This is a time for the students in our class to work on team building activities. We have come up with our classroom rules through this process. When an issue comes up, we use this time to figure out how to solve the issue.
Daily Message
I write a message to my students daily. We spend time reading the message together. Sometimes there is a part of the message that the students will have to write. The message begins with the date. Then, I write Dear Boys and Girls. I write at least 2 sentences for the body of the message. Finally, I sign it: Love, Mrs. King.
Calendar and Math Activities
Our calendar time is a time for reinforcement for many mathematical concepts. During calendar, we are learning the days of the week and the months of the year. We look for patterns when we put up the shape for the day. We keep track of how many days we have been at school. This has us learning about place value very early. We also add a penny to our bank as another way of keeping track of the days at school. The banker has to exchange 5 pennies for a nickel. They will also learn that 10 pennies can be exchanged for 1 dime. We also keep track of the weather on a graph. The weather kid gets to ask some really important questions. "How many sunny days have we had?" This is getting the students to interpret data on the graph.
Snack Time
This is a very short time for the children to eat a healthy snack. We have 2 students who go to the cafeteria to gather the milk for those who ordered it.
Letter Chart and Word Wall
The letter chart will show a story for each letter. The story includes the name of the letter, a key word for the letter and the sound the letter makes. There will also be a handwriting component. Word Wall work involves children reading sight words, children's names and color words that have been taught to the class. Students are also encouraged to use these words in their writing.
Literacy Groups
This is a time that I will work with students at their readiness level for literacy. This is the time that we work on phonological awareness activities, letter identification, sounds for letters, sight word recognition, reading and writing.
Math
This is a time for math skills to be taught and practiced. The students are also given time to work on problem solving.
Unified Arts Classes
My students attend a Unified Arts Class each day. Mr. Geary and Ms. Rogers teach PE. Mrs. Bell teaches Music. Mrs. Vallancourt, Mrs. McGivern and Mrs. Lessard teach Library skills. Mrs. Cobler teaches Art.
Stations Time
This is a type of play time in our classroom. The students rotate through 5 activities during a week. The activities most often are: Art, Math, Reading, Computers, Writing, and Science. There is a specific activity that the child must do at that station. They will work at this station for at least 10 minutes.
Choice Time
After the students have worked at the stations areas, they will then have free choice time. They can work/play at any station or pick another area to work at. These other areas might include: Kitchen Area, Dress Up Area, Blocks, Painting and more.
Recess Time
This is a time for our students to play outside with other Kindergarten students.
Dismissal Time
The students line up to go home directly after recess.