Worksampling

Today I purposefully set out several fine motor activities.  In order to be a great ” cutter ” children need practice and lots of it. They need to feel successful !  Today we laid out magazines and scissors.  Nathan found lots of animals and glued them on a piece of paper. We talked about that is called a collage.

Our chandelier is getting more beautiful as we add beads ( and get our small muscles ready to write in the process. )

Worksampling is an online assessment we do as we collect data from the children in the form of dictation ,pictures, videos and observations.  ( And you thought we just took all those pictures for you… right ?  )   Three times a year we finalize our findings so they can be aggregated  for all funded preschool programs in Arkansas.  They use this data to validate whether our work is beneficial .  We can also use this data as teachers to see what we might be missing ” teaching ” or giving children the opportunity to learn.  We have a finalization due in about two weeks and last night I was completing a   preliminary  checklist.  What I determined was that even though I know there are things we do doesn’t mean that I know if every child is proficient at it.  Today I played a game with the littles to listen for their ability to rhyme.  As I suspected my older children that are going into kindergarten could rhyme simple words . None of my younger students can rhyme yet.

Rhyming is a pre-reading skill.  There are fun easy games you can play with your child without materials .  As you are driving  say ” we are going to play the rhyming game.  I will see something and name it.  You find a word that rhymes with the word I use.  SIGN ! The child could come up with words like dine, wine, fine.  Using nonsense words is fine ! It means they are catching on.  Another game you could play is I spy…. I spy something in this room that rhymes with stamp ( lamp ) or bug ( Rug)  The possibilities are endless.  Also, reading rhyming books is very important !  READ READ READ !