Morning Work
We start our day writing our names. First we trace over our typed name, then we trace over the dotted name, and finally we write it by ourselves. The kinders are getting better at doing this. They really enjoys Fridays which is when I put out the scented markers.
Miri loves to write her full name every day on the last line.
Maddy is doing a great job writing her name.
Look at all the focused kinders writing their names.
Gio and Abigail are hard at work writing their names.
Read to Self
After writing our names, we "Read to Self" at the carpet area. The kids know that they can read a book by looking at the pictures, reading the words, or discussing the story. They are getting better with their reading stamina and can sit for longer periods of time with a book.
S. is enjoying her book. Look at that smile.
Jeiden likes his book.
Evan chose a fun book.
Garrett likes his book.
Gage is so happy when he gets to read.
Writer's Workshop
During writer's workshop I model a writing strategy and then the kids go and "write" a story based on a topic of their choice. At this point in the year, the kids are expected to draw a picture related to something they want to share. i.e. their family, a family outing etc. If they can, they try to label the picture with the beginning sound of something in their picture. Eventually they will write a sentence that starts with a capital and ends with a period.
Gio worked hard on his picture.
Jacob drew a cool picture and labeled a couple of things.
GoNoodle.com
Brain research indicates that kids cannot sit and concentrate for long periods of time and neither can adults for that matter. The age of a child can be used as an indicator of how much time they can sit and focus. What that means is that 5-6 year olds should receive a teacher focused lesson that is 5-6 minutes long and then get a brain break. We do lots of brain breaks in our classroom. Sometimes we just stretch and other times we do a 2-3 minutes GoNoodle.com video that gets our wiggles out. The kids love these short little burst of exercise and so do I.
I forgot to take a picture of "brown day" but here is one of "black day."
Today was Hannah's birthday. She is our first birthday celebration of the year.
Happy birthday Hannah!
Hannah's parents brought in a special treat. Yum!
Packing Up
Packing up for the day has got to be a teacher's least favorite time of the day. Really! Have you ever tried to get 25 kids ready to leave at once? Yep, that is what we do daily. We have procedures that we have in place, but the kids are five-six years old and things do not always go smooth. Someone always forgets where they put their lunch box or something spills all over the place or papers go flying or missing or….well you get my point. Getting 25 kids ready to go home is NOT easy. But your group of kinders actually does a pretty good job. I am so proud of them. They are pretty fast and efficient. Look at them. Don't they look so responsible?
