August




August is a month where students are becoming familiar with myself, each other, and the classroom and is when they begin to internalize our daily routines and school expectations.  The majority of our time is spent becoming acquainted with the classroom, developing relationships, and practicing to follow directions.  The sections below describe some of the procedures and activities that your little one can expect this year in Kindergarten.




Routines:

Arrival:  When students arrive, they will go to the cafeteria (by the bus entrance) and will have a seat on the stage.  At 7:20am, the Kindergarten teachers will come down to pick the students up and walk them back to our classrooms.  Later in the year, students will be walked down to our room with the Health Fitness teachers and 5th grade patrols.  As they arrive, they will place their backpack on their 'hook' and come inside.




Lunch Baskets:  As students enter the classroom every morning, they place their lunchboxes (or snack) in the two baskets right behind our door.






Schedule:




7:30-7:45:  Students practice reading books at their reading level inside their book bags and completing the accompanying activities, while other students practice their letters and sounds with myself or with a 5th grade tutor.

7:45-7:50:  Announcements/Lunch Count/Daily Objectives Letter




As we begin the year, we will take the time to create a list of 'circle time' expectations together.  The students will come up with what they believe our time should 'look' and 'sound' like, and we will refer back to it throughout the year.




7:50-8:10:  Calendar

8:10-8:30:  Reading Lesson

8:30-9:30:  Literacy Work Stations (while the students are rotating at their centers, I meet with several students at a time in 20 minute segments to practice reading together.  This is called 'Guided Reading').  

9:30-9:40:  Sight Word Warm-up and Writing 'Mini-lesson'




9:40-10:00:  Writer's Workshop (students work on their individual writing pieces while I conference with individual students about their writing).  As the year progresses, the students will use the following chart to help them evaluate which part of their story they can revise.  The students' names are on stickies and they will place their sticky next to the task they are working on.




10:00-10:10:  Author's Chair (several students will share their stories with the class and the other students will have the chance to ask questions about their writing and share comments).  I will choose one of the students who shares to be sure every student in our class has an opportunity to showcase their unique strengths, while 2 other students can also volunteer to share their pieces so long as they have already went through the writing process and had their conference with me.  The students who will share place a popsicle stick with their name on it in the pockets below.



10:10-10:15:  Clean-up and line-up for lunch.

10:15-10:45:  Lunch in the cafeteria.

10:45-11:15:  Recess

11:15-11:25:  Read-aloud (I read aloud a story to the class while the students will take turns using the restroom and getting a drink of water).

11:25-12:00:  Science Lesson and activity

12:00:  clean-up and line-up for specials.

12:05-12:50:  Block classes (we are on a color rotating schedule and rotate between Health Fitness, Music, and Art classes.  ****Please make sure your child is wearing a pair of tennis shoes or has one in their backpack at all times in order to ensure that they are able to participate in Physical Education classes).

12:50-2:00:  Math Stations (while students are rotating at their math centers, I will pull small groups of students to teach them the daily math lesson).

2:00-2:10:  Daily Reflection Time:  Because developing oral language is one of the most critical aspects of helping students to be successful in reading and writing, I provide my students with written sentence stems supported with pictures that we use as we orally discuss our learning throughout the day.  The sentences vary in their grammatical structure and verb tenses and are packed with academic language.  This helps students to develop their oral vocabulary and is especially effective for students who are learning English as a second language.  I keep the sentence stems organized on keyrings according to subjects and general class discussions. 






Comparing what is learned in one discipline to something learned in another discipline is a way to have students exercise their critical thinking skills.  We uses sentence stems such as the one below and others that require students to make analogies between what they have learned and something it reminds them of.  These activities also enhance students' scientific observations as they describe what they notice in different investigations throughout the year.



One of the signs that a child has fully grasped a concept is their ability to teach what they have learned to someone else.  For this reason, I frequently have students use the sentence stem below to: 


We also use sentence stems to help students respectfully interact with one another in academic settings as students learn that they don't have to agree and how to appropriately share their opinion:





2:10-2:20:  Clean-up/pack backpacks.

2:20:  Kindergarten dismissal.  You will be required to fill out a transportation tag with your child's information on it before your child begins school.  They must be pinned with this tag EVERYDAY.  For your child's safety, students will be sent home according to whatever information you have on file with the front office.  Students WILL NOT be sent home any other way unless you SEND IN A WRITTEN, SIGNED NOTE WITH YOUR CHILD THE MORNING OF THE CHANGE OR CALL THE OFFICE AND MAKE THEM AWARE OF THE CHANGE BEFORE 2:00 PM.  Please note that E-MAILS/PHONE CALLS TO ME AND WORD OF MOUTH FROM YOUR CHILD ARE NOT SUFFICIENT FOR US TO MAKE CHANGES TO TRANSPORTATION.  Please make all changes through the front office.  Bus riders will be sent to their designated bus (you must have the blue bus rider card when picking up your child from the bus or they will not be released to you and will be brought back to the school), car riders to the parent circle lot located in front of the library on Stetson St. (you must have a green card with a car rider number from the office or your child will not be released to you), daycare bus riders to their designated bus, YMCA students to the stage in the cafeteria, and walkers to the front office (walkers will not be released to you unless you have a red tag provided to you from the front office).  

Library:  Our library day is every Tuesday from 8:30-9:00 am.  Kindergartners may check out 2 library books each visit AS LONG AS THEY HAVE RETURNED BOTH OF THEIR BOOKS FROM THE PREVIOUS WEEK.  Please help your child to remember to place their books in their backpacks every Monday evening.

Apple Boxes:
Each student will keep their journals in a box in the back of the classroom.






Supplies:
The students and I label our supply cupboards together at the beginning of the year in order to make all of our supplies readily and easily accessible to them.






Vocabulary Word Walls:
We keep an academic word wall for each content area in our classroom.  Each word is paired with a photo or drawing created by myself and/or the students.  These walls promote vocabulary development and offer students access to rich vocabulary to use in class discussions and writing.







Thursday Folders:
Thursday folders go home every Thursday and will be filled with products your child has completed in class during the week and important information from our school and classroom.  


This is also the place where I will communicate with you on a weekly basis regarding the progress of your child.  I will write you a short note about how their week went on the bottom half, and the top portion will update you on how they are progressing with their social skills (following directions, paying attention, etc.).


The left side will be reserved for forms going home...


...while the right side will be used for you to return important papers, forms, etc. to school.



Take Home Book Bags:
When our beginning of the year assessments are complete and our reading groups are up and running, a book bag will be sent home with your child each week.  The book inside will be at your child's independent reading level so that they can practice reading with you every night at home.  There will be a sheet sent along with the book that will outline some of the activities you can practice with your child before, during, and after the  reading to support them in strengthening their skills.


Class Helpers:  Every week, I rotate our class helpers.  We have approximately 8, so students should get a turn every other week or so. 


Our jobs are:  door holders, line leader, light switch manager, messenger, library basket manager, passer (helps pass out materials), collector (helps collect materials), technology manager, and pledge manager (leads our class in saying the pledge every morning while tracking the print on a poster).




Lunch Numbers:  Kindergarten students will not be responsible for entering their lunch number until January, however, we highly recommend you begin practicing it with them far in advance in order to ensure they move through the cafeteria line quickly when the time comes.  Their lunch number is the same as their student ID number.  Also, anytime that you send lunch money with your child, it must be placed in an envelope labeled with your child's name and lunch number.  Please feel free to contact me if you have questions regarding your child's number.

Lunch Count:  We are responsible for sending our lunch count to the cafeteria before 8:00 am in order to ensure there are enough lunches prepared for the students who will be purchasing a meal.  Students will be asked each morning if they will be buying the school lunch, have a parent bringing them their lunch, or have brought a lunch from home.

Lunch Clean-Up:  About 5 minutes before lunch is over, students will need to begin preparing their tables for clean-up.  If they have milk left in their carton, they will need to remove their straw and have it ready for a teacher on duty to pick-up.  If their carton is empty, they will lay it down on their tray.  Next, they will place all of their trash on their tray, and a teacher will come by to pick it up and dispose of it.  Each student will wipe down their spot with a washrag and put their head down to show they are ready to line-up for recess.   

Recess:  Recess is held outdoors at one of our school's playgrounds (we rotate between the playgrounds each semester).  If weather does not permit outdoor recess, we will have it in the classroom. 

Birthdays:  The first week of school, a birthday candle will be sent home with your child for them to decorate and write their name and birthday on it.  We will then place the candles on a giant birthday poster by our calendar.  We will use this as a graph to answer questions about what we notice about where the various birthdays fall.  Each month we rotate the corresponding candles on the cake.


The birthday boy/girl will also use a self-made collage to tell us about what makes them special on their special day.  These collages will later be placed in a class birthday book for the students to enjoy.



The birthday student will also pick their prize, put on their crown, and choose a birthday book for the class to read together.




Literacy Stations

Center Rotation:  Because my centers are differentiated (meaning there is a variety of different activities at each center based on the varying ability levels of the individual students) and I want to make sure each child is practicing the skills that they currently need to work on, I determine the first center each student will be visiting.  Once they finish the center I have chosen for them and have reflected in their center journal, they may choose their next center.  I allow them to change centers twice each day.  

Students choose a center by placing their name on the centerboard that they would like to go to.  There are only four velcro dots at each center since I allow only four students at a time at each center. 

                                     

In the past I had students place their name-stick in a library pocket and show me they had completed their center in a folder I adapted from a sheet on Kelly's Kindergarten, but it was a little more difficult for the students and I to keep up with.

                                               

                                               

I also have students place a check mark on top of their picture at the centerboard after completing a center.  Students may not revisit a center until all of their centers have been checked or completed.  This way, I able to make sure that students are consistently practicing a variety of skills and aren't spending all week observing the rocks at Science center, for instance.  It also gives students who have a preference for a particular center an incentive for completing their work at the other stations- when they are finished, they may return to their favorite center.

                                      

Students who have completed all of their centers at the end of the week get a sticker on their 'Honey Bear' chart.  Once they have 5 stickers, they receive their 'Honey Bear' (redeemable for lunch or recess in the class, lunch with a buddy from another kindergarten class, show and tell, or shoes off for a day).




We have 10 centers, and I open 5 of them on each day (due to space issues).  When a student visits a center, they refer to the "I can" list to see which activities they may choose from while at that center.  I rotate the activities according to what we are learning in class, and as I add/change activities, I simply remove or attach a velcro sentence strip with a photo of the activity to the list. 




















As students become accustomed with centers and what is expected of them, they will help me create a 'Centers Look Like and Sound Like...' chart for them to refer back to see if their behaviors are congruent with the guidelines our class created and agreed upon.  The students enjoy being included in setting the expectations and are able to independently reflect on their work.






Our classroom centers are:  

1.  Housekeeping and Dramatic Play:



This center gives students an opportunity to freely create and explore which lends itself directly to writing.  I stock this center with literature  which includes literacy that you would normally see in a home, for instance, cookbooks, checkbooks, menus, phone books, grocery lists, newspapers, greeting cards, coupons, magazines, and the like.  Students may create their own grocery lists by cutting out pictures from the grocery advertisements and writing the corresponding words or they can write to-do lists, notes to friends, write checks, or create menus.  They can also follow the directions to make recipes in the class cookbook or they can create their own recipe to add to the class book.  




Many of the pre-written recipes I use for the cookbook which come with written directions can be found at the following websites:









Sorting the materials is another activity students can do at this center, using the labels that we place around the room together at the beginning of the year.




Students can also make believe scenarios, create a story for a wordless picture book, use puppets and paper dolls to create stories and complete other imaginary activities/roleplay historical events that I rotate at the center each month.

Creating a story from the pictures is actually a very critical emergent reading skill.  A child's ability to 'read' the pictures will later help them connect print to the meaning in the pictures they see.  David Wiesner has an amazing collection of wordless pictures books, and Tomie dePaola's Pancakes for Breakfast is another favorite:




2.  Listening



Students listen to stories read-aloud on tape/CD, the i-touches, and netbooks.  They may either read along with a hard copy, or some of the apps and web resources highlight the words on an e-book for the students to read along with them.  I occasionally will record a video on the i-touches using a book and will have the students complete an interactive activity with me as they read.  I rotate the activities the students are responsible for when they finish.  Some examples are:  having the students talk/write about their favorite part, discussing whether or not they liked the book and why/why not, choosing an emotion card to show how the book made them feel and drawing the emotion in their journal, and using story element cards to discuss the parts of the story they read.





The netbook at this center has the websites with audio books bookmarked on the favorites bar.  I took screenshots of these websites and circled where the students can find them on the favorites bar.  There is also an index card at this center that has the pictures of the apps that students may use while visiting this station.  This way, they can independently find their way to a book they would like to read.  






Many of the books also have online games that accompany them that students can access when they have finished listening to the books.  I am currently working on having students create and record their own books to use at this center as well.  

3.  Library




Students may use the pillows/blankets to get comfy while they 'read' the books.  They may read with a buddy, to a stuffed animal, or by them-self.  They are also allowed to choose and use one pointer as they read. 



Because these books are not at the students' individual reading levels, the purpose of this center is mostly for them to do 'picture walks' and use the pictures to tell a story (an extremely vital pre-reading skill).  They may also retell stories they have heard me read to the class.  I rotate the book baskets at this center each month in order to give the students some variety and to introduce them to seasonal books.  When they choose a book, they clip a clothespin with their name on it onto the basket where the book came from.  This makes placing the book back in its correct spot a little easier.  




Upon leaving this center, students will reflect in their journals by doing activities such as: drawing a character from a book they read, drawing/writing about their favorite part and discussing with the other students at the center why they enjoyed this part, writing the title of a book they read, recording in their journal whether the book they read was fiction or non-fiction and discussing with their peers how they know, and so on and so forth.





4.  Retelling



This center is for students to practice recalling, in order, the significant events in stories/historical events they are familiar with, and to better internalize story structure.  The ability to summarize and sequence events will be a significant part of literacy development throughout the grade levels.  I vary the books in this center according to what we have currently read in class, and I also vary the ways in which students can practice retelling them.  Some options they have are using puppets, a puppet theater, and masks to act out the story, putting pictures of important events from the story (you can make this by taking pictures yourself and then printing them out) in order and using them to orally retell the story, creating a bracelet and retelling an event with each bead they push, using velcro story mats, feltboards, or magnets boards to retell the story with props, placing story stones (stones with the events painted on them) in order to retell the story, or creating a story arc out of yarn and picture cards. 
  

5.  Science and Social Studies:

 


Students spend their time at the Science and Social studies center exploring and reinforcing their knowledge of the concepts we are currently learning in class.  Each of our centers has a wealth of books available to use in order to strengthen the literacy connection across content areas. The baskets are color coded pink for Social Studies and blue for Science.  Students have their names written on a clothespins in a box and the clip their name to the box they choose a book from.  This helps them to remember which basket to return the book to.  Students may also use the netbooks/i-touches to research the sites and videos of the month (pre-selected and logged into by the teacher) that pertain to the topics we are studying.  The center also is equipped with the tools that students may use to do their explorations while at the center such as magnifying glasses, goggles, rulers, thermometers, balance scales, mirrors and the like for Science, and compasses, a globe, and maps for Social Studies.  
                                  
I rotate the other materials based on what we're studying.  For example, during the fall, I place acorns, leaves, and turkey feathers there, and while we study rocks or magnets I make a wealth of those materials available at the center.  The students can then record their observations in their Science journals.  





I also place 'mini' experiments for the students to conduct at the center based on the theme we are working on in class (making snow in January, changing the color of gobstoppers when we are working on the color wheel, etc.).  Additionally, I rotate games that correlate with the current topics we are studying:  a wants and needs sorting game, a U.S. symbols bingo, and so on are examples used for Social Studies.


6.  Writing



Our writing center is an open-ended center where students can reinforce their writing skills.  One of our primary goals as Kindergarten teachers is to instill in children a genuine love for writing that they can carry with them to the upper grades.  For this reason, we allow the children to do a wealth of exploring and I scaffold children at their individual level.  For instance, for one student this may look like encouraging a student to start their sentences with a capital letter and end with punctuation because this is what they're capable of while for another student I may encourage them to write the first sound in every word that they hear that they would like to write because I know that that is what they're capable of.
The center is stocked with a variety of materials that students may use as they wish.  I try to give them a pretty broad selection in order to foster their creativity.

To start, I have a tiered shelf that has craft scissors, stickers, stamps, notepads, envelopes, stationary, blank cards, various paper scraps, staplers, and a whole punch.


                                               
                                             
                                               



I also place the sight word wall next to the writing center to give students easy access to words they may want to include in their story.  The word wall is magnetic which allows the students to bring the words to the table if they need them and place them back when they are finished.




In addition to a sight word wall, I have a word wall that I change out monthly that has special words that pertain to that month.  For February, for example, most of the words pertain to Valentine's Day, love, friendship, Groundhog's Day, and U.S. presidents.




Students may access the Name Word Wall to find the names of their friends that they wish to write a letter to or they may use the name-sticks placed at the center (popsicle sticks with each child's name written on them and their picture glued to the top).








There are alphabet cards and picture dictionaries at this center as well to help students find other words they may want to include in their stories or to be used as inspiration for story ideas.






I also allow students to choose from a variety of writing utensils such as markers, crayons, colored pencils, pens, and pencils.  I place students names and pictures on popsicle sticks as well in case students would like to create a card for a friend.



There are materials that I change out monthly as well that students can use in creating their pieces.  I place monthly stencils there, for instance, that students can use for tracing pictures onto their books and cards.  This activity also lends itself to helping students perfect the fine motor skills.  I also leave pictures depicting various scenarios that students can use as story starters, and sentence stems such as "I see...", "Thank-you for...", "I like..." that students can use to begin sentences and create books and letters. 




As we learn a new form of writing in class (labels, lists, friendly letter, poetry, etc.), I add that type of writing to the "I can" list in order to encourage the students to begin experimenting with that new form.

Student Folders:
The one requirement I have at the writing center is that before taking a product home, it must have writing on it.  If a student forgot this step or needs more time to complete their piece, they place it in a folder with their name on it.  The next time they visit the center, they can work on one of the pieces in their folder or begin a new one.



Last but not least, I leave models of writing (greeting cards, lists, etc.) to support students as they are creating their own pieces.






7.  Math:  




The purpose of my math station during Language Arts time is to reinforce the concepts that we are learning in math while tying in literary elements.  For example, students may create a shapes book while we are learning about shapes, listen to a math book on tape while reading along, watch a video with a math song that tracks the print and introduces/reviews math vocabulary, practice writing and reading color and number words, and forming numbers.  Students may use the math books I have placed at the center and can access the games I have chosen for them on the netbook that is kept at the center. 






When I teach students a new math game, I place a picture of it on a key-ring I place at the center.  In order to access one of those games, students simply go to the bookmark of my math links page from the blog that I have marked for them and click on a picture of the game they wish to play that matches one of the games on the key-ring. 






Students can also work on their fine motor skills by practicing tracing and writing numbers and number words.



I also keep number bonds bracelets at the station that students can use with a friend.  The bracelets help students develop their awareness of conservation of a number and will serve as a foundation for addition and subtraction.  The way they work is if a pair of students are using the bracelet for number four, for example, one partner will show their partner the four beads and will then hide several and will see if their partner can tell them how many beads are missing.  They can also move the beads around to explore the different combinations that make each number (2 and 2, 1 and 3, 3 and 1, etc. all make four). 


I also keep an estimation jar at the math center that I change each month.  I will read students the following estimation book several times throughout the year to give them an idea of what certain quantities 'look' like:


Students can then place their estimates on our jar chart, and at the end of the month, we count how many candies or treats were actually inside and the student with the closest estimate takes the contents home :)




8.  Read and Find

Students at this center may re-read charts our class is already familiar with (month songs, poems, etc.), read the ABC chart with a giant pointer and sing along with our phonics song (this song can be found at:  ), put back together and read the poem of the month, and read the big books from the "I can" list at the center (I rotate these books according to what books the students are already familiar with and we have read together many times in class).  The poem the students book back together is on giant sentence strips that are color-coded and patterned for the students who need more support, and is also cut up into individual words for the students who need less support.  I also take a picture of the poem put back the write way for students to use to self-check their work once they have finished at the center. 



Additionally, I place a dot under each of the words to help students who are still struggling with tracking print while they are re-reading the poem. 


On the book easel at the center, I ask students to find certain words, punctuation, letters, capital letters, sentences with a number of words, etc. in the poems and use the wikki sticks to mark them.  I then have them check their work by lifing the stickies to reveal how many are actually in the poem/book.  Students reflect in their journals by recording the sight words they found in their journals.  I also rotate activities such as having students find words that end with the letter ____, start with the ___ blend, have ____ vowels, have ____ letters, etc.








9.  ABC: 



ABC center includes letter ID activities (letter formation, matching upper and lowercase letters, letter recognition), letter sound activities, building words and sentences, rhyming word games, sorting letters, words, sentences, and word families, sight word practice, and name activities. The letter puzzles and alphabet mats I use are from:  https://sites.google.com/site/learningbyheartprintables/home/printables/literacy-skills, and the best part is they're free and printable so you can use them at home with your Kindergartner too!










I also keep at the center key-rings of activities for practicing names and sight words that I found from Fabulous Firsties that I adapted for our classroom.  Each card has a different way students can practice the words/names, such as:  tracing them in sand or a gel bag, stamping them, creating them with magnetic letters, writing them with a pattern or fancy letters, tracing them with play-doh, building them with beans or cubes, etc.


I keep a variety of materials at the center at all times for students to use as they practice the activities on the cards.




For students who are already building words, I keep these neat cards I found from 2 Super Teachers.  Students practice building/changing words by changing the initial, middle, and final letters.  This is an activity students will frequently do with me in guided reading groups as well. 






ABC Charts:
Alphabet charts are kept with every activity at this center to support students in completing the tasks and allowing them to check their work.



Students may also use pre-selected apps and websites at this station.  Students refer to the apps page to choose a game (they can only choose from the apps whose pictures are on the apps sheet), and the websites they may visit are on a key ring at the center (as I teach students a new game, I add a picture of it to the key ring.  Students find the picture of this game on the class blog -which I already have bookmarked on the netbooks for the students).



Within the center, each student refers to a chart with their photo placed under a colored dot.  Students may choose any activity that has that same color dot attached to the bin (activities are divided according to skills and each dot represents one of these skills.  For example, the yellow dot is for students who still need practice with writing their names and all of the bins marked with a yellow dot have a name activity inside). 



  



10.  Art



Our art center activities are tied to what we are studying that month, and are related in some way to literature.  Some activities include students painting their sight words and/or name, creating a ghost in October and using word wall words to label/describe their ghost, writing a story re: a sculpture they create out of fun-dough, and so on and so forth.      



Center Accountability:

When students are finished with their center, I have them reflect in their journals.  On the back of the "I can" folder at each center, it shows them exactly what I expect to see in their journal when they have completed their center.  We review this often :)  As far as students reflecting on the quality of their work, I have adopted a system from Kelly's Kindergarten.  I used to have students use  the laminated folders below (the shape side was for math centers and the other side was Language Arts.  I used a blue dot for 'blue day' centers (MWF) and a yellow dot for 'yellow day' (T/TH), but they became a little cumbersome to keep up with so this year I have adjusted my system. 






I now have students write in their journal for that day a smiley face if they are happy with the quality of work they did at their center and a sad face if they know they could have done better (we discuss what kind of work this entails, for instance, throwing materials at your center and not sharing with peers is not your best work).  Next, students place a check mark in their journal if they finished their work at the center, and an 'x' if they did not.



Math:


Calendar:  We begin our day with calendar which has many components that will be repeated throughout the year.  Many of the activities we do stem directly from the "Math Their Way" curriculum- a timeless resource of almost every Kindergarten classroom.

Write the Date:  The first part of calendar is writing the date together.  As the year unfolds, I will gradually shift the responsibilities for the calendar tasks to the students, but for the first month or so I will model what the expectations are.  As we write the date, we sing various songs to help us learn the days of the week, months of the year, and ordinal numbers.  



We also use this time to practice writing skills such as when to use capital letters, counting numbers and words, and so on and so forth.  





Books to Learn Days of the Week:



Songs to Learn Days of the Week:














Books to Learn Months of the Year:




Songs to Learn Months of the Year:














Number of the Day:
Students will pick a number written on a bottle cap from a cup and this will be our 'Number of the Day'.  The first nine weeks, we work with numbers 1-5 and we add 5 more numbers with each nine weeks.  We will do a variety of activities with the number for the day.  The first will be to determine what ____ more/less than the number would be.


Next, the students will practice making this number by placing the number on the 'dice' (see below).  The second nine weeks, we will add another sticky (of a different color), and we will create a 'domino' to make the number.  For example, if the number is 7, students may place 4 dots on one sticky and 3 on the other to make a total of 7 dots in the domino.  In the third nine weeks, a bottom strip will be added underneath the stickies and it will turn the domino into a 'part-part-whole' mat.This activity strengthens students' understanding of number bonds and is used as a precursor to addition/subtraction.


The students will also show the number of the day on a Five Frame (five more will be added each nine-weeks):


Students will also create a set with the number of the day.  Sometimes we do this with manipulatives, and other times I allow students to draw a set on a personal dry erase board.



The number will then be placed on a number line on the calendar.


Pattern:  Each date that we mark on our calendar has some sort of icon attached to it.  We use these to practice predicting, reading, and extending patterns everyday.



Place Value:  Each day we add another straw to our hundreds chart and determine whether the number of days is even or odd based on whether or not the last straw we place in the chart does or does not have a 'partner'.  We also practice counting the straws by hundreds, tens, and twos during this time.


Hundreds Chart:  we use various exercises to practice counting the number of days we've been in school.  This gradually leads up to counting up to 100.


Tally Marks:  For each day we have been in school, we place a tally mark on the board.  Not only does this skill reinforce collecting data, but we also use this activity to count by 5s and 10s.  


Season: 
Our class will also discuss the season we are currently in by analyzing the different patterns we have been observing in the weather.


Weather Graph:  Next, we take a peek out of our classroom window to check the weather.  We then add a tile to our weather graph and discuss the results.  We decide which category had the most/least number of days, how many days are graphed altogether or for each individual category, how many more/fewer ___ days we had than ______ days, and if there are any categories that have the same number of days. 



Weather Song:  We sing a weather song that prompts us to decide which type of clothing to wear based on the weather we are having.  A student will then come up and choose an outfit that would be appropriate for the day and will explain their thinking.  




Class Inventory:  Students will also use a tile to vote on the question of the day graph and we will discuss the results in the same way that we did the weather graph.  Kelly's Kindergarten has a vast collection of graphing prompts that we use for our questions.  





This is an example of a graph that parents voted for their favorite subject from Elementary School at Meet the Teacher and the students used to gather information from on the first week of school.


Another graph we work on in August is graphing our feelings from the first day of school after reading the "How are you Peeling" book:








Fine Motor Skills:
Some days during our calendar we practice tying shoes and playing games that require us to distinguish between our right and left hands.



Current Month Song:  The culminating part of our calendar is when we sing the current month's song.  One student will come up and track the print while we sing and we will discuss various concepts of print as we go along (how many capital letters are in the song, the punctuation we see, etc.).







Math Centers

Rotation:  The way we rotate math centers is very similar to the way we rotate for Language Arts.  Four students may visit a center at a time, and students are required to reflect in their journals in the same way they do for literacy centers.  Students choose a center by placing their name on a velcro dot beside the center's shape.  




There are 10 centers and students can choose from 5 each day (we use our 'A' and 'B' days for math as well).  Students will take their center tub and will match the shape on the box with a corresponding shape on the floor (students will work on their center at this spot).






Exploration and Discovery:  The first few weeks of school, math stations are mostly based on exploration and routines.  In line with the Math Their Way (http://www.center.edu/MathTheirWay.shtml) guidelines, students are introduced to the various manipulatives they will be using throughout the year and will practice discovering all of the various ways the materials can be used.  The reason we spend an extensive amount of time exploring is because research shows that, 

"Only when children have had time to play and explore new materials in their own way will they be able to see the materials as learning materials and be able to focus on mathematical concepts rather than on the materials themselves.  Without free exploration children's play interests are unsatisfied, and until this need is fulfilled, the children will pursue this priority relentlessly." (Math Their Way)

The manipulatives will be introduced gradually, and as students become acquainted with these items, we will also practice rotating between centers. As I work with one group of small students and a new manipulative, the other small groups of students will work on puzzles, clay, drawing, or will explore previously introduced manipulatives.    




Eventually, the exploration bins will be replaced with activities that allow students to practice the specific math concepts that will be taught throughout the year:  For a more detailed description of what your child will be learning in math this year, please refer to the "Going Deeper" tab and click on the "Math" link (or simply click on the link below).


Accountability:  Students keep math journals to show me the work they have done in their center.  The reflections differ based on the station, and I model for the students what they are expected to show me in their journal for a specific center as I introduce that new station.  We will start the year by reflecting as a class in a "Giant Journal".  For the first few weeks of school, I will model for the students my expectations and allow them to do the journaling with me in order to give them sufficient practice before I require them to do this on their own.  








Language Arts:

Reading:  This month, we will learn the routines and expectations for read-alouds and, as we begin to read together, we will focus on  what good readers do (i.e., how they problem solve unknown words, use the pictures or re-read to comprehend text, etc.), concepts about print (that print moves from left to right, top to bottom, print contains the message parts of a book, etc.), and how to orally respond to and retell a text.  We will be using primarily patterned texts to do this as the easily memorized pattern allows us to hone in on tracking print one word at a time and learning to decode specific letters and words.    

Guided reading/book bags:  After completing the beginning of the year literacy assessments, students will have their own "Guided Reading Group" based on their current reading level.  Each group will come up with their own name (some group names have been "Supertigers", "Stars", and the like) and will have their own color-coded basket where they keep their reading materials.



Inside their basket, they will keep their Reading Folder that will be used to keep the current book their group is working on inside.




Each folder also has an ABC chart for the students to support them when they are struggling with a specific letter or sound.




The ABC song we sing while reading our charts comes from the following video:






Students also have an alphabet chart that has pictures of their classmates with the corresponding letter.  The first letters/sounds that most children learn are either the letters in their names or a friend/relative, which is why this chart is a useful anchor in supporting letter/sound acquisition.  Students can then add new pictures/words to this chart as they learn them.


On the back of the alphabet chart, each student has their name in giant print to be used for the name activities we practice before reading.


Students also have a journal that we use in response to the book we have read.  Beginning readers practice writing a sentence from the book they read that includes the sight words we are working on ("here", "is", "the", etc.).  The top portion of the journal is reserved for "guided"- or supported- writing, while the bottom half is for students to use practicing the sentence on their own.  As students advance in their reading level and are reading more complex stories, their journaling will transition into a question and answer format (I will write a question re: the text in their journal and they will respond in writing).



Each reading folder also has a "What do I do when I'm stuck on a word?" bookmark that gives reminders of strategies they can try if they are having difficulty reading a word.


Students also keep a 'book bag' in their reading basket that contains all of the books they can read independently, a ziploc with the letters in their name, an envelope with a name puzzle, a ziploc with their known capital and lowercase letters inside, envelopes with cut-up sentence puzzles inside, a pencil pointer for tracking print, and any other games/activities that we have created in their reading group.





Rotation:  As students are working at their literacy centers, I will rotate the reading groups I am working with.  I do this by ringing a call bell, and placing a magnet picture of the group or students up that I need to meet with.  Students know to come up when their group or individual picture is up on the rotation board.

                                               



Writing:  This month in writing we will establish the procedures and expectations of our writer's workshop.  We will first focus on using our pictures to tell stories and how to add details to the illustrations to better communicate our message/thoughts to our readers.  This approach helps students have a deeper understanding of how print connects to our spoken message once we begin adding words to our stories.

We will also learn how to create labels and we will label our classroom together.  Some labels I have printed already for students to stick on the objects while the other labels are created by the students.  Students can then refer to these labels when they want to write one of the words in a writing piece they are working on.
    






We also will engage in many "shared writing" activities together.  What this refers to is, simply, writing together.  For instance, we may count the sounds we hear in a word and I will write that number of spaces on a giant piece of paper.  I will then ask students questions such as, "What is the first/last sound you hear in this word?  What letter makes this sound?" and students will come up to write these letters in the appropriate blanks.  The bulletin board below shows an example of labels my students and I interactively wrote to label the parts of a book. 


Lists are another type of writing we focus on at the beginning of the year.  To begin with, we create a list of our names in alphabetic order and we will refer to this list throughout the year for a variety of activities (i.e., counting letters, identifying capital letters, looking for specific letters, etc.).


In order to make the list writing experiences more relevant for the students, we try to use real-life reasons for writing lists (shopping lists, to-do lists, lists of family events, etc.) in order to make the activities more engaging for them.  The picture below shows a list our class created together called:  "What we Need for a Birthday Party".  Students worked in groups of three and each group created a list (some used picture icons instead of words) re: what their ideas were for the party.  They also recorded their responses on an i-touch.  We then came back and shared these ideas with the whole class as I wrote them on a giant class list.  Each student then created an illustration to go with our writing based on what their party would like.  It was so neat to see how the students built on each others' suggestions and problem solved as they went along (for instance, one group suggested that we needed cake, and another group noticed that that group did not include forks and plates so they decided to add it to the list).





August Books:  

                                                           




Science:
This month we will continue to establish our class routines as we review safety procedures and expectations for our scientific investigations.  As in the other subjects, we will begin a journal to be used for warm-ups, observations, and reflections.  I will write in a Giant Journal as students record their responses in their personal journals (they will have a different journal for each unit).











Scientists:  Students will make their predictions regarding who they think Scientists are and what they predict they do (this is always an interesting activity in Kindergarten :) ).  We then look at a collection of pictures of scientists and discuss what we think they are doing in each photo.  After we read several books about scientists, we compare our predictions to what we learned and we discover that we are scientists too!



Tools:  Our class also practices using the different Science tools.  I place them around the classroom and students rotate from tool to tool.  We then come back together to share out what we discovered.



Five Senses:  

These are some of the books we use to give us background information about how the senses are used:



We learn about the 5 senses in a variety of ways.  One of the students' (and my) favorite ways is through my dog Eclair and how she uses her 5 senses. 



We also sing and create our own 5 senses chants and poems.



We also learn how to plan and carry out simple investigations by using our 5 senses to explore a pickle and recording what we learned in our Science journals.


We also practice describing what we see with a magnifying glass on a nature hunt,...


...what we predict is inside wrapped gift boxes when we shake them,...


...and what we think we feel when using our sense of touch in a 'feely box'.





Social Studies:
We use the first month of school to learn how to use our social skills and how to adapt to a structured school environment.

Our school is extremely fortunate to work with the Houston Achievement Place (http://www.hapkids.org/) using their "Project Class" approach to teaching social skills.   The skills we work on with their accompanying chants can be seen below:










Our school also uses the Tribes (http://tribes.com/) agreements for establishing a culture of mutual respect in our school and classroom.



One of the lessons we begin our year with from the Tribes curriculum is the paper plate "Sally".  We talk about how Sally was a happy and confident student until her classmates started directing put-downs at her (students take turns saying a put-down to Sally, such as "Your hair is ugly", "I don't want to be your friend", etc.).  With each put-down, we crumple Sally a little bit more until she is just a crumpled ball.  We talk about  what did that to her and how she must be feeling.  Students then take turns giving her compliments that think will help her feel better, and as they do, we begin to unfold her.  However, we realize that as we do, she is still all wrinkled.  We compare this to directing put-downs at others- even when we try to 'undo' them, we still leave wrinkles in their heart.  We discuss the importance of not giving put-downs to begin with.


The Tribes curriculum refers to kid words or gestures as "Warm Fuzzies" and disrespectful or hurtful actions as "Cold Pricklies".  After reading a story about these feelings to the class, I give them each a warm fuzzy to keep to remind them to give kind feelings to others by their actions.  Students also can play the following sorting game in the Science and Social Studies center (students sort pictures of scenarios as 'warm fuzzies' or 'cold pricklies'- fighting, ignoring adults, sharing toys, for instance).



Books for Teaching Social Skills:




Rules and Purpose of Rules:  After we discuss the way we like and expect to be treated at home and school, we try to come up with a consensus of what rules we would like to have in place to ensure that we are in an environment that we feel safe and comfortable in.  We then read the book, "No, David!" and discuss all of the things that we saw little David doing that he was scolded for.  Students share why they think what he was doing was not a good idea and what David could have done instead.  They then create a book that communicates their ideas (No, David! and Yes David! pages paired with illustrations). 





Team Building:  Students will work in teams, also referred to in our classroom as 'families', to help them build their confidence and support each other in learning.  The students will come up with their own names, and we rotate teams several times a year to give students an opportunity to work with different classmates.  To motivate students, teams can earn points by working together to use their social skills and follow class procedures.








First Day:






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