An Unforgettable Experience With Leprechauns: With a Little Luck Can It Align to the CCS?

I know the Common Core Standards are big time, but does it drive your entire curriculum?  If there are no ties to the CCS, do you forgo the lesson or activity? It frightens me a bit to think this is the direction our educational providers may be heading.  I got a comment on my blog in reference to my all-time favorite activity to do with my kindergarten students that stated that it "looks fun, but has no ties to the Common Core Standards" and it really saddened me.  I think, if we tried REALLY hard, we could quite possibly create some "ties to the CCS", but do we REALLY need to? Does everything we do in our classrooms REALLY need to be driven by the Common Core Standards?  If so, there needs to be a huge revamping taking place because there are huge gaps that won't allow for student experiences and creating memories if we stick to the basics.  I think you know where I stand on this, but I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas on this as well.  Am I alone?  Until then, I will leave you with the directions to my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE activity that I do year after year with students who NEVER forget during leprechaun season:  

 

I love St. Patrick's Day! I can't even tell you exactly what the entire premise of the holiday is (is that bad?), but I love the whole tricky leprechaun theme (and all things rainbow and gold, of course). I've done all of the fun activities that you hear everyone talking about like messing up the room, putting green food coloring in the toilet and making traps. But, I don't do those things anymore- I haven't done any of it since I came acrossed the shrinking hat activity and now THAT is how we celebrate the leprechauns in kindergarten! It is such a fun and memorable activity, that is truly all you need to have a little fun with your itty bitties (or children of any age for that matter). It is one of those activities that I am just so excited to share with my students, as well as my own children, year after year. It never seems to lose its magical appeal.

Of course, before we begin, I really talk up the "legend" (I totally make it up year after year--but it so makes the project all that more fun!). You, too, can make it up or I do have it available in my Lucky Leprechaun Activity Kit (with all of the materials you need for this project along with activities to follow up with the next day).

Here are the directions so you can celebrate the holiday and rev up your student's imagination without making a disaster of your classroom:
Materials:
*styrofoam hot/cold beverage cups
*permanent markers (I prefer to just give "Irish"-like colors- yellow, black, green and orange)

When you bring the tiny little hats back to school, I recommend putting gold coins and other "booty" in and around each child's hat. Leave a letter (written by you from Lucky or printed from my kit) for the children. Be sure to use an Irish dialect in the letter since it is from a wee leprechaun!

Lucky always leaves us a secret message hung all over the room that the children need to decode (also included in the kit) and it is so much fun. It is also fun to take pictures of the kiddos with their hats on and do a writing piece about the experience. The students NEVER forget this activity...it really is quite amazing how cups are turned into an actual miniature hat by those sneaky leprechauns (even though I know it is science, I prefer to continue to view it as magic as I watch cups turn into tiny hats !

Click here to get this follow up freebie for this project.

Click here for more information about the  Lucky the Leprechaun project!

 

What if its Not in the Common Core Standards?

By now, I'm sure everyone has heard of the Common Core Standards in the education world and it sounds like they aren't going anywhere for a while.  But, my question is, what about the things early childhood educators know to be important, but are nowhere to be found in the Common Core Standards?

I got thinking about this when I had a fan email me a question about Pokey Pinning.  (If you are unsure what Pokey Pinning is, it is a fine motor development activity that I use for my students to practice and review item concepts that we have learned and/or are working on).  The question asked how Pokey Pinning aligned with the CCS (not because she was questioning the validity of the activity, but because her administrator wanted all lessons and/or activities to represent the CCS in some shape or form). 

Well, quite frankly, it doesn't directly align with anything represented in the Common Core Standards (unless you count WHAT students are pinning and then you might be able to loosely tie it to a standard listed somewhere).  So, my question is, do we stop doing activities like this simply because they are "unlisted" in CCS?

As early childhood educators, we could justify to the moon and back why the long-forgotten fine motor development activities should be in the forefront of our teachings.  However, will administrators want to hear what we (and our years of experience and piles of research) have to say about this subject if it isn't even remotely represented in the CCS?  Does a lack of representation equal a lack of importance?  These are questions that I continue to ponder and hope that you will help me sift through them as well.  In the meantime, I would like to share a Ghostly Pokey Pinning freebie as we reflect!  I hope you and your students enjoy it and reap the many grand benefits that this activity has to offer (regardless if the Common Core agree with us or not!).

Click here to grab your freebie and have your students Pokey Pin these cute ghosts for your windows!

Redshirting in Kindergarten?

Have you heard of the new terminology of kindergarten "redshirting"?  I have just recently come acrossed many articles as well as a news segment on 60 minutes that referred to this and it has certainly caught my eyes and ears because, not only am I a kindergarten teacher, but also the mom of a just-turned 5 year old boy getting ready to register for kindergarten.  Redshirting in kindergarten is parents keeping their 5 year old home or providing them with another year of preschool in order to give their child an academic and/or athletic advantage over other children in their class.
The Huffington Post provided an article written by Meryl Ain, Ed.D entitled Kindergarten Redshirting: Smart Strategy or Educational Quackery?  In this article, parents suggested that redshirting, "gives their child a competitive advantage over their younger classmates -- both academically and on the sports field." 
Parents know best whether their child is ready to begin kindergarten or not and it will vary from child to child regardless of their age.  Ain states that, "Sending your child to kindergarten is an important milestone for you and your child," and goes on to list some ways you can help prepare your child for kindergarten or even affirm that what you have done has made your child a perfect candidate to start kindergarten:

• While teachers are happy when children enter kindergarten knowing letters and numbers, they do not want you to drill your child. Kindergarten teachers look for their students to have readiness skills; these are the building blocks that will enable your child to love learning and to succeed in school. You can prepare your child with readiness skills through his/her daily activities and during bedtime stories.

• Does your child approach learning enthusiastically and is he curious? Is she eager to explore, discover, and ask questions? Point out your child's surroundings, including flowers, trees, birds, people, etc., and take time to encourage and answer her questions.  If not, you can help encourage this by asking your child open ended questions and provoke their thoughts and feelings of their surroundings. 

• Hand-in-hand with curiosity and discovery go language skills. Help your child build his vocabulary by giving him words and descriptions as he observes and experiences his surroundings. Additionally, activities, such as visits to the beach, park, beach, children's museum, or zoo, present many opportunities for you to help him develop language skills.  Obviously hands-on experiences are the best, but reading about and exploring the internet can also build childrens' background knowledge.

• Kindergarten teachers will be pleased if your child has the ability to listen. Read to your child every day, and engage her by asking questions about the book. Besides nurturing vocabulary and comprehension, reading develops the listening skills necessary in a kindergarten classroom. 

• Encouraging your child to take care of himself will prepare him for kindergarten. For example, although it's easier to hang up your son's coat yourself, his kindergarten teacher will want your child to do it. She cannot take off the boots and hang up the coats of 25 students. Help your child to become ready for school by teaching him to do such tasks as going to the bathroom himself and washing his hands, and opening up a juice box and putting the straw in. Perhaps if he attends pre-school, he has already mastered these skills.

• Kindergarten is about socialization, so help your child get ready by encouraging him to share, take turns, and understand the rights, space, and feelings of others.  These skills are easily developed and practiced in group settings whether it is a daycare, preschool or even play groups prior to beginning school.  These types of situations are vital to a child's success amongst a group of many children.

• It's important for kindergarten students to have good eye-hand coordination. Many kindergarten activities involve coloring, cutting, pasting, and writing with a pencil. Playing with clay or Play-Doh, writing, coloring, painting, pasting, and stringing beads are examples of activities that will get your child ready for kindergarten.

• Kindergarten teachers will teach their students how to write and recognize letter sounds. But they are happy when their students come to school knowing how to count to 10, and know shapes and colors. If your child attends pre-school, this is usually well covered there, but can easily be learned naturally in a home setting as well. 

In the end, if your child makes your local school's cut off date, it is a parent's decision whether you will start him when he is 5 or when she is 6.  There are certainly advantages and disadvantages to both and it can be a very difficult decision for parents to make, but there are people to talk with and get more direction with your decision. 

Krissy Miner is a long time kindergarten teacher and the owner of Mrs. Miner's Monkey Business.

Bring Back the Rhymes (and a freebie, too)!

No, nursery rhymes are not just for babies.  In fact, lots of babies aren't even hearing them anymore.  Let's bring back the rhymes and engage children in meaningful rhyme and story.  My kindergarten students LOVE to read (and reread and reread) nursery rhymes and they also love to take them apart, put them back together and change them around.  It's no secret that children love anything personalized with their name or their picture, so let't take that idea and run with it right??
We recently did the nursery rhyme Three Little Kittens.  Perfect, right?  It's cold, the children wear mittens and are always losing their mittens and getting their moms all frantic, so they can really relate. There are so many skills and concepts found hidden in this rhyme:

• My favorite is using intonnation when you read and really "reading" the punctuation that is there. The kids get how upset the kittens will be to tell mama cat that they've lost their mittens, so how will they say it?  They also get how upset mama will be when she knows they've lost their mittens.  How will she respond?  Try reading it without any expression and see how they react.  This is how they begin to learn about intonnation in their own reading and how it can change the whole meaning of a story or change the excitement of the audience anyway.
• I always introduce the concept of mystery through this rhyme.  Where did those mittens go anyway?  Some of the ideas that these childdren have will simply amaze you.  It generates amazing writing and excitement.
• Math:  I always coincide this with skip counting by twos. Mittens do come in pairs, right??  And, of course those silly kittens lost both mittens to help us find pairs.
• Phonics and reading skills:  rhyming, of course!  Finding words we know in words we don't (example it is found in little and mittens and kittens).  But, also, there are copious amounts of chunks to be found and located in this rhyme as evidence shows below (I have my students "butter" the chunks and words we know in the poems with "sticks of butter" a.k.a highlighters--keep it fun, people!).  When children see all they know in excerpts they are going to read, it makes them realize, "Wow, I really can read this!":

Check out the amazing art that is generated from this personalized rhyme where the student becomes the angry person who the kittens reveal that they've lost their mittens to. 

Please hop on over to my blog if you are interested in getting a 3 Little Kitten packet to use with your students!

Connecting With REAL, LIVE Authors

I am a kindergarten teacher and, being a kindergarten teacher, I encounter real, life issues with my kiddos.  Like what you ask?  Hmmmm...let me count the ways. Tattling, interrupting, picking noses, fidgeting, worrying, oh my! 
I was fortunate enough to stumble upon a wonderful book entitled A Bad Case of the the Tattle Tongue which led me to an incredible author named Julia Cook.  As a former school guidance counselor, Julia speaks to children in a way they understand through her literature.  She understands their viewpoint and their stance in life as little people with big expectations. 

Since discovering Julia's amazing, educational line of books, I have had the opportunity to team up with Julia to do the Julia Cook Project at Mrs. Miner's Monkey Business.  My students are helping me "review" and use a variety of her intuitively written books in the classroom and they are loving it!  (They would much rather have her "telling" them to not do something than hearing me say it AGAIN!).

Please join up with The Julia Cook Project at Mrs. Miner's Monkey Business to find out more about Julia and what I've been doing in my classroom with her books.  Also, grab some of my freebies that correspond with Julia's amazing books that I have posted for my readers:

Lastly, do not miss the opportunity for your class or someone you love's class to win a once in a lifetime opportunity to SKYPE with a famous author.  They can meet Julia Cook, discuss her books with her and ask any questions they may have!  This is an opportunity for your students that they will never forget and how incredible is it that Julia has agreed to do this for one of my readers??

Be sure to follow along with the Julia Cook Project, so you don't miss the announcement of the contest which will be coming up within the next month (after more books and freebies are added)!

Come on over!