Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Ten Frames, base ten, Cheerios!

Is it just me, or is it really hard to teach base ten in Kindergarten?  I had never taught base ten before common core, and now I'm being asked to teach it first quarter.  It's hard.  It's such an abstract concept, that it's not easy to convey it to Kinders. 

Anyway, we start out very basic- hands on, hands on, hands on.  Here's how we started it.  I gave them each a handful of Fruit Cheerios- not just plain old cheerios people, they are FRUIT flavored.  Yum :)  Side note:  I am loving all the new flavors being put out by Cheerios!!  Right?  Who's with me?



Anyway, they all get a handful and then we start grouping them into piles of ten.  Then we move onto putting them into base ten frames and matching the number of cheerios to a number card.  I try to show them that the first number is the "tens" and it tells how many ten frames will be filled and the last number is the "ones" and that is how many we should have left over that don't fill a ten frame.

They have been slowly but surely getting it!

Another side note:  This happened to be the lesson my principal walked in on to do an unannounced formal observation- oh my, did my heart stop?  yes.  But, it went well, and I already had my post observation conference and all is well- but can you imagine my panic when he walked in with his clipboard... you know the clipboard during THIS lesson.  yeah, glad that's over :)

I'd love to hear from you.

How do you teach base ten?  (maybe I should host my first ever linky party for all the great ideas??)
What is the hardest thing you think to teach in Kinder (or your grade level)?



Wednesday, September 12, 2012

ESGI... Assessments made EASY!!!!

Have you ever heard about ESGI

It is a super easy assessment tool that has made my life SOOO much easier!!!

I dread those assessments that tell you the ability of each of your kids.  It's valuable info, don't get me wrong!, but it's soooo time consuming! 

ESGI has made it so simple and fast.  Here are some screenshots of my computer so you can see it in action:

First, you click on the student you need tested.  You see this:  it's an 'at a glance' overview of what this child has been tested on, and how they performed.


Off to the side, you see some options- these aren't just buttons for the sake of buttons- they are soo helpful!!  With a click, it can show you so much useful info.  It can tell you which letters were missed most as a class- so you know what to teach whole group.  My favorite is the "Test Results Letters"
 Which is this- Ready-made parent info letter.  ESGI does it for you :)  It inserts student name, your name as a signature, and what the student got right and what the student missed. 

You can do this for individual students or you can do it for the whole class with the click of one button! You can also ask for flashcards of all the missed words/letters.

I feel like an info-mercial right now, but this is all straight from my mouth.  ESGI was made by teachers and you can totally tell- it's teacher friendly, just what you need, quick, and easy.

How do you test a child?  I'm glad you asked- here's a screenshot of what a testing screen looks like.

So simple!!!  All you have to do is click Y (Yes- the student got it right) or N (no-student got it wrong) and it calculates everything else for you.

2 more things:  It's math and reading- awesome!  AND you can customize your tests... if you want to add a word, rhyme, blend, shape, coin, etc.  It comes with premade tests which are useful, but the best part is that you can customize, customize, customize! :)

OK- enough rambling, just go try out the free trial and you'll fall in love immediately.  Trust me. 

On non-teaching news, I went to my ultrasound yesterday- YAY!  Ben (hubs) didn't want to find out, so we don't know if it's a boy or girl.  All we know is there is only 1 and he/she is growing!  Great news!

The boys came with us, and Henry shouted "I see a foot!" and there totally was a foot on the screen!  I was amazed.  He's only 2- so who really knows if he saw it or was just shouting body parts.  He also will put his hand on my belly and shout "OUCH- baby kicked me!" and the baby didn't even move :)  He's funny. :)

Don't forget to check out ESGI!  Let me know what you think.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Currently

It's Farley's Currently time!  So, here's mine:


I feel like I should explain some things:

Loving...  The loaner car I'm driving.  My car is a 2009 Dodge Journey.  We bought it new- the lifetime warranty totally sold us!  But, good thing it came with one!  Since we bought it, we've had to totally replace both from and back brakes (I'm not talking just brake pads... the WHOLE thing), the transmission needed to be replaced, and now the paint is CHIPPING!  UGH!  But, never fear, we are under warranty!!  *and please don't think I drive like Mario Andretti, I'm not a speedster!!*

Thinking...  I want to know what your go-to recipe is each night.  I like to cook, but I HATE to figure out what to cook.

OK- go link up with Farley :)  and don't forget to comment with what your go-to dinner meal is!  I need ideas!!