I forgot to mention this on Friday (I can't believe it) but I AM DONE WITH MATH!! (I'd put 100 more exclamation points but we really do not have time for that.) I started up with Reading again today and it is such a relief. It also gives me plenty of opportunities to sing, which I like to do with kindergarteners because they think I'm awesome at it. (I am. I am awesome at it.)
Today was a great day. I did my "Pirate Food" lesson and I think they really enjoyed it. I gave them a LOT of information about what pirates ate and why they ate it (lots of crackers and bread because other food would spoil without a refrigerator). I also was so excited because one of the little boys mentioned scurvy (a discussion we had early last week) and that was a perfect segue into the discussion about oranges and why they were important to the pirates, too. I had the children taste a saltine cracker, a piece of an orange, and a little bit of cheese (pirates ate that when they could, too). We then used descriptive language to talk about the food - they used the cutest words, like "squishy" - and then graphed our favorites. I know they especially liked the part where they got to eat, but I think they also liked the discussion and learning about pirate food (did you know they sometimes ate turtles?!).
I am feeling good about this week so far. I know it's only been one day but I am optimistic! I went into the classroom today feeling happy, and I left the same way. I'm hopeful that the rest of the week will be the same way. We have our writing test on Wednesday so that is the one thing this week that could throw a wrench into my plans. It's a school-wide test that sort of falls in line with the required 5th grade one (though instead of a 5-paragraph essay like them, we'll be writing our names and a sentence). Today we took a step away from our pirate journals and practiced for the writing test. The biggest thing is that we are not allowed to help them...at ALL. We can't spell things for them. We can't help them sound out words. We can't even give them reminders about what to include. SO, we are giving them all these reminders today and tomorrow. We practiced writing a full sentence using appropriate capitalization, making the letters correctly, putting a "river of space" between each of our words, using punctuation at the end of each sentence, and sounding out each of the phonemes in a word. They also have the word wall that they can use, but we can't help them find the word they're looking for, so that's another thing they have to practice this week! Today Aryn did the practice with them and tomorrow I'll do it. They did very well. We had one little boy who had a little panic attack and just started crying and staring at his blank paper. I felt horrible...kindergarteners should not be getting test anxiety - as far as I'm concerned, they shouldn't be taking tests at all. Luckily this "test" is just like the normal journaling they do, except they have to do it all on their own. I know that some of the children are nervous about this, but we're trying to build up their confidence because they can all do it, they really can. I just hope we can keep them confident on Wednesday when it's time.
I don't remember taking tests when I was little. The first test I ever remember doing was a writing test in about 3rd or 4th grade. I don't remember taking full-on standardized tests until around middle school. Maybe I'm just blocking it out, but I really think that we are testing kids at exceedingly younger and younger ages. I know this has a lot to do with accountability and changes in government and state requirements, but it still blows my mind when I see it in action. When you learn about kindergarteners having to take writing tests, you think, "That seems a little young." But when you see a kindergartener freaking out because he's so stressed over it, you really start to see "Oh. Wow. This is bad." It's interesting how this "test" we're giving them is not any different from the journaling we do every day. But once we call it a "test"... bam. Anxiety. Tears. Disaster.
I don't know why it's like that. I don't know how even 5-year-olds understand the stigma surrounding the word "test," but they do. Maybe we need to change the words we use, since it's unlikely that we'll be able to change the situations. We will see how the practice tomorrow goes.
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