First Thing Jobs ~ Check In Time

(back to pictures)

When your child enters the room (as soon as they arrive at school), they have certain jobs that need to be done as independently as possible.  These include:

• correctly hanging up their own coat and backpack in the Cubbie area
• checking their backpack for any notes from home or other items to be given to the teacher
• showing that they are here at the “Attendance & Lunch Count Chart” by turning over their crayon card and inserting the proper stick to show if they are buying hot lunch or milk only for the day
• Pocket Pals – returning the book from the day before and checking out a new one to be read to them at home, then putting their Pocket Pal envelope back in their backpack
• then they are ready to go to their table and begin on the greeting project for the morning or check the "What Can I Do?" chart for the available activities

Table Activities

A variety of simple and quick activities will be available each morning to practice skills we are working on while we wait until everyone has arrived and school begins.  These might include cut’n paste activities, journal writing, quiet “reading” of the class library books, puzzles or quiet games at the tables.  This is also a time for some to finish work not completed the day before.

Morning Meeting

When school begins, lights off means it is time to clean-up and take their seats.  A “welcome” is exchanged, and Attendance the day’s Lunch Count is taken.  The Messenger chooses a friend to take the clipboard and any notes to the Office.  Other activities at this time include:

• Pledge to the Flag
• Gathering on the floor for Schedule of the Day, Announcements
• Acknowledgement of Birthdays and Lost Teeth
• Special Person Time – In September & October we begin our STAR OF THE DAY where a different child is chosen each day.  (This has been adapted from the “Getting to Know You” name activities routine from The Building Blocks program).  We do some activities with their name and they are my Special Helper of the Day.  It is like an introduction of each other.  In November, after everyone has been the STAR, we change and have SPECIAL FRIEND OF THE WEEK when we learn more about each other.  Everyone will get a chance for a whole week of special activities.
• Morning Message - modeled writing for the children with their input while working on beginning sounds, sounding out, our Popcorn Words, and other language skills.  (It is a specific message from the teacher written by her, thinking out loud as she writes, noting specific concepts and skills, and might add a simple illustration to tie in with the words.)  During this activity the children can see that writing is our talk put down on paper, and specific skills are modeled.
• Stretch Break with action rhymes and songs and some stretches

We begin this part of our day with our Stretch Break that includes active songs and fingerplays to get us moving and ready to focus on our main instruction time in the areas of Reading Readiness, Listening, and Communication.  The teaching activities include:

• phonemic awareness activities (oral play with sounds, words, and word parts)
• Popcorn Words are high frequency and sight words we work on as we begin to build simple sentences and try our hand at practice reading, applying some of the skills we are working on.  For more on "Popcorn Words" click here.
• We might work with Environmental Print - the words and symbols on restaurants and other products that children recognize because of the symbols (McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Toys R Us).  Labeling things in our classroom is also a learning experience as we surround ourselves with print.
• Poem of the Week - We will be learning a special poem to go with our Theme, the season, holidays, or our focus letter and will be illustrating the poem page and keeping them in a special notebook.  This will become a special keepsake at the end of the year - we hope!

We will be reviewing and working with our Language and Letter skill during Learning Stations later in the morning.

Specialists

During the week the children have the opportunity to visit other places at Beacon and will be working with other staff in the areas of Library/Computers, Music, and P.E.  Out time slots are usually 30 minutes once a week.  We will be learning many specific skills in these different areas – this is a fun time for the children and they enjoy the change of scene!  In Library we will be using some of that time to work on character education/social skills and school safety skills instruction to make this time most effective for the children.  You will be kept informed of what we are doing in these areas in the weekly Newsletter.

Drinks & Snacks

After our Specialist time, we go out to Recess for 15 minutes.  When we get back to our room, we are thirsty!  At this time we will wash up, get a drink, and have a simple snack.  This is a good time to take care of bathroom needs!  (Snacks are provided from parents on a voluntary basis.  Please click here for more snack details.)

We have a morning recess and a lunch recess, so your child will be getting lots of fresh air and exercise! 

• our Letter Chart (where we chant the alphabet along with our chart as we learn letter names, sign language for the letters, and the signs for the key pictures that help us with the letter sounds – “A ~ apple ~ /ă/ /ă/ /ă/”) and other alphabet chants and songs will give us exposure to all of the letters every day.

Learning Stations are specific activities around the room that focus on Language and Math.  Many tubs with a wide variety of interesting materials will be available. 

In September we have “Center School” where we learn the correct way to get the activities, how to use them, and what to do when we are done.  Specific Guidelines will be modeled and practiced as new choices are made available.  This is a child-choice time, but teacher-guided routine so that we can revisit and practice all the skills we are working so hard on throughout the day.  This is not “Free-Play” where they can do whatever they want – this is “work” time in play format.  (And don’t young children learn best through their play?  I learn better that way, too!)

We will begin in assigned groups that will rotate to specific activity choices each day.  We call this "Team Time."  Later on in the year we may move to individual choices as we learn and demonstrate that we can make good choices and complete tasks on our own.  Working with small groups and individuals is so important and my hope is that this time will give us that opportunity.

• Shared Reading focuses on book awareness, concepts of print, story structure, looking for letters and words, prediction, comprehension, questioning skills, story retelling.  We will typically work with one big book or a poem that supports the Theme or the focus Letter for the week.  This time includes lots of active involvement as we play with and enjoy language. 
• Predictable Charts have a predictable pattern where every child has an opportunity to add their idea to the list.  Sentence after sentence begins the same and ends with the child's name.  For example, our first Chart is "My name is ______."  Other ideas might be "My favorite color is _____." or "I like to eat ______ for breakfast."  After taking response for two days, the chart is reread together.  Individual sentences are cut apart and put back together on an illustrated paper by each child.  Lots of writing and reading skills are learned through this routine.  (Predictable Charts are another routine taught with the "Building Blocks" framework.)

We also try to have other opportunities to write and listed here are some of the forms of writing your child will experience this year.

Writing is modeled and tried by the children through a variety of activities:

• Morning Message or Class News at the end of the day – a specific message from the teacher is written by her, thinking out loud as she writes, noting specific concepts and skills, and might add a simple illustration to tie in with the words.  During this activity the children can see that writing is our talk put down on paper, and specific skills are modeled.
• Frame Sentences - children help brainstorm ideas to fill in partially written sentences and then illustrate their papers.
• Own Stories - the children draw a picture, write something about it using their best Kindergarten Kid writing, they put their name on their paper and date stamp it.  Ideas or topics might be given to help get them started.  These are great to share with the class during Afternoon Wrap-Up.
• Shared Writing – labeling the room, writing a class story, writing a thank you letter, writing Predictable Charts, etc.  The children give the teacher ideas and may help her with ideas on how to write the words, but the teacher does the actual writing
• Interactive Writing – later in the year the children are invited to come up and “share the pen” as the teacher supports children’s attempts at writing on their own.
• Writing Folders – this would be a chance for individual children to write what they want in the way they want.  Writing Development Stages are discussed and illustrated to support and encourage any and all attempts at writing (from pictures only, to scribbles, to first letters, to inventive spelling and correct spelling).  Folders with class names, a handwriting chart of the alphabet, sight words we are working on (we call them “Popcorn Words” because they keep on popping up in the books and poems we read) and blank paper is made available for every child.  Teacher circulates the room to encourage and assist as needed at this time.
• Journal Writing – another individual writing opportunity with less direction than Writing Folders, yet still a place for them to write on their own.

Drinks, Calendar Notebooks

We get a lot of Math learning from working with our Calendar each day and observing the Weather.  This year we are adding a Calendar Notebook so everyone will be actively participating as we learn together. 

At this time we work on several math skills such as days of the week, months of the year, numeral recognition, counting, patterns, number sequence with 100 chart, working with the idea of 10’s as we count to 100, writing numbers, writing the date, yesterday/today/tomorrow, graphing types of weather – to name a few!  This time also includes songs and poems about the calendar and the weather.

Wrap-Up Time

We try to end our day quietly, while we recap our time together.  It’s nice to go home with a review of what we have done so you don’t hear that we did “nothing”!  This might be a time for a Class Meeting – to discuss a common concern or problem, make plans for a future happening, or a time for individuals to share something they learned or made during the day.  It's also nice to end the day with a good book!

My goal is to have them leave with good thoughts and memories of our time together in a calm fashion.  Is it possible?! J

Other Activities:

Center Time
(Fridays)

On Fridays we have Center Time, and the children will be able to choose from our “free choice” centers – like the playhouses, the blocks, Legos, trains, cars, Computers, painting, play Kitchen, games and puzzles.  The guidelines are looser at this time, but still we want appropriate and safe play.  A great time to work on those social skills!