Learning Together

Our second week of school has been great.  The children are beginning to follow the classroom routines and becoming more comfortable in the school environment.  We've been learning about all of the materials in the classroom, how to play with them, clean up and stay safe.  We've also been learning about one another and discovering our similarities and differences.  

Our schedule for the day is as follows:

8:30-8:40 Unpack, sign in, answer the question of the day

8:40-8:50 Sing our hello song, greet one another (The greeting is a wonderful part of the day where the students each greet one another by name.) and review the day's schedule.  We've done a wave, an air hug, Namaste, and air high five greetings.

Today I introduced a yoga pose as we will also start our day with yoga poses or mindful breathing.

8:50-9:25 Free Play- Students play at different stations around the room and with a variety of toys.  Each child has their own personal sensory bin, art box and playdoh.  We also have a light table in the room, and easel for painting, the kitchen area, blocks, cars, a dollhouse, math center, literacy center, art project and science center.  The children rotate freely around the classroom to different activities.

9:25 Clean up time

9:30-9:50 Morning Meeting: This is when we play a game.  Right now we are playing name games to help the children remember their classmate's names.  We also go over the weather, calendar and question of the day.  As a class we count the number of days that have passed in the month, complete a pattern and do a movement activity.  I will then do a short mini lesson related to our theme or a math or literacy concept.  Morning meeting always ends with a song.

9:50-10:05 Snack and mask break.

10:05  Fundations and Storytime: During this time we review the letters of the alphabet.  We will go over each one by one, talk about words that begin with that letter, and then do a literacy activity.  

Next, we read a story related to our theme.

10:20 Small Groups: This is a teacher led time.  We will have 2 groups each day or sometimes a whole class activity.  Tasks include math, literacy or writing activities.

10:40 Pack up and Outside Time: Outside we are playing a variety of games to work on gross motor skills, following directions and peer interactions.  

Art Easel

The students painted frogs and the first letter of their name at the art easel.

Frogs

During the first days of school we review procedures and materials.  After painting their frogs, the class practiced the correct way to open and close a glue stick.  The children then completed their frogs by gluing on eyes and a tongue.

 

 

Magnets

Students tested out different items to determine if they are magnetic.  They also compared different magnets to see which was stronger.

Math

One of our math activities this week was for students to measure their footprint using blocks.

I also measured each of the children using yarn and then they worked on figuring out their height using nonstandard measurements such as links and blocks.

Literacy

Our literacy focus for the first few days has been on recognizing our names.  In addition, to singing name songs, the children have been completing a variety of activities centered around their names including putting stickers on their special letter, painting around their special letter, dot painting their name, searching for the letters in their personal sensory bin and uncovering their name written as a secret message using watercolors.

 

All About Me

Our All About Me unit is well under way.  The children are learning a lot about one another.  We began by reading the story We are all Alike, We are all Different by Cheltenham Elementary School Kindergarteners and created a list of ways that we are the same and the ways we are different.  We then engaged in the Stand Up, Sit Down song by Rick Goldin to learn more about one another.

The next day we talked about our different skin colors.  We compared our skin colors to different foods that we eat and we read the book The Colors of Us by Karen Katz.  The children then made self-portraits by ripping and cutting paper.

We talked about how our eye color and hair are both unique.  We read Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry.  Students then completed a coloring page to show their own unique eye and hair color.

Finally, we read It's OK to Be Different by Todd Parr.  We looked at the concepts Same/Different and used different colored shapes to demonstrate the meaning of the words.

Free Play

In case you are wondering how play time is going and whether or not the students are able to socialize, our small group has done a wonderful job of playing at a safe distance while also conversing and sharing their discoveries.  

 

Bubbles and Stomp Rockets

Nature Scavenger Hunt