Self-Evaluation of a Kindergartner

So, last week we were required to have our students do self-assessments of themselves as a mathematician, reader, and writer. I'm not sure exactly what was expected of kindergartners when they completed this assignment, but the results were interesting. When they did the ones about math and reading, most of what they put at least made sense, even if it wasn't a lot of information, however, we we did the final one about being a writer, there were two responses that were particularly humorous. Here they are:

Girl 1:

Ques: In writing, what is something you feel good at? Ans: Writing words

Ques: In writing, what do you still need help with? Ans: How-to stories

Ques: What do you want to get better at? Ans: Planting flowers in my garden.

Girl 2:

Ques: In writing, what is something you feel good at? Ans: writing

Ques: In writing, what do you still need help with? Ans: sounding out words

Ques: What do you want to get better at? Ans: Opening my umbrella

Always interesting to have a peek into the mind of a kindergartner. I'm glad those two girls were able to get those worries off their chest...even if it had nothing to do with writing.

Pollen Season is HERE!

So this is not so much a story, but just something funny that happened today. I will admit that I am thankful for these sunny warm days for our students to be able to go out and enjoy recess. However, I do not like the pollen that has also decided to come and visit. Today, one of my little friends came up and first informed me that she was hot and "that the 'sweaties' were about to bust out of her head." She also complained that her head was itching. I checked it when she pulled up her bangs....what I found was sure enough just enough sweat to have pollen stuck all over her forehead. I checked some other kids out of curiosity. All of them had little lines of pollen stuck to their glistening foreheads. Poor kids! I'm so ready for the pollen to go away!

I think it is...

So, spring break is over. But only about 7 more weeks with my little kindergarten friends. I am sad that they won't be around to make me laugh everyday anymore. On our first day back, I introduced a big book by Joy Cowley called Milwaukee Cows for number word practice. It dawned on my that they probably did not know what Milwaukee meant, so I asked them. Here were their responses....

Student One: "I'm pretty sure that is a dance."

Student Two: "Yep, its the milking cow dance...you know where you look like you are milking a cow."

They were pretty disappointed to find out it was actually a place. And what kinds of dances are these kids learning anyway?

Texas Forever...

Today I was doing a picture walk to preview a book at my reading table with a small group. During this time, I usually ask questions to have students make predictions of what is going to happen in the book. Today's book was called "The Big Box" and is basically about a family sending a box to their grandmother. I was asking questions like:

"Where is the box going? Where is the box now? Who is the box for?"

Most of the students were giving answers that made sense like, the box is at the post office, then the box is on a plane and it is for the grandma. One girl however, said it was for the grandma, but kept saying the box was going to Texas. I asked her:

"Why do you keep saying the box is going to Texas?"

She looked up at me as if I was stupid and said, "BECAUSE, that is where grandmas go to live!"

I thought Florida was the retirement capital of the world, but apparently it's not, it's Texas.

Kindergarten Reasoning

Today we talked about reality and fantasy during our whole group reading time. One of the activities for today was showing pictures on the smart board of things, and students had to decide why the picture was something that could or couldn't happen, or reality or fantasy. I would also ask students why they chose the answer they did to assess their reasoning.

One of the pictures was of animals sitting at a table eating. The student I selected to answer the question selected that it could not happen. When I asked him why, this was his reply:

"Well, because animals don't eat at the table, because if they did, they would poop on the chairs."

Yeah....that's what I was thinking too. Hmm.