Our First Week Together!
Welcome to Kindergarten!
Hello Lovely Kinder Families,
Our class had an AMAZING 1st week of school!
This week we have been learning about each other, about our school, and about how our days will go in kindergarten this year. So far our class has already taught ME that they are curious, brave, loving and playful! And so SMART!
Let me walk you through a typical day in kindergarten...
Morning Meeting (8:00-8:30am)
We start each day with our Morning Meeting which consists of 4 main components: a Greeting, Community Building Activity, Morning Message, and Sharing. During this time we work on strengthening our community, practicing our listening and speaking skills, and also squeeze in some very important academic skills like counting, reading, and phonemic awareness! This week our class practiced learning and saying each others names, playing games to get to know one other better, and singing songs and rhymes together. We have even practiced using our "strong reading muscles" (our eyes!) to read a message and our daily schedule every day! We also do some kind of movement activity at the end of Morning Meeting like stretching, a movement songs like Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, or our favorite - a dance video from GoNoodle.com (pictured below)!
Community Building/ Norms (8:30-9:00am)
This first week of school we have done a lot of work around community building and establishing classroom norms or expectations in the morning time. We are aiming to establish a sense of belonging, security, trust, and high expectations for all students in our classroom. We have talked about how we can be safe, be kind, and always try our best while at school (and at home)! During this time we have read books such as Howard B. Wiggle Bottom Learns to Listen by Howard Binkow, The Day My Mom Came to Kindergarten by Maureen Fergus, or Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. We use these books to discuss what kinds of behaviors are or are not appropriate for our classroom. We also might do activities like "Teamwork Towers" during this time of the day, in which students are asked to practice working together to build something or solve a problem.
Project Time (9:00-9:45am)
Everyday we will have some kind of work to do for our current project. Regularly this work will involve writing, but it also often integrates other academic areas including reading, an art activity, science, math or some kind of social studies. This week since our main focus is getting to know one another, our project work reflected that theme as well. We spend time reading stories that celebrated individuality such as I Like Myself by Karen Beaumont, The Family Book by Todd Parr, and My Map Book by Sara Fanelli. For project work this week we drew self portraits, discussed and wrote about our families, and mapped out our own hearts and the things that fill us with joy. We also discussed the kinds of words that make us feel sad and the kinds of words that make us feel good: Happy Heart Words! We will have a display of our Happy Heart Words in class soon.
Snack and Recess (9:45-10:20am)
This is the 1st snack and recess time of our day. We eat some healthy snacks first, then we get some time to play on our playground. It may just look like child's play to some, but we are working on some very important things during this time! We are building connections, working on problem solving and improving our social skills as we play!
Reading Workshop (10:20-10:45am)
Our class follows the Lucy Calkins Reading Workshop model in which everyday we engage in a mini lesson, then get lots of time to practice reading, and finally we wrap-up with a time to share our learning. We may read independently, with a partner, or with a teacher at times in small groups or conferences. The very first unit of our reading workshop is titled "We Are Readers!" and it is all about fostering the desire, identity, and belief within our students that they are in fact already readers! We will regularly incorporate project-related reading and skills into this time as well.
Math Workshop (10:45-11:10am)
Our math workshop time runs in a similar fashion as our reading workshop, in which we start with a mini lesson, then get time to practice the skills we are learning, and then come back together at the end of our time together to share our learning. We use a lot of manipulatives during math workshop time. Currently we are exploring how we can use them safely, how we can sort them and how we can count them.
Lunch (11:15-11:45am)
The favorite part of the day for many students! We practice our independence (with some support ;) we practice good eating habits and manners, and we practice good conversations!
Read Aloud/Quiet Time (11:50-12:10pm)
During Read Aloud time students get to enjoy listening to engaging, often beautifully written, and sometimes hilarious stories read to them. And they may not realize it, but the students are also learning some important concepts about print, the elements of a story, and practicing their comprehension skills. At the beginning of the year we are also taking some time after our story to rest and recuperate!
Writer's Workshop (12:10-12:40pm)
We have another workshop style part of our day when we work on writing. We have started exploring the joys of book making and have been making our own stories! At this point most kinders in our class are "approximating what they perceive to be adult writing" (read more about this here) and we encourage any and all efforts at this stage! Our students often can show more of what they know through drawing pictures or oral storytelling at this point, but we will challenge them to make their best efforts in independent writing this year!
Exploration Activities (12:40-1:00pm)
This is another favorite part of the day for many of our students! This again may just look like some good old fashioned loosely structured play-time (and it is!) but there is a lot more going on beneath the surface here! I recommend reading this article to learn more about the benefits of play (both independent and guided) and this one to see how you can play more at home. These are just two of the many articles out there that help explain why we believe so strongly in play!
Engineering Class with Ms. Zoe (1:00-1:45pm)
Twice a week on Monday and Tuesday we get to go to Exploratory class, and this trimester we have Ms. Zoe for Engineering! In Engineering this year students will work on designing solutions, being creative and using teamwork to solve authentic problems.
Snack and Recess (1:45-2:15pm)
Another break for us to eat and have some play time!
Reflection and Dismissal (2:15-2:30pm)
Finally at the end of the day we have a reflection circle when we share our favorite part of the day, or our challenges and our successes!
Whew! We have done a lot already in just one week huh?!
Our kinders are already building friendships, getting more comfortable with their classroom and school surroundings, and starting to challenge themselves! I am so proud of them and can't wait to see what next week has in store for us!
With Love,
Ms. Jeanine
