Hi friends,
How are you? I hope you are well. You may know that I used to teach kindergarten. So, it is no surprise that I have quite a few activities in mind to use for the younger students. Today, I want to show you what I call the “Counting Petals Poster”. I usually introduced the “Counting Petals Poster” in early spring with the plants unit. Petals are something that most students can kind of draw by the time early spring comes. By then, we have already worked on numbers and counting to ten, at least a little. The good thing about the “Counting Petals Poster” idea is that you can tailor it to the needs and skills of your students. However, don’t underestimate what they can do. It might not always come out neat and tidy, but students can often do more than we think they can. Let me show you what I mean. Here is an example of my finished “Counting Petals Poster”. 
This one is done digitally, however, when I was teaching kindergarten, often I would do it by hand just to show that they can do it too. You can do this activity in a variety of ways. I tried in different ways, depending on my students. You can ask the students to create a poster of their own making and design as long as the number of petals are drawn and labeled for numbers one to ten. (For struggling students, you may want to do it for numbers one to five or even one to three.) I tried this once. Some came out pretty nice and others came out all squished together and not necessarily in the correct order. The activity can also be done with handing students a plain piece of paper with just the grid on it. Or, a plain piece of paper with the grid and circles for the flower centers on it. Sometimes something as simple as adding the circles for the flower centers is all it takes to give the students a greater understanding and sense of accomplishment. Then, you don’t have to explain which squares have the numbers and which squares have the flowers with the petals. If you want, you can let students do this individually, as a small group activity, or as a class. You will probably want to introduce it, discuss it, and even walk through parts of it before you give it out as an activity for independent work. Another thought is to do the “Counting Petals Poster” activity partially as a group. Maybe draw the petals as a group one step at a time and then have students go back and count the petals and write the numbers. Or, it can be done the other way around. Write the numbers as a group and then have the students go back and draw the flowers with the petals to match. I like to have the students do the activity in pencil first. Then, I can check it, let the students know if there is anything that needs correcting, and when it is ready, have them go over it in color. The numbers can be traced in marker, the flowers can be colored with crayons or colored pencil, and then students can color around the outside of the grid to make a border of his or her own color or design. Or, students can cut out around the edge of the grid and glue it to a piece of colored construction paper. These make great art and academic pieces to hang on the wall or the bulletin board. They can also be put in a portfolio, because this activity highlights many different skills. At times, after we did the activity once as a class, I would put it in one of the centers as an activity. In that way, students can do it over and over again as they choose. They can learn ways to improve the involved skills. There was even a time when I had the students not just put the number but also write the labels, such as “one petal” or “two petals” and so on. It depends on the skill of the students. I am sure that you have many of your own ideas about how to include the “Counting Petals Poster” activity into your lessons. I look forward to reading your ideas, so other educators and I can learn from you. How would you introduce the “Counting Petals Poster” activity to your class? Now, it is your turn. I am so glad you are here. I can’t wait to read your comments. Also, it is possible that you will be seeing this poster as a bigger package product, so stay tuned. Speaking of products, if you haven’t checked out my educational resources, please do so. (I will let you in on a “secret”. Currently, most of my products are supplemental curriculum materials. However, I am working towards creating curriculum materials for entire skills sets, subjects, or units.) And, if you don’t see anything that fits your needs, please feel free to contact me and request something. I am happy to make things easier for you, if possible. Also, if you haven’t done so already, please consider signing up to receive the Education Blog by DUO Inspirations and other education content by email. Thank you for your kindness and support. If you find value in the Education Blog by DUO Inspirations, please share it with friends, family, and coworkers. Thank you.
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Hi friends,
How are you today? I hope you are well. I know you must be tired of Covid and looking for new ways to save time and still be the teacher you want to be. An important part of that is parent/teacher communication. So, how do you keep in touch with parents now? How often do you let parents know how their child is doing? When I taught kindergarten, I sent home communication every day as to how each child was doing. Sometimes it was difficult to find the time to send home a communication for each child every day. Sometimes I would do it during nap time, sometimes during specials, and sometimes I would do it during lunch. Sometimes it was just when I found a few minutes here or there, I would fill out the form that went home for communication. For kindergarten class, often a communication home would consist of a star, smiley face, sad face, or straight-line face. Sometimes, a student might get an angry face going home as well. This would quickly tell parents how their child was doing. There were days, when I was busy and the face or star was the only communication. Although, when a child received a sad face or angry face, there was always an accompanying explanation. On days when I had a little more time, I liked to include a note of praise, especially during times of success after extreme difficulty. I also wrote reminders on days before a field trip, inclement weather, or something out of the ordinary. The daily communication was in addition to a monthly newsletter that was sent home. The monthly newsletter was more general though. It let parents know the kinds of things that their children would be doing as well as any upcoming events for the month. 
This is a daily communication sheet that I recreated from memory of what I sent home daily with students. They liked to see how they were doing by looking at the child friendly communication sheet. The parents enjoyed getting a little idea of how their child was doing each day. I enjoyed it, because I could tell a parent so much with just a face or quick sentence or two in a note.
Feel free to download this sample and use it yourself. I would be happy to hear how you, your students, and your parents like it. The good thing about a form like this, it can be easily transformed so you can add other features for quick communication. I may do that at some point. I may create some other daily communication sheets for parent/teacher communication. What do you think? If you need a daily communication sheet to fit your needs, please feel free to contact me. Thank you. Thank you for being here. I hope you are enjoying and finding value in the Education Blog by DUO Inspirations. If you do find value in the Education Blog by DUO Inspirations, please share it with friends, family, and coworkers. Also, if you haven't already, please consider signing up below to receive the Education Blog by DUO Inspirations and other education content in your inbox. |
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