Top Banana's

I am super thrilled to share with you how my class has been doing with Marsha over at A Differentiated Kindergarten's Top Banana Alphabet Recognition System! I bought it over the summer and am so glad I did! I have been honestly amazed at how awesome it is. I started a few weeks after school started, and the first week I tested I had 2 students earn Top Banana. Now to earn a Top Banana Award, the student must identify all uppercase and lowercase letters AND produce the sound of each letter. They must produce long and short sounds for all vowels to get a banana on the tree! 

Boy was it magical after the first ones got their banana's. The following week, I had 4 students earn top banana. And my favorite thing was that one little boy came into kindergarten knowing none of his letters. He earned Top Banana the 2nd week I tested, of course he was motivated by my telling the class WHEN we all earn a Top Banana, I will provide the class with a banana split party. He went home every night and worked on his letters and sounds and was able to get it. He had already made progress from the beginning of the year, but once I introduced Top Banana. He exploded!

So the 3rd week, I had two more students earn their banana's. By now 90% of my class knows all the letters uppercase and lowercase, but are struggling with vowel sounds. So we work on it all day long. 

The 4th week, I had 5 earn bananas! I am thrilled, I test during rest time, and sadly the students don't really rest because every time a student get's his/her Top Banana, I start banging on the table and the students start cheering and clapping for the student!

A big thank you to our art teacher who took a piece of clip-art that I found and recreated it on a poster board for me.

So head on over to Marsha's TPT store and check out Top Banana's!