of them what
the words were. Once they had written their whole list, they could write sentences with the
words in them if they had time. I also checked in with students working on journals and their
iPads. At the teacher table, they were creating and writing sentences. I observed as Amy taught
one group of students. They went over the four important parts of a sentence and then one
student chose a sentence starter. They wrote down the sentence starter on lined whiteboards,
making sure to start with a capital letter and leave finger spaces between the words. She asked
one of the students to think of a word to complete the sentence, for example, I see a cat. After
writing the entire sentence, they checked their sentences to make sure that they made sense
and that there was punctuation. I took over for part of the third rotation and the final rotation of
students. It was nice to get to help them come up with and write their own sentences.
For a Really Great Reading this week, I observed Amy teach it on Monday and Tuesday.
It is so important to get everyone’s attention before starting otherwise they miss the instructions
of what we will be doing. This week we started with reviewing letter sounds and heart words.
We also went over the different long and short vowel sounds. On Wednesday, I introduced the
vowel-consonant pattern. This pattern is that the vowel must be followed by one or more
consonants for it to be a word. We looked at a few words on the board, identified the vowel, and
checked to see that there was a constant after the vowel. Then the students had the opportunity
to write some CVC words, which all included the vowel-consonant pattern, using red plastic
plates and dry-erase markers. On Thursday and Friday, we started by reviewing letter sounds
and heart words. On Thursday, we used our workbooks and identified the vowels in our words.
We began by just segmenting together words using our fingers to stretch out the sounds, but
students were having trouble identifying the middle sounds. So, instead, we used our roller
coaster movement to segment the word. Then, when we had identified the middle sound, we
made the movement for the vowel sound in the middle. Students circled the picture that
matched the vowel sound in our word. On Friday, we were in our workbooks again. This time we
were writing CVC words. We stretched out our words and colored in three circles to show the
number of sounds each word had. Then we stretched the word again slowly as students wrote
down the letters that matched the sound in their workbooks to spell the word. As they were
working, the answer showed up on the board, so they could check their work.
Read-aloud this week went well. I read a story to them on Monday and Tuesday, and
they helped me read a Geode on Wednesday. They are good listeners for the most part and
really like stories. Many of them are so good at remembering all the small details. They love to
share answers to the questions I ask as we read the story.
We read the geode, Ice Harvest, as a whole class on Wednesday. Our story was about
the icemen, who used to cut up big chunks of ice that were used in ice boxes to keep people's
food cold. They enjoyed the story and had so many questions about our story. It was fun to talk
with students about what life was like a long time ago. Many students wanted to know how they
had small chunks of ice like ice cubes. We talked with them about how they just had one big
chunk of ice that kept all their food cold. Now our refrigerators make ice cubes, and our food is
kept cold by electricity. On Friday during reading stations, I read this Geode again with the High
group. I liked reading these with the small group because we were able to stop and talk about
the story more as we were reading it, without getting so off track. It also gives all the students a
chance to ask questions about the story both while we are reading it and at the end of the story.
For math this week, we finished the measuring book and worked more on making ten.
On Monday we use unifix cubes to measure the length of different objects in their math book. It
was so important for them to go through some examples as a whole class to make sure that
they knew to start at the far end, so the measurement was accurate. Each student was given a
stick of ten unifix cubes, which they used to measure the pictures. They lined up the cubes with
the picture and counted how many cubes long the object was. We did this with just half of the
class while the other class worked on their iPads. It was helpful just to do it with half of the class
so we could help the students who were working on measuring and making sure they were
taking their time. On Tuesday we did two different pages of their workbook, we made ten by
drawing dots and looking at balances. For making ten we did a few examples up on the board.
There were some shapes already drawn, and the student's job was to draw more so each box
had ten total dots. This went well, the students were able to do this quickly. For the balances,
there were pictures of balances with objects on them in their books. There were three different
problems, and we went over all three together. I told the students what was on each side of the
balance. I then asked them to give me a thumbs up or thumbs down to show me if the scale
was balanced correctly. Finally, they circled a thumbs up or down in their book to show if the
balance was accurate. On Wednesday, we did shake and spell making ten with pizza. I did an
example on the board where I shook and spilled the red and yellow counters. I had the students
count with me as I drew how many red counters I had on the board and wrote down how many
there were. Then, we repeated this with the yellow counters. Finally, I asked them how many we
had all together and emphasizing that it would always be ten. So, every time they shook and
spilled the red and yellow needed to add up to ten. Then we had them go work on this at their
seats. They are getting so good at making ten and using the pizzas is a fun way for them to
practice.
I taught a Second Step and a Pip the Pup lesson again this week. Our Second Step
lesson was about naming the problem. This is the first important step to solving problems.
Students need to be able to name the problem without blaming anyone. We went over lots of
different scenarios and talked about what was going on. At first, I told them the problem and
they repeated it. Then the students were given the opportunity by themselves. As we went over
more examples, they were getting much better at naming the problem without blaming one of
the people in the scenario. Our Pip lesson this week was about tattling. We talked about what
tattling was and read a little scenario where there was an example of tattling. We learned that
the only time you should tell the teacher what someone else is doing is when they are doing
something that is unsafe. We looked at a few different pictures and brainstormed what was
going on in the picture and what we should do. The students enjoy these lessons and like to
share and participate in them. They are simple and quick lessons but teach students important
life skills.
This week for Heggerty, I observed it on Monday and Tuesday. The rest of the week, I
taught it along with the heart words. They are good listeners most of the time, so we can get
through it quickly. Amy added some movement to one part of it on Tuesday and it was helpful to
break up some of the Heggerty and get the kids moving. I kept movement in, and the students
did a really good job with it. While doing Heggerty it is so important to watch to make sure that
students are, not only saying the words with me but also doing the hand motions. This helps
them to think about what we are doing. At the end of Heggerty, we go through all the heart
words that they know. They are doing so well with reading all of them.
We did two different Fluency Find Its this week. We did one with short e CVC words and
one with the numbers 0 to 20. This time when we did them, we had students do it at their spots
rather than on the rug. Every couple of words or numbers, a screen would come up that said to
switch spots and play some music. The students would take their crayons and move to a
different spot. The first time we moved, it took a little bit of time because we had to talk with
students about what they needed to bring and how they were going to move. It was so nice to
have the students move throughout the activity. This helped keep it moving along. They did
much better this time also with reading the word or number on the screen before coloring it in on
their papers. This helped so they colored the correct picture on their papers.
Since St. Patrick’s Day is on Sunday, we did a few fun activities on Friday. The students
colored hats on Friday during reading stations. We read a story about a leprechaun who lost his
rainbow and graphed the marshmallows from Lucky Charms cereal.
I am sad that I am all done with my 10 weeks of student teaching. However, I am so
grateful for all the experience I gained during the time I spent in the kindergarten class. I learned
so much and was able to try so many new things.