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Beginning of the Year

Kindergarten Math Assessments

Kindergarten math assessments were always such a headache for me. I tried so many different ways of assessing and had a hard time finding a way that would work for these young kids, while also being accurate. It’s very different assessing a kindergartener who knows the math skill but can’t read the problem than a student who doesn’t understand the math skill.

Hopefully these math assessment ideas will help you come up with a way to accurately assess your students while sparing you the headache I had!

$Kindergarten math assessments can be tricky. It's very different assessing a kindergartener who knows the math skill but can't read the problem than a...$

Math Assessments in Kindergarten

If you’re a kindergarten teacher, you already know how short a kindergartener’s attention span is. It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to give whole group, unit tests that are more than one page. I tried this and had very small class sizes and it still was a nightmare. There’s always one or two (or five) that are off in lalaland, not paying attention to what problem you’re on in the math test or just looking at their neighbors paper to pretend they’re following along.

It’s also very unlikely that you’ll be able to give one on one assessments for every standard to every student. There are too many other things teachers and students do throughout the day to give that much time and attention to math assessments.

Which brings me to exit tickets. Exit tickets are short one or two problem, half sheets of paper that are ideally given after every lesson. They are quick and simple so students can focus on the task before losing attention. There is only one set of directions for students to solve either one or two problems that go along with what they learned during the lesson.

When you give an exit ticket, you get immediate feedback. That way, you can pull whatever students did not understand the skill and work more closely with them during the next lesson. That immediate feedback helps you know what students you need to work one on one with. Most likely you won’t be able to work one on one with everyone for every standard.

Beginning of the Year Assessments

Kindergarteners come to you at so many different levels. Depending on if they went to preschool or not, you may be teaching some how to count, while others are ready to start adding and subtracting.

Something super helpful that I did was assess their math skills right in the beginning of the year. That helped me figure out who was at what level and where I should place them when we started guided math.

These are the skills I assessed in the beginning of the year:

Counting
Writing numbers
Identify Shapes

During the Year

You already know that it’s important to assess students throughout the year. We had report cards 4 times a year, so although I was formatively assessing students every day, I had specific assessments I did before completing report cards.

Some ideas for kindergarten math assessments during the year:

Exit tickets – Give an exit ticket after every (or mostly every) lesson to gage student skills. This will tell you when they master the concept.
Quarterly verbal math assessments (for standards like – can count to 100)
Take parts of the end of chapter or end of unit tests that the teacher manual provides and give certain problems throughout the quarter or year
Use guided math in your classroom so you can easily formatively assess students when they’re at your group. Write down these observations in a checklist.

End of the Year Assessments

At the end of the year, to get a comprehensive understanding on what concepts students have mastered, I re-assess standards that certain students did not understand the first time I assessed. (Of course, you teach concepts over and over and over but sometimes students just take a little longer to fully grasp a concept.)

So, at the end of the year, I looked at my assessment binder, where I held all my check lists and exit tickets and I marked off who needed to be assessed for which standard. Usually there are only a few students in each standard (depending on your class size) who need to be re-assessed.

Standards Based Grading

Standards based grading is simply when students get “graded” on if they meet a standard or not instead of getting a letter grade in different subjects. When I taught, we used standard based grading so students earned W’s for working on a standard. They earned M’s for meets standard. E’s meant they exceed the standard or N’s for not at grade level.

Here’s how I assessed for standards based grading while using guided math!

Common Core Math Assessments

If you are interested in using exit tickets in your classroom, you can purchase exit tickets for the entire year for all Kindergarten Common Core Standards in my TpT Store.

Classroom Management Systems for a Smooth Running Classroom

Want a classroom that essentially runs itself? You need classroom management systems! You need them, you need to teach them to your students and you all need to use them together. When you have systems in place, you’re setting yourself and your students up for success.

Classroom Management Systems

As teachers, we love to plan. Some systems you’ll think about before the school year starts and you’ll implement right from the beginning. Other times, you don’t even know what systems need to be in place until you’re halfway through the year and something just isn’t working. That’s okay. Play around with things until you find systems that work for you, your style and your students.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself that will help you set up your classroom management systems.

Planning Management

Where do sheets go that need to be copied? Where will they go once they’re copied?

I keep a basket of papers that needed to be copied. My assistant knows to check that box daily and make any copies. If the copies need specific instructions, put a post-it note with those instructions on the paper. Once they’re copied, they get laid out on my desk for me to review and then put away into the day of the week materials box.

How will you store materials for the week/for next week?

I keep all the materials for the week in a slotted box. The box has 5 shelves – one for each day of the week. If any materials are too big to fit in the box, they go next to the box inside my teacher cabinet.

What happens when you need to file something? Where are the files? What goes in those files?

I have a couple different filing systems in my classroom. One system is for curriculum. These files are organized by unit and hold different worksheets I use to compliment our curriculum, activities, games, art projects etc. The other system is for saving student work to put in a portfolio. I save seasonal art projects to create into a memory book at the end of the year. These files are in my teacher desk.

Student Work Management

Where does student work go when it’s unfinished, finished and corrected?

This is an important system so students know what to do with their work! When student work is unfinished, they put it in their unfinished work folders until they finish it. When it’s finished, they put it in a basket to turn in. Once it’s in that basket, I can correct or look through. Once it’s been corrected, it goes in another basket of things that go home in a Friday Folder.

How does student work go home?

In my classroom, student work goes home every week in a Friday Folder. Parents are expected to take everything out of the folder and students return the folder on Monday.

Will you save specific student work? What will that be? Where will it go?

Like I mentioned above, I save certain seasonal art to create a memory book at the end of the year. These art pieces go in a file until it’s time to create the book.

Supplies Management

Where are extra supplies? How students get those extra supplies?

How to manage supplies was a hard task for me to work through. There are so many extra things to keep track of and when you teach kindergarten, many of them lose things left and right!

I kept markers, crayons, colored pencils, pencils, scissors, glue, expo pens and expo erasers out in the room, available for students to use. The system is, if you have a dull pencil, you put it in the unsharpened container and grab a new one from the sharpened container. Same goes for crayon. If you lost a crayon or don’t have a certain color, you grab one from the extras.

Where are teacher supplies?

Teacher supplies stay inside (or on top of) my teacher desk and in my cabinet behind my teacher desk.

Classroom Management Strategies

There’s no one way to organize your classroom management systems. Organize your thoughts, create a plan and implement them into your classroom so that you and your students are using them together.

Classroom Management Plan

To have a smooth running classroom, classroom management is crucial. These questions above will help you begin to create your classroom management plan.

Start by going through these questions and write down your systems. Then, if you find that something needs tweaking during the year, tweak it. If you find you need a system that you hadn’t thought of, put one in place. If you explain your system and teach it to your students, they’ll be able to follow along and you’ll feel more organized.

How to Take Control of Your Classroom Organization

Classroom organization. You either love it or hate it! No matter your feelings on organization, I think we can all agree that it’s important for your classroom to have some sort of flow and method to it so students can focus on learning. Part of classroom organization is how your room is organized and how your materials are organized.

Before you set up your classroom, you want to ask yourself some questions about how exactly your room will be organized. Ask yourself these questions below and you’ll take control of your classroom organization.

Questions to Ask Yourself Before Starting Classroom Organization

What areas or sections do you want to include in your room? Will you have a writing center? Technology area? Space just for free play items?

In order for your room to make sense to kids, spaces have to have a common theme. For example, students know that when they need to get a book, they need to go to the library. What other sections will you have in your room?

Some ideas:

Writing Center
Word Work Center
Math Manipulatives
Puzzles
Science Exploration
Listening Center
STEM/STEAM
Cultural Center
Free Play – Toys
Meet with Teacher Area (for small groups)
Teacher Area – desk/supplies

Where will your supplies go? Will you have your teacher supplies somewhere separate from student supplies? What will the supplies go in?

Now that you know what sections of the room you’ll have, you need to decide where supplies are going. A lot of classrooms have a beautiful, large storage closet. Not mine. I had to get creative with how I was going to store supplies. These DIY crate seats are a perfect hidden storage option.

When you figure out where you are going to store your items, decide how you will store them. I felt the most organized when I had all of my storage materials for each subject together.

Some ideas:

Keep art supplies together
Supplies for when you get a new student
Science materials
Extra math manipulatives (that aren’t already in your math section)
Extra student supplies – crayons, glue, pencils etc.
Teacher supplies
Keep all curriculum together – easier when you sit down to plan

Where will student supplies go? Will they have a pencil box? A community box that the whole table uses? A chair pouch?

For the supplies that students will use on a daily basis – where will they go? I’ve tried a few different options but my very favorite was using a chair pouch with individual student supplies that went in a pencil box inside their chair bags. The chair bags also held their folders and any workbooks.

I tried the community box in my classroom and although it is convenient to just load up one box for each table, it caused more fights between kindergarteners and they just could never keep it clean. When you use a chair pouch, even the messier students know where their supplies are. Ha!

Will students be at desks? Or tables? Or will you use flexible seating?

Part of deciding where student supplies will go will depend on where your students will be located. Do you have desks in your classroom? Tables? Will you use flexible seating?

My students sit at tables in groups of 3 or 4 or at the carpet in assigned rug squares. I found that this was the best way for kindergarteners to stay focused and for me to manage them. However, I never tried flexible seating, but know a lot of teachers have had success with this. If you have tried flexible seating in kindergarten and love it, share below!

Take Control of Classroom Organization

In order to have organization, you need to figure out exactly how you want your room to be organized. Ask yourself these questions and you’ll have a better idea at how you want your room organized.

What sections/areas will you have in your room?
Where will extra supplies go? What is your storage like?
Where will student supplies go?
Will students be at tables? Desks? Will you use flexible seating?

If you answer these questions before you begin your classroom set up, you’ll have an easier time as you’ll know exactly how you want your room.

My Kindergarten Schedule for a Full Day Kindergarten

Where are all my full day kindergarten teachers?! It is crazy to me to think that these kiddos are in school for the same amount of time as a third grader or a fifth grader or an eighth grader! I don’t know about you but when I went to kindergarten, we had a half day program, we had nap time and most of the day we colored and played. A kindergarten schedule has changed so much!

Throughout the year, my kindergarten schedule changes slightly. Here are two kindergarten sample schedules for the beginning of the year and end of the year.

Kindergarten Daily Schedule (Beginning of the Year)

Beginning of the year kindergarteners are VERY different from end of the year kindergarteners. I like to think of incoming kindergarteners as preschool students because essentially that’s what they are. They just came from preschool (many of them).

The one major difference between my kindergarten schedule int he beginning of the year and the end of the year is nap (or rest) time.

Beginning of the Year Schedule

8:00 – 8:30 Morning Circle

8:30 – 9:10 Literacy Centers (Daily 5)

9:10 – 9:45 Language Arts

9:45 – 10:20 Snack and Recess (We go out 15 minutes before the rest of the school)

10:20 – 10:45 Writing

10:45 – 11:15 Spanish

11:15 – 11:45 Math (We use Guided Math)

11:45 – 12:30 Lunch

12:30 – 1:00 Nap or Rest Time

1:00 – 1:30 Specialty (P.E., Music, Art)

1:30 – 2:00 Science or Social Studies (I alternate by unit. I’ll do one unit of science and then focus on one unit of social studies.)

2:00 – 2:30 Free Play

Notice, we typically spend about 30 minutes focusing on one subject. Kindergarteners are little learners, they can only focus for so long before they get bored, tired, disengaged. That is something you need to think about when creating your own kindergarten schedule.

Read about setting up your classroom here: 7 Tips for Your Classroom Set Up

Kindergarten Daily Schedule (End of the Year)

Toward the middle or later in the year, I have found that kindergarten students develop a stamina where they are able to push through their day without needing a built in rest time. From the middle of the year on, I take nap (rest) time out so we’re able to focus on more subjects.

Middle/End of the Year Schedule

8:00 – 8:30 Morning Circle

8:30 – 9:10 Literacy Centers (Daily 5)

9:10 – 9:45 Language Arts

9:45 – 10:20 Snack and Recess (We go out 15 minutes before the rest of the school)

10:20 – 10:45 Writing

10:45 – 11:15 Spanish

11:15 – 11:45 Math

11:45 – 12:30 Lunch

12:30 – 1:00 Social Studies

1:00 – 1:30 Specialty (P.E., Music, Art)

1:30 – 2:00 Science

2:00 – 2:30 Free Play

Not much has changed besides nap time going away to be able to do science AND social studies.

Read about my 10 Favorite Activities in Our Kindergarten Year

Kindergarten Weekly Schedule

Above is a sample daily kindergarten schedule. Of course, this doesn’t look exactly the same every day. For example, we have different specialties on different days. We also have a half day during the week (ours is Monday). We don’t do social studies or science every day. Also, we teach religion because we’re a Catholic School.

Every school is different and this will have a lot to do with how you set up your schedule. Here is an example of a kindergarten weekly schedule.

Kindergarten Visual Schedule

Once you figure out your schedule, it is crucial you have it in visual form somewhere for the kids to reference and for you to reference! Posting a visual schedule helps with time management, staying on track and behavior management. When students can see what they’re doing, what they will be doing next and how long they need to focus until their next break, I believe they have better behavior because they know what to expect!

Ways to create your visual schedule:

Magnet Schedule Cards
Velcro Schedule Cards
Write it on your board
On an Anchor Chart
In a Pocket Chart

Full Day Kindergarten Schedule

Kindergarten is such a different world compared to other grades. With these little ones, it can be tricky to set up your schedule. We have so much to do in what feels like so little time. It takes a while to figure out a schedule that works for you and your students. (I tweaked mine every year for 5 years.)

My biggest advice: Try things out. If they don’t work, try something else!

How do you set up your kindergarten schedule? What all do you have to include?

Your Cheat Sheet for Parent Teacher Conferences

Parent teacher conferences are coming up and they can be a little nerve-wracking. When you share so much with your students’ parents, you never know how they’ll respond. Just remember that as long as you come across as wanting the best for their child, they’ll appreciate whatever you say. You are a team!

I like to be as organized as I can and get everything ready about a week before conferences. We have to put in grades and get report cards printed, find examples of student work and get together any other important resources for parents so this time can be pretty busy! The sooner you’re organized, the better!

Here are some tips I’ve learned that will help you during parent teacher conferences.

Format of the Parent Teacher Conference

At my school, we have 15 minutes with the parents. I like to do most of the talking for 10 minutes, then take questions and then we bring the student in to showcase some of their work!

First 10 Minutes:

Explain Report Card

I use this time to explain the report card. This is their first report card so I explain standards based grading and what they’ll see on the report card. I also highlight a few of the standards in each subject category.

Discuss a Few Standards

I like to highlight what we will be learning this year in kindergarten. Since this is the only face to face meeting we have with parents (unless we schedule something else) I like to explain some of the learning they’ll see within the year.

Tell Student’s Reading Level

We use Fountas and Pinnel to assess students’ reading levels so I mention what level their child is. Most of the time, students at this point in the year are only a level AA (pre-reader) or an A. I mention where we want students at the end of kindergarten as well.

Give Parents Resources to Help at Home

I like to print out some resources of how parents can help their child at home in reading or sight words and explain how important it is that they help their child with their learning at home so it reinforces what we do in class.

Final 5 Minutes:

Time for Questions

I give parents time to ask any question they have that they might not want their child to hear, before the child comes in.

Student Joins

When the student joins, he or she shows their parent a few things they are proud of. I like to have their writing folders at the table because it shows their growth from the beginning of the year. I like having students run this part because they get so excited to share with their family what they’ve done in school!

Tips to Help Parent Teacher Conferences Run Smoothly

Make Note of Key Talking Points

It’s important to know what you are going to talk about in the conference. That’s why, I like to make note of what I want to be sure to say (both positive and negative) during the conference.

This year, I’m going to use Stephanie’s (Teaching Little Leaders) Parent Teacher Conference Forms. She includes everything you need to prep for your parent teacher conference! Check it out below.

Keep Everything for the Conference in a File

I like to use files for each student because they’re easy to pull and keep everything safe and in one spot. When you have so many conferences, it’s best to just have to pull one file instead of a bunch of different forms or documents.

*I even like to put a post-it on the front of the folder with the child’s name and when the conference is. Then, I put them in order by day and time.

Keep the Student Occupied

If your school is like mine and students join the conference at the end of the meeting, give them something to do while you’re meeting with their parents. I like to keep books in the hallway next to a chair so the student can sit and read.

Here are my tips and tricks for parent teacher conferences and I hope you find something that helps you out! What have you learned during your conferences? Comment below!

Tips for Challenging Your High Readers

Students come into your classroom at all different levels. Some students are really strong in reading and others need a bit more support. It can be hard to reach each student at their level but as teachers it’s our job to try! Throughout my years teaching, I’ve learned some tips to challenge my high readers.

Some years, I have students come in to my kindergarten classroom already reading (normally incoming kinders don’t read yet). Other years, I’ve had students come in reading at a first grade, second grade, even third grade level! This has been a challenge for me as I figure out what I need to do with these high readers.

Tips for Challenging Your High Readers

Use Small Groups

I recommend using small groups in both reading and math. Students will always come to your class at different levels and by using small groups, you’re better able to tailor lessons to your students needs. Sometimes, my high reading groups only consist of one or two students… that’s okay! If you can split your class up this much and have enough things for other groups to do, I highly recommend you do this.

To read about small groups during guided math check out the posts below.

All Your Guided Math Questions Answered: A Collaborative Post with Sam Ripley

Everything You Need to Know to Launch Guided Math in Your Classroom

How to Write Differentiated Lesson Plans to Use During Guided Math

Ask Open Ended Questions

When they’re in these small groups (or even if you don’t do small groups) ask your high readers open-ended questions. Critical thinking questions and open-ended questions give students the opportunity to really have to think about their learning and about what they’ve read.

Give Challenge Work

Giving challenge work does not mean extra work, it means giving them meaningful work that challenges them. When I give challenge work for my high readers, I think about the comprehension skill for the week and I find a worksheet or an activity that goes along with the comprehension skill. I also look for work that will make them think more than something the rest of the class is doing. When you give meaningful work, you’re challenging your higher readers.

These are some ways I’ve found to challenge the students who need a challenge. What do you do for your high readers?

All About Star of the Week

This post contains affiliate links, which means if you click on or buy something from one of the links, I may receive a small income at no additional cost to you.

Star of the week is one of the best ways to get to know your students on a deeper level. I start star of the week right in the beginning of the year so we can get to know each other right away. I love incorporating this in my classroom because students feel special for a whole week and it promotes classroom community.

The Importance of Star of the Week

Star of the week (or Student of the Week) is one week in the school year where a student gets to be celebrated. Each day, they get a special privilege or activity all about them. After the week is up, we feel more connected and the student feels appreciated.

Daily Specials

Here is the list of specials that I do each week for our Star Student. There many other options you could include (I’ve listed these ideas after my daily specials).

Monday

On Monday, the Star of the Week brings in their Star of the Week poster. (I give these posters to them a week in advance because they are pretty large and I don’t want them to rush it.) The student gets to tell us about their poster and I let a few students ask questions about the star. Then, we create a book for the Student of the Week. The Star of the Week colors the cover page to their book and all other classmates write a letter about why this person is a star. After everyone is done, I bind the pages into a book and the Star of the Week takes it home.

Tuesday

On Tuesday, the Star of the Week gets to bring in a show and tell item. They tell about the item and then classmates get to ask questions about the item. (A lot of the time the question is “can we play with it at free play?” Ha!)

Wednesday

On Wednesday, the Star of the Week gets to start free play first! Always a favorite day for my kinders!

Thursday

On Thursday, the student of the week gets to bring in a book that we read as a class. I love seeing which books they bring in and sharing them with the rest of the class.

Friday

Friday is my favorite day of the week! On Friday, I read a letter written to the student from their parents. These letters are so heartfelt and so sweet to read as parents are so proud of their little ones.

Some other ideas for celebrating your student of the week:

Bring in special pictures to share
Have a parent come to read
Pick a prize from your prize box
Bring in a treat to share with the class
Plan a special reward for the class
Sit at a VIP table
Get to use markers on everything
Be the teachers assistant all week

Check out my Star of the Week resources on TpT

Also available is a Jungle Theme and an Ocean Theme.

What other ways do you celebrate your Star of the Week? Let me know in the comments!

Essential Beginning of the Year Assessments in Kindergarten

Assessments are crucial when beginning the year (especially in Kindergarten) because students come to your class at so many different levels. Some students know how to read and write already whereas other students might not know the alphabet or their numbers yet.

I like to assess my students in the first few weeks so I know where their baseline is. I like to look at the assessments from the beginning of the year to gauge what they’ve learned when I do mid-year assessments and end of the year assessments.

The assessments you do in the beginning of the year will help you determine your small groups during guided reading and guided math.

Essential Beginning of the Year Assessments

Letter Recognition and Letter Sounds

This is the first assessment I do with students as it is so important to know if you have a group that knows letters and sounds or if you have a group that needs to be explicitly taught each letter and sound. I’ve found that each year is different. Some years, I’ve been able to quickly go over letters and sounds with the entire group and teach letters and sounds more thoroughly during small groups to my struggling students. Other years, I’ve had to majorly slow down and spend significant class time going over each letter and what sound it makes.

The assessment I use is a freebie in my store! I pull students one on one and directly ask them the letter (both uppercase and lowercase) and sound.

Reading

My school uses Fountas and Pinnell for our reading assessments. After I assess all students knowledge on letters and sounds, I assess students, who have shown they know majority of the letters and sounds, on their reading. This system works for me as I’ve found that if students don’t know their letters or the sounds, they don’t know how to read. It saves me time and it saves them from giving me blank, questioning stares when I ask them to give it their best shot at what the page says.

As I mentioned, we use Fountas and Pinnell but if you school doesn’t use this or doesn’t have a reading program, there are many options available on TpT. Just search – reading assessments for __ grade.

You may be interested in my guided reading bundle when you start using your assessments to form guided reading groups!

Math

To assess your students in math, your math program may have a beginning of the year assessment. You may also be interested in my beginning of the year math assessments freebie. I like to assess students on their number identification, if they can write numbers, if they can count/ how high they can count and shape identification.

These math assessments help me when forming our first guided math groups.

Everything You Need to Know to Launch Guided Math in Your Classroom

How to Write Differentiated Lesson Plans to Use During Guided Math

How to Assess Student Learning During Guided Math (Standards Based Grading)