Kindergartener bored.. suggestions?

She's bored. And she's getting into trouble a lot. She gets in trouble for talking in class. I asked her what the teacher was doing while she was talking and I get these:

Math
Phonics
Shapes

Specifically, she knows her numbers easily up to 40 and I just never asked after that. She knows all her letter sounds and can spell some 3 letter words and 4 letter words (yes, I think she needs more work on spelling and reading). She knows her shapes up to octogons.

So all the bad notes we get home is when they are teaching 1-5 and now its 6-10 in numbers. I tell her she has to be quiet and listen. She says it makes her sleepy. She can take a picture of 10 buttons (6 black and 4 white) and tell you its 10, write the number - and that's the assignment, but then she'll pull out the black and white and say 6 of this and 4 of those then tell you 6 and 4 makes up 10. and then she'll separate the big and little buttons in the picture both as a combo and then by their colors and count them. 4 little and 2 big black buttons is 6 buttons and 2 little and 2 big buttons is 4 white buttons. And 6 total little and 4 total big ones of both colors is 10.

Math is getting her into trouble more than the others.

What can I do to keep her invovled?

She tries so hard but gets bored. She looks exhausted when I ask what happened. She loves school and the science parts excite her as well as reading and writing but the math parts she struggles with. Tells me math is hard for her to be still. "but mama I try so hard, i just can't though"

I don't want her to give up math. Currently they are working on 6-10 as numbers, counting objects and identifying what is bigger physically and by quantities.

Any suggestions?

Re: Kindergartener bored.. suggestions?

I would email your teacher and ask if they differentiate. Our school does this and what it is, is they see where your kid is in relation to the rest of the class. So if your child knows up to 40 they pair her with other children who do too and then give them harder work to keep them interested. It has been a huge turn around for my son. He too loves math and could do the exact same as your DD and was getting in trouble for it too. I told his teacher that he was board. He knew what she was teaching already and asked for additional math work for him.

Re: Kindergartener bored.. suggestions?

I would ask the teacher for additional work or maybe offer to bring in a harder math workbook so when she finishes her assignment, she can take out her math workbook and do extra work in that. I haven't taught in a couple of years, but when I was teaching, we always let this kids do that. If they could prove they knew it- by doing the assignment correctly, then they could move onto more challenging things or fun activities related to what we were doing for the remainder of the time.

Re: Kindergartener bored.. suggestions?

It's only the beginning and the first few months are always really easy and slow. Is she reading well? Doing addition/subtraction? If not, she won't be bored for long. If so, then you have a bigger problem. My DS was bored the entire year last year (in K) and, frankly, learned nothing. And yes, we didn't have behavior issues but, he never paid attention to the teacher at all I think and he still got 100% on all the work. I didn't want to be *that* mom so I didn't push too much. In hindsight, I should have. And, I won't make that mistake this year in First. I am waiting for the "review" time period to be over though. So, I would say by end of October if this isn't getting any better I would have a talk with the teacher and see what she could do. I would suggest working with your DD at home and bringing in the work she is capable of to show the teacher the gap between what she is doing in school and the level she is at. Differentiation is great but, it doesn't always happen in practice and it depends on a lot of factors - how many of the kids in the class are at or near her level? and how good is the teacher? for starters...

HTH and Good luck

Message edited 9/25/2013 9:44:39 PM.

Re: Kindergartener bored.. suggestions?

It's the beginning of the school year. Some of it is review for a lot of kids and they do get bored. However, they need to learn to pay attention. In life there are going to be times when you are bored and but you still need to behave appropriately. I think this is a good time to focus on that lesson. Talk to her about things she can do when she is bored and tactics to focus.

Re: Kindergartener bored.. suggestions?

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Message edited 9/26/2013 11:50:21 AM.

Re: Kindergartener bored.. suggestions?

Message edited 9/26/2013 12:41:19 PM.

Re: Kindergartener bored.. suggestions?

Kindergartener bored.. suggestions?

all great advice.. so I spoke with the teacher.

She says AJ is bored in math and she has let her work 'ahead' and that yes, she sees that 'ahead' isn't enough but she'll be working with her more in a few weeks (they are taking 5 kids out of her class to reduce the class size to 20). She loves that AJ participates but she's a little too fast to answer the questions in math. So she wanders. But yes, she too agreed that giving her more challange is a good idea and something she's working on.

The OTHER news is she is ALSO a chatterbox during carpet time. I asked what happens then and she says really its just story time and we talk about things. I asked if AJ participates and she says yes but gets bored when the point is understood by her.

I agree 1000000% she needs to learn to settle down. I'm not saying I lecture her but we take those notes seriously when we get them. She looks so defeated and I wonder if there's too much importance put in those rankings, but at the same time she needs to learn this isn't Montessori where she can do as she pleases. She HAS to sit and listen (life is tough).

Today I asked that if she gets bored at carpet time to count the number of kids in red, blue, yellow and green shirts and report back to me (that was before I spoke to the teacher).

I know its early but I want to nip this in the butt. Teacher has been very good to work with so far and I am hoping when the class shrinks she'll be able to do more with the kids in the class.

Re: Kindergartener bored.. suggestions?

DS is the youngest in his class by 3 months. He was more than academically ready for K. He has been counting to 100 and recognizing the numbers since 3.5, has been reading books for about 6 months and can do simple math. He's at least at the reading level that they want all kids to be at by the end of the year. He's not acting out in class, but when we had the open house at school a few weeks ago, the teacher said he was spacing out at times and she really needed to pull him back in. He has told me that some of the things are boring. He also says he finishes his work first. I've really tried to stress how important it is to pay attention. He seems to have improved since our talks.

He hasn't had any behavior problems yet. His school does a behavior chart for all of the kids. We get a calendar sent home every day with each day colored in. Everyone starts the day on green, yellow and red are indications of behavioral issues that day and blue and purple are for doing well all day. I like this because at least I know a little bit about how he's behaving during the day. DS has always gotten at least green, but we really praise him when he gets a blue or purple. Since our talks about paying attention, he has been getting blue and purple more often. I'd talk to your DD about how important it is to pay attention and that she may miss something if she's talking.

DS's class is small (only 14), which is nice. According to the teacher, they do a lot of small group work. We have our first parent teacher conference in a month. I want to see how he's doing at that point. If he seems bored, I'm going to ask that he be given extra work to do. Right now, he loves homework. I want him to continue to enjoy learning and not be bored. I think it's just as important for teachers to engage the kids who are ahead as the kids who need to meet the goals.

With math, can they work on simple addition or subtraction with her? Are there any small groups or different worksheets to give her? Good luck! I hope you're able to find things that work for your DD.

Re: Kindergartener bored.. suggestions?

Crashing, Im a 3rd grade teacher.
She should be able to have math groups because there must be other children at your daughter's level. If the teacher feels that your daughter is way ahead of the rest of the class, and you feel she is mature, you could look into skipping a grade. I know people hate to do that, but the problem with boredom is a smart kid doesn't feel inspired by school. And over time doesn't try enough, so that when it does get hard, they can't do it because they've lost that drive to try. I'm not sure if that is the case, I'm sure many Kindergartners know their numbers and can already read, but the teacher could fill you in.

ETA: More work, especially more worksheets, should not be the answer. It will kill their creativity. Try to push for differentiated lessons. I know it's hard for her to manage 20-25 kids, but maybe there are assistants, push in teachers, or student teachers to help with small groups.

Message edited 9/28/2013 9:17:11 AM.

Re: Kindergartener bored.. suggestions?

Re: Kindergartener bored.. suggestions?