Sorry I haven't blogged in awhile but it has been so craaaazzyyy lately! Between hurricanes, our second day of school cancelled.... I had so much to catch up on... Are you feeling the first days of school hectics?
On a better note.... I survived the hurricane... just had a few limbs down, power out for a day and just a piece of siding off my house.... I am so blessed after hearing about the devastation Irene caused. Thank you for your kind words and prayers.
This past Monday we had to move 5 kinders out of 5 classes because of the large number of children that registered this year. Now we have 6 kindergarten teachers/classes at my school. I have the cutest class of 20 Can Do Kinders.... We have a lot of work to do though.... only 2 children know all of their letters.... most of the rest know only 1 or 2 letters.
This week we have been learning routines... working on rules and introducing the 7 Habits of Happy Kids by Sean Covey!
Next week we will work on our goal setting and place it in our Data Notebooks. The children take this very seriously because they are practicing their habits and know how to be proactive and make a plan to meet their goal. For their first goal setting, I make it very simple by having them make 1 goal and then make a plan to achieve that goal. I think having each child generate a plan is the most important element to success in achieving the goal.
Here is an example of a child's goal setting paper from last year. I redid this so you could see an example. She was an ELL student and wanted to do well in school.... Just a delight!
The amazing part of this story is .... she learned all of her letters in a couple of weeks and went on to become an amazing reader! She took charge of her learning and success! Each time she met her goal, I helped her set new goals and plans. Also, she shared her goals with her Mom at parent/teacher conferences and student-led conferences.
Later on with more academic experiences, the children can write and draw their goals and plans. It is important to change the goal setting document to include academic and personal goals. A great book to read about goal setting is The Leader in Me by Stephen Covey. It gives a lot of important information on the philosophy of the 7 Habits of Happy kids.
If you are interested you can download this chart here to use with your children! Do you set goals with your class? I would love to hear more about what you do in your classroom. So please...... leave me a comment!
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5 comments:
Hi Pam!
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Hi Pam,
My school is a 7 Habits school also. I am a half day kindergarten teacher so I'm still trying to figure out how I want to do data notebooks. I'll have 25 kiddies in the morning session and then another 25 in the afternoon session. What else do you place in their data notebooks and where do you place these papers... binder, folder? Does it go to and from school? I loved your "Reach for the Stars" freebie. Thank you for sharing! :)
I am interested in what the data books look like and what things they are kept in the books. I love this post and plan on working on goal setting with my kinders this year...thanks for the great template.
I'd like to learn about the data books. I plan to use your template to set goals with my kinders.
Love the 7 Habits. I have just started working on this with my k-kids. This is a great idea to go along with being in charge, having a plan, and working first. I made a large display for the hallway. When we see a student using one of the habits. They get to sign their name on the habit. It is amazing how many times I hear the students repeating a habit or reminding a friend. The habits apply to so many situations.
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