First Grade Memories

As a follow-up to our Hopes and Dreams, this is a very late post about our end-of-year memory scrapbooks...

At the beginning of the school year, we do a lot of assessing and goal setting.  We talk about our Hopes and Dreams for the year, measure reading levels, take math benchmarks and on-demand writing prompts, set goals for reading growth, and track fluency with math facts.  We also talk about how perseverance and self-control will help us reach our goals.  We read books about characters who dream big, experience set-backs, work hard, and overcome obstacles.  All of this is in an effort, to set our kiddos up for a successful year.

And then we get to work.  By mid-November, we're typically into autopilot mode; we do what we need to do, glance up at our posted "hopes and dreams," track progress periodically, and adjust as necessary.  While I analyze student data frequently as I plan, intervene, and differentiate, it's challenging to keep the kids focused on our goals; June just seems way off for little kiddos who don't have much sense of time.  When we finally reach the end of the year, I can see how much they've grown and changed, but it's harder for them to reflect on the work they've put in and the progress they've made.

This past year, we made "First Grade Reflections" scrapbooks and had a great time re-living our favorite experiences, including reveling in how much we had accomplished. We had a page to reflect on our reading growth, a page to reflect on our favorite field trips, and a page to reflect on our favorite subjects.

Students wrote caption for field trip picts.

I also took down the "Hopes and Dreams" we had posted at the beginning of the year so the kids could reflect on whether they had met their first grade goal.  Most of the kids had, but even more interesting was to see how much their drawing, writing, and thinking had evolved. Many of them found their goals funny and noticed that they wrote their names in all capital letters.




It was so exciting to see them get excited about their own growth... and hopefully it motivated them to continue setting goals, working hard, and reflecting on their progress.