Shifting Teacher K-2: Back to School 2015

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Back to School 2015

Hello again! So I have taken the biggest hiatus from blogging one could imagine. Last years bunch was a lot of work and fitting in this blog just didn't work. But here I am ready to try it out again. We have started our second week of school and whew is it crazy to think I keep doing this year after year with these kinders. I am absolutely exhausted everyday by 10:50 when we go to lunch - as are they. Anyway, I did want to tell you a little about what we have been up to. As you know, in kindergarten our first month or so is all about routines and expectations. My class has done a pretty good job grasping all of those things so far. We started week one with our classroom rules book as our main academic focus. I thought I took a picture but it looks like I didn't.

This is the second week and I introduced the concept of reading centers. Each day, I model how to read our center chart t and where to go. The students work at a center about 15 mins, my timer has been woderful, then we all color in the center on our chart to track the things we have finished. Now, I introduce and practice this way because eventually, I release the children to complete all 4 centers on their own while I do guided reading. This is one less things to have to teach later because they have been trained to color their center chart after completing the center.

Here is the poetry center at work. Students read the poem from the previous week to themselves, read it to a friend and listen to a friend. Then they glue and illustrate in their poetry journal.

This activity is at the ABC center where the students are recognizing their letters to color and make a picture. These students are working independently so I can teach the groups at the poetry center.

Of course, there is always teaching kids how to use the computer. Here they are working on www.starfall.com. Next week, they will start on our reading program.