Not that long ago journals in my kindergarten classroom meant one thing, a writing journal, a place to free write stories. Today we use journals for much more. When journals are filled at the end of the year they represent a connected body of work that shows growth and progression. They are an accomplishment that students are proud to share with their families. Students also use journals throughout the year to look back as a reference or point of comparison. The only negative side is that parents don't get to see daily work coming home. At the beginning of the year to keep parents in the loop, I sent home one journal each Friday.
ABC Interactive Notebooks
There were at least 2 pages for each letter of the alphabet. Students glued in interactive pieces that gave them opportunities to practice the shape and sound of each letter. Weekly homework for each letter was also glued into this journal.
Writing Journal
This was used as a traditional free write journal. Sometimes we had a prompt associated with the book or theme we were doing. I had planned on using these daily, but because I was trying to get in a variety of writing experiences, we used it less than I had hoped.
Math Journal
This is my favorite new addition to the classroom this year. I never felt comfortable teaching math to the whole group in kindergarten. Math almost always involves manipulatives of some type and has been difficult for me to get everyone's attention at once...so much wasted time. This year we did math centers - journals, games, and iPads. We did some whole group activities, like sharing what we did with our math prompts and interactive white board games, but the heart of instruction was with 4-5 students in a small group.
Math Journals - The first 2 quarters I used Kathryn Warner's Math Problem Solving Prompts from TPT. These are wonderful open-ended prompts that are easy to differentiate and extend even within the same small group. Using her examples I was able to write my own prompts for the rest of the year, but honestly I'm hoping that as we speak she is busily working on writing the 3rd Quarter prompts to share with us soon! The small group helped me to guide each student to their next level of understanding and identify trouble spots. The students did a better job of working together and talking through the problems in a small group.
Games - I try to get a volunteer for this center whenever possible. I haven't done a good job standardizing the game process so that students only have to learn a few routines and just practice different skills. If you are mixing it up a lot and don't want to spend tons of time teaching the rules to the center, it is just better to have a volunteer. This summer I have tried to organize math games according to CCSS and put them on Pinterest. Some are independent and others will run more smoothly with guidance, especially the first few time. Hopefully this will make planning much easier next year.
iPads - We are a 1-1 iPad class and while that is a wonderful blessing, it is also a huge responsibility. Am I using this great resource in the best possible way? I was always struggling to find affordable math apps that targeted the skills we were working on specifically in kindergarten. This year I used Kindergarten Works Computer Center Math from TPT. I downloaded the file to the dropbox app Showbie and students are linked to hundreds of online math games. The games are organized by quarter in two week increments with 3 difficulty levels, so the games are always changing. Even though Leslie has created these centers to be used on a computer and anything using Flash will not work on our iPads, my students love all the different activities. Many of the games are problem solving and I really enjoyed seeing my students work together to take on the challenge.
Literature Response Journals
This is a new one for me that I will try next year. I felt last year with all that was going on with writing, math, and literacy centers that I did not focus enough attention to read alouds. We read books. We did activities together to develop comprehension, but there were not as many activities for students to respond individually. I believe incorporating Literature Response Journals into our daily activities will help students begin to take a closer look at patterns in literature and types of literature. This Read, Write, Think lesson has helped me think about how I will set up these journals and use them to address and assess specific CCSS.
Digital Journals
This will also be a new one for next year. I plan to use this type of recording for themed research projects in science and social studies.
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