First Week

It has been a great week in Kindergarten. I know the children are anxious to start learning, but we have spent a lot of time practicing routines and talking about expectations this week. Kids really benefit from having routines and seeing procedures modeled for them, so I like to start the year by teaching and practicing our daily routines.

We started out by talking about "Give Me Five." The children learned that when I say "give me five," they need to stop, look, listen, stay quiet, and put their hands together. As we go through our lessons, I use this signal frequently when I need attention or when I have directions to give. Both classes did a great job remembering what to do! They are learning that when one person is talking, everyone else should be listening and that when directions are given it is important to look and pay attention so they will know exactly what to do!

They also learned that they should put away their pencils and crayons and come to the carpet as soon as they hear the Good Morning Song. They did a wonderful job cleaning up quickly and finding a spot on the carpet for our morning greeting circle. We will start each day in a greeting circle so the children can learn the names of the other kids in class and so that every child is recognized and greeted each day. This is a great time to practice our classroom voices and language skills. It also empahasizes the importance of our classroom as a community of learners who care about one another. Next week, I will work with the children to use the attendance chart so they can "check in" when they arrive at school. I have moved this chart so that it is now part of our meeting area, so when we are doing our greeting circle, we can acknowledge who is absent from school as well.

I think one of the most popular routines that we learned this week was the Daily Math Routine. The program was developed so that the children actually begin to take the lead and conduct the routine themselves instead of me leading it. The new math program that we adopted places a lot of emphasis on number sense rather than just rote learning of numbers. The children learn about one number each day and we continue to add on as the year continues. Although it may seem easy so far, the program is building foundations for addition and place value which are more advanced concepts. The kids love getting the chance to "be the teacher" and lead the other students.

120 Chart 

Each day we circle the next number and write an equation using addition. We practice counting up to the number of the day and thinking about where we can find that number in real life. The kids were able to name lots of things that come in twos like eyes, ears, legs, arms, shoes, and socks. When we count we incorporate motions with our arms so the kids can enjoy some movement.

 Money Chart

Each day we uncover one penny and this chart builds knowledge of place value. 

We also talked about our school rules this week, which are: 

We also enjoyed lots of stories this week! Some favorites were:

The Kissing Hand

Marley Goes to School

It's Hard to Be Five

The Night Before Kindergarten

Have a great weekend!