Play Time

"Play Time" is during the last half hour of the day.  The kids love this time of day where they can play with the toys, build with the blocks, create at the art center, look at books, go to the science center or just play with their friends.  It is a valuable time for their social growth too as they learn to share, take turns, include others and just plain get along.  If they don't behave during the day however, they may lose some of their playtime, so that is consequence that they have to deal with, if they choose not to obey.  Generally that is a good deterrent.  I have them play at the end of the day because that is when they are usually the most tired and I have trouble getting them to focus on school work.

 

Center Time

"Center Time" is a good time for me to do small group work focusing on specific skills.  I set up four table of activities.  They are in a group of four and when the alarm sounds they clean up their area and move on to the next.  Today I made the centers very easy, so they could understand how they work.  This is what they did:
#1 Play Dough - They could use the play dough toys to play.  I forgot to take a photo of this center.
#2 Pattern Blocks - They used pattern blocks to make cool designs and other creations.
#3 Writing Practice - I had them practice drawing circles, Xs, Es, 1s, etc.
#4  Insect Center - In science class we begin the year talking about living things, so at my science center we start out learning about insects during story time, since they are the most common animal that kids might see in their environment. 
"Center Time" will become more content centered in time, but today they needed to learn how to stay in the group, share, get along and how the whole thing works. 

Writing is not only developmental, but it also takes some 
self-confidence.  Sometimes kindergartners get stressed 
out about writing, so I take it slow at the beginning 
encouraging them as much as possible.

Learning about 2D and 3D shapes is one of the big four 
math concepts that kindergartners have to know.  These 
pattern blocks help them to see how smaller shapes 
together can make larger shapes.

This is the Insect Center and they looked through the books.  
One boy came up and asked if the photographs of 
butterfly metamorphosis was real.  When I said 
that it was, he was really excited!

 

Quiet Time

Quiet Time is supposed to be quiet.  They don't 
have to nap, but I ask them to stretch out and rest a bit.  
They are in pods of four kids with a book tub.  They 
seem to enjoy this time of day.

Meet Rascal

By now, you probably have heard of Rascal, the raccoon, who visits with the kindergartners every morning.  In fact Rascal has been the class mascot for some 25 years for the kindergartners in our school.  

Rascal is...well...a rascal and gets into a bit of trouble.  He helps the students to learn what is right and wrong.  He also loves the kindergartners and he gives each of them a hug in the morning or a tail whip when he is being a rascal. 

When he visits with the children in the morning he poses questions and problems and I think that the students learn social skills and manners from him.  He encourages them to try hard in school and to follow the rules.  He is all good!  

Rascal is also very funny!  This week he told the kids that he roasted a marshmallow on his tail.  Also he went swimming at the pool using his tail as a propeller and then dried himself while riding on the ceiling fan. The kids love their morning visit with Rascal!