Higher Order Thinking?

Happy New Year! I don't know about everyone else, but my school is pushing Rigor, with higher order thinking questioning.

This is what we were doing last year at this time. I thought my students were doing great. They were reading, writing, and finally could color! Got to have color.

Now I am rethinking what my students should be doing at this time of the year. They are mostly still 5 and 6 years old. They love school and learning - but am I pushing them to the higher level of learning. I am looking at the questions that go along with the Bloom's Task Wheel that everyone in my school has. 

I need to get to the top of the wheel (pyramid) more, but with little Ks who are just now beginning to APPLY the knowledge they have learned, it might be more difficult than someone looking in might think.

How do you get your Ks to climb to the top of the Bloom's chart? I would love some feedback on this.

Snowman Craftivity!

We had so much fun making our snowmen yesterday. Our school is about 6 miles from the coast, so most of my students have never seen snow. They love reading about snow and they loved making these snowmen from my Winter Math and ELA 135 Pages of Printables!

The snowmen are so big and just look great as my 'window curtain.' In the Winter Printables packet, this is only about 5 pages of 100, but I decided to make the snowmen with lined chart paper rather than the white paper I suggested in the packet. I wanted to have a writing activity that didn't take too long so I could get these up!

Some students wrote more than usual. What I was most impressed with is how my students' coloring, glueing and cutting skills have improved since the beginning of the year. I know that isn't at the top of most State Standards checklists, but it does help when a student can concentrate on coloring and then apply those details and descriptions to their writing.

My students were so involved with this activity! I know some teachers will know what I mean when I say I am so proud of their cutting skills!

I didn't edit any of the writing. They read what they wrote to their table buddies and I displayed all of their work.

Yes, this is such an improvement over what was done at the beginning of this year. And this child was so proud of her work! She cut around the lines, and colored with pizazz! She was following directions until she came to the mittens!

You can see the chart paper here. I say to use two sheets of construction paper and let students cut the corners to make a circle. We were out of white art paper and bulletin board paper, so I improvised and I really like this! I think I like the chart paper the best. It isn't too heavy for hanging and students loved writing on the chart paper.

Can you tell how focused my little ESL guy is? He didn't even realize I was taking a picture. I think coloring gives ESL Kinders a sense of accomplishment. They are trying so hard to learn English and may feel behind the others. A coloring project like this really gives them a chance to soar to the top of the class. 

I love my students faces when they are involved with a project. I took about 40 pictures, and could look at them all day! 

If you are interested in Winter themed activities for ELA and Math, the Winter Math and ELA Printable Packet contains 135 pages of ELA and Math printables. I like to call them processing sheets.... all engage students!  There is measurement, Emergent Readers, a Counting Book, writing, Artic Animals.... and of course the snowman!

Thanks as always for visiting my blog! I hope you enjoy looking through my students pictures. I am so proud of them! (I have to add one more of their snowmen!)

Okay, that's it! Thanks for being patient with all my pictures!