Anchor Charts

These are a couple of anchor charts I made while teaching my kiddos in Writing Workshop.  One is from our curriculum and the other was an idea I found on Pinterest.  I have made some other anchor charts specific to certain units.  These charts work across the year however.

Assessment

Assessment takes a while in Kindergarten.  It's not like I can hand out a five page paper and pencil test with multiple choice, fill in the blank, and essay questions.  In order to figure out what my students know I have to spend some sort of one on one time with each.  In my classroom I combine a little observation with more "come over here and let me ask you some questions Suzy".  I'd like for my assessments to flow better but right now, this is where I'm at and most comfortable. So a system another teacher used for anecdotal notes during writing workshop and a suggestion from one of my fellow Kindergarten teachers merged into flip clipboards.

These hang right over my desk area so I can quickly grab and go.  I have one for each "subject" from our report cards.  Actually, personal skills were sneaked into the writing folder.  Below you see one open and in use.  The inside consists of that subject's section of our report card blown up for each child.  There are four columns on each student's card, one for each quarter for me to mark up and track progress.

I can refer back to these for inputting grades in the computer as well as when looking at data on our collaboration days.  On the reverse side of the card, I can also write anecdotal notes if needed.  It is a system that has really worked out well for me!

Table Tubs

 This idea is a combination of two different fellow teachers' ideas.  Someone out there probably has the same idea.  Here it is: a college plastic bath tote combined with cups makes perfect sense in helping students organizing their table tub supplies. Below is a top view of one table's tub.

As you can see I have many different supplies in one compact space.  I thought the tubs would be too big at first, but really they work perfectly. I have coordinated scissor color with the tub color.  This way stray scissors are returned without much work.  Students have use of two types of glue, crayons, markers, pencils, and pink erasers (pencil erasers and toppers never last in Kindergarten).  Here is a side view of the tub:

I numbered my tables with the simple peel and stick letters and numbers you can find at Walmart for projects.  I set the number to the side because I figured that later I may add pictures of shapes, or coins, to name the tables which would give students more practice with these.  Overall, these have worked out great! They also clean easily with a magic eraser for the following year!