The first day of school was utter chaos! (is anyone with me?) Parents crying, children crying, and supplies coming my way overload! There was massive traffic congestion on copying machine and I had to copy several reading/writing and math worksheets since I still do not have my student workbooks on these subjects (hopefully they will come in by next week or the following week). The first day mostly consisted of the usual: routines and procedures galore! I also incorporated the WBT approach and it worked wonderfully! The students were fully engaged when I introduced the signals and were very cooperative.
In reading/writing we reviewed letters A-E and focused on nursery rhymes and Goldilocks, Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Three Little Pigs, and Henny Penny. We also went over story structure, cause/effect, and compare/contrast. I felt that this was so difficult to understand since I only read aloud the stories via my Teacher's editions without the students' books. Thankfully, I had my own Goldilocks and Three Little Pigs books from my classroom library that I read to them during morning circle time. Students were given writing worksheets for the letters we were reviewing to race and color pictures that started with that letter. Some students quickly caught on while others I had to constantly be on their toes to stay focused and hold a pencil correctly..I also informally introduced my centers to the students for their Daily 5 routine. However, this week I gave them the opportunity to freely explore the centers and get acquainted with each station. I also had to students form the letters with play doh. Man, they loved it!
As for Math, we reviewed numbers 1-4. I had a couple of worksheets for them to cut paste the correct number based on how many animals were on each paper based on the Brown Bear, Brown Bear Book. This lead me teach the color words and the association with the color with the book. Some students (about 4) had diffculty in cutting so yesterday I had them tear little pieces of construction paper to form numbers 1-4 on another paper that I formed. They also had fun forming numbers with shaving cream! They were so excited :)
For Science and Social Studies, we focused on the five sense and their family. The students created pictures in a little flip book I created out of copy paper for the five senses. They also drew their own family picture.
Phew! That was a long post! As I mentioned before, I will post my classroom pictures asap when I get the chance. You see, starting at 7AM, ALL Kinder students report to my classroom for breakfast. My Kinder team and I rotate days to facilitate when breakfast is going own while the other teachers are either creating lessons, making copies, etc. It is complete craziness! Speaking of craziness, as have mentioned before, the school I work with is a Title I school. A new Kinder teacher on Thursday resigned because she could not take it! I felt like she did not give the school/students a fair shot being it is only the first week of school BUT that is just me. Well if you're reading reading this, congrats! I'm through babbling lol Until next time!
Ms. Pasqua
