Progress, Progress, Progress!

The Triumph:  It is so great seeing the progress that students have been making since the beginning of the year!  One student has progressed by 100 points on the K-Screen! At the beginning of the year, and throughout the kids have been assessed to see where they are at, and what progress has been made!  The K-Screen looks at letters (upper and lower), letter sounds, numbers (1-31), as well as some basic math concepts.  The overall score is 130.  So great to see the progress they have made on those and in the classroom.  I keep telling them that 1st grade is coming soon.

The Struggle:  I think that trying to figure out how to help the resistant student was what was most difficult today.  He really needs to be at school to learn, but once he starts digging his heels in, I just have to send him away.  Usually the heel digging involves a lot of yelling, or other disruptive behaviors that makes learning difficult for the whole class.  I just have to figure out at what point do I say, "Ok you need to do this!"  Today, he had a power struggle with me in front of the whole class because he wanted to sit on the computer instead of joining us for movement on the carpet.  He stated that he was going to do computers.  I gave him his choices, which were to join us on the carpet or to sit in the Cheetah Chairs.  We went back and forth a few times, but he knew that I would not back down and he finally came to a decision (Cheetahs)!

The Ludicrousness:  During the plan-do-review part of the day, which we call Worktime, the kids discovered the new hollow blocks that we are borrowing from the other Kinder room.  One of the boys made a tower with them that was really tall, and I asked him if he would like to take a picture of it.  I could not find our classroom camera, so I let him use mine.  They were hilarious!  They took pictures for about 20 minutes.  They took turns, the took interesting photos, and they were having such a great time!  I would post some, but most have the kids in them.  I'll have to look through and post the ones that don't have kids in them!!