'Tis The Season

This is quite possibly my favourite time of the school year.  I am always amazed at the progress that my young students have made at this point.  Many of the children have more than doubled their knowledge regarding letter identification and number concepts since the last progress report!  

Student-Led Conferences are the perfect way to showcase the outstanding growth to parents.  Each child is scheduled to visit our classroom with their parents for a 30 minute block of time.  In that 30 minutes, they will visit 5 stations designed to highlight the knowledge and skills that we have been building over the past seven months.  Following are the five stations that the Busy Bees will guide their families through:

READING STATION:  I supply a number of familiar books for the children to choose from.  I want the reading task to be easy for the children allowing them to fluently read the text to their parents.  The directions for each station include suggested questions that parents may ask their children to deepen the conference conversation.

SHOPPING SPREE STATION:  The children play this math game to demonstrate their knowledge of numeral identification as well as their skill at counting objects (in this case pennies) using one-to-one correspondence.  I supply enough pennies so that mom and dad can join in the game.

SCIENCE SORTING STATION:  This task actually includes three major areas for the children to tackle.  First off, they demonstrate their fine-motor control by cutting out the seasonal pictures (both straight and curved lines!!).  Secondly, they have to decide which picture goes where.  Finally, they have to do all of this in a very short 5 minute span testing their time management skills.

SPIN-A-WORD STATION:  This station is simply a literacy game that we play throughout the year.  It is an easy, fun, and interactive way to get children to read a list of high-frequency words that we have been learning in class.  I encourage advanced players to think of a sentence that has their word in it.  I've learned from experience to supply a couple of chairs for parents to sit on... most adults seem reluctant to sit "criss-cross-applesauce" on the carpet.  Go figure!

ABC BINGO STATION:  And finally, a station to showcase letter/sound knowledge.  The parental questions supplied lead the children to use more information around the classroom including our alphabet letter posters and our Word Wall featuring high-frequency words and classmate's names.  And like any good Bingo parlour, upon completion the children can see me to collect their prize for a job well done (usually a bottle of bubbles or container of playdough... no cash pay-outs here).

QUICK TIPS:  I picked up the plastic direction holders when the Eaton's department store went out of business many years ago.  You can find similar display items at office supply stores but they can be very costly.  

I attach clusters of balloons to each station as a way of ensuring that families visit the correct areas in our classroom (not sneak off to the block center or dig around in the sand table).  The balloons also make our classroom look festive for the evening. 

Finally, prior to the event, I send home a couple of reminders about the format of the Student-Led Conference.  I always mention that "because the children need the undivided attention of their parents, siblings are not invited to attend the activities".

Frightfully Fun!

Lady GaGa has a legion of fans she affectionately refers to as her Little Monsters.  Not one to be left out on a trend, I have my own little monster.  His name is Marty the Math Monster and he regularly visits my Kindergarten classroom to introduce new math concepts or present some sort of problem for my students to solve.  The children always look forward to Marty's visits.

I discovered Marty in a fancy lady toy boutique on 124th Street.  As soon as our eyes met I knew that this little monster would be a perfect vehicle to get my young mathematicians excited about numeracy learning.  A colleague at another school has implemented a similar idea with a large Curious George stuffed animal.  She places puzzles, number problems, and math games in George's backpack.


Throughout the school year, Marty teaches the children important math vocabulary.  These  key words are placed on a 'Marty's Math Words' poster that the students can refer to.

One question I am most often asked is "Where can I get my own monster puppet to use in my classroom?"  The store I originally purchased Marty from is, unfortunately, long gone.  However, on a lovely summer day in Banff, I happened upon a whole rack of monster puppets in the store 'Duck, Duck, Moose'.  To my delight my eyes met up with a replica of Marty (probably his twin brother) and another puppet who followed me home and quickly became Marty's Mama Monster.  A frightfully fun family reunion, indeed!