Class Grade Book

 As a kindergarten teacher for nine years, I never needed a grade book.

 

At least not the kind of grade book that teachers of older grades needed.

 

In kindergarten, my assessments were usually checklists based on standards or skills.

 

So when I found out I was moving to first grade, I knew I would need a grade book.

 

I also knew that I wanted a cute/functional one.

 

My county does use an online program to record and average grades, but we're required to keep a hard copy; just in case.

 

I wasn't crazy about my options for a commercially printed grade book.

 

So I decided to make my own.

 

 

Here is the cover of my new grade book.

 

I purposely used a graphic that looked like me!

 

(Please ignore the fact that I made grade book into one word, fixing it has just not been a priority at the moment.)

 

When I started thinking about what I would want in a record book, I realized I liked the idea of using a binder best.

 

I like that a binder gave me the option to include extras in my grade book.

 

So here is a glimpse into my newest project.

 

Nothing drives me nuts more than having to keep getting up to get a pen or collecting supplies.

 

So I thought about what I would need when doing grades and included them in my binder.

 

The clear pouch came from Staples.

 

I love that it is page size.

 

Here's what's included in my plastic pouch:

• Mr. Sketch smelly stix to grade papers (grades are always better when they smell nice)
• a grade slide card thing (I don't know the actual name)
• two pens for recording grades
• whiteout (not pictured, I didn't realize I needed to include a dry whiteout until last week)

 

I love that everything I need is right inside my binder.  So I can just grab it and get down to business.

Labels make everything better.

 

Don't you think?

 

I made divider pages for all of my subject areas, plus attendance; and then made little tabs so that I could find each subject quickly.

 

The actual tabs were made with Post-it Tabs. 

Click here to see the ones I used.

 

And then I used my electronic label maker to print the titles of each tab.

Click here to see my label maker.  It's awesome!

Here's a little walk through of my grade book pages.



I purposely took these pictures before I really started taking a lot of grades.

 

Since taking these pictures, we've been in school for 24 days and have already sent home our 4.5 week progress reports.  So there are plenty of grades in my grade book now.

We teach our science and social studies topics through reading. 

 

So these are all the subject areas that I'm responsible for.

 

A random idea I thought of yesterday...

Record grades in grade book.

Then record grades in online grade book.

After an assessment has been recorded online, highlight the assessment title.

 

This just helps me know what is what, and what I still need to enter online. 

(That was a lot of whats)

I also added some fun brightly colored notebook paper to the back.  Got this pack from Walmart.

I just loved the fun colors and thought I might need to take notes at some point.

 

Obviously I did.

Who needs boring old white paper when you can have neon!

I also added a pocket folder to my binder.

 

This way if I need to grade some papers or enter grades, I can just tuck the pages in my folder to easily keep up with them.

 

Plus this folder was just really fun!

I'm still getting used to giving actual letter grades. 

So this is my little cheat sheet.

 



Here's a version of the cover I made for my friend Dee.

 

And look!  I spelled grade book correctly!

 

If you want to check out this product in my TpT store, click here.

These are all the covers included in this set.

 

And they are editable, so just add a text box, pick a cute font, and type your name in the space at the top.

I've also included editable versions for every subject and uneditable ones.

 

The editable versions are great because you can type your kids names in the boxes and just print.

 

This way you don't have to keep writing in names over and over again.

 

And I also made a black and white version of each page in case you don't want to use up all of your color ink.

 



Kindergarten Data Packs

Each year we are asked by our principal to send assessments and data onto the next grade level.  This helps the next year's teacher get an idea of where each student left off the last year.

 

So here are our kindergarten data packs for first grade.

 

Of course I had to make us a cute cover page.

 

The border is from Graphics from the Pond and the fonts are KG Fonts.

First, we included a copy of each student's kindergarten report card.

 

A few years ago I typed up an exact copy of our report card so that we could record our data directly onto the pages during testing.  We then transfer the information to each student's report card.  This has helped in cases where a report card is lost because we will have a back up copy.

In case you're wondering, the X means the student mastered the skill.  A / would mean that the skill was not mastered.  That's why this student has so many Xs.

Then we included a copy of their last STAR Early Literacy test.

 

I've actually had these K data packs ready for a few weeks, I've just been waiting on the results of this test.

I also included an example of how far they could write to 100.

 

This page is from my 100s Chart Activities.

 

We've been using this set a lot to practice writing numbers to 100.

And then we included a writing sample.

 

After the pack were all together, I tucked each student's down into their permanent record.  Their first grade teacher will take it out at the beginning of next year.

 

Our principal wanted each student to write a 5-6 sentence paragraph, but we talked her down to 4 sentences.

 

I love this writing activity.

 

It's a sticker story from Miss Kindergarten's All Done! Now What? pack.

 

I bought the bundle last spring and loved the sticker story activity.  So I decided to use it again as our writing sample.

I bought these stickers for our sticker stories last year at Hobby Lobby, they were 50% off, and pulled them out again this year to use.

I called each student back to my reading table and let them pick out their sticker and place it in the box.

 

I actually did this part while they were eating snack.

 

Then we discussed how they could draw a picture around the sticker to show a scene.  We discussed different ideas for what they could draw around the different types of stickers.

 

Then I passed out the papers and let them color.

 

Later during centers, my assistant and I called them up one at a time to write their sticker stories.



We talked about how their sentences had to be about their picture.

Some students needed a little prompting when it came to thinking up 4 sentences about their picture, but most did great on their own and came up with some really fun stories.

This might be one of my favorites.  This little girl is the second youngest in my entire class and such a great writer.  She wrote this all on her own with no help from me.

 

Allie -

The cupcake smells good.

I made them.

You should try one.

They taste so good.

 

(She needs to be in marketing one day)

Alissa Kate -



The butterfly is in the meadow.

They are flying to their flowers.

They want to eat pollen.

Then they will play.

 



Joshua -

The elephant is in his cage.

The lion jumped out of his cage.

He tried to jump into the elephants cage.

But he didn't make it.

 

(and yes, his drawing shows a lion smacking his head into the cage)

Connor -

This is a gumball machine.

If you put money in it you will get gum.

I like bubble gum the best.

Skylar -

I went to the store.

I bought a popsicle.

I put it in my fridge

Then I ate one.

Payton -

I have candy.

They have wrappers.

The yellow ones taste like lemon.

My candy is colorful.

Shayla -

I see a giraffe.

Giraffes live in Africa.

Giraffes eat leaves.

I like giraffes because they have tall necks.

Kylie -

I like ice cream.

Cookie dough is my favorite.

This is an ice cream truck.

You can buy ice cream there.

 

Dominic -

I want to eat ice cream.

Chocolate is my favorite.

I like sprinkles on top.

Ice cream tastes good.

 

These turned out so well that I made a copy to include in my K data pack and then put the original in their Year End Books.

 



Kindergarten Assessments - Halfway through the Year

Back in August I did a blog post showing how I use my Kindergarten Beginning of the Year Assessment to determine where my incoming kindergarteners stand in different academic skills.

 

At the beginning of the year, my kindergarten team and I give this assessment to all incoming kindergarteners.  That way we can get a snapshot as to what skills each student has mastered and which need some more work.

 

So when it came time for our winter conferences, instead of reinventing the wheel, I decided to pull these assessments out and reassess my students on skills that they missed at the beginning of the year, just to see how far they've come.

 

Click here to see my full blog post about these assessments.

 

Oh and did I mention it's a freebie in my TpT store?

 

I used a different color marker this time (blue was used in August, purple in January) so that the parents and myself could see their child's growth in each area, or lack-thereof.

 

The kids were so excited to see how much they had improved during the first half of the school year!

This sweet girl is struggling to count to 100, but can recognize all the numbers to 20.  Go figure!

 

She has made so much progress, still has a long way to go, but is improving!

 

Aug - counted to 3

Jan - counted to 12

 

Aug - wrote numbers to 1

Jan - wrote numbers to 10

 

Aug - could not touch and count objects to 10

Jan - was able to touch and count objects to 10

 

Lots of progress going on here!

 

And it makes such a difference when you see the 2 assessments together on one page, as opposed to flipping back and forth between 2 different ones.

Here's where things got really good!

 

Aug - recognized 2 letters

Jan - recognized 43 (upper and lowercase)

 

Aug - identified 0 letter sounds

Jan - identified 14 letter sounds

 

Yay!  This little one's parents have been rocking the letters and sounds practice at home.

 

So even though this is called a "Beginning of the Year Assessment."  It is totally appropriate to use throughout the year.

 

Especially to see growth in those fundamental kindergarten skills of your struggling learners. 

 

Being able to see for myself and show the parents and child how far they've come is awesome!  And this little girl has started working so much harder because now because she has seen for herself how much she can improve!

 



This next piece to my winter conferences was a new find!

 

A student self evaluation!

 

What a neat idea!

 

My kids were hilarious filling these out; we did them one-on-one.

 

They really did try to think out each statement and they didn't even try to fudge on their rating of themselves, because they knew I'd call them out!

 

This is a blog freebie from A Teachable Teacher.

Check it out here.



In August, I met with every family.  This time I only met with family's that I needed to speak with, if you catch my drift.

 

My parents really enjoyed seeing the progress that their child was making, compared with the beginning of the year, and the student self evaluations were a hit.  The parents loved them!