Monitoring Self-Portrait & Name Writing Progress for Pre-K Students

First, I would like to thank you all for the amazing response to last week's post, my classroom virtual tour.  I must say I have been incredibly humbled and appreciative of the kind feedback.  Hearing how you plan to use my ideas in your own classrooms makes all my efforts worthwhile.  There are a lot of great teachers out there and it's been wonderful to hear from you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!! 

And now for my apologies....between my 6 year-old’s birthday celebration and presenting at the State Speech and Hearing Conference, last week really got away from me.  No regrets though!  You only celebrate a sixth birthday once and the KSHA conference was outstanding.  I was honored to be invited to present and meet so many passionate SLPs. 

That said, like many working mothers out there, I over committed last week.  Frankly, six years into this dual mother/teacher role, I still struggle to find balance between my professional passions and family commitments. As a result, my plans for this week's post have changed.  I had planned to share how direct instruction is set up and operates in my classroom. 

Instead, this week I will share a simpler (less time-consuming) tip I discovered while monitoring and managing progress of student's self-portrait drawings.  As you may remember, last winter I shared how we break up drawing ourselves into steps via a visual task analysis.  Essentially, we have the students draw themselves each month and track their progress by hanging the drawings in page protectors above our library center.  By adding a signature box on the self-portrait template, you can also use this strategy to track progress of name writing.  

Teacher's Template:  You can access my self-portrait template here.  The smiley face inside the signature box is a visual to help the kids know where to start printing their name.  This feature came from Handwriting without Tears.  (Note: In the examples below, I have cropped out the children’s names.)

Here's the update I made this year.  Before I ask the students to draw a body part, I model it on my own paper.  Each body part is drawn in a different color, so we can accurately gage progress or share specific interpretations with parents and staff. I simply staple my copy to the back of the students' copy.  Take a look at the provided examples.

Even at the lowest student drawing level, do you see the resemblance between my model and the student's multi-colored model?? 

I used to have the students draw in one color and then write on their drawing the names of the each body part. That method took more time and didn't communicate each month's progress as effectively.

Last year's method

The new color-coded approach has worked much better.  As my students get better at drawing themselves, I will change it up and model drawing two or three body parts in one color. Then, I'll ask them to draw those two or three body parts all at once.  It will show their improvement in following two and three step directions, as well as monitor their drawing progress.  

Our ultimate goal is to have an adult draw an entire body self-portrait then have the students draw their own independently at their desks.  It may take quite some time to get to this point, but at least we can monitor their monthly progress.  As you all know, in this field it's important to celebrate the small steps! 

(Extra Credit: While drafting this post, I also realized you could use the same concept when the students practice writing their names by using a different color marker or pencil for each letter.)
 

Thanks for visiting this week.  Stay tuned for next week's post when I'll show you how we work on improving fine motor, attention, writing skills and so much more through direct instruction as I love the way it is set up this year and I think you'll enjoy it too!! 

Teaching Children to Write or Draw with "Magic Writing Tools"

It seems without fail every year I have a student or two whom completely resist writing, coloring, and drawing.  I offer the student a writing utensil and he/she throws it or folds his/her arms and shouts “NO!”.  Here are my clever solutions to getting students to accept writing &/or drawing assignments.  

My experience has been that after students get the hang of writing and become more successful, they are quick adopters.  The key is to be creative in your initial effort.  My secret is to offer students several writing utensil options like chalk, smelly markers, color wonder markers, crayon tips, and crayon rings.  

In fact, as I was cleaning up the classroom recently,  I noticed we have these materials hidden around the room for the staff's easy access.  That strategy led me to the idea of the "Magic Writing Tools".  I simply collected and placed all these special crayons, markers, and other writing utensils in an old diaper wipe container.

I have stored our toolbox near the art center (out of reach of the children but at easy access for staff!).  I am anxious to give it a whirl with next patch of anti-writing Buddy Bears!! 

Here are the contents of my Magic Writing Toolbox:

• Crayon Rings - I found mine at Target in the dollar bins for $3.00.
• Crayon Fingers (by ALEX Toys or Rose Art)  - I found mine at ALCO several years back for $7.00.
• Smelly Markers (by Sanford) - Found at any office supply or craft store.
• My First Crayon or Marker Characters (by Crayola) - Found at any discount store.
• Color Wonder Markers (by Crayola) - Found at any discount store.

Another tip that has helped our kids with learning to write and draw is using a work task designed for writing.  The one I created was based on the ideas of Kimberly Henry and her book “How Do I Teach This Kid?"  

The perfect container for this taskbox is a kid's Nike shoe box.  

It doesn’t have a lot of advertisement on it so it's not visually distracting. Plus, it has a hole on the side for kids to put their writing utensils in when they are all done.  We have used markers, character rollers, and paint pens to do this task.

Name Practice for Pre-K Students

View binders, or binders with the clear plastic covering that allow you to slide in a cover sheet, are an excellent tool for students to practice writing.

Teacher's Tip:  For students who press hard, you can hot glue
a heavy piece of cardboard or a small piece of wood inside the cover
to make the binder more sturdy.

The 2 ½ or 3-inch binder provides students with nice slant to put their hands in a good position for holding their pencil correctly.  Then, slide papers in and out of the cover pocket and have the children write on them using dry erase markers or crayons.  Dry erase crayons are a newer item that can be found at any craft or department store or at Crayola.com. 

Instructor's Insight: When you use dry erase crayons you have the option to break them down into smaller pieces  so that students have to hold them with the correct pencil grip because they are so small.

For another use for "Crayon Nubbins, check out the previous "Literacy Workbox" post.

The "Green for Go. Red For Stop." hand-writing form will assist students with writing names using the green line as the starting point and the red line as the stopping point.  Click here for the template.

Last year with my students headed into kindergarten, I used this idea for the students to practice writing their names.  I would pre-write the student's name with a yellow highlighter and then have the student trace the writing at direct instruction in the binder Monday through Wednesday.  Finally on Thursdays, our student's last day of school for the week, I would have them write on the actual page.  

This procedure saved paper but also helped show progress because we had weekly documentation of the student's writing skills.  As the student begins getting a concept of writing his/her name, I pre-write less of the letters and have the child write from memory with dots to show them where to start.  (Refer to "Susie's" provided example above.)

Task Box Countdown: Task Box # 8 - Drawing a Self-Portrait

Each month my students draw self-portraits to demonstrate their handwriting and problem solving skills development.  We hang them in slicker sheets above the direct instruction table and share them with parents at parent-teacher conferences & IEP meetings.  

After each month’s drawing, we slip the students' work into the front of the slicker sheet so their most current work is displayed.  We also pass them along to the students’ next teacher when they transition to kindergarten. 

To support their progress and provide them with the same consistent visuals each month, I created a series of eight step-by-step cards.  The visuals give the students a starting place to work from because most of our students do not have the thought process to even begin drawing themselves.  The goal is that the visuals are no longer needed by the time they leave our program.  We use the technique of Mat Man from the Handwriting without Tears   program to narrate the process of drawing of self-portraits.  This allows us to use the same verbal prompts each month.  

Self-Portrait Instruction Series 

Step 1:  Make a mat for your body.

Step 2:  Add a circle head on top of the mat.

Step 3:  Add a face on the head (little curve mouth,
ears, eyes, and nose). What else can you add to your face?

Step 4:  Add two big lines for arms.

Step 5:  Add little lines for hands & fingers.

Step 6:  Add 2 big lines for legs.

Step 7:  Add 2 little lines for feet.

Step 8:  Add personal touches - hair, shirt designs,
eyebrows, shoes, etc.      

Teacher's tip:  Have students write their names in a rectangle box at the top of the page each month to track handwriting progress too. 

Brown Bear Showing Progress Activity

With Parent-Teacher Conferences just around the corner, here's a neat little activity I created to demonstrate student progress.  

At the beginning of the year, we did a "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" unit.  We started making a Brown Bear book from MakingLearningFun.com.  Instead of doing the book every day until it was complete, we colored one page each week.  This timeline allows us to focus on the student's progress regarding attending to task and coloring in the lines.  

Each week we model how to color the page and then prompt “fill in the space”.  This is a prompt our Occupational Therapist suggested and it really works well. It trains the children to be aware and look at their paper as they color.  My paras and I write a comment on the back of each coloring page describing how the child colored that day. For example, “Joe resisted coloring. He needed hand-over-hand support” or “Susie found the color she needed and colored the page independently.”   

This is the colored image completed during Week 5.

This week the children are finishing up their books.  WOW... have we seen progress!  Each child is at their own level. Some students have learned to sit at the table and color for the duration of the activity. Others have made significant progress in "filling in the space".  See one child’s progress below.

The three pages above demonstrate the student's progress from Week 1 - Week 3.

The three pages above demonstrate the student's progress from Week 3 - Week 5.

Each child’s book will be put together and stapled to give to his/her parent at conferences. 

Assembled booklet given to student's parent during Parent-Teacher Conferences.

This activity is a great way to start a conversation with parents about student progress and needs. It also serves as a take-home activity for children to review basic colors and practice early literacy concepts like reading color words and tracking from left to right.