If there is school, there must be a test

Today I was a little late getting to school.  Traffic was awful.  So I missed what the directions were for the workshop groups.  Luckily I work with first graders and I could figure out what they were doing.

We had groups writing a story about the picture of them in their Halloween costume.  Another group was sorting words by beginning sounds, another one was doing a math paper.  The last group was writing words from the Dolch list and then writing sentences. 

When the groups finished, Ms. H  gave an evil grin.  She asked one of the mother volunteers to put up the testing screening boards and for me to put a test on each desk.

The children were going to do a state mandatory math test.  The nightmare began.  The children do not listen to directions.  They look over the boards to check their neighbour's work.  They drop pencils.  They are on the wrong page.  They try to work ahead of the directions.  This is normal for little ones.  First graders take a lot of hand holding.


Ready for the children to begin the test.

This is Ms. H’s copy of the math test.

The last page of the test. 

Later I read them a story.  The Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett is wonderfully illustrated.  There are so many things on the page to look at.  The children love books by Brett.


It was a busy hard working day.  We all felt we accomplished a lot.  The children were tired and so were the adults. 

Hey Kids, what time is it?

There are two things that are really hard for first graders to grasp, money and telling time.  Children either get it or they don't.  Today I worked one on one with the children who had trouble with worksheets on telling time.  Some of the problems they were given a time, eight thirty.  They had to draw hands on a clock and write what a digital clock would say.  Other problems they had to tell where the hands are at 1:30.  The hour hand is between  1 and 2,  the minute hand is on 6.  Then they had to tell me why the hour hand isn't on the 1.   Other problems they had to fill in the blanks on counting on a clock.  6:00 ______ 7:00 7:30____  ____. 

We had word problems that said some one took a walk at 3:00.  They walked for thirty minutes.  When did they get home?  Draw hands on the clock and put the numbers on the digital clock. That last one was really hard for many of the children.  They don't read well, so they didn't know what to do.  And most will guess before asking for help.  Once they read it with my help, most could do the word problems.  Tough day, but many of them understand time a little bit better.

I also read a book to them,  Trouble with Trolls by Jan Brett.  This woman is an incredible author and illustrator.  The detail in the pictures is wonderful.  This is the best link I could find.  It doesn't show the pages just the cover.  If you have little ones, find this book and read it to them.  Make them find the hedgehog. Talk about all the little hidden pictures.  A fun book.  Her other books are great also.