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Work to the Beat



I am so thankful for the wisdom and knowledge of friends! Emily struggles with focusing on her school work. I can't believe the skills that kindergarteners are working on these day!!!!!!! WOW! I know that some of the words she needs to know are words that I was doing in the first and second grades. I have a close teacher friend who suggested I get Emily a metronome to practice her sight words with. We tried it this afternoon. I think we have the answer. She did better on her sight words than she has EVER done!!!!!!! My friend said that it helps some children to focus on their work. Have you ever heard of such?

Comments

Amy said…
hi laurie! that's a great idea!! i used to teach Kindergarten and that was one of the strategies we used for some of our kiddos. also (some unsolicited advice:)) we would suggest that parents print out the sight words (or use the flashcards that we sent home) and tape them different places in the house as "passwords" for instance, put one on her door frame and it is the password to enter into the room. she must read the word to do so. you can even put a different word on the opposite side and it's the password to exit. try taping them to her bathroom mirror for her to see while she brushes her teeth. or tape one beside her toothbrush that she has to read before she can brush. Also, making up songs helped some kids, too. here is the list of tunes that we used in case you're interested:

2 letters - If you're happy and you know it
3 letters - 3 blind mice
4 letters - My Darling Clementine
5+ letters - Bingo

2 - If you want to spell is say i - s (i-s) if you want to spell is say i-s

3- a-n-d, a-n-d that spells and, that spells and, a-n-d spells and, and

4- t-h-e-y t-h-e-y, t-h-e-y spells they, t-h-e-y t-h-e-y, t-h-e-y spells they

5- There is a word that we know and their is the word- o t-h-e-i-r

sorry this got so lengthy! emily will get the hang of it - kindergarten is hard work! :)
Unknown said…
I taught first grade for seven years and last year when my son was is kindergarten I thought it was like first grade. I taught at the same school and had only been away from teaching for three years. This year first grade is tough, our spelling words this week included exercise and medicine!
dj said…
I need to get one of those for my Kindergartener! And, thank you to Amy for posting those songs! Can't wait to try all the advice!!! :-)
Alyssa said…
Sounds interesting! Maybe it will work for my 12 year old! She has ADHD (unmedicated) and she loses focus so easily.

Emily will get the hang of it. It takes time for them to get used to spending so much time focusing on work instead of play. Geez, when I was in K, it was pretty much watch the Letter People (remember them?), snack and play time. Now they expect them to read by mid-year!
merlin said…
I don't agree with the pressure put on these little kids, it sets them up to fail, feel shame and not like school. What happened with painting, socializing and learning your abc's in kindergarten. I would probably homeschool if I was doing it again, I'd just opt out of the one-size-fits-all system.
merlin said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tara G. said…
I have never heard of using one for reading, but I can see how that makes sense! Maybe she is just more auditory than visual and you'll have to focus on reviewing in those ways at home to meet her need there. If you ever want some supplementary materials, Sonlight has some great little beginning readers that are funny- it's a set of 27 in the kindergarten core. My son has enjoyed the Explode the Code workbooks.
Kim said…
This makes me very happy! Yay! :)
Wow... I'm going to try that with my son who has adhd! Thanks for sharing!
Laura Burciaga said…
I used to teach elementary school and I have not heard that idea! But whatever works! For kindergartners we did snap or clap out the letters, say them in silly voices, , write them in shaving cream, etc, anything to make it fun!
The changes are due to the increased rigor with the implementation of Common Core into the lower grades that started this year. I think my second grader's work is hard! He missed a context vocab word from a story "forlorn" which he was expected to figure out from context at age 7 on a test!

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