Bridges Student Work
Kindergarten

Here you see one of the picture problems involving 8 whales, 4 of which are hidden behind the flap with the ? mark. Beside the picture problem, Nikki drew four whales to show that four are still under water. She also knows that we can write equations, but isn’t sure how to do this yet as evidenced by her 8 + (upside down) 4 equation.

February Sea Creature Picture Problem

Nikki’s Solution to Sea Creature Problem

Below is the problem that Tristan constructed. He took an idea from one of the picture problems and embellished it. The words are written on a flap hiding six whales spouting from their blowholes. Beside it, you can see how Nikki solved this problem by showing six tally marks and her attempt at an equation, 3 + 3 6.

Tristan’s Picture Problem

Nikki solves Tristan’s Problem

Reed has constructed a simple addition problem. Nikki has solved this problem with an equation, picture, and tally markes. She writes 1 + 2 3, indicating three is the answer by putting star marks around it. Three tally marks below the picture show a third solution.

Reed’s Picture Problem

Nikki Solves Reed’s Problem

Now we move on to May where frogs are the theme of these harder problems. On the left is a picture problem where children divide or halve the number of eyes to get the total number of frogs. On the right you see how Nikki has confidently written the date, drawn a picture of the four frogs, written eight tally marks, and created a correct equation (without an equal sign).

April–May Frog Picture Problem

Nikki Solves the Frog Picture Problem

Tristan has written a problem involving doubling, and challenges his classmates to find how many eyes there are on 7 colored frogs. Again, we see Nikki improves her expression of ways to find the answer. She draws the seven frogs, numbers them, and then writes 14 below the picture.

Tristan’s Picture Problem

Nikki Solves the Problem

Between the end of September and mid-October, students are challenged to show if they can sort shapes. Prior to this, sorting lessons involved looking at attribute cards as part of the lesson. On the left, Gwen has sorted them in a straightforward fashion, putting them in groups of the same kind. Gwen’s technique uses the simplest of the attributes: shapes sorted by type. Beside Gwen’s you see Austin’s, showing all the shapes with straight sides “and everything else” (meaning attributes such as straight sides, number of corners, etc.) on one side and the shape with curves on the other. Austin has a more advanced understanding of attributes.

Gwen’s Assessment

Austin’s Assessment

After a few more sessions spent sorting plastic bugs in whole group lessons, students’ sorting abilities are assessed by the teacher. On the left Taylor has sorted the bugs into “No flying” and “Flying” groups, based on information he has learned in class. This is a typical response of five year olds. On the right is Tori’s work where she has sorted the bugs into six groups, along with one “Don’t know” group. She has learned to sort on a more sophisticated level.

Taylor’s Assessment

Tori’s Assessment

In addition to teacher observation, Bridges also has a collection of individual interviews and worksheets to assess student learning in counting, numeral reading and writing, sorting, patterning, shape identification, and early computation.

On the left you see that Nikki’s understanding is not always consistent in late fall. In part 1, she knew that it was ten that filled a ten frame, but had to count all the rest by ones rather than taking away from ten or counting on from five. With the larger quantities in part 2 she didn’t use a consistent method to determine the total. However, this does show that Nikki has a repertoire of counting skills to draw upon. On the right, you can see that by winter she has developed much more sophisticated strategies.

Nikki’s Interview Part I

Nikki’s Interview Part 2

As you see on the left, Andy’s one-to-one correspondence skills are never in doubt, and his geometry assessment shows an interesting combination of using attributes along with descriptions rooted in how things “look.” On the determining quantities assessments he shows his instant command of quantities in visual models.

Andy’s Interview Part I

Andy’s Interview Part 2