Ep 10: Should There Be Homework in Kindergarten?

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I'm not the biggest fan of homework, especially for young kids, but you might find yourself

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in a situation where your admin is requiring you to assign homework.

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So this is a little workaround I thought of that I much prefer to traditional paper pencil

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homework.

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Hello, and welcome to Making Number Sense Makes Sense, a podcast for elementary teachers,

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specifically early elementary teachers, looking to really make an impact in the number sense

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of their students.

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I think my biggest issue with homework is if their students are not given any choice

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and it's not meaningful and it's not something that they are, that it's fun, you're going

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to get kids who are not doing it.

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So you're having to spend all of this time preparing this homework that kids don't do

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unless it's for a grade and then it feels like something else they have to do instead

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of something that they are doing to support what they're learning in class.

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So this is a little workaround I created to still be assigning quote unquote homework

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but make it feel more fun and less like a chore.

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So my solution to the homework conundrum, it's kind of a play based approach to homework.

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So what I'm thinking is I really want my families to enjoy their time after school, like you

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don't have to keep doing more school once you're out of school.

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But I want them to have fun with what they're doing.

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So I really wanted the quote unquote homework I was assigning to be fun.

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So what I did is I created a set of games that kids can use, kids and families can use

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at home and that would be their homework, play one of these math games.

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And in this handout that I gave my families, I let them know kind of why I was giving them

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this kind of homework versus something traditional like a worksheet.

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And I understand that not every family will be able to spend the time because of their

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work schedules or other time constraints.

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But I wanted the option to be there if they got a minute here or there to be able to use

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these.

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So in the description letter, I sent home to families basically saying like this is what

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we're doing this year.

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And these are some ideas for how to differentiate.

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Now I don't like getting too into the weeds and that kind of thing.

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But you know, there's there's families who are like, oh, you know, this is too challenging

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for my child or this is too easy for my child.

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So I tried to give them ideas of how to make it easier or how to make it harder according

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to what they're seeing their kids do.

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So in this packet, there are 36 games that are aligned to the common core standards.

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But to be honest with you, most of the standards are pretty similar in all states across the

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United States.

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So even though these are common core aligned, most of your standards will be hit in them

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even if you're not using common core in your state.

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So there was the family family letter and this does require some prep.

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I'm not going to lie to you, it did require some prep to get everything kind of laminated,

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but you don't necessarily need to cut everything out yourself.

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And with our beginning of the year Amazon money, I had purchased some dice and playing

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cards for my students and then they could just use those all year.

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So they needed the set of games, dice and cards.

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And that was it.

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So included in here, I had number tracks within without dice.

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Five frames, 10 frames, hundreds chart, numeral cards, 10 frame cards, shape cards, a graphing

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chart, comparison T charts and a board game, as well as a tracking system they could use

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to see how many games are playing and so they can rate their favorite ones.

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So like I said before, most of these games had a harder option and an easier option for

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my students and everything was in English and Spanish because I taught Spanish immersion.

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Half of my students come from Spanish speaking families and the other half of my students

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come from non Spanish speaking families, usually English.

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So that way all families, most of my families could access this information because it was

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in their home language already.

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So if you're curious like what kind of games were in there, I'm going to share with you

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some of the games that I put in there.

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So one of them is called Race to 100.

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So this would be for later on in the year.

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So with their playing cards, one kid would flip one card and then the grown up or so

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oiler sibling would flip over the other card right down how many they had and then flip

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over another card and add that to the previous card and keep going until one of them reached

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100.

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Another game I had was called Under the Cup, which is kind of a decomposing number game.

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So you start with a certain number like I'm going to start with, oh no, six items and

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I'm going to hide some of them under a cup or under my hand and then the other ones are

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outside so they have to figure out how many am I hiding.

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I also had some ideas for kind of more movement games.

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So like these are all these number cards, a family could kind of hide them around the

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house or put them in different places and then say to their kid, all right, I need you

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to go find me the number seven and go find the number seven and bring it back or be like,

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okay, pick the number eight, find eight Legos and bring them back to me, things like that

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to get them moving around.

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So there's kind of a game board type game.

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There was number writing games, sorting games, number writing games, shape games, graphing

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games, that kind of thing, so that they were kind of really hitting on all of the standards

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that you might see in the common core in a fun way.

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So that kind of my work around to homework, making it be more game like and play.

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So if this has sparked any ideas for you, I would love to hear it.

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And if you would like to see exactly what I'm talking about on what my game set looks

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like, I will have that linked down below for you.

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Thanks for listening and I will see you next time.

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