Create...we are at the top of the ladder now!

The final level of Bloom's Taxonomy in the Kindergarten classroom has to be the most challenging. The whole process, climbing all the rungs of the ladder has taken us quite a while. I needed my students to create a project to show that he or she knows and can use the material I have attemped to teach effectively. As a whole class our project was going to be a letter chain, below are the steps we used to get to the final product.

1) We had to choose 10 letters from our sound farm, write each on on a piece of paper and and glue each on a different link of our letter chains.

2)This took lots of time and admittingly, sometimes it was complete chaos!

3)Upon completion of the letter chains, they needed to find a partner and guide their partner through their letter chain while their partner told them the name of each letter and the sound that it makes. They were advised to correct their partner if they made an error. They were being the teachers.

4)Next we pulled in our beloved Smartboard to take the learning further. The students use the magnet board on our Smartboard to pull up each letter on their letter chain and point to it while the class gave the correct answers. This was completed in both whole class setting and smaller groups for students who did require extra practice.

5)The final product and some final thoughts...Was Bloom's easy to implement in the Kindergarten classroom? Yes and no, it took me a while to get my head wrapped around it and it was not easy to find information about Bloom's in Kindergarten on the internet. Once I was able to take the time to sit down and combine it with what I am already doing in class it did come together easily. Do I see Bloom's Taxonomy as a useful tool in the Kindergarten classroom. Yes, I believe much of my teaching is on the first two levels, knowledge and comprehension and I needed to be pushed to take it to a higher level. Will I implement Bloom's into all lessons in my classroom? No, there are some basic areas in Kindergarten that require basic knowledge learning, but there are areas where Bloom's can and will be utilized.